I’m going to give you a powerful investment tool. But like many powerful tools it’s one that very hard to use. If you can master it, it will put you way ahead of most investors. I call it Memento Investing.
In 2000 there was an odd little film called “Memento”. It was a story about a guy who couldn’t remember what happened 30 minutes ago. He’d had an injury that made it so he couldn’t create new long term memories. We need to stretch that a little to maybe one day or one week. But the idea is the same. Let’s say we have that same kind of injury and we can’t remember what happened yesterday. How would it affect our investing?
You sit down and look at your portfolio with truly fresh eyes. You have no memory of why you own a particular stock. You don’t remember the ups and downs you’ve had with it. All you know is that you own it now. Should you still continue to own it? You don’t remember if it’s up 100% and so you want to get out after ‘doubling your money’, or down 50% and you want to get out before you ‘lose everything’. All you know is you have this stock. Should you keep it? Sell it? Buy more? You look at the current situation and decide, ignoring history, ignoring your emotional attachments or frustrations.
The same is true for a stock you might want to buy. You don’t remember if it was 10% cheaper two weeks ago and you want it to get back to that low price before you buy. Or 10% more expensive and you’re afraid it’s in a down trend. All you know it’s what’s going on with the company right now. The current price, the current financials. History plays no part.
Try it. Sit down with your portfolio and see if you can look at it with no preconceived prejudices. If you can learn to do that, you’ll have a huge edge over most investors. Easy? Hardly. Worth the effort? Most definitely.
Oh, and remember to keep this email, because you’ll have to reread it every morning.