If you’ve ever been tempted to follow the crowd when it comes to investing, thus shirking your responsibility to research and understand the asset on your own first, here’s a good bit of advice. Don’t. Crowds normally haven’t a clue about what they’re doing and, by the time they’re drawn like a moth to the flame, there’s nothing left but to get burned. For a lesson in the madness of crowds, let’s turn to 16th and 17th century Holland and the tulip bulb mania. Your eyes do not deceive you – tulip bulbs were the perfect example of an “investment” craze driven by nothing but speculation.
