[비즈한국] Many investors are always caught in the same dilemma. What should I buy now? How high will it go? Should I enter at this price? Whose advice should I follow to make money? The market is overflowing with people claiming to answer those questions. Investment chat rooms tip off stocks, YouTube channels sell certainty, and experts talk about tomorrow's index. Yet, if you follow that sense of certainty, only one question remains in the end.
“But why am I still anxious?”
Hwang Jun-ho’s ‘The Gravity of Investment’ is a book that starts from that very anxiety. The author began his career as a bond manager at a securities firm and has navigated the market for 20 years. He once generated billions of won in profit in a single month, but also experienced a 6.5 billion won loss during the interest rate hike cycle of 2022. Usually, such a background easily leads to a conclusion like “Here is how I made money.” However, this book takes the opposite path. The conclusion reached by someone who has made a lot of money and lost a lot of money is ultimately, “I know nothing.” The author asserts that investment is not about beating the market, but about starting from acknowledging what you know and what you do not.
Naturally, this book does not give you the answers. Instead, it advises that if you want the answers, you must first ask the right questions. By bringing up familiar scenes—such as stock tips in chat rooms, monthly triple-digit percentage returns, questions about whether Gangnam apartment prices will rise, or what one should ask if they met Buffett—it points out how often an investor's questions are aimed at the wrong targets. What matters is not the ability to predict the future, but a structure that allows you to survive even when you are wrong. How much do you lose when you are wrong, do you have the capacity to re-evaluate, and can you remain in the market after a loss? The author’s principles of investment begin at this point.
What is truly terrifying for an investor is not the loss itself, but how a person changes after that loss. A 10% loss might feel bearable, but once the numbers actually show up on the account, the mind wavers. When it drops 20%, thoughts of breaking even take precedence over principles, and when it drops 30%, investing suddenly turns into a bloody battle for revenge. People make riskier choices to recover the lost money and become blinded by promises of faster returns. Thus, investing without losing is not the attitude of a coward; it is the most realistic strategy to protect the 'self' that is capable of making decisions again.
The title of the book, ‘Gravity,’ follows this same context. Gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces of the universe, but when mass accumulates, it warps space-time and eventually pulls everything around it. Investment is the same. A stock picked by chance, a low point caught by luck, or information obtained faster than others does not last very long. However, when the logic of good judgment accumulates, habits of managing losses are formed, and one’s own standards become solid, money is slowly drawn toward that center. An investor chasing money is always impatient, but an investor who has built a structure where money is bound to be attracted can afford to wait.
The author compares investment to the game of Go (Baduk). At first, your mind is focused on capturing a single stone in front of you. Investment is similar; at first, you look for cheap stocks, stocks that will rise, or stocks others don’t know about yet. But as time passes, you realize that what is important is not a single battle, but the entire board. Cash, a moat, reinvestment ability, asset allocation, and the stamina to endure losses—these things are not as flashy as short-term returns, but they keep the investor from collapsing in a difficult market. A truly strong portfolio is not one that shines when things are good, but one that survives when things are bad.
The investment principles emphasized in ‘The Gravity of Investment’ never stay confined to just your account. Investment is a process of depositing and withdrawing money, but it is also a process of confirming through numbers what kind of person you are. The market shows us every day how weak we are to greed, how easily we collapse in the face of fear, how easily we are swayed by the returns of others, and how quickly we mistake lucky gains for our own skill. Becoming a good investor is not just about being someone who reads financial statements better; it is about becoming someone who knows the shape of their own desires more accurately.
Naturally, this book does not tell you which stocks to buy now, nor does it predict next week’s market. Instead, it teaches you the right questions that will last longer. Why do I keep trying to borrow the conviction of others? Does my investment strategy include a plan for when I am wrong? Am I building a structure that attracts money, or am I being dragged around by the movements of money? These questions elicit the right answers.
Most of the world's renowned investment bibles talk about people before they talk about money. This book is the same. It is a story about how not to lose oneself before the market, rather than a secret recipe for beating it. It emphasizes structure over prediction, humility over certainty, and a decision-making system that survives for a long time over a single jackpot. Money is always moving, and the market is always wavering. Ultimately, what remains is what kind of person you are becoming amidst that volatility. That is exactly the point that ‘The Gravity of Investment’ asks about. Are you chasing money right now? Or are you accumulating enough weight within yourself for the money to be drawn to you?