Mikhail Ivanov is a publisher and investor. In 2005, together with his partners, he founded Mann, Ivanov & Ferber and ran the publishing house for nine years. Now he lives with his family in Boulder, USA. In the USA he founded Smart Reading, a company that makes small sammaries of non-fiction books, helping to save time on reading business literature. He runs a course on investments and a Telegram channel @mikhail_ivanov78, where he writes, among other things, about investments.

Mikhail Ivanov answered Oninvest's questions about what rules he follows in investments;

What do you invest in - and why specifically? I believe in a portfolio that has stocks of strong companies, some gold, bonds, real estate, commodities. Portfolio structure is more important than trying to guess. Regular investments are more important than trying to guess. 

Do you remember your first investment? How did it go? I do. I bought a global index ETF with the ticker VT in 2010. I kept it in my portfolio for many years;

What you definitely wouldn't buy anymore? What I don't understand. Any "hot" ideas without a real business. And definitely not taking the "on the hai**s" out of FOMO*.

Who do you trust when you make decisions? Numbers. But I watch new wave investors, like Joseph Tucker, and I also watch where big funds and insiders are investing;

Which investment has pleasantly surprised you?" Gold in recent years. I didn't think gold could rise like this;

When was the last time you were wrong - and what did you realize from it? When buying put options on Tesla. The market is irrational, and Tesla's valuation is excellent evidence of that;

Are you more about strategy or intuition? Why? Strategy. Intuition is good when you've been doing it for 20 years, but even it has to be tested with numbers. Blind faith is a path to loss.

Buffett is a handsome man?" Yes. Even if he's no longer beating the market, he's changed the thinking of millions of investors. That's worth a lot. That said, he hasn't invested in new tech companies or crypto. This shows that different strategies can lead to success. Not participating in the market is 100% a loser.  

What does an investor fear when the screen goes out? That he woke up in a new world: with frozen accounts, Trump tweets and a -12% drop. Or that he simply forgot to put a stop.

What pisses you off the most in the investment environment? The cult of instant success. A million in a month, NFTs from sticks and memes, "signals in Telegram", trampcoins. All of these create false expectations of quick success. 

Have you ever been jealous of someone else's briefcase? Sometimes. But it passes quickly. Behind every portfolio there are risks and sleepless nights. It's better to look at your own path.

What did you spend the profits from the most successful deal? On traveling with your family;

What would have to happen for you to cache everything? I'm having a hard time imagining that. It's already a panic. But in our world, anything is possible.

Do you have guilty pleasure in investing?" Yes. I like to use the products and services of the companies I have in my portfolio.

*  "On the highs" is a colloquial expression from the English highs, i.e. at the price peak, at the highs.

FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out. In investing, it is an emotional state when a person sees the price of an asset rising, fears "missing out" and buys in panic

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