Another lesson in the UPST saga

[coldmountain]

I am relatively new to investing, and to the Saul method. I started by fairly closely emulating the commonly held stocks in the portfolios of the boards leading lights, and gradually ventured into other companies that are not necessarily covered here, but have often done well. I don’t have a long history under my belt – less than 5 years – but long enough to have encouraged me, in spite of a couple of severe setbacks (like now).

I would like to add another lesson I learned (to Mizz Monika’s list ) that pre-upstart I SWORE I would remember, yet forgot in the heat of the moment.

Four times in the past 5 years I have been invested in a company that begins to do well (sometimes very well), and is then recommended by motley fool as a buy. They have been Zoom, Fulgent, Meli, and Sea. Each time I buy more after that rec, and in each case, the buy rec from motley has been a high point for the company. I remember upst share prices going through the roof after the buy recommendation, and I also telling myself I should be selling…

One of the things I am very bad at is taking gains when it is appropriate. I hope to improve.

Cheers, and good luck to us all.

[brittlerock]

You are not alone in this. In retrospect I find as an investor my greatest failing is not selling when almost all the indicators (including my irrational gut feel) tells me to sell. I think there’s a greed function at work that overwhelms everything else, the notion that it (whatever “it” may be) will continue to soar higher and I would be foolish to sell. I need to do a better job of bringing this under control. I’m not certain about how to do this, but I will be working on it.