When you’re new to investing, advice is easy to come by. There’s a lot of places (particularly on the Internet) where anybody can give their thoughts on what to invest in. The quality varies greatly in terms of how good this advice is. At the Motley Fool, we pride ourselves on giving sound and truthful information that is easy to put into action. But we also acknowledge that there’s some legendary investors out there who deserve the spotlight to be shone on them! George Soros and Warren Buffett are two such investors. Their investing tips are priceless to review, particularly if you have a couple of thousand ready to invest.
Advice from George Soros
Soros has successfully run his own fund for several decades, investing money for other people within it. He famously bet against the British pound in 1992 and made over $1bn profit on the trade. He famously described investing “money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected”. This is a great tip, and especially for investors right now. Let’s break it down and see what you could do with £2,000.
For the most part, stocks trade on investor sentiment. A great example in the news recently is boohoo. The share price trades around 220p, almost half from what it was only a couple of weeks ago. Investors were quick to sell the stock on news about poor working conditions and illegally low pay for workers. So what would George Soros potentially do? Well he suggests that money is to be made by betting (I prefer to say investing) on the unexpected. So right now, buying the stock on the thinking that this situation will blow over and business will be ok in the long run would be doing the unexpected. This could reap rich rewards should the share price return back to levels seen in early July.
Advice from Warren Buffett
For many, Buffett is better known in investing circles than George Soros. But on this investing tip, Buffett backs up what Soros said. He’s quoted as saying to “be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful”. This is the same principle that Soros was making. Some investors are clearly fearful at the moment, which is why we’ve seen a stock market crash. Instead of selling or sitting on your hands with your £2,000, now is the time to be greedy and buy.
It’s a mix of going for the unexpected and being greedy which can help investors to generate larger-than-average returns right now. So how can you use this advice in a practical way? Well, look for share prices that are heavily down this year, but that you are comfortable in holding. If you want to really go for the unexpected, then look at the share price and recent results of cruise operator Carnival. Or airline operators such as easyJet and Ryanair. There’s no right or wrong answer on what to buy, but as George Soros says, you need to discount the obvious!