Time magazine is doing its blame-game pandering part by listing mug shots of the 25 People to Blame for the financial crisis. Many of these folks did make bad decisions and some broke the law, but investors who did not have a risk management or sell discipline in place to mitigate the risk in their portfolios have to take the blame for losing a lot of their own money. “Buy and Hold” is not “Buy and Forget.”
Blaming others feels good though. It puts the “fault” on someone else. But that, to me, is giving your power away. Taking responsibility is a better approach to taking control of your finances. It would be better to be out of Citi at $40 per share and be in cash, than to be long Citi at $1 and write scathing blog entries about Angelo Mozilo.