From the incomparable Matt Levine in today’s Money Stuff: Avoid the sleeping point.
If there is one simple lesson from this case, and from virtually every other piece of financial news, it is that if people are doing something for you and charging you zero for it then they’re making money somewhere else, and you should probably figure out where that is.
Compare to the equally incomparable Burton G. Malkiel in A Random Walk Down Wall Street: Move toward the sleeping point.
We would all like to double our capital overnight, but how many of us can afford to see half our capital disintegrate just as quickly? J.P. Morgan once had a friend who was so worried about his stock holdings that he could not sleep at night. The friend asked, “What should I do about my stocks?” Morgan replied, “Sell down to the sleeping point.”
May you remain appropriately awake and asleep this weekend and forevermore.