This month the stock market regained some footing, but it hasn't gone back to the high of June.
How do you feel when the stock your peer own have became a top mover and gained 20% a day?
How do you feel when the stock you just bought has loss 30% value in a single week?
If your answer is you would become very nervous, then you need to rethink that trading is for you or not...
I have several friends who loved to recommend stocks to me. Well, mainly because the stock I buy usually slums for months before actually makes a small profit.
Out of the kindness of their heart, they love to recommend hot issues to me, so I can make some big bucks like they do...
To be completely honest, I never purchased any of the stocks they recommended...
I never listened to them, not because I like to contradict, it's just because hot issues are not for me.
You see? as a value investor, we admit that we're not super-human. We're not omnipotent.
We cannot predict any hot issue's short term direction.
However, we stick to the stocks we know...
Boring Stocks like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Wellsfargo, and many other well known but boring as hell stocks...
Stocks that are well known, but also known to be a slow gainer...
I buy these stocks when their prices are at a bargain, and sell them when their price became too high...
Here comes the problem...
When we buy these stocks at a bargain, usually it means there is something wrong with the company, or the industry it's in...
In order for the stock to regain it's previous glory, the stock or it's industry must also regain it's previous glory...
The thing is...
Sometimes, this might take years...
What do we do when it takes years?
Nothing, just wait patiently for it to happen...
Read a book(or a few...) in the mean time... and accept that this is part of a stock trader's life...
I remember my mentor used to joke about this...
He smiles as he say: "James, if anyone asks you what do you do for a living... just tell them you are an artist... A behavioral artist... waiting for your art to be completed...because we're always waiting..."
It sure sounds funny when he said it... but when it actually happens... it sure feels unease...
My advice will be the following:
If you truly cannot handle the fact that your portfolio is in red, just delete the trading app and bury yourself in books or whatever to gives you peace or distracts you...
Download the app again, when your neighbors starts to tell you to buy stocks...
That is usually the sign that the bull market is coming to an end...
While we're still here waiting for the bulls to come... let's just be patient~