When confidence can backfire

In a rapidly rising market, the faster you trade, the better you’ll do — and that makes you forget that those whom the gods would destroy, they first make confident. The more you know, the higher the odds that you’ll make a serious mistake. That’s why it’s not the beginners who tend to die at skydiving and why most car accidents happen within a few miles of home. There’s a saying in the British Royal Air Force that investors need to remember: “There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.”

Charley Ellis in June 2001

I recommend reading the whole interview at Wall Street’s Wisest Man to understand the importance of index funds, humility, and why boring and mundane is actually better.