Why we trade or invest differently? And the most important returns is not money ...

This diagram (below) provides a good summary of skillsets needed for investors, thanks to my knowledgeable friend Mr Steven Lim.

Recommended skills to learn for investors

In the world of investing, my mission is NOT to prove anyone wrong or my investing thesis right. I view investing as a "1 on 1" fight between my knowledge, understanding and application (which I hope to call wisdom) against the market.

With each of us having differences in values, personality, upbringing, learning, risk-reward tolerance, investing time-horizon and areas of expertise, we will end up interpreting the same data differently. This can lead us to make different decisions, considerations, strategies, capital allocation and also how we plan to enter and exit the market.

There is not one "investing" rulebook. So long you make money, all is well.  However, I have learnt that eventually, the most important commodity is not money but rather TIME.  Thus, I am investing to afford more time to be with people and do things I like.

For me, I incorporate "Macroeconomics" into my investing outlook and considerations.  This helped especially when my "portfolio" took a dive in recent times.  The macro-environment and market sentiment do play their part as the threatening recession looms.  (Personally, I think that the recession is already here, just not as full bloom yet).  Over the last week, we learnt about the mixed earnings, caution in market outlooks, rising interest rate (which will "dampen" consumption), retrenchment and crisis in food, fuel, finances and supply chain.  These have helped me to consolidate my current outlook.

Looking at the charts between now and 2008 for S&P, the similarity is uncanny.  (Mr Michael Burry from "The Big Short" fame has posted some great notes on these via his tweets.)  We humans do not always learn from our lessons and history does repeat itself in different forms, times and magnitudes.  While I am not in a position to predict the timing and events of the immediate future but let us take comfort that the economy does pick up and recover eventually from such declines and crashes.  

It is well said that time in the market is much more important than timing the market. Time must be given her runway to do her compounding magic - called the 8th wonder of the world.

Let us not forget, that the other great return apart from time and money is a better version of ourselves.  Investing is such a rewarding journey as I learn, unlearn and discover so much more (flaws especially) of myself.  The more I know, the less I understand but I am determined to be better today than who I was yesterday.  If I fail, I will try again if I am given another day, another chance.  

Some great quotes on the perils of leverage

One piece of advice that I have is - Do not leverage.

To my fellow investors, let us keep learning, and improving as we work towards greater returns of time, value and money.  Let us spend within our means, invest with what we can afford to lose and buy great companies at good discounts.