The odds of you picking the next big stock, like a Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) or an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), are insanely low. Yet popular stories about the next “big” investment tempt us to believe that this time we’re on to something far enough ahead of time to ride the investment up.
Why do stories about Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) make it so hard to behave? Because they’ve delivered results that make the most cautious of investors secretly wish they’d jumped on board.
“From August of 2004 to December of 2010, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s price increased from $100 to $600 per share. And Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), from the end of 2000 to the end of 2010 returned 43.35X. Those are returns that put dollar signs in any investor’s eyes.”
Who doesn’t want an investment that performs like that? The problem, and it’s a big one, is that we tend to look to the past when we’re seeking answers about the future.
Nathan Pinger at YCharts describes this situation perfectly: “Trying to pick a stock’s future growth path based on past growth is like trying to guess if a coin will come up heads or tails when you know that the last toss was a heads. The previous toss tells you nothing.”
I used to get calls from clients convinced they’d found the next big stock. The clients were positive that it made perfect sense to dump their plans, ignore their goals, and bet the future on, well, a tip from their brother-in-laws.
We grow up for a time believing that superheroes and magic are real. We root for underdogs even though we know beating the favorite will take a miracle. So does it really seem all that crazy to believe that the stars will align and that one financial decision will change our lives forever?
The problem is that when you chase after a particular stock, you lose sight of the things you actually can control. You lose sight of your goals and plans, for instance.
For 99.99% of us, chasing after the Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)s and the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)s of the world will lead to the investing version of dating rejection. Meanwhile, the odds of you achieving financial success by behaving correctly are insanely high. So do you really want to toss a coin and make such a big bet on the next big thing?
A version of this post appeared previously at The New York Times.
Carl Richards is a financial planner and the director of investor education for the BAM ALLIANCE, a community of more than 130 independent wealth management firms throughout the United States. Visit Behavior Gap for more of Carl’s sketches and writings.
The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The article Can You Afford to Bet on the Next “Big” Stock? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
