I can “prove”, using sources on the internet, almost anything. Gold going up, gold declining. Market momentum increasing, market crashing. Even studies and research conflicts, and much of it out of date and based on flawed sampling.

In fact, most of what I read is simply extrapolated opinion. People tend to believe in something, look ONLY at data points which support that opinion – and make the world and its events conform to this view.  If you are a perma-bull, the market only moves in one general direction. With the manipulation and regulation going on right now, it is dangerous to view things in black and white.

If I were starting my working life again, I have significant doubt I could have amassed my “fortune” in the markets to have been able to retire at 45 – and set sail on the seven seas. I refuse to breathe the smoke which allows you to believe corporate profits will continue to outpace economic growth.

I was lucky enough to be caught in the updrafts where profits grew faster than GDP. But investors should have awakened that things began to change in 2012 when the markets changed to a trader’s market.

There is more to investing than just looking at profit growth. But for both investors and traders, your life is easier if the market’s general direction is skyward. There was a 20 year period in the 1960’s to the 1980’s where the market went nowhere.

I am at the point in my life where I have seen the impossible, and been crushed when certainty did not occur.

My OPINION is that the markets have outrun the economy – and we are in for a period of no market growth (maybe like the 1970’s). This does not mean I am putting my cash under the mattress, but I do have lower expectations – and am less inclined to accept much risk.

Most people cannot be traders as they have to work at unrelated jobs during the day – and investing is the only real option. Investors have to be careful where to put money, and the mattress is a poor option. Retirement may be out of the question for those who need the market to “manufacture” some relatively quick money. Investors are flying by the seat of their pants to find their way.