☕Beating Wall Street at its own game is easier than you’d think

Good morning! 👋  

One of the single most important things you can do if you're going to play poker successfully is learn how to read the room so that you can anticipate the actions of others at the table.  

Investing is the same way.  

Tesla’s earnings just tipped Wall Street’s hand. 

Forget about the company itself and whether you think earnings were a “train wreck” like my colleague tech-ace Dan Ives does, or a necessary refocus setting up Tesla’s next growth phase like I do.  

Big traders just learned that the investing public is nervous as heck. 

That’s an edge they’ll exploit immediately. 

Why? 

Because they know that people who let their emotions run wild are easier to separate from their money. So don’t give ‘em the chance. 

We’ve talked about this frequently. 

Emotional investors – like emotional poker players - demonstrate poor risk management and engage in self-destructive behaviour that ultimately fails ‘em. The irony, of course, is that many think they’re being clear headed in the heat of the moment. 

Here’s the thing.  

It doesn’t matter whether you are a big trader or a small investor or somewhere in between. 

The “opposition” now knows how much scared money is on the table. 

I’ve seen this playbook many times during the course of my career.  

Chances are you have too but you just don’t know it because you may not have thought about it in these terms. 

There are two scenarios: 

1. The big money comes outta the gate storming next week and pushes the averages as high as they possibly can leading into big tech earnings. This draws in the FOMO crowd and particularly those who have just unloaded their TSLA shares. Then, they engineer a rug pull after earnings that terrifies the squeamish into selling (again). Or... 
2. They create a gut sucking drop later today using the Fed’s inflation guage as an excuse to continue the selling into Monday’s session. This time, though, skittish investors lose when they reverse hard to the upside after “disappointing” earnings from the likes of Apple, Microsoft, META and Google – which are widely held and where most individual investors are focused. 

Beating Wall Street at its own game is easier than you’d think. 

Inventor, futurist and erstwhile philosopher, Buckminster Fuller once said that, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality.” 

I agree. 

To change something, you’ve got to change yourself. 

Build something new. 

Work backwards. 

What I mean by that is that you cannot apply the same tired old thinking to situations like Tesla’s earnings or trying to fight the big money. 

You’ve got to create an entirely new reality that works for you and which takes your money in a different direction so you get the results you want. 

The world’s best investors focus on the ending and work backwards. 

They make their future the present. 

If you’re tempted to roll your eyes, I get it. 

Just remember that companies like Apple, Microsoft, and yes, Tesla, do it all the time. 

That’s how corporations work. 

Their leaders have a vision. They figure out what that looks like, what’s to come, what’s needed... and start shaping it. So look ahead 3,5,10 years and imagine where you are. 

Investing is about designing your life and achieving your dreams, not falling prey to the short-term machinations of Wall Street’s merry marauders. 

You think Michelangelo worried about finding cracks in the marble he worked? 

No, he chipped away at every imperfection until he had David. 

You think Musk is worried about 2024? 

No, he’s planning for 2030 and beyond. He’s recognized that the company needs to make a shift to get there.  

The situation was much the same in 2012 when he introduced the Supercharger network as a corporate priority. If you recall, many on Wall Street hated the idea because they felt it was a diversion from the cars.  

Now the tech he insisted on building is on its way to becoming the world standard and the Supercharger network will generate billions of dollars a year. Effectively, Musk won the charging wars a decade ago. 

Do yourself a favour if you’re skittish right now. 

Three, actually. 

First, remember that the world’s most successful investors think in terms of years or decades. 

Second, recognize that short-term noise is often a smokescreen for Wall Street’s biggest traders and engineered deliberately to keep you off balance, scared and insecure. 

And third, investing is about YOU and the sooner you learn to look beyond the hype that worries others at the table, the more confident and more successful an investor you will become. 

Stick to the plan, and if you don’t have one...

Start now.

As always, let’s MAKE it a great day. 

You got this – I promise! 

Keith 😊