Investing Lessons from Jim Rogers
Dec.16, 2009 in
Wealth
Jim Rogers is such a China bull that he sold his beloved NYC mansion and moved to Singapore, largely to witness the Asian markets’ bull run for himself – and to give his two young girls a front-row seat for what he believes is going to be the dominant economy of the 21st Century. Both our girls have a Chinese governess and speak fluent Mandarin. For their generation, Mandarin and English will be the most important languages
A key life lesson?
“You have to figure out what your own passions are,” said Rogers. By following your passions, “you’ll never have a job. You’ll just get up everyday and have a lot of fun,” he says.
What is the secret of your success?
As I was not smarter than most people, I was willing to work harder than most. I was prepared to examine conventional wisdom. If everyone thinks one way, it is likely to be wrong. If you can figure out that it is wrong, you are likely to make a lot of money.
What is your basic investment strategy?
Buy low and sell high. I try to find something that is very cheap, where a positive change is taking place. Then I do enough homework to make sure I am right. It has got to be cheap so that, if I am wrong, I don’t lose much money.
Where should people put their money in the recession?
Invest only in things you know something about. The mistake most people make is that they listen to hot tips, or act on something they read in magazines.
Most people know a lot about something, so they should just stick to what they know and buy an investment in that area. That is how you get rich.
You don’t get rich investing in things you know nothing about.
How Patience Increases Your Chances for Success…
One of the best quotes from Rogers is how he says he waits to invest “when the money is just laying in the corner and he can walk over to pick it up.” This is similar to the investing classic, Reminiscence of a Stock Operator. At one point, the main character - a trader named Larry Livingston (Jesse Livermore) - summed up the essence of successful investing. “Big money is not made in the individual fluctuations but in the main movements, not in reading the tape but in sizing up the entire market and its trend,” Livingston said. “It was never my thinking that made the big money for me. It was always my sitting.”
Throughout his successful investing career, Rogers has been successful at identifying the big economic and market trends where he can ride them until they reverse. There is a lesson in this strategy for each investor.
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