Darst: Pay Attention, Protect Your Assets

Over the years, I have worked with individual investors of all kinds, spanning a wide range of affluence. In that time, some distinct principles have emerged about how wealthy investors successfully protect and grow their assets in up and down markets.

These techniques are available to a broad investor population, and the success factors are not hidden or complicated. But they require attentiveness, focus, flexibility, and discipline.

First, you need to know yourself -- your personal characteristics (such as family responsibilities, working age, and chronological age), your mentality and investment temperament, how you deal with losses and gains, your affinity for investing, and some idea of your ability and willingness to tolerate risk. ...