My Worst Investment Ever Podcast
Business:Investing
BIO: William Bernstein is a neurologist, a co-founder of Efficient Frontier Advisors – an investment management firm, and has written several titles on finance and economic history.
STORY: William lost money after investing in palladium futures under the belief that a couple of physicists had perfected the technique of cold fusion to get helium.
LEARNING: Never invest based on the headlines. Something that everyone knows isn’t worth knowing.
“Something that everyone knows has already been pounded into the market, so it isn’t worth knowing.”William Bernstein
Guest profile
William Bernstein is a neurologist, a co-founder of Efficient Frontier Advisors – an investment management firm, and has written several titles on finance and economic history. He has contributed to the peer-reviewed finance literature and has written for several national publications, including Money Magazine and The Wall Street Journal.
He has produced several finance titles and four volumes of history, The Birth of Plenty, A Splendid Exchange, Masters of the Word, and The Delusions of Crowds, about, respectively, the economic growth inflection of the early nineteenth century, the history of world trade, the effects of access to technology on human relations and politics, and the history and social psychology of mass manias. He was also the 2017 winner of the CFA Institute’s James R. Vertin Award.
Worst investment everAbout 35 years ago, a couple of physicists announced that they had perfected the technique of cold fusion, which enables you to take hydrogen atoms, smash them together, and get helium—the same thing that goes on in a hydrogen bomb. If that were the case, then it meant there was now a source of energy that was too cheap to meter. The limiting factor in that technique was palladium, which was the catalyst. So, palladium went from $100 to $400 an ounce. William thought it would be a good idea to buy palladium futures. He lost his money in that investment.
Lessons learnedStart slow, see how you react to the bear market, and find out your actual risk tolerance in the real world because there’s a big gap between talking to talk and walking the walk.
No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsWilliam’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to read good nonfiction books and then write reviews.
Parting words“Just keep buying.”William Bernstein
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Connect with William Bernstein
Further reading mentioned
Rex Salisbury – Quitting Can Be a Very Important Skill to Exercise
ISMS 23: Larry Swedroe – Do You Allow Yourself to Be Influenced by Your Ego and Herd Mentality?
Harvey Sawikin – Do Your Own Homework
Paul Krake – Surround Yourself With Experienced People
Noel Smith – Always Have Risk Measurements in Place
ISMS 22: Toyota vs. EV Extremists – Who Is Right?
Guillermo Cornejo – Don’t Underestimate the Value of Experience
Eugene Ng – Keep Playing the Long-Term Game of Investing
ISMS 21: CPI Collapsing Across the Globe
Nick Maggiulli – Don’t Buy Individual Stocks
ISMS 20: Larry Swedroe – Do You Extrapolate From Small Samples and Trust Your Intuition?
Larry Shumbres – Invest in What You Know and Is Regulated
Jesse Felder – Don’t Rationalize a Lousy Trade
ISMS 19: 5% March 2023 CPI Could Fall to 4% By Year-End; If Oil Doesn’t Fly
Sachi Wickramage – Target the Customer With the Problem at Scale
ISMS 18: Dave Collum – What Makes Your Investments Good or Bad
Vincent Deluard – Know the Difference Between a Trade and an Investment
Igor Yelnik – Think About Non-Market Risks
Bogumil Baranowski – Be Careful With Businesses in Secular Decline
ISMS 17: Larry Swedroe – Do You Project Recent Trends Indefinitely Into the Future?
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