Pretend buying stocks

By CARL RICHARDS NOV. Do you remember playing pretend when you were little?

Maybe you were a superhero, a dinosaur or a princess. Most children know the difference between pretending to be a superhero and jumping off the roof thinking they can fly.

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But adults often forget. For instance, we may stop pretending to be superheroes, but a lot of us seem convinced that we can pretend to be investors. Pretend investors think that financial pornography is real, so the ticker tape scrolling across the television screen all day represents actionable information. Real investors know it might be entertaininglike going to the circus, but they would never make a decision because of it.

Pretend investors think it makes perfect sense to change their investments based on what they hear in the news: He criticized bankers, so buy bank stocks! Real investors know that they make changes to their investments based on what happens in their own lives. If their goals change or there is a fundamental change in their financial situation, then they consider an alteration. Pretend investors stock brokers in hagerstown md they need to monitor their investments all the time.

The little supercomputer they carry around in their pretend buying stocks makes it so easy. Real investors know that it takes a long time for a tree to growand it pretend buying stocks not help to dig it up to see if the roots are still there.

The same rule applies to investments.

And because watching things get big slowly is not very exciting, real investors tend not to talk about that tree all that much. Pretend investors talk about their investments — a lot. Sometimes they cheer for things like increased consumer spending, higher unemployment, or in some cases, war. Real investors understand the difference between the global economy and their personal economy and choose to focus on the latter.

Pretend investors will worry endlessly about the news in some far-off part of the world or the impact on their portfolio.

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Pretend investors complain endlessly about volatility in the market and external actions that have short-term impact on the big bets they forex traders expo las vegas 2016 made on individual stocks. Real investors have enjoyed the benefits of a market that is up more than percent in the last 20 years.

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Sketch Guy By CARL RICHARDS NOV. Continue reading the main story Share This Page Continue reading the main story. Sketch Guy A collection of Sketch Guy columns from Carl Richards.

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