Chapter Four of The Survivor Personality by Al Siebert is titled "Flexibility:An Absolutely Essential Ability." When it comes to handling money, flexibility is vital. We live in an ever-changing world. And for some things the rate of change accelerates. Today's fabulous money-making program can fail tomorrow -- though usually there are warning signals when things start to deteriorate -- Money Skill #30. Today's high-flying Internet stock at $100 a share can become next month's "dog" priced at $10. So you need to flexible, ready to change your mind at a moment's notice. A very good reason to never fall in love with or identify with any stock or money making program -- Money Skill #18.
Fifteen years ago, I was a "gold and silver bug." I had the fixed idea that gold and silver prices just had to go up dramatically. A fixed idea is the opposite of flexibility. At any given time, I could give you 10 - 15 reasons (exploding debt levels, inflation, war, etc.) why gold and silver prices just had to go up. I was watching gold and silver charts. Every time a price "broke out" above the downtrend, I would interpret it as a buy signal and I would buy futures contracts. Over a period of about six months I lost more money than I care to admit. For the professionals, all these "price breakouts" were sell signals. They sold short when I bought. They got the money I lost. My fixed ideas caused me to do the exact opposite of the winning strategy -- psychological reversal, Money Skill #17.
Label-think often includes fixed ideas, the opposite of flexibility. See Money Skill #2 and Money Skill #18.
Adaptation is a most important survival skill. Adaptation requires flexibility. According to Al Siebert in The Survivor Personality, "Having a variety of available responses is crucial when handling variable, unpredictable, chaotic, or changing conditions." Flexibility means having a range of responses available to deal with a changing (money) world.
