Investment is Not All About Financials: How to Profit from General Trends

Everyone wants to make money in the markets, yet only a few succeed. There are very few investors like Warren Buffett or George Soros who can beat the street consistently. This leads us to the question that what sets them apart. Is it some extraordinary mathematical and financial skills; is it some ability to read the markets perfectly? Well a look into their careers and investment styles and methods will say no to the above questions. Then what is that took them to these heights while the rest of the investment world struggles to make money. This article seeks to bring forward some common things investors can look at and profit from and bring to light the fact that you don't need to be a great financial analyst to make money in the markets. Just as George Soros who is more of a philosopher.

I would like to state a small example of the point I am trying to get through. In 1963 due to the "salad oil scandal" the American Express's stocks declined from $60 a share to $35 in early 1964.Wall street at that time was advising, "Sell". At this point of time Buffett's question was "Has American Express's business franchise been affected? And he would certainly not get the answer to this in any annual report. So Buffett started observing the crowd. He saw that people were still charging their American Express cards and it was business as usual and this led him to the conclusion that American Express would survive. It really did. Here it was nothing more then just looking at the masses to conclude what the future of the company might be and these are the general trends one can look into before investing. Every little thing counts. If it's a retail store then you look at yourself from a customers perspective and ask questions such as "would you like to visit this store again and again?, Does your family like the store?, what is the general feedback about it from the masses? And these questions might help a lot in making a final investment decision. Which can be found nowhere in the financials.