Investorial Is One Year Old + What I Learnt About Investing By Watching The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!
One of my favourite movies of all time is “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly“. It’s no coincidence that I wished for Investorial to share the same focus. After all, the Sergio Leone classic is considered the greatest Western ever. If Investorial could accomplish even 1% of that legacy, it’d be an truly fulfilling accomplishment! I wanted to celebrate our 1 year anniversary by dissecting investing from the movie’s perspective. Won’t you join me?
As a fan, I’m aware that the order of introductions in the movie is actually the ugly, the bad and the good. So for the true film afficionados, let’s follow today’s celebratory analysis in that order. After each section, I’ll add some links to revelant stories from the Investorial’s past year!
The Ugly
Tuco, played by Eli Wallach, is the perfect silver screen embodiment of the “Mr. Market” metaphor; greedy and unable to rein in his emotions. Tuco also represents the average investors who feel helpess. He is not very observant of what goes around him and is often blind-sided. For example, only Blondie and Angel Eyes (the Good and the Bad) had any hopes of winning the 3-men shootout while Tuco (the Ugly) could only watch on the sidelines.
Tuco antics qualify him as the movie’s comic relief. I should admit that I often crack a smile when uncovering the often funny but ugly side of the financial industry. We get to learn from Tuco’s follies. In the scene where Tuco frantically digs with his hands to get to the gold. Blondie tosses a shovel at Tuco, and calmly says “It’ll be a lot easier with that.” Too often, investors in hot pursuit of great returns, fail to step back and think rationally about what may be a better way to achieve the same goal.
Investing Truthiness
The Stock Market Is For Suckers!
Mad About Cramer
The Bad
Angel Eyes, played by Lee Van Cleef, is a resourceful manipulator. He is representative of the major players (financial companies) in the financial industry. Angel Eyes sweet-talks his way through life, hanging out with a like-minded entourage consisting of outlaws and informants. He believes that he has principles but is only driven by a relentless, ruthless pursuit for the almighty dollar.
While sharing many admirable qualities as blondie (the good), Angel Eyes walks the thin line between good and evil. Instead of applying his knowledge, cool temperment positively. He’d rather double-cross and stab people in the back to achieve his goals more easily. When the going gets tough, Angel Eyes is the first person out the backdoor while his entourage (the investing herd) that followed him were easily conveniently sacrificed. Doesn’t that sound like a scandalous CEO? or a pump-and-dump stock spammer?
Covering the bad news, bad advice, and bad information running rampart out there is one of the biggest motivations for Investorial’s existence. I’ve come across my share of financial advice and information in my short investing career and found that there are often at least 2 perspectives to be viewed. Analysts, gurus manipulate information to their advantage, padding their pockets while the average joe keeps transferring wealth due to ignorance. The deception comes in many forms, disguised as high fees/commissions, feel good advice full of showmanship, accounting scandals, and generally telling half the story. We must fight this manipulation through self-education.
TD Waterhouse Canada WebBroker Climbs Out Of The Dark Ages!?!
Investment Advisors, Financial Planners or Salesmen? You Decide!
Portus Referral Firms Settle
The Good
The man with no name (Blondie), played by Clint Eastwood, is a cool cowboy who keeps his wits about him even during difficult circumstances. A little luck doesn’t hurt either, but more often it is because blondie is able to see the forest from the trees; such as realizing that 3 men stood outside his door waiting to kill him. But rather than relying on mere gut instincts, Blondie continues to load his weapon in anticipation. At the first visual confirmation, he unloads fast and furious to emerge victorious. For a moment, I thought Clint Eastwood was a deep-value investor!
Blondie doesn’t get riled up over trivial issues. His exhibits the perfect temperment for an investor; both fundamental and technical analysis. Blondie knows when to partner with fools (take advantage of Mr. Market), and keeps one eye open while sleeping with the bad guys. He is not blinded by greed, as evidenced by the fact that he still left his partner Tuco, 2 bags of gold after they parted ways. Compassion and charity are both good qualities that we can admire and adopt into our daily financial decisions.
Though blondie is very skilled with the pistol, his true talent really lies in going “long” with his sniper-like shot-gun aim. Blondie is the only character in the movie that shows a prowess with this weapon. You might think it’s a stretch for me to associate “going long” in the movie with being a long-term investor. But I was actually trying to say that blondie doesn’t limit himself to one skill. He employs different tactics for different situations as appropriate. This can only be achieved through a willingness to learn, discover and constantly quest for knowledge.
Chuck Jaffe Exposes Fund Manager Sweet Talks
Two Excellent Herb Greenberg Articles
Podcast: Lunch With Toronto’s Warren Buffett
Looking Forward To Another Year!
125 posts later, and we’ve arrived at the end of the beginning year. What will I think of next? An article on “A fistful of dollars” or “For a few dollars more“? I’ll spare you my dreadful movie metaphors.
Things are just starting to get interesting around here! You can expect more innovative, original investment editorials and more posts about the good, the bad and the ugly information out there in the financial industry. What would you like to see more in the next 365 days? You have my solemn promise that I’ll keep editorializing about investment / financial media with integrity, courage and no compromise.
