Well I made it through the week without buying anything. On Tuesday I think I froze. I did not know whether I should buy or sell. Stocks I had missed out on or sold too early suddenly where there for the picking. But on the other hand my held stocks were heavily in the red. Both options felt wrong so either I wisely made the choice...no, actually, I just froze and watched.
Thinking back, I am glad I did as I learnt a great deal about the behaviour of the market this week. The ebbs and flows. Seemingly in concert. A noisy disjointed conducted orchestra but in the background it was actually perfectly coordinated and had rhythm. Hard to explain really.
Got rid of a few dogs. I learnt a lesson here as well. I seem to always lose money with these shells. I am not picking my entry correctly or exiting just before they take off losing patience too often. Need to do better. Sold some on a red day, some on a green day (learnt a lesson there too). Reduced some exposure into cash of existing shares (some on a red day, some on a green) about 25% of my portfolio. Now sitting on 50% cash. Happy to hold whats left at the moment until I have digested all these great lessons that have cost me money. Still determined to get it right and I think I can see some sunlight through this dense fog that is my foray into share trading. Although I have quite a journey still to feel the sun I think. I am loving it though. Another realisation that came to me this week is I have invested too much into a sector (small caps). I cannot devote enough time needed to properly analyse the situation commensurate with how much I have invested. This is due to a busy work and family life. Something has to give and at the moment it is money. I am in the business of giving it seems.
So after all that what am I going to do?
Firstly I am not going to invest in anymore very junior real speccie stuff until I can devote the time necessary to do it properly (working on that) . So keeping it small and keeping it quality. No more scattergun approach. I will keep what I have left. as I am in (much reduced) profit with these ones. But I have done alot of the work on them and happy to see where they go. Even though two are very over sized in reality. One is my lovechild and the other my dirty little secret bastard child I feel. lol.
A few have alluded to investing in the leaders. Thats my plan too. I believe in battery stuff and gold basically. I have held and sold all the leaders and subsequently missed out on half the run to my disgust but again I have done the work on these and it's just a matter of catching up a few months. So now they have all come back I am thinking of spreading 25% of my cash on these for the long term (if they meet their plans). I will not jump in too soon, but soon.
One thing I definitely knew is I did not want to hold newly bought stocks over the weekend with one session left in NY. But that was a real test of my mettle with so many "bargains" around this morning. I was surprised at the strongish day actually. Maybe the leaders I was watching were shining through. Wise words are coming back to me from this thread actually. " look for the ones that drop the least not the most" sticks out. Thanks for that gem.
Good luck all. Enjoy your weekend. Oh and Freehold, I saw your "breaking loo" typo and googled it. There are a heap of quite funny exploding toilet videos on Youtube. Big thanks for that typo. A great distraction and laugh for the end of my week.
