What an idiot! Don’t you know that buy and hold is dead? You’re a beginner? Start with value investing first before you trade. That’s what most people would say when you tell them you want to be like the Oracle. And when I got started in the stock market, that’s what I always hear and used to believe. I used to trade stocks and forex until I read Ben Graham’s book – The Intelligent Investor and I’ve never looked back since.
To the young padawan that’s going to follow this path, I’m going to say to you, that its an off the beaten path. I am no master at this, I am also trying to put together, the pieces that the ones before us have left on the ground to solve. Its not a crowded place and you will be alone. But that is what our predecessors wanted us to be. To be alone. Find your path on your own. As they say, eagles never flock. Look at our main inspiration, Warren Buffett. The Oracle spends his day alone. Reading. That is the path the awaits us. That is the path of the investor. An independent thinker. A philosopher hermit of sorts. If you’re not up to that task, you might as well think about it now.
Most people would die just from the thought of being alone. And for quite some time now, I feel that, the more I read, the further away I become from my fellow man. Because the more I read, the more I know. And the more I can not connect with most people. I am still dumb, but now, I even more so in the public eye. Because all that time spent reading books, I never got to spend time from what ordinary people would spend on, (TV, Movies, going out, party) and I could not talk to them of such things.
This may be a lonely journey. And I feel lonely at times. But when I read a book, everything seems perfect.