10 Realities About the Markets The stock market can be a frightening place: it is real money at risk, there is a tsunami of noisy information that floods the news headlines daily, and it is possible to lose fortunes, in some cases, almost instantaneously. Conversely, it is also the place where pragmatic and prudent investors have long accumulated a significant amount of wealth for them and their families. The primary difference between those two diverging outcomes is related to proper risk-management. Common misbeliefs can lead investors to make poor investment decisions so, to the extent possible, de-mystifying these beliefs can positively tilt an investor’s outcome. 1) The Long-Game is Undefeated Regardless of any and all challenges (and there is no shortage of them) there is nothing that the stock market has not overcome. Billionaire investor, Warren Buffett, exclaimed: “Over the long term, the stock market news will be good”. Buffett, deemed by many as the greatest investor in hist