Having the balls to make the calls It's very easy

Having the balls to make the calls

It's very easy to stay in a position when everyone else loves it. You turn on the TV, the newscaster loves it, he interviews 3 "experts" that love it, the guy in the cubicle next to you loves it, everything is awesome.

If you ever sat in a board meeting and everyone is cheerleading an idea, it's always difficult to be the first one, or for that matter the only one who disagrees. Everyone gets pissed off at you and then talks smack about you when you aren't around.

I remember sitting on the sales desk in 2006-2007 watching CNBC as some of the older guys were sitting there incredulous that Peter Schiff had the audacity to say that the markets were overvalued, housing was going to crash, and the financial stocks were going to get demolished.

These guys had 25+ years of experience over me and I found it hard to believe that they could not even listen to that point of view, especially because I tended to agree with Schiff. They literally called Schiff a kook, a clueless moron, an imbecile.

I remember as we all stood around and watched the market collapse hard in late 2008 how these guys seemed to be surprised at the events unfolding.

Going along with the crowd is a temptation that the vast majority of people just can't escape. Their entire world view is shaped by the people they know and it's unimaginable to think differently.

However, to become enormously successful in trading  or investing you need to be either the first one to the party or the first one to leave. Sometimes being the first one to the party means you are standing by yourself dancing in the rain looking like a madman and getting ridiculed.