- Why aren’t the majority of investors successful? Because they do what everyone does.
- Today, our good friend Andy Snyder explains how to rise above mediocrity and achieve true wealth.
Editor’s Note: Our good friend Andy Snyder – the founder of Manward Press – has a critical message for Liberty Through Wealth readers today. He’s on a mission to help others rise above mediocrity and achieve true wealth.
– Christina Grieves, Senior Managing Editor
I was invited into the presidential suite of a swanky Baltimore hotel last week.
I was there for an interview. A team is filming a multipart documentary about wealth, and they wanted to share my story.
It was fun. But, I admit, I unloaded some big ideas on the host.
I dove into why I do what I do… my time in Alaska’s wilds… why I farm… and, of course, what everybody seems to want to know about these days, my award-winning investment strategy.
But the host – who I consider an intellectual giant – kept coming back to a key theme.
What is it, he asked, that so many folks are doing wrong?
Oh boy… I looked at my watch and asked how much time he had. This was a daunting task.
But I got out my verbal knife and whittled the theme into just one sharp idea.
Ninety-Nine vs. One
Be specific, he said. What is it that the successful wealth builders are doing that others are not?
I pushed back. “You already answered your question,” I said…
“The successful are simply doing what others are not.”
I went on to use the same words I’ve tapped out so many times to my Manward Press readers… “If you do what everybody else is doing, you get what everybody else is getting.”
It’s the very definition of mediocrity.
Look, I said, the internet is great, but go online and search for “proper portfolio diversification.” You’ll get 99 versions of the same old tripe before you stumble across advice that’s actually worth reading.
Most folks, though, blindly follow the 99. And they get just what we’d expect.
Mediocrity.
Take a topic I’m quite passionate about these days… option investing.
Go online and read about option trading.
Within an article or two, you’ll read a classic myth that tells of how 90% (or more) of options expire worthless – making them a horrible investment.
The internet has spread this falsity far and wide.
The truth is that options actually can reward investors at much higher rates (if used properly).
The vast majority of contracts – in the realm of 60% – are closed and taken off the market long before they expire. That means they had significant value and most likely represented a gain for their owner.
Out of the 40% that are not closed, 10% of them are converted into shares of the stock – again, most likely for a profit. The few that remain are those that expire without value.
But here’s the thing with those few contracts – again, it’s what the typical never-bother-to-think essayist fails to cover. Those contracts likely started life so far out of the money that they were purely a speculative gamble. They aren’t the sort of option contracts the average investor should be buying.
For example, I rarely (if ever) recommend options on stocks that have to move 15% or more in order to make a return on the option. Most of the time the figure is less than 10%.
By using this rather conservative approach, I increased our win rate dramatically.
I then told the interviewer about a couple of emails I got last week from some of my newest subscribers…
“Wow, my first time winning 89%. Big thanks to you all. My account is small, so one step at a time!”
– Subscriber P.W.
“Hi Andy: Purchased 20 contracts at $1.80 and sold all at $3.30. Total net of $2,973.14. Thank you very, very much.”
– Subscriber L.N.
I get all sorts of notes from readers with much higher dollar amounts. But these are the ones that keep me getting up early each morning to do what I do.
They’re the notes from first-time traders… folks who are just starting to build their wealth… and, most important, folks who promised themselves that 2020 was the year they’d get serious about getting rich.
Clearly… with this system… most options don’t expire worthless.
The myth is busted.
Make a “Right” Turn
I don’t know when the interview will hit the air. But when it does, I pray viewers come away with one simple idea.
Every day we come to a fork in the road.
We can take the well-worn path traveled by 99% of folks… seeing and getting what 99% of folks get.
Or we can make a right-hand turn and travel down an untrodden path that may still have some weeds poking through that will tickle our ankles as we walk.
Take that path.
I beg you.
It’s the only way to get somewhere different… where you truly want to go.
Be well,
Andy