A healthy dose of skepticism

If I had learned anything at all over the last decade of my professional life and investing, it is that banking is a transaction-based business. Year-end performance appraisals are evaluated almost entirely based on the number of deals closed, number of trades made, etc. Not that is not obvious but we subconsciously ignore this when it comes to investing.

Much like brokerage firms, media works pretty much in the same way. Money is made on trades, and indirectly from viewership. The company who provides you with news and updates stays in business not because your knowledge is enriched, but because they are hoping that you will act on that piece of news - making that stock trade, sharing it with someone else who might act on it, and make money from the commissions. Bluntly speaking, these companies profit from the influence they have over their customers, and that has commercial value.

Once you come to understand this, stuff that you read online, you take with a pinch of salt, you analyze and approach it with a healthy sense of criticism (and sometimes skepticism). It will help you make better and well-informed decisions rather than acting on impulse.

"Money is made in the sitting."