# Finance > Published Jan 01 2025, last updated Jul 07 2026 > By Ryan Fleck and written without LLMs! > Original manual at > Incredible writing of astonishing quality and insight - Happy Hacking! # This is Not Financial Advice If you follow any of this, you are entirely responsible for any gains or losses that you experience. **I hold no accountability.** Thanks. # Fear & Greed When people see *"green line go up"*, they want in on the action. Depending on the timing, this is either an OK or a **bad** time to buy an asset. It is rare that, having gone up a double-digit percentage, any asset will continue upwards without considerable momentum or reason. - Don't pile money into assets when the market is green, people are bragging about their investments, and greed is high. - Don't sell everything when the market is red, people are complaining about their losses, and fear is high. This is how people manipulated by FUD[^fud] think. Use the [Fear & Greed](https://www.cnn.com/markets/fear-and-greed) index as a tool to help judge the market. Better put by *Warren Buffett*[^1]: - *"Be fearful when others are greedy."* - *"Be greedy **only** when others are fearful."* # Precious Metals Unless the world is about to collapse, holding a great deal of physical precious metals is unnecessary - though holding none is unwise. As a rule of thumb, at minimum, hold a few months' of expenses worth of gold and silver. Ideally half a year's worth. Never ever buy paper metals - stock or crypto - ever, but especially with the expectation that it will be available in a time of crisis. # The Stock Market **Generally, a losing game.** Picking stocks takes time and highly patient and systematic thinking to see consistent long-term returns. Read these. Pay attention to what politicians are investing in. - [Ray Dalio's "All Weather Portfolio"](https://www.lazyportfolioetf.com/allocation/ray-dalio-all-weather/) - Buffetology - See [a summary of "Buffetology"](https://www.edelweissmf.com/investor-insights/book-summaries/buffettology-mary-buffett-david-clark-book-summary) **Avoid mutual funds.** The primary reason for their popularity is the promise of convenient *"worry free investing"* which rarely keeps up to the S&P.[^traps] *"Never buy stocks in a sector or a country where investment funds are trading at a premium to net asset value."*[^traps] Many times throughout history - blind pools from 1929, the Asian economic miracle of the 90s - **mania** has caused people with FUD to invest in assets at a premium, and in the earlier case without knowledge of investment allocation. (MacBeth 1999, 10) [^1]: "Warren Buffett: Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy", Adam P. Brownlee, July 11 2024, [investopedia.com](https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/012116/warren-buffett-be-fearful-when-others-are-greedy.asp) [^fud]: FUD - Fear, uncertainty, and doubt. [^traps]: MacBeth, Hillard. 1999. *"Investment Traps and How To Avoid Them: A Canadian Guide"*. Prentice-Hall Canada Inc. > Thank you for reading! > Find more content at > Source page: > Site index: [llms.txt](https://manuals.ryanfleck.ca/llms.txt)