On Wall Street, wise men, as well as fools, can be easily drawn into booby traps. In fact, in my experience a person’s years and quality of education have very little to do with making big money investing in the market.
The more intelligent people are, the more they tend to think they know what they are doing– and the more they will have to learn the hard way how little they really know about outsmarting the stock market. The few people l have known over the years who have been unquestionably successful making money in stocks were decisive, decision-making individuals without huge egos.
The market has a simple way of whittling all excessive pride and overblown egos down to size. After all, the whole idea is to be completely objective and recognize what the marketplace is telling you, rather than try to prove that the thing you said or did yesterday or six weeks ago was right. The fastest way to take a bath in the stock market or go broke is to try to prove that you are right and the market is wrong.
– William O’Neil, How to Make Money in Stocks
