Moneymaking Rules From 1957 Applicable To Investing Today In Crypto And Meme Stocks

As a Bitcoin investor, do you think studying financial history is stupid?

We may colonize Mars and bank 100% via DeFi someday, but there’s one thing that never changes: Human crazies. As a professional investor, I found memoirs the best way to learn about markets and psychology. Legendary investor Bernard Baruch’s My Own Story is an underrated gem: “Being so skeptical about the usefulness of advice, I have been reluctant to lay down any “rules” or guidelines on how to invest or speculate wisely.” 

Here are his rules, verbatim, still valid today:

1. Don’t speculate unless you can make it a full-time job.

2. Beware of barbers, beauticians, waiters -- of anyone-- bringing gifts of “inside” information or “tips.”

3. Before you buy a security, find out everything you can about the company, its management and competitors, its earnings and possibilities for growth.

4. Don’t try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. This can’t be done -- except by liars.

5. Learn how to take your losses quickly and cleanly. Don’t expect to be right all the time. If you have made a mistake, cut your losses as quickly as possible.

6. Don’t buy too many different securities. Better have only a few investments which can be watched.

7. Make a periodic appraisal of all your investments to see whether changing developments have altered their prospects.

8. Study your tax position to know when you can sell to greatest advantage.

9. Always keep a good part of your capital in a cash reserve. Never invest all your funds.

10. Don’t try to be a jack of all investments. Stick to the field you know best.

“New Stock Exchange” by Thomas Rowlandson, Auguste Charles Pugin, Joseph Constantine Stadler;
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959