-- Published: Thursday, 16 August 2018 | Print | Disqus
By David Smith
Whenever you encounter a "sticking point" in some activity – any activity in which you are engaged – it always helps if you "return to the basics."
Sure you may "know" what they are, but do you really follow them? Ask an expert in most any field of endeavor, and he/she will tell you the same thing.
The basics that lead to outsized results are still around and followed for a reason – because they work! Take the idea of building up a comfortable position in precious metals...
You've decided that you either want to start "stacking" – or adding more to your current holdings. You look at the charts and see that prices are falling, and others are fearful. You're not interested in "buying the bottom." You're looking to build a foundational position into that bottom.
From experience you know that "going against the crowd" and buying when metals are "on sale" has been working since at least 2002, when gold was under $300 an ounce and Silver was below $5 the ounce.
Even at today's prices, gold and silver are still up 400% and 300% respectively.
After reconfirming your understanding and belief that precious metals have remained as a store of value for thousands of years will continue to do so, you move closer to acting on that belief.
Revisit your tolerance for risk, the financial means available, your holding time outlook, and how much you're willing to pay per ounce.
Stop worrying about "catching the lows" and instead get ready to buy in several "tranches" or portions, if at all possible into price weakness. Now you've "planned your work." All that remains is to "work your plan."
The preceding paragraphs have taken you "back to the basics" so that you have placed yourself into a position to act on the information thus reviewed. You're relaxed as you step back and ignore the "noise" of analysts price predictions about where metals prices will be next week or next month, and focus on carrying out your decision.
What the OODA Loop Can Do for YOU
Almost 5 years ago, in an in-depth essay for Money Metals, I penned a lengthy segment dealing with John Boyd's Cycle – the OODA Loop. Before then, and to this day, it has remained for me (and now possibly for you) as the most important decision-making model I've ever run across. How and why does it work?
The short explanation is this: Before starting a particular task, take time to:
Observe: Check out what's going on, study the data, get "the lay of the land."
Orient: Place your world-view, temperament, goals, and resources inside the context of what's taking place around you.
Decide: Put together your approach – the plan to achieve your goal(s).
Act: Then act upon it! Failing to take that last critical step means that your 'plan' will be nothing more than some ideas on paper, or in your head. Something to tell your grandchildren about that you did not do.
What the (OODA) Loop Does...
- Forces you to “be in the moment” (no worries about the past or future).
- Helps carry out the task at hand (avoids distraction).
- Leads you to an intuitive, guided process of problem-solving.
- Helps you “swim through the chaos” to a friendly shore.
- Short-circuits the Fear-to-Panic Continuum. Taking action (harnessing the fear response) moves you into ‘problem-solver – survivor mode'.
Working the OODA Loop empowers you to act decisively in alignment with your plan and core beliefs.
You won't get caught up in the “Madness of Crowds” (Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay) or fall under the spell of flavor-of-the-day market gurus (See the excellent Nobody Knows Anything by Bob Moriarty.)
So...You're now being given a Second Chance. Don't let it pass you by.
David Morgan and I co-authored the book Second Chance: How to Make and Keep Big Money from the Coming Gold and Silver Shock-Wave.
It has the tools you need to do well as metals move from today's depressed prices into new all-time highs (along with the premiums charged to acquire them) over the next few years.
And it offers a strategy for how to retain most of those gains, while the majority of investors give their earnings back, when Mr. Market finally decides the bull run is over and done.
Jim Rickards sums up the current situation well, saying,
“The time has come for savvy retail investors to see gold as a simple form of money best measured by weight, not a dollar price... If the price of gold moves sideways or down a little, you won’t make or lose much money. That’s fine; it’s like another form of cash. If gold soars, you’ll make a dollar-denominated fortune regardless of your particular entry price. That’s fine too.
The danger is not having the gold in the first place and not being able to acquire it when the demand and price are soaring and there’s no supply. At that point, you’re just a spectator. The gold train has passed you by."
You're being given a “second chance.” Can you – will you – activate your OODA Loop?
David Smith is Senior Analyst for TheMorganReport.com and a regular contributor to MoneyMetals.com. For the past 15 years, he has investigated precious metals’ mines and exploration sites in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Bolivia, China, Canada, and the U.S. He shares his resource sector findings with readers, the media, and North American investment conference attendees.
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-- Published: Thursday, 16 August 2018 | E-Mail | Print | Source: GoldSeek.com
