The stock market is steadily going up.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average is not only up, but setting new records.  The S&P 500 Index is not quite reaching new records, but it is definitely growing.

That is good news for investors.  The prices of most stocks keeps going up.  

You do not have to scrutinize, analyze, and research stocks in minute detail to pick stocks that look like “winners”.  

Anyone can look like an expert, and all of a sudden, everyone – even beginners – thinks they have the key to investing success.  

And typically, they like to brag about their success.  Who does not, after all?

As one investor once commented about when times are good, “Even the janitor thinks he is an expert in buying stocks.”

Not that janitors cannot be experts; but if they have not weathered a downturn (or two, or more), they will be in for a shocking surprise when the economy has another downturn.  

Downturns – which not surprisingly affect stock prices differently from upturns – are when the beginners and tyros flee investing in panic.

But investors who have weathered downturns, who have persevered and continue to invest successfully, tend to be a lot less vocal.  Importantly, they are aware of their own level of fallibility, and are not inclined to give advice.  Frequently, their mental cues for deciding to buy or sell are not something they can communicate to others.  Too, they took note of which stocks lost the least during the downturn and they take note of where the best rates of return occur as the economy bounces back.

In investing as in so many other things, experience is the best teacher.

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