Global Investment by a Private Global Investor

Why is it hard to practise basics of investing? I got this question based on a few emails from my friends in the past two weeks. They all asked me what to invest now. They do not participate actively in the market for the past few years. The common characteristics among them are

• Male over 35 years old.
• Two have a bachelor degree and one has a Master’s degree.
• All are in middle management level.

Based on past observations and their sudden interest in investing lead me to form the following conclusions

• Some ‘investors’ still chase performance because the market is in up trend for the past few years. They are looking for bargains in daily life but not in investing.
• Some ‘investors’ still think past performance is an indicator of future return.
• Some ‘investors’ still believe in easy money. Therefore they ask the ‘experts’ and ignore their preferences/circumstances.
• Some ‘investors’ still do not understand their emotions, e.g. fear of losing money, want to be part of crowd.
• Investment IQ may not be correlated to age, gender, education level or working experience.
• It is very hard to change/educate human beings.
• The market may enter the final phase of bull run because the remaining cash in sideline is being used.
• Investors who are not interested in investing and/or have no time to learn about investing is better served to adopt dollar cost average strategy using low cost instruments. This strategy reduce negative impacts of their emotions on their portfolios.

My question is why some find it hard to practise basics of investing despite all the investment educational materials available? The worst thing is even some of educated, rational and experienced working adults have difficulties in practising basics of investing. Anyone can help me out?

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