If you have not heard the story about Orlando the stock picking cat, (yes I do mean a feline that mastered the art of the stock market) please allow me the opportunity to retell this unbelievable story. Orlando was trained to pick stocks using a toy mouse. To be more specific, Orlando would toss his toy mouse on a network of numbers that represented numerous stock market companies.
To make matters more unimaginable, Orlando was entered into a competition against some of the top stock picking experts and a group of secondary school students from England. The results were staggering. Orlando the cat had the top stock picking results!
What does this mean?
This obviously means that you need to head down to your local animal rescue league, adopt a cat and train it to pick stocks right now! I’m kidding folks. While rescuing a cat from an animal shelter is an honorable cause, I would not recommend that you allow a feline to become your primary stock picker.
What does this actually mean?
There are 5 key points that we can learn from this story. It’s time to let the cat out of the bag:
Number One:
The stock market is unpredictable. No matter how much you plan or how knowledgeable you are, the stock market has a way of tossing out curveballs to even the most seasoned investors.
Number Two:
Realize that the stock market is risky and only invest with money you can afford to lose if things should go wrong.
Number Three:
Don’t fall victim to the notion that you can hire somebody else to manage your money and expect better results than if you had done it yourself. Let’s face it, if a feline can beat professional stock pickers than maybe you could too!
Number Four:
Consider the idea of diversifying your stock picks by purchasing ETFs or mutual funds that represent a sector or index that you believe in. For example, if you believe that biotech stocks will always be in demand then search for biotech ETFs and mutual funds and see how they have been performing. Look at their charts, do some technical analysis and see if they are right for you.
Number Five:
Never invest all of your savings into the stock market. Keep some money set aside for other things such as real estate, your own business, your own education or even a simple savings account in case of an emergency.
I hope that you have found this article to be both entertaining and helpful. If you have any comments that you would like to add below please do so. Your feedback is much appreciated even if you choose to spend the next ten minutes making cat jokes that would be purr-fect as well!
The Trade Locker is a free online community where traders and investors are encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas about the stock market and investing so that we can become more profitable as a community. Please take a minute to check out our stock message boards and don’t be afraid to be the first to comment since our boards are relatively new.
We also have a stock quotes page that shows the latest stock gossip via stocktwits. All you have to do is enter the ticker of your choice in the quote box. We also have a page for all of the latest and greatest stock market news so you can keep up with market changes. In addition, we a have a stock market forum known as “Trading Talk” where experienced traders can explain a day in the life of a trader with new investors looking to learn from the experts. Last, we are currently working on an education center for beginner traders and we already have countless helpful articles about trading and investing in our “blog” section.
In case you were wondering where in the world I found Orlando’s fascinating story you can find it here.
I have several cats 🙂