Sometimes people make it sound as if it's wrong for (a) you to copy my CAPS pick, (b) me to copy a top ten CAPS player, (c) either of us to read an article and rate the featured stock in alignment with the writer of the article, (d) etc. etc. etc. You know the deal. It's "wrong" to copy. You're a lemming.

 

I find this funny, a bit, because the reality of the stock market is that we're almost ALL bandwagon investors, and I include myself in that group. In other words, it's hard to have an original idea when it comes to stocks. Most of us first hear about a security -- well, rather than assert that, let me ask it? How do YOU first hear about securities you eventually end up buying?

 

Some will discover a truly "hidden gem" on their own, others may passively screen for it, but by and large most of the buying and selling that happens on Wall Street every day involves somebody being turned onto (or off of) a security by SOMEBODY ELSE's initial idea, thought, suggestion, research, passionately stated viewpoint, CAPS pick, etc. Most of my best stocks I found out about initially from a friend, or an article, or a consumer experience shared with others, etc. Add to our bubbling cauldron further that lots of people listen to brokers or financial advisors, too. And THOSE people THEMSELVES in most cases are listening to someone else.

 

In fact, I believe, in this age of "social networking," that the stock market itself is one of the biggest and most important social networks in the world today. It's just not called that. And a fair number of people either just don't see that, or end up concluding that anyone who heard about an investment idea from someone else, and acted on it, is a "lemming."

 

We are all, by that measure, lemmings.

 

Lemmingly,

 

David