Cough cough...the dust on this blog is pretty thick but I thought it was about time I brushed it off and said something not particularly meaningful.
Just short of six months ago I launched myself into a TV show by posting a video of myself without my pants on. This is noteworthy as the show was on a finance-centric channel and is designed to pick Africa's best amateur trader. Nevertheless armed with some experience in finance and plenty of ego I dove in ready to win.
The way I see it is I am pretty good at evaluating a company. I can probably get a good idea of what a business is worth quite easily and I should be able to exploit any miscalcuations. Little did I know at the time that this is pretty much irrelevant. My long-held views of the stock market were shattered. The opportunities for making a profit out of under-valued companies are all over the place but they are overwhelmed by the power of the ordinary Joes poking around with shooting stars and tea cups.
The market is not inefficient as the finance theory leads you to believe it may be, it is just down-right wrong.
As wrong as it may be, anyone with the right software can make a lot more money doing this than using sound business analyses. The fourth episode has just aired and some of my more talented friends seem to have more than doubled their money already. The consistency of their performance also seems to indicate that, if disciplined, one can limit the risk exposure relatively easily.
If this is such an easy way to make a buck why am I so opposed to it?
I guess this is the kind of pig-headedness that has plagued many people, businesses and even regimes. Am I pulling a Kodak? When i think of technical analysis as a tool for making investment decisions my top lip curls the way it does when I think of tattooed youths in hoodies smoking and joking at a music festival. The herd mentality of it all is so.....common. This is in stark conflict with my ambitions of rapid wealth creation and leaves me in uncomfortable internal turmoil.
I think i will likely act like a pompous artist and remain poor but pure.
