Buffett has mentioned that an investor should be animated by greed but not be controlled by it. Van Tharp, in Schwager's Market Wizards, said that movitation in making money is not an important trait in expert traders. Martin Pring, in Investment Psychology Explained, noted that great investors and traders invests/trade because they love the investing/trading, and not because of the money.
What is your motive for investing / trading? Is it because of the money or is it because you love investing? If you have not examined your motives thoroughly, you may wish to examine it again.
Personally, I started to invest due to the motivation to make more money. However, slowly and slowly, I realise that investing allows me to profit from ideas. I can expose myself to (new) ideas, synthesize or combine a few ideas, test them through the markets and in the process, gain feedback from the maket. This process of coming up with new ideas, testing the new ideas by staking one's money on it and getting feedback from the market is very interesting to me.
So much so that money, while important, may not be the sole motivator for my investing. If one day, assuming that I am lucky not to have money worries anymore, I expect myself to continue to search for new ideas and stake my money on these ideas. How fun the process can be.
4 comments:
Hi there!
come across your blog by chance through berkshire's blog. It's great to find another like minded person who believe in value investing! I'm still new in this and am trying to learn as much as I can.
I see that you have linked to my blog! Wow thanks! Hope you don't mind me linking to yours too!
Regards your question, I think we both share the same motivation. Growing up in a family where making ends meet is a constant strugle, I guess it's good motivation enough! But as I search further and deeper that I realise there's an interest in me to learn, research, think through, execute and finally enjoy the fruits of my labour! Hence my motivation now is more than money, which is merely the end. I'm more interested in the means!
Will certainly drop by more often. Look forward to your next post!
Hi fishman,
I'm happy that your motivation is due to your interest in investing. Thank you for linking my blog to yours.
Hi thinknotleft,
I chanced upon your blog after visiting fishman's blog. It's good to know there are fellow value investors out there in the SGX, because they are indeed hard to find. So far, I only know Berkshireh and 8percentpa's blogs. I was hoping you can visit mine too and possibly link up if you think it follows the same principles as yours. Will be looking through your blog as well with the intention to provide a link from mine.
Thanks a lot ! My blog is at http://sgmusicwhiz.blogspot.com
Hi musicwhiz,
Done. Have added a link to your blog. I'm a frequent reader of your blog. I must have forgotten to add a link to your blog.
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