Where Do I Start?

The following question was posted in an investment group I follow:

      > I was hoping someone might be kind enough to meet with
      > me for dinner or drinks and show me the basics. I’m
      > looking to get started investing but I have no idea where
      > to start so it would be really great to get some advice.

Anyone who knows me would not be surprised to see me jump at the opportunity to talk about investing WHILE BEING TREATED TO DINNER AND DRINKS. Are you kidding me? I could talk about this stuff all day long for free and enjoy it. Dinner and drinks is just “icing” (figuratively, of course, since dessert does not seem to be included).

But then I got to thinking: what exactly is she asking for and does the question even make sense?

I know one thing: regardless of the teaching, any pupil may or may not make money in the markets. This theme runs extensively through my writings. In a recent post, for example, I quoted Garrett Baldwin who basically said consistent and accurate forecasting of future prices does not exist. For the same reason, nobody can guarantee profits.

This leads me to believe that education may be the only guarantee anyone can make in this space. I can teach her about stocks and investment vehicles: what they are, what it means to trade them, and how to trade them. I can teach her how to do the math to determine whether she is profitable. None of this guarantees she will make money, though: a singular fact that should be part of any introductory education.

For this reason, clarifying her question might be helpful. If she is looking for hints about my Holy Grail trading system or hoping to get me to spill my secret altogether over one too many beers then she will be disappointed. I think many people believe the Holy Grail does exist and finding it is just a matter of getting the proper education. If only it were that easy…

This is certainly not to say that education has no value. Some people search endlessly for the Holy Grail. They attend a plethora of investment seminars, buy “education” packages, and subscribe to black box trading systems. These are the people who never got the memo about the nonexistent Holy Grail and for them, this one lesson alone could have saved countless sums of time and money.