LogFAQs > #963656503

HeroicCrono posted...

Much of the problem is self-inflicted in the sense that people get upset emotionally about losses that are completely normal. As long as the decision was solid, a bad result should not be a reason to get upset. If you cannot deal with the losses emotionally, I guess you probably shouldn't do this, but this is a learnable thing. The thing to learn is that there is a great deal of unavoidable unpredictability in the market, and the more frequently you trade the more chaos there is. That you picked the wrong stocks does not mean your picks were bad. That you picked the right stocks does not mean your picks were good. You could be lucky/unlucky. So don't beat yourself up.

There's also bad decisions in betting too much/not diversifying enough. That is a serious problem financially, and should be treated as being within your control. Because it is. And overbetting will likely lead to losing most of your net worth if you keep doing it.

I just don't stock pick anymore. I'm adding to some of my positions, but I haven't opened new ones in months. I'm currently down on good companies like Disney.

I think the main reason why I lost money is because things got really busy at work and I couldn't research companies or react to news quick enough, which hurt me. I also felt burnout. Even when I did well with my stock picks, my wins were countered with my losses somewhat, to the point where I was getting similar results just buying VOO and SCHD. So I've been doing that and looking into ETFs that track other things. My IRA has a suggested portfolio and I wish I thought of buying a commodity ETF in my main portfolio, for example. I'm still considering buying gold that way.