Acknowledge the complexity of the world and resist the impression that you easily understand it. People are too quick to accept conventional wisdom, because it sounds basically true and it tends to be reinforced by both their peers and opinion leaders, many of whome have never looked at whether the facts support the received wisdom. It's a basic fact of life that many things "everybody knows" turn out to be wrong.

My basic advise is don't lose money

Do not buy the hype from Wall St. and the press that stocks always go up. There are long periods when stocks do nothing and other investments are better.

There is no such thing as a paper loss. A paper loss is a very real loss.

It's a lot of fun finding a country that nobody knows about. The only thing better is finding a country everybody's bullish on and shorting it.

If you want to be lucky, do your homework.

Lady Luck smiles on those who continue their efforts