Investing Like a Marine

By Ryan Delany - Personal Finance & Investing:

When times are the worst is when investors need to be at their best. We're in a bear market, and these are stressful times for stock market investors. However, for those who keep their composure, this market presents some excellent opportunities.

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For marines, discipline is a sacred word. During boot camp, Drill Instructors work like dogs to instill discipline into teenagers -- a monumental task. Throughout boot camp the new recruits are intentionally stressed, and through this stress their discipline is tempered. When recruits finally graduate into marines, their discipline is their pride.

Marines need discipline because during combat, we cannot let our emotions take control. Specifically, fear will try to take control when bullets are flying and bombs are exploding. Losing control during combat gets marines killed.

At my blog, Semper Finance, I advise Marines and servicemen to use the skills they learned in the military to become successful investors -- and discipline is one of their greatest assets. Civilian investors don't need to go to boot camp to understand discipline, they just need to understand their fears.

The investor's biggest enemy is not a bear market, it is his own fear. There is risk to investing in the stock market, and you may even lose money, but investors should know that from the get-go. An investor who can stay disciplined will make money. In "The Intelligent Investor," the venerable Ben Graham writes, "the investor's chief problem--and even his worst enemy--is likely to be himself... We have seen much more money made and kept (emphasis his) by 'ordinary people' who were temperamentally well-suited for the investment process, than by those who lacked this quality, even though they had an extensive knowledge of finance, accounting, and stock market lore." Take a lesson from Ben Graham; he may not have been a marine, but he wrote the book on discipline.

Discipline Served Me Well

The discipline I learned in boot camp and training served me well during stressful times. I was in an anti-terrorism unit when I was in the Corps, and shortly after 9/11 we were sent to Afghanistan. Our mission was to defend the US Embassy and the civilian personnel in Kabul. One night, when the embassy was attacked, I was able to see the juxtaposition between marine and civilian very clearly. I remember seeing the civilians running panicked towards the shelters, and the marines running calmly in the opposite direction, to meet the threat.

"We accepted that there was risk, looked for opportunity, and exploited it to our advantage."

Since marines keep their composure in stressful situations like the embassy attack, we were able to successfully assess and defeat the threat. We accepted that there was risk, looked for opportunity, and exploited it to our advantage. If the marines had run away with the civilians, we all could have been killed.

Keep Your Composure - Invest Like a Marine

There will always be scary news in the stock market, and doomsayers will always be advising investors to run for shelters like precious metals or government bonds. However, the calm and composed investor will not panic and hide, he will seek opportunity and overcome.

Please see our disclosure at the Wall Street Greek website, and Ryan's individual disclosure at his bio page.