It has been a while since I've done any financial or investment research. It can be time consuming and is an activity that can change by the minute depending on your focus. Mutual fund managers have teams of researchers at their disposal and strict guidelines based on a published prospectus. Advisors with years of experience behind their practices are smart, cautious, optimistic and realistic.
I'm roughly two miles into a walk on a treadmill at a local gym and people watching. Admiring the results of hard work, watching someone learn to use a piece of gym equipment for the first time, and then there's the flutterer. She's not in particularly healthy shape, her hair is unkept, and her clothing smells as though it sat in a wet pile a little too long. She's always talking to people who don't appear to be interested in what she has to say.
On this day she comes up to a woman on a treadmill next to me. Is this the moment when I finally have her wisdom imparted upon me? Even if I'm eavesdropping say it isn't so!
It turns out she is a local broker with a well known investment firm and she's marketing her skills. She knows how to guarantee very large returns and gave verbal examples of her skills. Described how it is done in great detail with plenty of jargon. I knew she was talking about trading something called options, which is not appropriate for many consumers. The women next to me wasn't very interested, but since she knew her personally she listened and politely went on to another machine.
What if you were one of those consumers desperate for a miracle and you were afraid not to take a chance? What if your lack of knowledge and fear of asking questions caused you to make a huge mistake that couldn't be recovered?
No comments:
Post a Comment