Themes from Day 1 at the Agora Financial Investment Symposium

Yesterday was the first day of speeches at the Agora Financial Investment Symposium. We heard from quite a few DR familiar faces, and by and large, the theme of the first day's speeches was a simple one: when it comes to investing, understand what you're doing.

Rick Rule, who is clearly the 'rock star' of the Agora Financial Investment Symposium each year, also had some very straightforward advice for the conference attendees: only invest in things you understand very well. And for him, that understanding lies within the commodities and natural resource markets.

Rick believes the resource bull market still has a way to go. Resource stocks, in his opinion, seem to be an asset that is more popular when they are overpriced than when they are cheap. These assets will be headed lower in the coming months.

"Its better to be a contrarian than it is to be a victim," says Rick, echoing his theme of his speech that he gave last year. "If you are of a contrarian mind-frame, and you are solvent enough that you can use volatility as a tool rather than being victimised by it, these [resource] markets could work for you. Use your head. When stuff becomes less expensive, stuff becomes more desirable. Don't be afraid of price declines - take advantage, rationally, of these opportunities as they present themselves.

"Within the resource and commodities markets, investors haven't been discriminating between the good, the bad and the ugly. They took them all up. When they decline in price, you don't have to buy the bad and the ugly. You are educating yourself to what the good sectors are."

This is just a taste of what's to come from the Agora Financial Investment Symposium. We'll be reporting on the speeches for the rest of the week for those of you who weren't able to join us this year.

Kate Incontrera
for The Daily Reckoning Australia

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