- Contrarianism takes courage.
- Success takes discipline.
- Analysis over emotion.
- Trust your gut.
- Assume Bulshytt.
- The trend is your friend.
- Only speculate with money you can afford to lose.
- Stack the odds in your favor.
- You can’t kiss all the girls.
Secret #1: Contrarianism takes courage.
Everyone knows the essential investment formula: “Buy low, sell high,” but it is so much easier said than done, it might as well be a secret formula.
The way to really make it work is to invest in an asset or commodity that people want and need but that for reasons of market cyclicality or other temporary factors, no one else is buying. When the vast majority thinks something necessary is a bad investment, you want to be a buyer—that’s what it means to be a contrarian.
Obviously, if this were easy, everyone would do it, and there would be no such thing as a contrarian opportunity. But it is very hard for most people to think independently enough to risk hard-won cash in ways others think is mistaken or too dangerous. Hence, fortune favors the bold.