Trends Are an Investor’s Best Friend

Tom Lydon

Of all the things you can teach yourself to become a better investor, the best thing is to learn how to identify trends. You probably do it now, to a degree. Perhaps when you heard that oil was nearing $100 a barrel in 2008, you noticed the uptrend. When you heard about bidding wars over houses, you noticed that real estate was trending higher, too. Although you might be familiar with what a bear market or a bull market looks like, to spot trends, you’ll have to zoom in a little closer.

Often by the time news of a trend spreads to the point where it’s cocktail-party fodder, the bulk of the profits have been made. What you need to do instead is learn to spot trends as early as possible in order to ...