# tenets Purpose of investing is to be able to do the things you want to do but not at the expense of stress, strains and discomfort that goes along with bad market environments. **Be the most optimistic when it seems like the world is ending and be more pessimistic when everyone seems to be too comfortable making money.** Human minds cannot think in exponential only linear fashion. Realize the compounding effect through the story of folding a piece of paper only takes 42 times to reach the moon. Learn the rule of 72 for rate of doubling. It's a big door in but a small door out. Everything comes down to supply and demand. Risk a little to make a lot – asymmetric risk/return. Don’t lose – all of the financial masters are even more obsessed with not losing money than they are with making money. Cash is king during depth of depression and can purchase many good investments at a big discount. When investors become more worried about future losses than hopeful for future profits, the bull market is over. When [P/E ratios](https://www.multpl.com/s-p-500-pe-ratio) drop into single digits, it is clearly a time to stop worrying and start investing. Be patient, don’t time the stock and don’t fall in love. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://um.fz.ax/investing/tenets.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.