We're here because you're no expert. And the “experts” aren't either!
At its core, investing is straightforward. It comes down to four things:
- Risk: What's your tolerance? How comfortable are you with various levels of investment risk?
- Reward: How much will your investments pay in the best-case scenario?
- Timeline: How soon do you want profits? Or at least your money back?
- Luck: You can't control it, and no one likes to talk about it – but any individual investments' prospects are greatly influenced by luck.
Until someone invents a working time machine… or otherwise finds a way to peer into the future… unpredictability and luck will always play a role in your investments.
But no “expert” likes to talk about that.
Because they want you to believe they have some secret sauce that's worth the money they charge.
Worse, many “experts” will come up with complicated, convoluted systems in a bid to justify their inflated salaries and support their inflated egos.
But those systems don't work.
If they did, 92% of active fund managers wouldn't have worse returns than the plain ol' S&P 500. (And the other 8% fall back to the pack in subsequent years).
If they did, stocks chosen randomly by darts wouldn't beat the “experts” 39% of the time… as they did when the Wall Street Journal ran 100 competitions between fund managers and a literal dartboard.
The truth is, you'll do best if you keep your investing theories simple – and focused on the three things you can control: Risk, Reward, and Timeline.
That's exactly what we do here at The Edge Investor.
We help you understand the risk involved in every investment, the potential return – and, perhaps most importantly, how quickly you can expect to see that return.
As for the fourth aspect – luck – well, there's a way to combat that, too.
Take lots of swings!
Any investment can unexpectedly tank if the CEO decides to embezzle a million bucks to spend on strippers and private jets.
No way to predict that.
Likewise, any investment can surpass all expectations if the CEO turns into the next Bezos or Musk.
After all, in the 1990s nobody thought Amazon would wind up dominating world commerce… back when it only moved a few used books around.
The key to beating a market that behaves more like a random walk than a predictable path is to understand the risk-reward balance, and then invest often – never putting more than you can afford to lose into any single investment.
Some investments will soar. Others will fall. That's the way the markets work, and if you can't handle that, you probably should spend your time and money elsewhere.
But if you can deal with volatility… you'll hopefully find more winners than losers and notch market-beating returns.
You don't need to make it more complicated than that.
You don't need an advanced degree in finance. You don't need a ton of experience. And you don't need fancy systems that cost hundreds of dollars.
You just have to control what you can.
That means doing your due diligence on potential investments (we'll help you with that).
And deciding what risk you're comfortable with (we can help you with that too).
Whenever we find good ideas and powerful trends, we'll share them with you.
Wherever we uncover bad ideas and fads, we'll expose them… and tell you to run!
But – shooting straight here – all the active investing you do should be a relatively small fraction of your portfolio.
At The Edge Investor, we tell the truth: You should dedicate the lion's share of your money to boring, market-tracking low-fee funds.
That kind of vanilla advice might not put us on the sort of pedestal that so many “experts” like to stand on.
But it's honest.
And it works.
We'll help you set up that “boring” base portfolio… and your “fun” play portfolio… by delivering insights to you in an jargon-free, entertaining, and unstuffy style.
And we do it all for free.
We don't even have any products to sell. (Full disclosure – we keep the lights on and keep these insights free by hosting ads for vetted, trusted partners).
Here's the bottom line. In order to make wise decisions about any investment, you need:
Truth, not fiction.
Realism, not fantasy.
Facts, not opinion. (Or at least opinions based on facts!)
Logic, not emotion.
Results, not promises.
And that's what you'll get here at The Edge Investor.
Welcome.