‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Author Divulges ‘Greatest Kept Secret’ To Safe Investing
Written by
Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy
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Nicholas Morine
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“The Wolf of Wall Street” author Jordan Belfort — who has a new book out, “The Wolf of Investing: My Insider’s Playbook for Making a Fortune on Wall Street” — recently divulged some investing secrets.
Speaking on Fox News’ “Claman Countdown” show on Jan. 18, Belfort argued that while he lost a lot of money on individual stocks he now calls “suspect,” there is only one proven way to make money via investing.
“Park in the S&P now,” he said, adding that you should also hold funds there for the long-term — “not for one year, not for three years.”
“If you look at a long-term chart over any 10-year period, you simply buy it and hold it and you outperform 99.9% of all the hedge funds, mutual funds out there, paying virtually no fees, no expenses attached to it now,” he said.
Timing the Market Does Not Pay
Belfort further argued that timing the market doesn’t work. “The S&P has proven the most lucrative investment in the world,” he said, adding that while there are a few people in the world who can beat it, those persons are few and far between.
“They are the rock stars of the hedge fund world,” he said.
This view is something he has reiterated several times. For instance, in November, he said — also on Fox News — that he strongly urges you “not to be trading all day and buying and selling and investing in individual stocks. That is playing the sucker’s game. That’s the darker side of Wall Street.”
Belfort argued that “the better, more elegant way to invest” is to focus on long-term investment opportunities. He recommended to avoid getting “caught up in the nonsense,” according to Fox.
American Markets Not Perfect, But Still the Best
While he acknowledged that some investors might be reluctant to commit to long-term investments given the current economic landscape, he still urges individuals to “stay the course” and remember U.S. markets are the “best bad option” available, according to Fox.
“Markets go up, markets go down. Recessions happen, expansions happen. But if you look over the last 150 years, if you just simply stay the course and don’t buy and sell and don’t keep triggering taxable events, you’re going to end up making a ton of money because the U.S. economy over time expands,” he said, according to Fox.
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