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Krayz23

530 Posts.

10

02/09/17

20:33

Post #: 26954955
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Originally posted by Micklin ↑

Hi everyone ,

First of all I really appreciate the time a lot of you put into these weekend threads to help us little guys out with your knowledge and experience in surviving the swirling ocean that is the stock market

I reached out to gamefisherman knowing he had mentioned here in the past the importance of psychology, and appreciate his time and response, he also suggested that it may be OK to ask you guys too?

I was wondering how you guys manage emotions and regain confidence after the market delivers you a left hook in the mouth (or a few)?

The last few months I've taken a few knocks while STT, and I think it's damaged my nerve to be able to buy and hold stocks that I really like. I was already cautious due to making some important mistakes in the past and learning from them, but lately I've had a number of times where it feels like my luck is against me as well...

I sold RVR (which I think can be a leaky stock) at a loss while a fund was dumping, worried they may have known an issue was forthcoming - I was already flighty on it having learnt from BLK that old mines ramping up arent without their risks. I sold SBM early this year at my stop loss due to gold seeming to have a number of headwinds, only for it to bounce the next day and keep running. I pulled my order of NCZ seconds before it got hit @51.5c because it was having a large down day and I thought most holders would already be on significant profits buying in the 30s and 40s, so I wanted to see if it would settle. The next day it ran and continued to do so until it hit $1 (lol)! And then finally on Monday I sold my RSG at a loss... I had hoped to hold it for the year and for it to be my main trade for the year, the share price had underperformed for sometime, and when the media released news of the CEO missing 1.2million shares, claiming the broker had sold them without permission whilst the broker claimed he was given written permission, I sold thinking that this could drag the price further until the truth was brought to light. Information was scant and figured I'd wait for a response to media or shareholder address before reentering. None came although many helpful posters posted that night that the CEO had reached out to them and assured them he was in the right. The next day the SP gaps up and I'm too scared to reenter in case it came back down and compounded my losses. I did reenter the following day but I sold that afternoon because it was playing on my nerves, and I just couldn't hold on due to stressing over it. After holding for months and months through the lows, it ran the very day after I sold it. There are other stocks too, during that time, that I would buy but then would have to sell that day due to poor confidence.

All of these things have caused my emotions to become much more magnified to what they were say a year ago.... And it's affected my confidence to buy and hold... has anyone else experienced this? How did you overcome it?

Thanks again for any advice

Michael

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Hi Michlin

Can completely sympathise, as I'm sure most people here can. Went through exactly the same thing earlier in the year (March - June) when all the spec stocks plummeted. Had 2 quite significant losses during this time (DTZ & PAK), along with a series of small, consistent losses in most other stocks I attempted to trade. I had managed to double my portfolio prior to this period from the time I had started trading (late 2015), but gave pretty much gave all those profits back, ending up at square one.

After all this, felt exactly how you are feeling. Confidence shot, any negative movements in the SP would freak me out and would typically bail just as it was about to turn (As I couldn't handle any more losses).

Took a step back from it all, did a bunch of self reflection over my trades and realised my issue was completely around my risk management/position sizing. Relative to my total portfolio size, my trades were far too large. I reduced my size substantially (about 1/5th - 1/10th of what I was trading with previously), set my max loss per trade to 1% of my total portfolio, no adding to any losing position whatsoever (even if I'm "100%" convinced it's a good buy...just takes myself to be wrong once to cause a large loss again) and scaling into positions rather then buying all at once.

The initial pilot buys are tiny now, where even if I get my entry completely wrong and it goes against me 20% - 30%, it would only then get close to that 1% max risk per trade zone. If I see strength in the SP, then and only then do I scale up.

This approach allows me to be wrong in a trade. We all get entries and exits wrong, but I think it's important that when we make those mistakes, the losses are minimal. It's helped me to regain that confidence again (improving market conditions has surely played a factor as well), and I'm starting to see some consistent growth in my portfolio (as oppose to wild whip saws on the equity curve)

Apologies for the rambling, my point is tho, if need be reduce size, allow yourself to be wrong in trades without it having large draw downs on your portfolio, respect risk and slowly build up your confidence again
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