The Gospel of Gold According to Peter: Peter Grandich

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Peter Grandich: It's dramatically different. The biggest change is that the game is stacked against the average investor more so than at any other time. For example, the mortgage debacle a few years ago was equivalent to all the big car companies manufacturing cars that they knew were going to crash and buying life insurance on the people that they sold the cars to knowing that they would die so they could collect on both ends. That's what the financial institutions did. Those people are still in charge of the game. I take exception when I hear people talking as if the game is fair and the average person has a reasonable chance.

TGR: One revelation in your book is that your struggles led you to a belief in Christianity. Does your spiritual life influence your investment decisions?

PG: Yes. There's far less chance of me pushing the envelope and touching the gray area-or even going into the red area.

TGR: Another theme in the book is about being wrong and accepting that as an investor. Could you talk about the psychological pitfalls of investing?

PG: I could write a book about losing. The ultimate crime of investing is not being wrong. The crime is staying wrong and that happens to a lot of investors. They institute the worst investment strategy and simply hope things will change. Hope is a wonderful spiritual strategy but a very bad investment strategy.

The majority of investors usually can withstand the financial risk that they're taking, but greatly underestimate the mental anguish that can come from the downside of what their investments or speculations/gambling will bring. Wall Street created the word "speculating" so that it doesn't have to use the word "gambling," but it's gambling. You have to be prepared to lose part or all your money when you gamble and I don't think most investors are. They think of the best possible scenario and never think of the worst.

Most investors don't operate with a real plan either. That's why they lose over time because they don't have a written strategy and instead choose emotions and day-to-day, seat-of-their-pants thinking.

TGR: At the Cambridge House investment conference in Vancouver, you said that you don't look fondly upon the economic outlook for the U.S., but you remain bullish on some foreign markets, especially China. China's markets lack transparency and even some Chinese companies listed on North American markets have proven to be less than trustworthy, such as Chinese timber producer Sino-Forest Corp. Are you sending investors into the lion's den?

PG: It's foolhardy to think that the U.S. is the safest place and China's the worst place to invest in equities. There's no question that China's going through some growing pains. But there are also shady things that go on here in the U.S. that don't get reported or are twisted.