This was Don’s first investment tip about the mistakes that investors make when they don’t take emotion out of the investment process.
One of the hardest things to do as an investor is to take emotion out of the investment process. There is an old saying about “Buy low, sell high”, which seems so practical and simple that everyone should be able to follow it. Yet after the stock market had dropped in July, there was $9 billion in net redemptions from mutual funds in August. People were selling after the market was already lower.
The problem is the emotions that drive stock markets, greed and fear. When the market is going up, everyone sees dollars signs before their eyes and invests more. And when the market declines, people are afraid of losing everything so they sell. In order to become a successful investor, you have to learn to take the emotion out of investing, so you are not making business decisions (a decision to sell a stock is a business decision) based on how you feel. You can either take the emotion out of the process, or get someone else involved who can do that for you.