About Investment Advisors and Brokers: the Fox and the Crow

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About Investment Advisors and Brokers: the Fox and the Crow

🔥 We all know Aesop's story of 'The Fox and the Crow'. The main objective of the fox in the story is to grab the piece of cheese from the crow who is holding it in her beak on the limb of a tree overhead. No matter how much the fox hates the crow in it's mind, the fox proclaims the crow as an exquisite beauty and says her voice is as lovely as her beauty. The crow was fawned by all his talks and opens her beak to sing a song but alas, the cheese drops on the ground. The greedy fox delightedly grabs it. This story gives us a fantastic lesson that we should never trust the advice of people around us, especially when they are offering us advices.

When it comes to 'Investing', like perhaps in company stock, corporate bonds, index funds, or mutual funds, investment advisors and brokers approach us. They pretend to offer their best advice to multiply our investments like magic. However, it comes at a cost. We need to pay a handsome fee in return for the advice. After falling in their trap, the majority of investors don't see their investments grow to the expectations and repent on their decisions after a pretty long wait. Advisors and brokers work for earning their commissions and keep looking for crows who have cheese in their beak. When we find ourselves being a normal investor, we are an easy crow for them.

When we earn money using our talents, why should we hand it over so easily to them for investing per their choice? We need to become cupid investors. Because when investment decisions are outsourced, the growth will be average at most.
Well known rich people in the world like Warren Buffet have become rich by their own instinct and self-developed strategies. Buffet's investment portfolio includes stocks, real estate and renewable energy. His prolonged success is hidden in 'Value Investing', a term he learned during his school days. He started his investments at an early age and is continuously following it meticulously to have become the richest investor in the world.

Cupid investing is keeping away the brokers and advisors. Establish your own strategies and take your own investment decisions, be it in the stock market, real estate or venture capital. Start investing at an early stage even from childhood. It gives a tremendous advantage of the power of compounding of returns. The stock market is a very volatile place which is a risky destination! The higher the risk, the higher the returns can be (or the opposite) is the mantra (principle) of the stock market. When investments are done we must consider well known factors viz., be patient, keep checking on emotions, wait for opportunities, grab them continuously, diversify the investments in focused stocks, book profits and reinvest it in newer investment avenues.



Managing investments is like growing and raising children. It needs care and attention throughout. It has a long-term horizon. If we handover the charge to someone else, the results are at most average, but probably disastrous. A cupid investing approach is the better option when we want to see our investments grow healthy and wealthy.

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		5 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Advice from Stockbrokers and Investment Advisors: the Wolf of Wall Street I recently re-watched the superb black comedy movie "The Wolf of Wall Street", directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCapri as Jordan Belfort, a self-made stockbroker without any moral sense in New York City. He and his very successful firm, "Stratton Oakmont", are engaged in systemized "The Fox and the Crow" approaches, taking advantage of their naive, financially illiterate, unsuspecting clients. This classic movie is a very good and funny illustration of what you are describing. A remarkable (and dangerous) thing about these successful "foxes" is that people tend to admire them, like them and want to be like them. Scorsese's movie brilliantly shows that and even transfers that feeling on you as a viewer as well. See also charismatic leadership.

		1 David Stehlik Professor, United States
	The Greatest Unsung Hero of Invested Economies John Bogle. Please read his works and watch his interviews, which are often freely available through Video Streaming Services.

		3 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	John Bogle (1929-2019) @David Stehlik: Yes! John Bogle was the founder and chief executive of The Vanguard Group, the first (low cost) index fund. Bogle preached investment over speculation, long term patience over short term action and reducing broker fees as much as possible. A typical quote by Bogle is: "Invest as efficiently as you can, using low-cost funds that can be bought and held for a lifetime. Don't go chasing past performance, but buy broad stock index and bond index funds, with your bond percentage roughly equaling your age". Indeed Bogle's words are excellent antidote against the foxes of Wall Street who are after your cheese.

		1 Paul Bowes Director, Hong Kong
	Fiduciaries for Financial Investments Totally agree. You can get some useful info from organisations like Motley Fool and Zachs, but both ideally want you to pay for services. Tracker funds are probably the easiest way to make and grow investments. Tony Robbins recently recommended looking for a fiduciary to help you - rather than a financial advisor, as fiduciaries charge a flat, small fee for advice rather than percentages.

		1 DANI Project Manager, Guinea
	Naive we Are, So True... Mainly for New People This story is happening in many industries… We need to be aware of this for any business in which you need to invest the results of all your hard work....

		0 Madouc Project Manager, Morocco
	Preparing for Investing in the Stock Market Before accessing any financial market, it is imperative to know the culture of the "stock market people", as well as the interpersonal behaviors that are in use. Because it is in these two contexts t...