They buy high, sell low, and the ending is predictable

Mom and pop: The world’s worst investors

Commentary by Brett Arends, WSJ

Oh, brother.

I don’t know Mark Villa and Lucie White, a pair of doctors in Houston, Texas, who were featured in a big story in our sister publication, The Wall Street Journal, a few days ago.

And I wish them all the best.

But when I read the story about them, and other “mom and pop” investors rushing to jump back into the booming stock market, a few words crossed my mind.

The more printable ones included “Uh-oh” and “Doom.”

You know how, when you get older, the movies just get so predictable you can hardly bear to go any more? Within the first five minutes you can already tell how the whole story is going to end.

So I’m sorry, but when I read “Mom and Pop Run With the Bulls,” all I could think was, here we go again.

My Journal colleague Jonathan Cheng’s story tells you everything you need to know. Villa and White felt “sucker punched” when stocks collapsed in 2008, he reports. The crash “wiped out half their savings.” They sold out of stocks, put their money in the bank, and “swore off stocks,” presumably forever.

(More here.)