Investing: The Best Advice I Ever Got

The best advice I ever got was on a airplane. It was in my early days on Wall Street. I was flying to Chicago, and I sat next to an older guy. Anyway, I remember him as being an old guy, which means he may have been forty. He told me to read everything. If you get interested in a company and you read the annual report, he said, you will have done more than ninety eight percent of the people on Wall Street. And if you read the footnotes in the annual report you will have done more than one hundred percent of the people on Wall Street.

I realized right away that if I just literally read a company’s annual report and the notes  - or better yet, two or three years of reports - that I would know much more than others. Professional investors used to sort of be dazzled. Everyone seemed to think I was smart. I later realized that I had to do more than just that. I learned that I had to read the annual reports of those I am investing in and their competitors annual reports, the trade journals, and everything that I could get my hand on. But I realized that most people do not bother even doing the basic homework. And if I did even more, I would be so far ahead that I would probably be able to find successful investments.

Lower Crude Oil Prices Are Good For The World

Pricing power shifts from commodity producer to commodity consumers. We are looking at a new order in the world where the total wealth effect will shift away let's say from oil-producing nations like Russia or Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Nigeria and Venezuela to consuming nations like India and China.

This is good for China it's good for India, good for Germany, good for Japan. It's good for oil consumers and it's good for oil consuming nations. Oil producers or suffering now and many other companies in those countries as well. But for the world yes, it's good.

Crude Oil Will Not Stay At Zero

You're already seeing bankruptcies, some shale producers in the United States have declared bankruptcy and some drilling companies, so it's happening.

What happened last night was an aberration (crude going negative in price). I don't think you'll see another one like that. You know, the June contract is over 20 in Europe oil is over 20. So, I don't think that crude oil is gonna stay at zero. It was only one night for one special reason.

How To Invest

If you could only have 20 investments in your life you'll be very careful. You wouldn't be jumping in and out of something you just read about. That's what you should do!

Shocking How Little Prepared America Was

It's a bit of a shock to find out how little America prepared for this. In China they didn't know it was coming so of course they were not prepared. China, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and other places seem to have done a much better job of dealing with the virus. America had a three months notice it was coming, the world knew was happening. America did nothing. Last week you couldn't even get a test.