Do you think that you're a truly great investor? If so, you might want to compare your own self-analysis with the thoughts shared by Bill Gross, the founder of the Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO). This long-time veteran oversees a company with hundreds of billions of dollars in assets, and the group's co-founder has seen many ups and downs in global markets.
In a recent post on his blog entitled, "A Man In The Mirror," Gross explained that the definition of a "great investor" has shifted dramatically in recent years. He wrote about the tendency of investors to "go along with the flow," so to speak, or chase after certain types of assets or leads that they were told to. While this sentiment has certainly led to an expanding stock market, the result, Gross suggested, is that many investors still don't quite understand the industry they are working within.
He also contested the notion of "buying what you know," or sticking with industries that are familiar or seemingly easy to predict. This tendency to pigeonhole oneself is one of the facets of an investor that Gross attacked the most, stating that how the "philosophy would have survived the dot-coms or the Lehman/subprime bust is another question."
Most notably, he acknowledged that the past several decades have been undeniably beneficial to investors in terms of conditions, especially for those that struck big in the late '80s and early '90s.
"All of us, even the old guys like Buffett, Soros, Fuss, yeah – me too, have cut our teeth during perhaps a most advantageous period of time, the most attractive epoch, that an investor could experience… Perhaps, however, it was the epoch that made the man as opposed to the man that made the epoch," he wrote.
In as many words, Gross seems to be advocating for a more comprehensive investment strategy, one that uses wealth preservation hedges to offset certain types of risk. To learn more about these methods, visit GreatWealthStrategies.com today and download a "Free Game Plan Report."