Calm Down
I caught a nice excerpt from a Money Magazine article:
Am I acting on reason or emotion? While at my gym last week, I was watching one of the cable TV financial shows as the market was in the midst of a steep decline. Based on the frenzied rapid-fire report of the correspondent on the trading floor, you could easily get the impression that you’d better quickly dump your stocks before you get caught in a bloodbath. Of course, just weeks before, the same show was so upbeat when the market was hitting new highs that you could have gotten the impression you were an idiot if you didn’t take out a home equity loan and plow the proceeds into the market. All of which is to say that you’ve got to be careful about getting caught up in undue pessimism during bad times and irrational exuberance when things are going swimmingly. It’s almost always a mistake to invest in the heat of the moment. Better to step back, calm down a bit, even let a day or two go by and then make sure that you’re making a decision that reflects a long-term strategy, not some passing passion.
Forget for a moment “strategy”, the author’s overall philosophical stance is on target.
