A bit volatile out there recently, isn’t it?

How do you feel?

Calm or nervous?

I choose to tell myself to stay calm and use the opportunity to refresh my memory on what I should do in order to be successful in long-term investing.

It all can be summarized in one secret: STAMINA and PATIENCE. Oh, are these two secrets?

Or I could be a bit more elaborate. 

So, here are the traits of the perfect stock investor (“Rational Optimism”):

(Biases mentioned in brackets are examples of biases that can be surmounted by each respective trait)

1) Able to sit quietly—alone—in a room and can endure inactivity (“Action Bias”).

2) Able to delay a few minutes in order to have a second marshmallow instead of having only one immediately (“Hyperbolic Discounting”).

3) Doesn’t act in the heat of the moment, reflects instead on core values and goals, and responds only when calm and when the ...