No Time For Risk - Part 2

The following is an excerpt from "Bring Out Your Dead" by Doug Casey.

For now, the key is to get through this period in the best possible shape. That means watching your debt, keeping well cashed up, buying gold on dips, and, when you venture into investment markets, it’s never been more important to understand what you are investing in and why.


There’s no need to chase anything – which means you have the luxury of building your portfolio over time, on exactly the terms you want.


While it may sound contradictory, I think this is also a good time to learn more about speculating. In the simplest terms, a speculator risks just 10% of their portfolio in the hopes of receiving a 100% return. By comparison, most investors put 100% of their portfolio at risk in the hopes of getting a 10% return (actually, these days, most people would be happy with just 5%).


In the case of the speculator, 90% of their portfolio can be largely kept in cash and gold. So, who’s more at risk – the investor or the speculator?