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It is all too easy to look for like-minded persons who continuously
reinforce one’s own views – a clear form of ‘lemmingism’, to coin a new word. Instead, one should make an effort to recognize both reader and writer biases when reading and thinking about things found on the Internet in social media websites and blogs. [Let me explain my views on that further.] Words: 720
So says Ian R. Campbell of www.StockResearchPortal.com in edited comments his latest Economic & Resource Stocks Commentary (subscription required) which Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.munKNEE.com (Your Key to Making Money!), has edited below for length and clarity. This paragraph must be included in any article re-posting to avoid copyright infringement.
Campbell goes on to say, in part:
Smart people welcome and embrace those that constructively contradict their views. Smart people then work to learn from those experiences, and amend their views as they deem appropriate after open-mindedly weighting those contradictory views.
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Recently well known investor and regular blogger Marc Faber wrote a short article on the importance, when investing, trading, and generally thinking about world affairs, of recognizing such biases, stating:
“I don’t know whether it’s because of the social media or because of the internet, but you have today far more polarized views than before. You have blogs, and blogs are for the gold stocks and all the gold bugs are together in these blogs. Then you have blogs for the super stock market bears and all the bears are there. Then you have newsletters that are oriented to mining stocks and all the mining stock owners are there. There is actually very little cross-interaction in the sense that if I were convinced of my views that gold is a desirable investment, I would wish to hear the views of people who are anti-gold. In other words, you want to have interactions with people that have precisely a different opinion than you and not with people that have the same opinion as you have. This is very important.”
What Mr. Faber says is of critical importance to investors and traders currently and going forward. Indeed, investors and traders (and everyone else for that matter) ought to print Mr. Faber’s statement and pin it to their wall where it is obvious, and where they can frequently read it.
As but one example in support of the latter point Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s most successful investors/money managers, is on record as saying he continuously has people challenge him, while he concurrently challenges himself, on whether he is wrong in his views.
[Food for thought!]Other Insights by Ian Campbell:
1. Campbell: Balanced Opinions Regarding Gold & Silver are Paramount – Here’s Why
If you hold, or are considering holding, physical gold or silver or both, [it is imperative that you] read as many ‘balanced opinions’ as you possibly can with respect to ownership of each. [Here’s why]. Words: 337
2. Campbell’s Challenge: ‘Think for Yourself’ When Reading This Article on Gold!
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the technical picture for gold has been rapidly deteriorating…and a look at the longer term charts makes it clear that we have just witnessed a head and shoulders formation that has dramatically failed. The chip shot on the downside for gold here is $1,500 [maybe even] $1,450. Bring a double dip scare for the economy into the picture, which I expect to see this summer, and $1,100 is a possibility. If you get a real stock market crash in 2013, as many analysts are predicting, and you’ll get another chance to buy at $750. [That being said,] long term, I still like gold and expect it to hit the old inflation adjusted high of $2,300 during the next hard asset buying binge – but remember also that long term, we are all dead. Words: 900
When forecasting, many economists and commentators fail to focus on the dramatic change in inter-country dependence in our ever more globalized world…and fail to let the actual markets influence their views. Below I critique two articles, rationalizing what they see for the price of gold for the balance of 2012. Words: 730
4. Is Gold the Ultimate Inflation Fighter It Is Claimed to Be?
Below is a synopsis of, and comments on, a very well balanced article on physical gold which is rather rare in this day and age. The article challenges everyone who owns gold, or is considering owning gold, to think for themselves, and then come to their own conclusions as to whether physical gold is, indeed, the ultimate inflation hedge that it is so often claimed to be. Words: 800