Most peoples beliefs about investing are very tenuous. There are, of course, people who are very passionate about investing. They dont view investing as some esoteric subject, but rather as a field intimately connected to the human behavior they observe in their everyday lives.
For everyone else, however, beliefs about investing come in the form of passive knowledge. The tendency is simply to accumulate an inventory of conventional dictums. Investing beliefs are formed much the way a student prepares for a test. If the subject of investing were as simple as a third grade spelling bee, this wouldnt be a problem.
But, investing is a far more complex subject. That isnt to say it is necessarily a difficult subject. For some, it is relatively easy. But, it is never simple. An investor can not analyze relationships with the certitude and precision a physicist can. The investor is concerned with human phenomena, which are necessarily complex phenomena.
The complexity of the subject is what makes it appear so difficult. While you can develop a set of guiding principles, it is impossible to devise rules that will lead you to the best course of action in each and...