Investing for the Long Run: Lessons from Dave Gretta

Join us for our interview with Dave Gretta, author of the book "Night Trading". Dave is a former accountant and now an investor and trader. In the interview we talk about his background in accounting and trading, his book, and his approach to investing. 

Dave emphasizes the importance of having a strong foundation in accounting and reading financial statements, and advises against leaving money in a bank account. Dave's approach to investing is grounded in common sense and a thorough analysis of the companies he invests in. He believes in investing in solid companies and looks at everything, including earnings, price-to-earnings ratio, price-to-sales ratio, and the balance sheet.

Dave recommends investing in solid companies with a focus on dividends and dividend growth stocks, as well as swing trading.

Dave also stresses the importance of being cautious in the current market conditions and paying attention to indicators such as the Warren Buffet indicator and the Schiller PE index. He emphasizes the need for investors to be consistent in their approach and not to sell stocks too quickly.

One of Dave's favorite principles is "buy what you know," and he extends it to "buy who you know." He believes in investing in companies with a strong balance sheet, earnings, and a stable payout ratio.

Investing is complex and requires education and a long-term perspective. By following Dave's principles of consistency, managing risk, and having the right mental attitude, investors can increase their chances of success and avoid common pitfalls.

Follow Dave on Twitter at @DGretta_Author. 

So, for those looking to invest in the market, take a page out of Dave Greta's book and focus on the long run with a common-sense approach. 

Learn how to make investing simple for anyone and get on a path toward wealth.

Transcript

Floyd (00:00:11) – Welcome to the Really Simple Investing podcast. I'm your host, Floyd Saunders, and today our guest is Dave Greta. Dave is the author of a book called Night Trading. I initially thought that book was about after-hours trading, but I think it's a little bit other than that. And so we'll dig into that. We'll dig into a little bit of Dave's background as well. I guess, Dave, you started in the accounting profession before you got into trading and other things.

Dave Gretta  (00:00:34) - Yeah. by the way, thanks for having me on Floyd, big fan of yours. Uh, really like the stuff you're putting out several of your books as well. Yeah, I mean, that's where the foundation of everything I started. I mean, I actually studied this stuff in college and grad school. I actually got my master's in finance, a few blocks from Wall Street. Luckily my employer paid for it. I didn't have to pay hardly a dime of it. I went to Pace University, which is a few blocks from, Wall Street. From when I was working down there. I have a good foundation in accounting as, as you probably know, and that's really important, reading financial statements and, you know, companies that are actually making money.

Floyd (00:01:09) - I have a similar background. I didn't go to Pace, but I know exactly where it is. I worked on Wall Street for about seven years. The, the reason the rationale behind writing your book night trading was, what, what did you wanted to relate to the people that might read your book?

Dave Gretta  (00:01:24) - Well, it's very simple. I try to make, and I use the word simple, is because I try to make a book that was helping to everyone. So my book, you know, I'm go to say has maybe a minimum age limit, kind of like drinking, I guess, I mean is 21. I'd say my book is on the minimum age is probably, it's freshman in high school, but high school is where it all starts. And then, I would say my book's good for anyone up to, you know, a hundred, I don't know. But any kind of background as well. So no experience in investing or if you have a Harvard MBA, my book, appeals to all people and all skill levels of investing.

Floyd (00:02:04) - The general premise of doing night trading, as I mentioned there is something called After Hours trading, but that's not really what the book is about. The book is about the ability to prepare yourself for making trades by doing stuff at night because you might have a full-time job. Is that the general premise of the book?

Dave Gretta  (00:02:24) - Yeah, absolutely, Floyd. So that, that is the premise and that's what you hear. You see a lot of people tweeting lately about listen, do your day job. I have a day job. I'm about to go to work in a few minutes. I work in it. I'm a systems and data analyst, so right the way I say it, and in my book and way, now you're starting to see a lot of other people on Fin Tech say this and recommend this is, focus on your day job. You're, you're nine to five making you know, where you make money. And then at night, that's why I call my book Night Trading. I play on the word day trading is when you kind of do your research on, I mean, technically you could even do your buys at night. You know, they won't process till the next morning, but you can technically do everything at night. 

So kind of keep your day job. Would you want to be a blackjack or poker player, you know, full-time during the day? 99.999% of people would say no, and I wouldn't recommend it. So same thing with stock investing. That, that's my opinion. I, I know some people do it for a living, but I love the stock market in stocks. 

Floyd (00:03:18) - So at what point in your career did you start investing in the market as opposed to just trying to earn a living?,

Dave Gretta  (00:03:25) - Technically,  if, if you listen to some of my other podcast interviews, I did start my career on Wall Street, started at age 16 when I actually went to, went there and I owned one stock. But technically though, I really didn't start investing until my mid -wenties, which is when I really started making money. So that's really when, when I started.

Floyd (00:03:44) - Describe for me what your style is. You know, there's so many different styles of investing. There's growth investing and income investing and swing trading. And what is your approach for investing?

Dave Gretta  (00:03:55) - Well, I kind of do it all. I mean, but the foundation, my 70% of my portfolio is in dividend stocks. However, the rest of the other 30% is, you know, right now I have a large chunk of cash that's getting 5.4% on a cd. Um, and I also do swing trading. You know, I like to make money, so I'm not shy about it. I, I'll swing trade, I'll hold stocks for a week, a month, couple months. 

So I do everything. But the foundation of my portfolio is, is dividend and dividend growth stocks. 

Floyd (00:04:25) -And is it all individual positions or do you hold money in mutual funds or exchange funds? And what's your position about exchange traded funds and mutual funds?

Dave Gretta  (00:04:36) - How I invest, I just, every two weeks just comes out of my paycheck into a Sand P 500 index fund, you know, like everyone else. And then I have my play money, my, where I do all my other investing. 

So it's divided up fairly, mostly in stocks, and then not that much in cash, but still a pretty decent amount in cash.

Floyd (00:05:02) - And is the reason why you're in cash is because you don't see a good investment opportunities, or you just want to hold a, a portion of cash as a reserve?

Dave Gretta  (00:05:12) - Well, I had a lot of my cash in reserve in, in my bank, unfortunately, which I discussed in my book. You know, I tell people not to leave your money in your bank because, 

I was making about 0% like a lot of people and not really realizing it. Floyd, the last few years or last 15 years, the stock market has been going up so much that nobody really cares about the cash they have in their bank because they were making so much money in stocks and crypto, et cetera. 

So now everybody has a magnifying glass with the market in the last couple years being down, everyone has a magnifying glass and that, and they're looking at their, at their cash and they're back and say, wait, I was getting almost 0%. But now I can get over 5% at a brokerage cd, which is where I've moved my money. So, you know, cash is not trash anymore right now, as they said. Right.

Floyd (00:05:59) - When the market isn't performing well, like it didn't last year, and it seems to be having trouble this year as well. It becomes more problematic for people. They tend to say, I need to take my money out. And there's been a large outflow of money from mutual funds, exchange rate funds, and just general investing because people are concerned. What is your perspective about the general economy and the environment for investing in stocks? Is it something where we should be more cautious or we should be in, be investing now as, as we see opportunities in the price of shares?

Dave Gretta  (00:06:35) - Well, I'm going toanswer this in a couple ways is one is because I'm just I moved a lot of my money into a large chunk into cash, that's just money. I wasn't going to invest, So I, I was just making zero now making more money. So, but it's not like I, I would recommend, you know, pulling your money or selling stocks. 

I mean, the way I look at this, Floyd, is the rest of this year I've done some tweets. I mean, it, it's just common sense. I mean, um, the, the stock market right now, uh, if you look at some indicators, they have the Warren Buffet indicator. There's, there's so many ways to, to see if the stock market is quote unquote overpriced. They have the, the Schiller PE index, which I look at the buffet indicator, you know, and just common sense.

Dave Gretta  (00:07:15) - I mean, I think a lot of the market, uh, has to be rerated as I, as I, as I say, because with interest rates being so high, then they were historically, so you had to, you had to just have common sense. I mean, went from 0% rates to 5% and stocks are going to  have to rerate as I call it, uh, to be in line with that. So, you know, there's a time to play offense and defense with stocks. I mean, um, but I'm not the kind of person that's going to panic and sell. I mean, a lot of times they tell you in investing, you know, everyone says this Warren Buffet, you know, you, you're supposed to spend most of your time doing nothing. You know, I, I said this in a podcast last week I did an interview that if you go back to 2000, I was in the middle of Manhattan when all 2007 and 2008 when everything was blowing up.

And if you had simply back then, which was way worse, I can tell you it's way worse than now. People say, this is a bare, this is like nothing. If you had just in 2007 and 2008 just done nothing, which is really what I did, and just didn't panic, didn't sell, didn't even really buy that much, and just held onto your positions, you probably would've done better than 90% of people.

 I'm in the mode of right now doing nothing. 

If I saw something that was attractive, I can't find many stocks now, even ones that I own. I, I own some pretty good stocks, you know, I own Tesla, I own Celsius energy drink, et cetera. 

I look at my own portfolio first. I, I just look at adding to stocks that I already own. And if I'm telling you that I'm not going to start buying Celsius or Tesla or somebody's great stocks that I own, that tells you a lot 

Now, well, I'm waiting for some, to come down more into a more favorable, favorable position. I'm in wait mode now. I do a lot of golfing now as I keep tweeting. I, I tell people to go golfing and fishing the rest of the year, but it's really a joke, but it really isn't, might be the best thing, the best quote unquote advice out there.

Floyd (00:08:58) - What about market timing? there are people that say, you know, you should invest in the market until May and then sell for the summer and come back in, uh, September and October and buy again. Are you into that kind of seasonality investing? 

Dave Gretta  (00:09:13) - A good question. I look at everything, Floyd. So, I mean, I don't obsess over it. But really, again, this gets back to common sense is that the summer is slow for stock market. I mean, you know, June, July and August, everybody goes away and it's a time where the market doesn't really, you know, go back in history and look the last hundred years, from May to September, the market really, it's proven. People go away and, and there's a lot of love volume. 

Floyd (00:09:38) - That seasonality approach seems to work seven out of 10 times. It, you just don't know which three years. It doesn't work in advance. Right. 

That's a bit of a problem. I'm more of a buy and hold for the long-term type of investor. I'm not necessarily somebody who likes to short trade or, you know, do swing type trading. We did have someone on our podcast, uh, a few weeks ago, Dan Sugar, who's been a lifelong trader, and he talks about following the trends in your book, you talk about buying what you know, and that's also a principle of Peter Lynch. Right?  so talk a little bit more about that. When you buy what you know, are you buying the kinds of stocks that you have, uh, holding, you know, products in your home, that sort of thing?

Dave Gretta  (00:10:26) - Yeah, sure. I can, this is one of my favorite chapters in my book is that, and I, not to pat myself in the back, but I even took Peter Lynch by what, you know, and I really, if you read my book it, that chapter, I really extended it, you know, if that's possible or not, but I think it is possible. 

So the way I talk about it in my book, Floyd, is that not only does by what you know, which we already know Peter wrote this, you know, decades ago, but I call it in my book, you know, buy what you use, buy who you know, I call it by who you know, because, if you read my book, I got a lot of my stock, tips and things from people I work with, right, interact with. So it's not just buy what you know, it's by who you know and by what you use.

Floyd (00:11:07) - Now you mentioned you like Hershey's as a stock. I assume you like the, the product as well, right?

Dave Gretta  (00:11:14) - Absolutely. I wrote a whole chapter, and that's one of my favorite chapters in the book. Everybody loves it. And I, you know, the way I look at that Floyd is Hershey Foods, without getting too much detail, is another way I invest is just don't overthink and don't overthink and also don't under think. 

I think that, you know, I like to be somewhere in the middle. So, Hershey Foods is an investment that I talk about all the time. I did a study on it in my book last 15, last 15 years. It's outperformed the S and P. Now it's not by a large amount, it's by, pennies, but however it has, and, and by the way, Floyd, take a look at Hershey Foods this year compared to the s just this year, I'm doing pretty good so far with my chapter on Hershey Foods.

Dave Gretta  (00:11:53) - And the key, the kicker here is Floyd, is that it does it with a lot less risk and or as I, as I call volatility, people want to get really technical, the data. So the beta of the stock market is 1.0, which is not without risk. People think, right? People always think, you know, the Sand P is, they use that as a benchmark and I think it's, you know, not really risky, but it is. 

And so Hershey Foods has a beta of 0.35. If I can outperform the stock market, the Sand P 500 with a stock that has a beta far less than one of the s and p, then I think, uh, I think I have a pretty good idea here. So, right.

Floyd (00:12:29) - And what about earnings per share? As long as we're talking about doing, you know, some analysis of a particular stock, is that something that you look at carefully when you start investing?

Dave Gretta  (00:12:39) - Yes. And what I would say also, Floyd, is I look at, I look at everything. So you, you have to look at earnings, I look at the pe, but that's only part of the puzzle of a company. Um, you know, I look at price of sales, which values the market cap of the company, which is very important. But then another thing that's just, that's all income statement related. So you wanna get more complex, then flip over to the balance sheet. A lot of these, a lot of people don't talk about on twi, on fence width. They, you know, post stocks, they do analysis, they look at ratios, which is fine, but they don't, a lot of times they fail to look at one thing. And that's the balance sheet, which is the debt of many of these companies. Many of these companies have a huge amount of debt. So my answer would be I look at everything, not just earnings and PE ratio, but the balance sheet a little bit as well.

Floyd (00:13:22) - Now, you mentioned that you have a lot of stocks that are dividend stocks that pay out a good dividend. Do you have a particular dividend payout ratio that you like to follow? Or, or is the criteria that you want to not not go over a certain percentage in the dividend payout ratio?

Dave Gretta  (00:13:38) - Yeah, good question. Yeah, I mean, I talk about some of my book on the dividend chapter that I do is that, I mean, companies why you have to look at why do they pay out, why do they even pay dividends? Well, they pay 'em to attract investors to their stock. So if they, if they, if they're not keeping up with their dividends and they're not either paying them or, or decreasing them and people will just, will sell the stock. So it's kind of, you know, I just invest in solid companies and, you know, you can even take it a step further and reach real estate investment trust. I have a couple of those as well. And yeah, as you know, their payout ratio is pretty defined. So, and, and stable. So

Floyd (00:14:09) - At this point, we're going to  take a quick break. When we come back, Dave's going to  tell us about one of his favorite stocks to invest in that you may not have heard about. So come right back just for investing in building your financial security. If you're seriously interested in building your wealth, join us every week on the really Simple investing podcast and check out our website@reallysimpleinvesting.com. You'll find more great podcast, our blog on investing and some great books from Floyd Saunders books like Investing for Beginners. And Find a Path to Wealth Sign up for our newsletter so you don't miss listening to our guests and learn even more about the simple things you can do to become a successful investor. You're listening to the really simple investing podcast and now more investing ideas as we continue our interview. Now, we're back for the break, and I wanna make sure that Dave has an opportunity to tell us about one of his favorite stocks. But first, let's first talk about the dividend yield as well. Is there, is there a particular point in the dividend yield where you say this, the yield is too high, or particularly too low for me to invest? Is that something that you use a, as a criteria for picking stocks?

Dave Gretta  (00:15:20) - Yeah, another great question. I I can give you a specific example. So I'm going to tell you a stock that I own called Genco Jenko shipping, G E NCO O symbols, g n k. Now, that stock I've owned for the last couple years, and that at one point was paying out last year was, uh, I'm going to  say 19%, um, was, but this company, now, let's just dig into this a little bit. This Genco shipping, they, that is a high ratio, but a lot of the shipping companies pay out high. And, you know, alarm bells aren't really going off necessarily with this stock and some of the shippers because, you know, they really make money. It's, it's no joke. A lot of the shipping companies make a lot of money now, GENCO, they just cut their dividends, uh, year end from 19 nine, 19% down to about 13%. Am I going to  sell my, this stock that I own that pays this high dividend because they dropped it? No, of course not. Right? Because I'll tell you why, because 13% is still pretty, pretty darn good compared to other dividends.

Floyd (00:16:21) - Right. And it's important to understand the reason why they cut dividends, right? Have they dropped in earnings? You know, have they have they have a problem with revenue? That might be a reason why they cut a dividend and it would be a good reason to sell a stock, right? But if they've just cut their dividend back for some other reason and their earnings are still strong, they're still, uh, making a lot of money from shipping, it might be a good reason to still hang onto that stock, as you said.

Dave Gretta  (00:16:46) - Oh, absolutely. Another good reason. Yeah. The company's not going outta business. If anything, they'll, they're doing well and they might be acquired. But here's the thing, Floyd, with the dividend, I, I talked about this last week, is that the dividend, even if, if a stock is going down a little one of your dividend stocks is going down a little bit, that's not necessarily a bad thing because as long as it comes back up, because here's the thing, I'm buying the dividend reinvestment plan, I'm, I'm getting more shares of this stock mm-hmm. <affirmative> as the price drops a little bit. So I'm not necessarily unhappy.

Floyd (00:17:14) - That's, that's a good point. Do you typically, uh, participate in the dividend reinvestment program? The company has one,

Dave Gretta  (00:17:20) - A hundred percent. Everyone, everyone I, I drip on. Yeah.

Floyd (00:17:24) - And, and for those companies that don't have a dividend reinvestment plan, when they pay you a dividend, do you then turn around and buy more shares?

Dave Gretta  (00:17:31) - Yeah, I actually think every stock I have has is part of the dividend, uh, drip program, but yeah. Okay.

Floyd (00:17:35) - Definitely. Yeah. So that's obviously a good way to compound your returns right? Over time. Absolutely.

Dave Gretta  (00:17:43) - The key is to get more shares. You, you know, this Floyd, I mean, that's, that's the key, right? You accumulate more shares over time

Floyd (00:17:50) - And, and dividends. There's practically a freeway of getting more shares, right?

Dave Gretta  (00:17:55) - Absolutely.

Floyd (00:17:56) - I mean, you do have to pay a little bit of, of tax on the dividend potentially, but it's still, uh, at a lower rate than your normal taxes. Um, at this point, we just wanna take a quick break and we'll come back and talk with Dan, uh, with Dave a little bit more about the right mental approach and what sports psychology has to do with investing. So we'll be right back. And so we'll just take a little break right here. Um, there's an opportunity to in insert a mid roll thing and then we'll come back. Okay. So you're still listening to the Real Simple Investing podcast where we're with our guests, Dave Greta, and we promise that we're talking about the right mental attitude to investing at this point. Um, that's something that isn't necessarily covered in a lot of books on investing, is having the right mental attitude. So, uh, explain your approach to that, Dave. What is the right mental attitude to investing?

Dave Gretta  (00:18:46) - Yeah, glad you mentioned it. Uh, sports has been a part of my life. Uh, I'm just, I'm big on sports ever since I was a kid. It just, it shaped and framed my whole life, and it still does. And, and I did something that not a lot of people do when they're in best stock investing in books is I tied in my experiences with sports. So I talk in the book about, uh, a professional golfer that I had a lesson with. I talk about a, um, a college basketball coach that I, um, just talked to. And, you know, I would say, I would describe it maybe the similarities of sports and investing as, as this is that I do everything in life the same way. So I invest in stocks the same way I drive a car the same way I cook, the same way I golf, the same way I play basketball. And that's focus, that's to me is the main thing because if you do any of the things that I just said and you're not focusing, you're going to  crash. You know, you're going to  crash your car, you're going to  burn your dinner, you're going to  lose money on stocks, uh, you're going to  hit a golf ball into the woods, et cetera, et cetera. So that to me is the main thing I've similarity and tie in to is focus to sports and investment.

Floyd (00:19:57) - Okay. And then, um, the, the sports psychology aspect of it, b beyond focus, is there anything else that you tie sports psychology to, to invest, to focus? I mean, a lot of people when they're talking about being a great, um, athlete, they're talking about visioning themselves as being a great athlete and, and seeing that in their future and what they have to do on kind of a step-by-step, uh, basis before they actually get into investing. Is that part of your, the psychology that you wanna have people think about when they're investing? Yeah.

Dave Gretta  (00:20:32) - Yeah, definitely. Uh, I talked on the, I just gave you one example. I can give you many, but I had a 30 minute golf lesson with the p g a golfer and, you know, he's pretty, you know, pretty well known. And, um, anyway, so our lesson started as I described in my book and at the driving range. And I hit about five or six balls, really straight and really far mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So he was videotaping our lesson as well. And I, and I looked at him and I said, wow, isn't that, isn't that really good? I hit, I hit these really straight and far and I'm, and right he looked at me and what he said to me was, I, as I said in my book, he said, yeah, but, but guess what? If you have to do that 60 times in a row straight to be a park, just a park golfer in golf. So when he told me that I was really deflated, cause I was like thinking, wow, like you hit five straight in golf. But he, that's what he told me, you have to hit 65, straight 50, 60, that's just to park. So mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it, it puts in perspective how difficult golfing and just everything in life really is. Right.

Floyd (00:21:33) - And so how does that relate to investing? I mean, obviously people that do trading on a short term basis take losses from time to time, um, because the trade doesn't work out. But a long-term investor, typically somebody that you said you, you, you invest in the Sand P 500 in your, uh, long-term portfolio, uh, that's just following the market, right?

Dave Gretta  (00:21:58) - Yeah, definitely. Uh, that's, and that's not so bad. Um, that's probably what most people should do. And again, it's, it's consistency because  most people really lack consistency. 

They're going to sell a stock. And I talk about my book about, I compare day trading to night trading. I have a friend that's a multimillion dollar day trader and I talk about in the book 20 years ago he bought Amazon $80 and he sold it like a month later for 85 and he was really proud of himself. 

Well guess what? 20, if he had just held Amazon be worth a couple million dollar and he still regrets it to this day. So, right.  there, you know, there's not necessarily one formula for investing. You have to be consistent, but, you know, it's all about time. I mean, a lot of these people you look at on fin Twitter or Twitter, and I know a lot of traders, they're making a lot more money than me and they're, they're, but here's the thing, they're also doing it 24 7 a day. So there's always tradeoffs in everything in life, even in investing. 

I think the more time you put into it, but that's why I don't really do it during a day because  I value my time. I don't wanna spend, you know, 20 hours a day analyzing stocks and, and, and trading. I'd like to have the rest of my life and investing should be mostly doing nothing. Right. Right. I mean,

Floyd (00:23:07) - Yeah, I, I think, you know, there's a famous, investor that said, you know, investing should be about as exciting as watching paint dry <laugh>. Right? and, and you know, that's a, a good mental attitude to have around investing is I'm going to  buy stocks that I don't have to worry about that I don't have a fear that it's going to  crash and I'm going to  lose money. 

And the fact that I have a long-term perspective about investing will really help me out in that regard. But what is your perspective about putting money in the market long term? Is it something that people should try to manage the risk or they just accept a certain amount of risk, if they're trying to invest long term?

Dave Gretta  (00:23:54) - Well, I'm glad you mentioned that word risk because a lot of people don't, hardly talks about it anymore or in general in investing. 

That's what it comes down to. Floyd is, how much risk do you want to take because that's, that's what it is. I am sort of a risk averse person, which I think most people are generally wired that way. Uh, you know, because let's think about this things they tell you about investing more risk, they always, you always hear people say it's more risk, it means more return. 

Well, that, that's not necessarily the case. And I proved it in my book. That's the only reason I wrote my book, is that you, you know, Hershey Foods, I have many other examples in my book where less risk can, often make you more money in investing. And, and I proved that multiple times in my book. 

Floyd (00:24:39) - Now we mentioned I think Peter Lynch a little bit and I I think we might have mentioned Warren Buffet. Do you have a favorite investor that you follow that you kind of model yourself after?

Dave Gretta  (00:24:50) - Yeah, I, I'm going to  tell you his name and at this point he probably should pay me like a commission cause I've, I've recommended his books in himself. Mark Menini, I would say is one I tweeted about him all the time in his books. So  I'd say my, look on and how I view investing and how I was successful as a trader, an investor changed after reading his book, uh, thinking his second trading book, Trade like a Champion. I would say he is probably the top of the list.

Floyd (00:25:17) - Okay. just to wrap up here, we talked about the idea of buying the kinds of stocks that you know something about and a little bit about sports psychology, having the right mental approach. And your idea for night trading is to keep your day job essentially and do your investing activity in the evening when you have time so that you can stay focused. What is there anything else that you want to leave with the investors and people that want, wanto get into the market before we wrap up the interview?

Dave Gretta  (00:25:48) - would say, uh, well I have so many things, but not sum it up this way. I mean, a lot of things, you hear this a lot, investing is mostly mental. And I, I tweet out, and I think it is a lot mental, but I,  the way I joke about it is, I'm not really joking, is that investing is mostly mental. But if it, if it was mostly mental, then wouldn't all psychiatrist and psych psychologists be, you know, billionaires, <laugh>? 

So that's what I would kind of leave you with, that it's, it is way more complex than what you or anyone thinks investing is. And I, I even say that introduction in my book is that, is that investing is highly complex. It, it's not simple, it's not just mental, it's many different things and even luck is involved, but it's, that's only a small percentage of it.

Dave Gretta  (00:26:30) - You're not going to  get lucky very long in the stock. You're not going to get lucky in the stock where I can tell you that you'll eventually lose your money just like gambling. But so investing is complex. That's what I would leave it with. 

And you need to educate yourself on it and you don't need to spend, that's the other, the other thing I would leave everybody with is that you don't need to spend a lot of money to invest and there's not, there's no correlation between how many stock clubs and courses that you join. 

And if you want to spend 10, 20, $30,000, there's no guarantee you'll, you'll do well on investing. So, it's not always correlated, you know, it gets down to this, which I'll leave everybody with is that a lot of times people underrate the value of a $20 stock investing book. I mean, my book is $18 Peter Lynch's book, you can probably get even cheaper than mine.. So for working, can you get the best risk reward for your money investing? It's, it's reading investing books. Right. Even like your books as well. 

Floyd (00:27:25) - Oh, well thanks for that plug. We've been talking with Dave Greta, the author of Night Trading. We've been talking about having the right mental approach and a little bit of sports psychology and having a perspective about how to invest. Thank you for your time. We appreciate you joining us today. Dave,

Dave Gretta  (00:27:40) - Thank you Floyd. I'm so happy to be, uh, on your show. Thank you.

Floyd (00:27:43) - Thank you for joining us for the really Simple Investing podcast. Every week we bring you fresh ideas for investing and really simple ways to invest and build for your financial security. Be sure and hit the like button, subscribe. Follow us on social media channels and tell your friends. And if you'd like to be a guest on really simple investing, just go to the contact page on our website and send us an inquiry. Thanks. We appreciate our audience so much.