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#1

I know this forum is mainly aimed at investing ideas but I just wanted to get some stuff off my chest and seek some sorta help in a way.

I am a working professional and make decent money. I paid off my student loans, and I focused on my business, and everything is good. I always heard about the stock market but never really dipped into it until May.

When I first dipped into it, I bought like 20 stocks, and I put 500$ into each stock and that was that. But as I scoured the internet, I found the Fool, marketwatch, cnbc, and stocktwits. I found people making big bucks, and I wanted to be like that. So I graduated up, and sold all my 20 stocks, and put money into the Chinese Stocks when they were booming hard. I discovered options and life was crazy. I was like what! I put 5,000 into calls and now I’m making double in a day!?

But that slowly faded, as I got losses and in the end, I didn’t make anything. So fast forward to earnings in summer, I decided to concentrate my portfolio into growth stocks and just try to hit it big. I also decided to drop the call/put and day trade stuff… and I wanted to go long. I ended up putting 100,000 into SQ and I wanted to go long on it. I put it in at 72? and watched it go all the way to 100.

I started dreaming about early retirement…hitting 300 by 2020…etc etc etc…

Then my world came crashing down and everything dumped and I am back at ground zero.

Now I read online that in this market this votality is great for trading quick and I find myself trading 100k shorting and opening positions and closing at the end of the day… I find myself always looking at cnbc, and looking at futures, and visiting boards, and its consuming my life and to be honest, I haven’t really made any money. Just lost 5k so far and 3k traders fees.

I guess I am here, but I truely want to invest in the longterm, but I cannot get over looking short term and constantly checking my portfolio like every minute. When I get a green day, I get euphoria, but when it’s red I feel sick to my stomach. I don’t know if this is for me, and I guess, do you guys have any recommendations on how to be a true investor. I feel like I’m going to blow up my account and I will regret it and so will my wife.

Thanks

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#2

Wow, what a study in how to become broke very quickly! This is not the forum to discuss your issues. Join Motley Fool Stock Advisor…study all of the educational materials and seek help on the appropriate boards there.

Again, this board is not the place to discuss the issues that you have brought up. Good luck!

4 Likes
#3

Jst,

look at stocks in 2009, after a market crash and stocks today.

What you need to do is learn the most effective investment mechanism ever devised, and that is DO NOTHING but add each month and check in at earnings and live your life. Nothing else is going to work for you, and frankly nothing else will work better for you in any respects.

Do not shoot for short-term gains. Sometimes a stock will crash for no good reason, so you jump on it and then it bounces back big time and then you find, after the bounce back, you no longer wish to hold it. So be it.

Pick your portfolio, add each month (learn to save, live 80/20 if you can, with 20% of your net income as savings) and pick a date that you need the money. I do not know your age, but assume you are say 30, then shoot for age 45. And then do nothing.

Doing nothing, like so much of the law, does not necessarily mean what it seems. You do something only when it is compelling to do something. One thing you want to do is get rid of losers. You want to own winners. And sometimes it is time to move on. Saul did so earlier this year (as did I), moved out of ANET when the share price no longer represented the slowing growth, and out of SHOP for the same reason. But I held both for more than a year (with some of the investments being shorter term) and then struggled to find my new do nothing port.

Long-term is 12 months and 1 day, and then keep at it. Add each month, and continue the process. Invest in great businesses, not fads, not small caps.

E.g. Fuel (a Fuel Cell development company) just hit $0.93 share price. Back in the day (perhaps the symbol if FCEL - I forget) it was a momentum stock, people envisioning great wealth despite the fact the technology never crossed the “chasm”. Read the Gorilla Game for an understanding of what that means.

Instead invest in companies that are category leaders in markets that are growing rapidly, that enables long-term competitive advantage, and that is not “visionary” but actually working with real world sales and real world accomplishments. You do not need to buy the company at $1. In fact, systematically, there is no way to find the $1 stocks that will grow into Amazon.

Systematically you can identify the companies that you hear discussed here on Saul’s board or on the NPI. There is no reason to move beyond the best. And stop thinking so much.

There is the study with chocolate chip cookies with 4 year olds. 4 year old is left alone in the room and told if they do not eat the cookies in front of them, when the adult returns, they will be given more cookies. Some 4 year olds took to eating the cookies, some waited and deferred gratification.

20 years later those 4 year olds who deferred gratitification did much better in life than those that did not. That is also applicable to investing.

Stocks go up, stocks go down. It is a bubble you need to be concerned with, it is falling fundamentals you need to be concerned with. Otherwise what we do here on Saul’s board and on NPI and with the Fool (all though the Fool still has a problem of not selling losers soon enough) are proven methods to create wealth. By being on this board alone you can enter the top 1% of all non-insiders in the world in regard to investments. Being #1 is not always winning, but it is winning in the end and understand what the game is about. I know in a bike race it does me no good to exhaust myself and catch up to the riders in front of me in the breakaway too quickly. A much better strategy is to pace myself better and catch them closer to the finish line and then dump them. That is the nature of that game. Learn the nature of this game.

It sounds like your a smart person, there is no reason that you cannot. It is up to you.

Tinker

35 Likes
#4

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate it. I needed this. I will take a time out and think about all this for a while. I understand if this post isn’t relevant and mods you can lock the post and or delete it. I understand and appreciate the message.

#5

This is very off topic for this board and I can’t tell if this is a serious post or not.

But in good faith, I’m going to point you in a couple directions which I truly believe will help.

Don’t watch CNBC, don’t day trade, set your investment horizon for 3+ years (at least that’s your goal), stop using options.

Here’s some great resources.

13 Steps to investing Foolishly by The Motley Fool: https://www.fool.com/how-to-invest/thirteen-steps/index.aspx…

Free Download of The Motley Fool Book: The Investing Guide for Beginners: https://www.fool.com/ecap/the_motley_fool/investing-guide-fo…

David Gardner’s free Rule Breaker Investing Podcast comes out every Wednesday: https://www.fool.com/podcasts/rule-breaker-investing/

and finally, subscribe to Stock Advisor. Read their monthly articles, learn, and consider investing in the New Monthly Picks from David and Tom Gardner. After you read the monthly write ups and understand the companies a little.

This board is incredible, but it seems like those other links might serve you better for where you are at. Once you’re more comfortable with your own investing behavior, come back to this board and consider this style of investing.

  • Austin

Shopify (SHOP) Ticker Guide

For information on all of my current holdings view my profile here: http://my.fool.com/profile/CMFAleeb/info.aspx

19 Likes
#6

OK - Your post is off topic. way off. But I’ll give you two pieces of advice

  1. Read Saul’s knowledgebase. Click on any post without opening the entire thread. There’s a link (three links actually) in the right side margin. Then read it again, maybe more than once . . .

  2. stop investing in stocks and start investing in companies. That’s going to take some research, you won’t get that from CNBC, Cramer or most any pop investing media.

3 Likes