Some of my best investment trades or ideas have come from a simple exercise I do before every major investment and personal finance decision I make. I ask myself, “What if I did the opposite?” Instead of buying a stock, what if I bought this other stock? Instead of selling, what if I were to keep it, or even buy more? Instead of thinking this is an investment idea I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole, what if I made a small position in it? Instead of hoping and waiting it will come back, what if I just went ahead and sold it now?
When you honestly ask yourself this, your mind will open up to the ideas and thoughts that perhaps you were denying yourself as it didn’t fit in with your initial ideas. You then allow yourself to consider and rationalize possibilities and viewpoints you dismissed previously.
As a brief example (no investment advice given) – cryptocurrencies. Your initial thoughts may be, “This is ridiculous and will never replace national currencies. How can this have any value?” But what if you decided to make a very small initial purchase in it (you can buy as little as $1 worth via Paypal now). Your mind then thinks about how cryptocurrencies have gone from an overvalued joke to an overvalued method of exchange, and think about how cryptocurrencies have gained respectability in the past few years. Then, you think about the limited supply of the major cryptocurrencies. And then your mind starts to see the real possibilities of the opposite of your initial thoughts.
In the stock market, and with many personal finance issues, often your initial, “gut” decision is wrong.
Some of my best investment moves have come from doing the opposite of what I initially considered. So before you buy or sell that stock, or make that transaction, ask yourself, “What if I did the opposite?” and allow your mind to work on the possibilities.
DECADES to Wealth 