The Personal Investor: the Accumulation of Information hinders Action

by Mag. Dobromir Risov, BSc., July 2026

What is relevant? (shutterstock)

The Personal Investor: what he needs to do

Knowledge and Information are two different things

The world is full of knowledge. This is true too for the area of Investing. And so, the knowledge needed for an aspiring personal investor to succeed in the financial markets has been published already. There often is a lack of differentiation between investment knowledge and information. Knowledge is for example investment concepts.

Content / information on the other hand is by how much did stock A or B go up today. Or, is the central bank expected to raise its interest rates during the next meeting. For the personal investor to put those pieces of information into perspective, he must be knowledgeable. He must acquire that knowledge. The mere accumulation of information defeats the purpose of personal investing: that is to have a monetary benefit from investing; not based on hopes and guesswork but based on knowledge.

Where is the investment knowledge? Go look for it. It is not coming to you.

Finding knowledge is a personal investor´s job - not the other way around. Even if the investment book is on your table, the personal investor still must grab that book and read it. The personal investor must overcome inertia and search before he can find. But, what is the personal investor searching for? Something where he accepts his lack of knowledge and accepts it is unrealistic to expect becoming a millionaire. Having some sense of realism is vital. I have dedicated on the idea of quick riches two blogs: The idea of quick riches . Check out part 2 when you want to read more.

Quality is something different than quantity

Now, often content is easily available the moment a personal investor enters the internet. However that investment content is not necessarily what is good for the investment portfolio of the personal investor. Again he must have the ability to differentiate between useful and unuseful information. As a lot of unuseful information is readily avaialble, he must bring up some energy of his own to go unusual paths. So, the personal investor searched, declined infomation and found suitable knowledge. What next?

Knowledge and action go hand in hand - information stands still

For investment success to be possible, application is a must. Experience comes from tested

A captain must first learn how to steer (shutter stock)

knowledge. When the aspiring personal investor applies knowledge he is well advised to do so in a way he does not go broke when things do not work out.

There is also no holy grail available which turns poor results into great ones overnight. With the right knowledge - time and effort are still irreplaceble. When you want to learn the trade of investing, book the course offered here: Courses (List). In that course amongst other important topics, you learn to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant information for your portfolio. The course equips with the knowledge needed to steer your portfolio. Like in the picture above, the captain steering the boat.

And, there is a chance you buy the course and you don´t watch it for 6 months. And after watching the content, another 6 months pass by before you start investing. But even then you still progressed compared with doing nothing and postponing.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What can a personal investor do to improve his personal investments?

   Personal investments usually suffer in three areas - structure or the lack of it, lack of action and little patience.

2. What does an investment portfolio look like which lacks structure?

   It is a portfolio showing chaos in the security selection. The portfolio contains securities recommended by friends, an investment fund heard from your bank or a once in a lifetime investment in a start up company.

3. What is meant by little patience?

   When a personal investor´s portfolio strategy resembles sports betting rather than showing business characteristics.

4. What does it mean for a personal investor to display lack of action?

   That is for example delaying decisions again and again. Often the personal investor replaces inertia by adding more irrelevant information.