Smokey the Bear Knew Something About the Markets
Right now the stock markets are an exciting place, you might say. Exciting like a forest fire. They’re exciting because everyone is exiting. The exiting is a direct relationship between sheep. Sheep and Smokey the Bear need to talk. Do you remember Smokey the Bear saying, “Only YOU can prevent forest fires?” If you live in the desert, I apologize: forest fires happen when trees, which grow together in forests, get caught on fire and the fire jumps from tree to tree spreading across the scenery.
Sheep, much like trees tend to grow in groups, move in flocks. And when you light one sheep on fire, the fire tends to spread to the other sheep. Well, not actually, I’ve never seen one sheep on fire let alone many sheep on fire. But if you chase one sheep the rest of the sheep will follow. They’re dumb like that. I have chased many sheep in my youth and know from first hand experience that one sheep will do something dumb and pretty much the whole herd will follow them. Off of steep ledges, around paths that are dead ends, it doesn’t matter: one sheep follows the next and the scenery never changes.
The scenery never changes. Think about that.
If your financial information scenary is the sheep bum that you’ve always seen: you’re probably investing sheepishly rather than wisely. During the stock market crash of the 1930’s some companies grew. Not all investors were in those companies (obviously), but not all investors lost everything in the crash. Lots of sheep lost a lot of money. Some very wise ‘rogue’ investors were able to make a killing and had money to spend in the 1930’s. They came out ahead and they grew their investment portfolio, their businesses, and their lives.
Smokey the Bear knows that you can prevent forest fires, but you, too, can help prevent the financial crisis that we’re seeing in the news. The news is in part, the giant, broadcast sheep butt of the ether. I know that’s a bit odd to read, but if your source of financial information includes the news its the same source as everyone else who is looking at the giant sheep butt. They need a change of scenery. The markets can only turn around if the buyers into the market, and that’s you, buy into the market. Only you can make that choice. No one else can make that choice for you.
This isn’t advice to blindly buy into the market, its advice to seek wise counsel, and then consider your opportunities. The whole market is a shifting mechanism that depends, in part, on the whim of the masses, but smart investors are not swayed, they’re focused. Don’t panic, panic leads to irrational decisions. Instead, make sure you are getting useful, accurate information. If it takes a periscope to see up above the sheep butts, get a periscope. If it takes stopping while the rest of the flock goes ahead of you, stop. But don’t make herd-mentality decisions.
Remember, only you can prevent forest fires and stock market fire sales.
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