Stay put and do nothing

I just came back from Switzerland after a week long business trip, so did not get much time to write. One thing has become more and more striking each time I visited there is how worthless the US$ has been. Everything is awfully expensive. Just a quick note on this as this is not what I wanted to talk today.

I guess you all know how much I admire Jim Rogers, who I think is one of the greatest living investors in the world. I just saw an interview he recently had and the following is part of responses:

Rogers: My advice is that, most of the time, most investors should do nothing. They should look out the window or go to the beach. You should wait until you see money lying in the corner and all you have to do is go over and pick it up. That's how most investors should invest. The problem is we all think we need to jump around all the time and be jumping in and out and that's not good.

We think we have to have investments. No, we don't. If I said you could only have 25 investments in your whole lifetime or if there was some way to limit you to 25, you would be extremely careful. You wouldn't be jumping around doing all sorts of strange things. Patience is what most investors need to learn. You don't have to be doing things all the time. Most of the time the best thing is to do nothing. You just sit with what you have as an investment and let it ride or sit and wait until you see someone sitting in the corner.

Most of the time - unless you're a short-term trader and great at it. I've known some spectacular short-term traders. But for most investors, unless you're one of those guys, then you should just do nothing. Do nothing. If you're an investor, do nothing except re-examine what you have, and if you're not investing, just continue to look until you find something.

As you know, one of the successful investing features is being inactive. This is exactly what you need to do now. Right now, it is a very uncertain and dangerous period, which is also true for commodities and precious metals. It will serve yourself the best that you stay put and do nothing now, except actively doing your homework by reading, studying and learning. This is what I'm busy with at the moment.