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I sucked at it pretty bad at first, but I've gotten better. Last two stocks, I've done quite nicely. The most recent pick has returned about 25% in a few weeks believe it or not. Prior to that, a small cap which has returned nearly triple digits in about 6 months. You begin to realize, it's a bigger mistake not to invest than end up with some duds and money losing stocks. Which are actually easier to control for that it seems at first. My longer term holdings are SONC and IFF. Those two stocks I don't worry much about, as they can sit in my portfolio for years without going "poof", moneys gone, most likely. It's best to have at least 2 seperate strategies at work in a portfolio at once to balance out the risks.
The problem is how to tell the difference between a sound company whose stock has declined for reasons having nothing to do with the company itself and which will rebound in due course (think 2008's market panic, which caused stock prices of companies that weren't even remotely related to the housing or finance industry to plunge), a company that has operational problems that can and are being fixed, and a company that's begun to experience a permanent decline in value. Fundamental analysis can help a bit, but it's not infallible.
Sure, hopefully all of that is fairly obvious. I don't know of any approach that guarantees 100% success on every stock purchase. Investing is part numbers, part judgement, and quite honestly part luck.
Getting back the subject line of getting over one's hesitancy... By nature I'm a conservative person and it was not easy for me to get comfortable with putting serious amounts of money into volatile non-guaranteed investments. I was in my late 20s when I decided that I really needed to educate myself. I had dabbled in a couple of stocks and had a 401k, but really did not have the first clue. So I started reading everything I could get my hands on with respect to investing. I read books on indexing, growth investing, value investing, trading systems... really most anything.
I bought some mutual funds. I bought some stocks. Over the years I found myself gravitating more and more toward owning stocks (well, in my 401k there are only funds, so no choice there). Now I've been doing this for nearly 25 years and I think I understand my strengths and limitations fairly well. There was never any "eureka" moment, but rather just a process of learning over quite a few years.
Sure, hopefully all of that is fairly obvious. I don't know of any approach that guarantees 100% success on every stock purchase. Investing is part numbers, part judgement, and quite honestly part luck.
You'd think so - but if the obvious actually WAS obvious to everybody, Dave Ramsey wouldn't have become a multimillionaire selling "how to get out of debt" books.
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Getting back the subject line of getting over one's hesitancy... By nature I'm a conservative person and it was not easy for me to get comfortable with putting serious amounts of money into volatile non-guaranteed investments. I was in my late 20s when I decided that I really needed to educate myself. I had dabbled in a couple of stocks and had a 401k, but really did not have the first clue. So I started reading everything I could get my hands on with respect to investing. I read books on indexing, growth investing, value investing, trading systems... really most anything.
I bought some mutual funds. I bought some stocks. Over the years I found myself gravitating more and more toward owning stocks (well, in my 401k there are only funds, so no choice there). Now I've been doing this for nearly 25 years and I think I understand my strengths and limitations fairly well. There was never any "eureka" moment, but rather just a process of learning over quite a few years.
This is a very sensible approach. Read, learn, take it slow at first and don't rush to build up your portfolio.
Isn't it funny how successful investing is generally boring? (At least to write about!) There really are no "hidden tricks," it truly is a matter of discipline over time coupled with learning your true tolerance for risk.
In other words, you family has absolutely no idea if the investments they have purchased are actually earning anything (never mind actually increasing in value).
No, it means that overall they hope for the long-term profit but don't want to waste time and energy obsessing over the market.
hope is never a good investment strategy . anyone who does not want to put the time and effort in should never be in individual stocks . they owe it to themselves to just buy index funds and then let it ride if they have no interest .
the failed investment graveyard is filled with stocks that were once blue chips adored by the markets .
I don't know if I ever want to buy individual stocks. I know someone who just lost all his money, by investing with only one stock. (He put all his money into that one stock).
that is not investing , what they did is a speculation and a pretty poor one at that
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