Main reference: Story in Sinafinance
SOME A-share players throw up their hands in desperation these days amid the market volatility. But one market watcher says we should be asking ourselves if we really have talent before buying and selling shares.
Whether investing savvy is inherited from our parents or not -- the question perhaps doesn’t matter, as long as we’re willing to put in the time to hone our market skills before buying and selling shares.
In our everyday lives, we are all pretty much experts at judging others.
In fact, we consider ourselves top-notch professionals in the trade.
Do successful investors get their talent from their parents? Or do they hone it through experience? The jury is still out. Photo: yuleBut when it comes to judging the quality of stocks, very few of us are as confident or competent.
The age old argument of the relative influence of nature versus nurture is sometimes cited in the world of finance.
If a seasoned and successful investor can make a living just playing the market, then surely his or her genes will express themselves in future offspring, right?
Not necessarily, as successful investing is most likely a product of equal parts inherited skills and learned strategies.
We often make the mistake of pointing to a rich shareholder and saying she surely must have gotten her parent’s good investing genes.
But we run into a chicken and egg conundrum as we can’t prove it’s only because the rich parent had the experience, leisure time and most importantly – money – to teach junior successful investing practices – or if in fact it’s all in the chromosomes.
At the end of the day, without a rich parent holding our hands through the choppy waters of an equity market – or stuffing our pockets with seed capital – it all comes down to one thing: talent.
Whether or not said talent for spotting market winners and selling off laggards originates from our genes or our own research and honed intuitions is really beside the point as by the time we have left the nest and become adults, the split second decision-making skills that separate bourse winners from losers is all up to us.
Recent performance of China shares. Source: Yahoo Finance
In other words, whether it be genetics or grinding out the numbers, talent is talent regardless of its origin and that is what will help us sink or swim when the going gets rough and the bulls and bears are clamoring like barbarians at the gate.
Therefore, no matter how lucky we were in terms of fortunate “accidents of birth,” we still have to keep up to date on the latest market trends and earnings forecasts.
It is rare that a renowned writer also gives birth to a future famous novelist.
This is because publishing the “Great American (or Chinese) Novel” not only takes a pinch of lucky genes, but also thousands of hours of banging away at the keyboard every day to hone writing alacrity and summon the muses at will.
The same can be said for successful investing.
No matter how successful our immediate forebears were on the bourse, we still need to perform due diligence on a daily basis to keep that investing talent – however big – toned, trim and true.
This is more true than ever in today’s A-share markets when investors are forced to keep one eye on real-time market conditions, another on possible government policy changes, and a third eye – the one in the back of our head – on Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, London...
See also:
CHINA SHARES: Five Signs Bull Run Coming
