'Think for yourself." That's what all parents want their children to do. As adults, we continue to think for ourselves in our academic careers and professional lives. But why does this same standard of "think for yourself" become more difficult to achieve when investing our hard-earned money? Probably because investing is a career in and of itself, and most of us don't have the time to stay on top of the market's every move. But there is a terrific method to help you think for yourself and invest independently, which is outlined in this preface to the updated version of Elliott Wave International's Independent Investor eBook:
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Being an independent investor never goes out of style — whether the markets are bullish or bearish. When we first published this Independent Investor eBook in 2007, we intended to give our readers a solid grounding in the contrarian method, so that they would be equipped to succeed in any kind of market.
Our No.1 investing rule to live by: When everyone else sells, the independent investor starts buying; conversely, when everyone else buys, the independent investor knows that it’s time to sell.
In these brief essays, Bob Prechter helps investors recognize that the conventional wisdom most people subscribe to will only lead them to invest in the same way the herd is investing — which is to say, not wisely.
The markets looked bullish when this eBook first came out in 2007, so our hope was that we could prepare independent thinkers for a change. We believed that a bear market of grand proportions was on its way. We also knew that it would take guts to prepare for it. Since then, a major bear market arrived, which managed to catch most investors off-guard. Except for those who read and heeded this eBook.
Even within a larger bear market, though, the markets can rally and start to convince investors that a bull market is back. We don’t want you to be fooled like the rest of them. We want you to think for yourself. To that end, we’ve updated this Independent Investor eBook with new insights from Bob Prechter about how to invest during a long-term bear market. These six new chapters should keep you ahead of the herd and more in control of your own destiny, during a big downtrend as well as during the inevitable rallies within the bear market.
To get a sense of what the Independent Investor eBook covers on the topic of how to invest during a long-term bear market, here are a few headlines:
- What's the Best Investment During Recessions: Gold, Stocks or T-Notes?
- The Bear Market and Depression: How Close to the Bottom?
- How Gold, Silver and T-Bonds Will Behave in a Bear Market
It's worth staying independent from the crowd when it comes to your own investments. Reading these articles in Elliott Wave International's Independent Investor eBook will provide the background to make it easier.