• The retired financial professional pushes back on the common belief that successful investing depends on tracking more information, faster.

The Advice Robert Gentil Hears Most Often

Virginia, USA, Oct 03, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — Robert Gentil spent decades in New York’s stock and trading markets before retiring to Richmond, Virginia. He still hears the same advice given to new investors, over and over: watch everything, check often, and never miss an update.

“People assume that the investor who reads the most and checks the most screens is the one who makes the best decisions,” Gentil said. “In my experience, it’s usually the opposite. The people who made the calmest, most sensible decisions were often the ones who had trained themselves to ignore most of what came across their desk.”

Gentil is not arguing that information is worthless. He is arguing that there is a difference between being informed and being overwhelmed, and that most standard advice on investing collapses the two into one idea.

Why More Data Can Work Against You

During his years in finance, Gentil worked with tools built to deliver constant updates: real-time prices, breaking headlines, analyst notes arriving by the hour. He said the volume itself became a problem.

“A screen full of numbers doesn’t tell you what matters,” he said. “It tells you what changed in the last minute. Those are two very different things. The hardest skill I ever developed wasn’t reading data faster. It was learning to decide what deserved my attention and what didn’t.”

He points to periods of market volatility as the clearest example. The instinct, he said, is to check prices more often when markets are unsettled. That instinct usually makes things worse.

“When people check constantly during a downturn, they end up reacting to noise instead of thinking clearly,” Gentil said. “The investors I respected most in my career were the ones who could look at a volatile market and do almost nothing, at least for a while. That took more discipline than any trade I ever made.”

A Habit He Carried Into Retirement

Gentil said the instinct to filter information rather than collect it followed him well beyond his career in finance. These days, his mornings still include a brief look at the markets, but he describes it as a habit rooted in curiosity rather than necessity.

“I don’t need the information anymore,” he said. “But I still notice how tempting it is to open five tabs and call that being informed. It rarely is.”

He draws a comparison to a hobby that has little to do with markets at all: astronomy. From the third-floor balcony of his Victorian home, Gentil spends clear evenings observing the night sky, a pursuit he has kept up since childhood.

“The sky is full of light,” he said. “Most of it isn’t useful if you’re trying to find one planet or track one meteor shower. You have to know what you’re actually looking for, or you’ll spend the whole night distracted by everything that doesn’t matter. Markets aren’t so different.”

What He Tells People Instead

Gentil’s advice to newer investors is not to consume less information out of laziness, but to be more deliberate about which information earns a response.

“Ask yourself if what you just read changes anything about your actual plan,” he said. “Most of the time, it doesn’t. If it doesn’t change your plan, it doesn’t need your attention right now.”

He said this discipline mattered most during periods when markets moved quickly and headlines multiplied by the hour.

“The people who did well over the long run weren’t the ones with the fastest feed,” Gentil said. “They were the ones who could sit still with a decision they’d already made and let the noise pass through without reacting to every bit of it.”

Gentil is careful to note that this is not an argument against paying attention altogether. He still reads the newspaper each morning and still follows economics and financial news out of genuine interest. The difference, he said, is that he no longer confuses volume with insight.

“Being informed means knowing what matters,” he said. “Being overwhelmed just means you’ve stopped being able to tell the difference.”

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About Robert Gentil

Robert Gentil is a retired financial professional and longtime resident of Richmond, Virginia. He spent several decades working in New York’s stock and trading markets before retiring to Richmond, where he spends his time reading, gardening, and observing the night sky from the balcony of his historic Victorian home.

• The Tampa sales professional reflects on why preparation, accessibility, and continued learning remain important as products and technology evolve.

Hillsborough County, Florida, Oct 03, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — Paul E Skidmore III, a Tampa-based sales professional with a background in hospitality, contracting, and account management, is highlighting the importance of strong product knowledge as technology continues to reshape how sales professionals work with customers.

Skidmore believes that access to more information has changed what customers expect from sales conversations. Buyers often research products before speaking with a representative, so sales professionals need to offer more than a basic overview. In his view, being prepared to answer detailed questions and explain changing products clearly has become increasingly important.

“Knowledge is one of the most important qualities,” said Skidmore. “Technology is always evolving, so to stay successful you have to keep learning and stay up to date on the information around what you are offering.”

Skidmore developed much of his communication style before entering sales. He spent nearly 15 years bartending at locations throughout Tampa, where he worked with a wide range of customers and learned how differently people communicate, ask questions, and respond to problems.

During the later years of his hospitality career, he began working as a sales contractor. His early sales experience included time in a call centre before he eventually branched out independently. That transition showed him that strong customer relationships depend on preparation and follow-through as much as conversation.

Over time, account management became another important part of his approach. Skidmore places an emphasis on remaining accessible to customers and following up after the initial conversation rather than viewing a sale as the end of the relationship.

He also believes continued learning is necessary for professionals working around fast-changing products and technology. Training, in his view, should not stop once someone becomes comfortable in a role.

“Your cup can never stay full,” Skidmore said. “Once it gets full, you dump it out and get a bigger cup. There is so much to learn and understand, and as long as I am able to learn, I want to keep doing it.”

That mindset also shapes the way Skidmore approaches goal setting. He uses written plans, reminders, and regular follow-ups to keep both short-term and longer-term objectives moving forward.

“Once a plan hits paper, it becomes a plan you can actually follow,” he said. “I use constant reminders and follow-ups so I can keep myself on track instead of assuming I will remember everything.”

Skidmore acknowledges that remaining highly accessible can make it difficult to separate professional and personal responsibilities. Rather than presenting work-life balance as something he has mastered, he views it as another area that requires ongoing attention.

Outside work, Skidmore spends much of his time with his children, volunteers at their school, and continues learning about autism because one of his children is autistic. He also supports charitable efforts, including annual donations and assistance for families during the Christmas season.

His approach to success has increasingly become centred on daily impact rather than a single career milestone.

“I measure success by what I have done today,” Skidmore said. “Yesterday is the past and tomorrow is not here yet. If I can say I made a difference to someone today, then today was successful.”

About Paul E Skidmore III

Paul E Skidmore III is a sales professional based in Tampa, Florida. He spent nearly 15 years working in hospitality before expanding into sales and contracting, including early experience in a call centre and later independent work. His professional interests include account management, product knowledge, customer communication, technology, and continued training. Outside his career, he is focused on family, volunteering, charitable giving, sports card collecting, and continued education.