Book from 1912 About the Stock Market
I grabbed the book Psychology of the stock market written by George Charles Selden in 1912.
What a surprise! How little has changed the investment advice in over a century.
Many investment texts published today are a partial regurgitation of old ideas dressed as novelty. Guess by yourself from my edited excerpts from this old book.
The broad movements of the market... are always the result of general financial conditions; but the smaller intermediate fluctuations represent changes in the state of the public mind,
...the man with one million dollars is a silent individual. The time when it was necessary for him to talk is past—his money now does the talking. But the one thousand men who have one thousand dollars each are conversational, fluent, verbose to the last degree; and among these smaller traders are the writers—the newspaper and news bureau men,
The press reflects, in a general way, the thoughts of the multitude,
When the market looks weakest, when the news is at the worst, when bearish prognostications are most general, is the time to buy,
...public opinion is becoming more volatile and changeable year by year, owing to the quicker spread of information and the rapid multiplication of the reading public.
The great cause of loss in times of panic is the failure of the investor to keep enough of his capital in liquid form.