Losses don’t count unless you sell!
Today is the first time my portfolio dropped in value, it dropped a total of 384$, I am still just shy of reaching 30K from my original 15K investment about 7 weeks ago. What I found odd is the market actually had a “good day” today on the TSX with stocks going up. This just re-enforces my belief that once you make money with a stock, sell it and buy another one that can be found at a good price with lots of potential.
You can’t be greedy!
Although I spend a few hours every night studying stocks, I am not immune to greed. I had some great performing stocks but decided to keep them a little longer to eek out a few more percentages before I was to sell them, the result, they are still UP from when I first bought them but lost a lot of value. I didn’t follow my own advice, learned a lesson, won’t let this happen again.
TSX
When I first started on the stock market, as you can see, I played a bit on the NY Stock Exchange but now am mostly on the TSX. The reason is I understand the Canadian economy more than the American one but right now, I can use any stock market in the world so either way, it doesn’t really matter which stock exchange you use as long as it makes you money.
Message from Glenn
Hey Jon/Marcel, I used to run a blog like this a few years ago when I was actively trading every day in Australia. It became quite successful and had a lot of daily readers. I’ve moved overseas now though and haven’t really traded although I am looking to start again. I was wondering if you would care to discuss you stock selection strategies at some point. The biggest difficulty I’ve had trading in since moving to Europe is the lack of local knowledge. I didn’t realise how much I took for granted from little things I read in the local papers or on the news. So I’m very keen to share ideas with successful traders from other countries to see what and how it is working for them. Hope to speak soon, Glenn
Hi Glenn, I talked to my Uncle about your message and he has a few key points to further clarify upon.
1) Don’t buy what you don’t understand, he spends a lot of hours studying stocks and looking at potentials performance before he buys them. There is a lot of randomness in the market but not following the crowd and doing your own research is what lead to him doubling his money and still doing very well.
2) He never sells at a loss. Today for instance, his porfolio dropped in value but he doesn’t really care as he is using money he can afford to lose. He is in no hurry to sell so waiting for stocks to perform is fine by him. If it takes a day to make money or a year on an individual stock, he always has plenty of fish in his lake that are eager to become his diner.
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