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Prologue to a Phenomenology of Individual Investor Consciousness: Part, the First
By Kynikos | March 14, 2007
Heidegger identified time as the horizon from which Being is to be understood. I am not one to reinvent the wheel; and, I am in the mode of standing on the shoulders of my preceding giants, therefore, let us introduce this introduction by way of the temporality of economics, viz. the phenomenon of market timing. Most investors (for those readers who are existentially savvy, the term “most investors” is akin to, although necessarily more pejoratively construed than, the “They-self” of Heidegger’s phenomenology) believe that “investing” is equivalent to “making money in the market,” and that this, in turn, is equivalent to picking (i.e. buying & selling) the right stocks at the right prices. This is, perhaps, when stated bluntly, the most myopic vantage that one can have of one’s investment horizon. Market timing is a fallacy; its practitioners, the witch doctors and warlocks of finance. The essence of the problem is that very few ask the question, viz. “What does it mean to in-vest?” To invest is, originally, to dress or clothe oneself in something. Ponder that for a moment. Would you understand your current investment strategy (had you one to begin with, even) to be the stocks, mutual funds, bonds, etc. in which you clothe, i.e. surround yourself? Some may argue, “Words evolve; etymologically, you may have a point; but, that meaning is no longer relevant.” That argument, however, propagates the very flaw that has lead to the failure of investors to examine their own essence, qua investors. To argue that meanings evolve is to continue the process of shrouding, veil, cloaking, concealing, and obscuring that which we are attempting to bring fully into the light.
Topics: Investing, Life, Philosophical Musings |