The financial industry is built on promises. You give money today and hope to get more back tomorrow.
This doesn't always work. Fred Schwed documented the tension in his 1940 book "Where Are the Customers' Yachts?" A visitor asks to see the customers' yachts and gets shown the brokers' instead. The brokers get rich while the average investor loses despite following their advice.
Warren Buffett said: "Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls-Royce to get advice from people who ride the subway."
I market financial assets. Many are questionable, so I avoid the products, companies and sectors that are designed to extract more value from customers than they provide.
Financial marketing gives people confidence to act or not act. This matters because most financial instruments aren't very good.
Many are designed to benefit the seller more than the buyer.
Precious metals and commodities are different.
Gold is superior to most financial assets. Nature created it. It's scarce and durable. You can't type it into existence from Wall Street or the City of London.
A large percentage of the world's population trusts physical gold more than promises made by governments or financial institutions.
Gold needs little marketing.
