Beware of the social "Gurus"

I don’t know about you but I’m finding more and more investment experts popping up on my social feeds of late. And, when I say experts, I am of course making a tongue in cheek statement on those people who’ve purchased one asset and then ordain themselves as the high priest of investment knowledge.

We’ve seen this a lot this year, in particular with the AMC and Dogecoin movements.

Tribe mentality is fuelling dangerous behaviour in the investing world. Everyone and their extended family seems to now be a self proclaimed expert because they purchased AMC way back when or Doge below 10 cents.

This is why the mantra “do your own research” is essential. 

There’s no real way to fact check or do a credibility test on a tweet. But, we can call upon our good old friend common sense in these matters. It’s like the old saying, you wouldn't just jump off a cliff if someone told you to. 

So, why would you invest based on a random person's tweet which contains too many hashtags and constant references to some army or going to the moon?

The key action here is to ask why?

Why is everyone getting pumped about this thing? Is it hype, warranted or just manipulation of a popular media channel to get more people to pump prices? Perhaps, it’s all of those.

The point I’m striving to make here is this - don’t believe everything you read.

Just because so and so who has this many followers (a vanity metric!) says this is going to happen, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.

This is not financial advice, it’s life advice. 

Always do your own research, be curious and never take things for truth on first viewing.

The world of finance is littered with tribalistic mentalities and movements. People want to be part of something, they want to be seen and heard by others, it’s a natural programming of our human mind.

As I’ve said before, emotions and money don’t play well together.

Don’t aim to be another member of a movement because a tweet told you so. Do your thinking independently, research and work to be a better informed person. Not the next casualty of a twitter hype storm.

As always, these are just thoughts from a fellow human, do with them what you wish.

Important

I’m not a financial advisor, this is not financial advice and I’m not qualified or licensed to provide anything like this. This content is a bunch of thoughts from a fellow human for educational purposes only — that is all.