Editorial | A Marxist guide to investing in the American stock market
- The largest holding in my portfolio is the Vanguard total stock market ETF, which roughly mirrors the S&P, so I am really not boasting here.
Considering how long I have been playing the game, I am probably the worst stock punter you will ever come across. Name a novice investor mistake and I have made it, many times, over and over.
Chasing fads; holding good stocks too short and bad stocks too long; refusing to take a small loss and ending with an even bigger loss – I am a walking investment disaster. Catching a falling knife? Boy, I am surprised I still have any fingers left.
Oh, and Sino-Forest, total loss for me and my late mother because the whole company was a complete fraud! I got a grand total of C$23 (HK$133) back as compensation from a successful class-action lawsuit in Canada. The law firm in the case laughed all the way to the bank, though.
Before we go any further, let me just clarify that this is not an investment column. I am not telling you how or whether to invest in anything. I am an investment fool, so don’t listen to me. I am merely sharing some of my investment experience to make a few of what I consider to be the salient points about American capitalism and its ill-effects on the rest of society, perhaps the world at large. And it’s in those areas of dysfunction, malice, extreme inequality and violence where profit opportunities exist.
There is a subsector, though, that I have done well in, one that I have followed some basic investment advice by such greats as mutual fund guru Peter Lynch and his mantra, “invest in what you know”. Since I don’t know much about anything, it’s no wonder I am such a poor investor, in every sense of the word.
