Howie's One Page Book On Stock Market Investing

I have been pulling together my posts from the last 19 years on my blog to write a book about everything I have learned about stock market investing.

I ran it all through HowieGPT and damn if it did not take out a lot of pages and words.

It comes out to less than a page.

Come back and read it every time you feel stupid, mad or scared…

The markets are a beautiful and fascinating place that rewards and punishes the prepared and unprepared. Investing is a language, so the sooner you start the better, but it is never too late to start. You can immerse yourself from anywhere and unlike other languages (Chinese, French, German), the language is truly global. One last thing…investing is a privilege so the more you respect the freedom, the better you will enjoy the process and the journey.

Investing is a universal language that is spreading/proliferating. AI (technology) will only make capital allocation and investing more important over time. Because investing and the markets are a language, the earlier you set up custodial accounts for your kids to immerse themselves in the language the better.

The faster you figure out your risk profile the better. If you lie to yourself about your risk profile/tolerance you will continually stumble. This is an underserved part of the financial markets (hint - I am looking for people/startups in this category)

The stock market is rigged. Full stop. Social Media just distributed the rigging to a new concentric circle of riggers - see Elon Musk, Congress, Chamath, Ackman etc…AI will add a new layer of rigging. As rigged as the stock market is…it is a miracle and at least in the USA, historically a great way to compound capital.

TURN OFF THE TV…make fun of me if you like but I have been there done that and my returns since 2008 and quality of investing life have improved drastically since I ditched CNBC.

Why invest when the markets are rigged and becoming more so? Over the long term cash flow and profits matter most. The markets are designed/rigged to reward this behavior. If that does change because of stupid government policy all bets are off.

Try not to be a bag holder (but you will be a bag holder at some point).

The best investment you can make as an investor is to journal. I am biased but try Stocktwits.com . Do not think of Stocktwits as a place to prove you are the best, get followers, or even to find other ideas…try just posting your thoughts and track them over time against the market and how you are thinking and feeling.

Keep costs down.

It is hard for me to make a case for picking stocks based on ‘keeping costs down’, but everyone should try and pick at least a few stocks because it is a fantastic American freedom. Try Robinhood.com because it is easy to set up and even fun (I am a biased investor).

The more complicated the idea sounds, the more likely you will lose money.

Indexing is right for 99 percent of investors no matter what your wealth. I prefer direct indexing (tax loss harvesting - another benefit of technology and accounting laws for now). Try Frec.com if you want to see the magic of it and get started with a small amount or large (I am a biased investor). I know FREC is magical because my wife Ellen is investing herself for the first time in her life. My daughter loves it too. My son Max might be the smartest of all because he just trusts me to do it for him and can’t be bothered.

Generally though, if you can’t be bothered to learn, you will be bothered by the people you pick to manage your money.

Last but not least ..the appendix