It's your money, and you should invest it in the stocks you want -- but in many cases, the major stumbling block to investing success is what other people say and do. In this episode of "The Morning Show" on Motley Fool Live, recorded on Dec. 21, Motley Fool analysts Sanmeet Deo and John Rotonti talk about how blocking outside noise and ignoring the fear of missing out -- also known as FOMO -- can be the key to life-changing returns.
Sanmeet Deo: Julian says, "My greatest investing regrets were due to listening to outside noise about Apple growth slowing in 2018 -- sold -- and never adding to Shopify because of analysts calling it overvalued at 100, 200, etc." That again, is human input influencing your decision making and your investment. This is your money. You decide, do I want to put this in? So, something to keep in mind.
John Rotonti: Hundred percent. One way to get around that, Julian -- and it's tough, and it takes training, and it may not even be possible for everybody -- but is to have no fear of missing out. If you have no fear of missing out, then when everybody is on Twitter and TV talking about how great this next growth stock is, yet it's trading at insane expectations, you absolutely don't care. You're able to block out that noise. If you've truly built the discipline to not have FOMO, you're able to block out that, that noise. On the other hand, if you're willing -- the first one coming to mind -- to invest in energy companies, oil and gas companies, despite the world saying that they're evil, dirty and going to zero, you made incredible money since the bottom in 2020, when oil futures traded at negative $32. You made incredible money. Life-changing money. If that's what you're in for, and you could block out the noise of people saying that oil is dirty and going to zero, then you made incredible money. Blocking out the noise is the way to superior returns. This is the surest way to superior returns. Now, excuse me. It's going to be a bumpy ride. Here's a quote that I tweeted yesterday, and I'll put the tweet in the chat. It's a quote that is near and dear to my heart because I believe it at a DNA level. The quote is from Doug Clinton, co-founder of Loup Ventures, a venture capital firm. The quote is, "In investing and business building and in investment business building, doing the thing others aren't is always the path to extraordinary returns." That's completely blocking out the noise and taking a contrarian approach. The quote one more time. "In investing and business building and in investment business building, doing the thing others aren't is always the path to extraordinary returns." If you were investing in what everyone else is investing in, it's priced in, Fools. Not always, in a lot of cases, it's priced in. In a lot of cases, all of the good news is priced in, not always, but in a lot of the cases it is.
