RE:RE:MMG Ltd., a Kakula comp (but not really)Totally agree, TA. You just have to have a framework of how to value companies, understand economic and financial cycles, and have the attitude to not care about volatility, and look out long term. Valuation, cycles, and mindset.
I just finished watching the Berkshire Hathaway AGM live stream. Buffett opened up by showing a few pages of the New York Times, in March 1942. America was at war with Japan and Germany, and was losing at that point. There were a lot of negative headlines, and stocks were selling off hard. He asked his dad to buy him three shares of Cities Service Preferred. On 11 March 1942 he paid 39 1/4. It soon fell to 27/share, and he was feeling depressed but held on. When it rallied to 44, he sold out for a $5 profit, per share, netting a $15 gain. He was feeling pretty smart. Well, four years later, Cities Service called the pref for over $200 per share. He said, he never forgot that painful lesson. He also said that if you put $10k into American stocks when he bought his first in 1941 at the age of 11, you would have $51 million today. And you never needed to do anything, really, outpeforming all of Wall Street's advice. The point was, as a stock investor, you need to be patient, and give it time for the market to recognise the value created by business.
One thing I would add, however, is that he made no mention of business quality, which of course is how he made so much money, by buying high quality businesses cheap. And another thing, you say it's risky. I wouldn't say it is without risk, but when you buy a great company cheap, there really isn't a lot of risk. Risk is a function of quality and price.