I did not read the book.
Context, they are money managers, we are retail. So I don’t think we can compare ourselves with people who manage money. They can afford to wait, as it is their profession, and waiting is part of their work, and they know if their wait will be worth their return, it may not or may not be, even they may miss some opportunities, and they invest across asset classes, across countries, across markets, some may restrict themselves to specific investments.
Also they can compensate time with money, they can deploy large capital at opportune times, wait for the tide to turn, tell their clients to be patient, who I believe are not retail, so understand the virtue of being patient, and when the tide turns they make high return, which when stretched to years may look like compounding. If the tide does not turn, they may come out of their positions ASAP. This aspect of getting in and out quickly is practiced by retail too.
So I don’t think we can afford to look at time like that, when we still have expectations from our investments, when we still have not reached a corpus, or such targets. Once we reach an age or a level, where returns don’t excite us, when all financial responsibilities are over, then maybe we can wait, because we wont be losing anything by waiting, we are out of the race, a race we have been just with ourselves.
Not to mention the learning and experiences we gain by being in the market. And as we grow old, we tend to appreciate time more than money, time by itself, and time in relation to money, so opportunity cost may be hard to afford than loss.
And such people may have been educated in those fields, always worked in those fields, lived their entire lives in those fields, it is their journey, decades of formation, which culminates into a book or other contributions with perspectives which may or may not be applicable to all. Buffett is a great example here too, his is a journey. Dr. Hitesh is another example, one that we know in real.
Also, writers, even who write finance books, may change their perspectives for any reason, and they may write a book in complete contrast to their previous book.
Have you tried trading, whichever way it is? If you have, what has been your experience? If you have not, I can suggest you to do it, small trades, less capital, to see if trading matches you more than investing. The effort is the same, if not more, but time will be saved, quick losses may happen. Not to mention the learning which is helpful with investments too.
I think we should take individual bricks of knowledge and wisdom from wherever we find them and build our wall of perspective and application. I have found so many such bricks right here in VP, and my wall in still in construction, so take my thoughts with a pinch of salt.
