10 things I have learned about investing

This story was first published in July 2016. On the occasion of Wealth Insight's tenth anniversary, I thought it's best to write on whatever little I have learned about investing in the last ten years. So here we go. 1. You don't make money by watching TV: There are many business-news channels now which claim that they help you make money. Ever wondered why they never advertise the track record of the recommendations they make? Or why they only seem to talk about the winning recommendations and not the losing ones? Or why they seem to talk about 'global cues' driving the stock market all the time? Most of the business news TV is best for understanding things in retrospect. In fact, when the business TV wallahs don't have a reason for what is driving the stock market, they say, 'global cues'. Also, the short-term orientation of TV channels will essentially make your broker, and not you, rich. 2. You don't make money by reading newspapers either: All the business newspapers these days have a strong personal-finance as well as a stock-market section. But a lot of the analysis on offer is full of hindsight bias, i.e., they come up with nice explanations of things after they have already happened. Further, newspaper reporters can get analysts to say things that fit in with the headline that has already been thought of. Analysts are more than happy saying these things in order to see their name in the newspapers. And it is worth remembering that newspapers have space to fill. So they will write stuff even if the situat

This article was originally published on December 03, 2020.