Wednesday, May 12, 2010

My Initial Investing Mistakes

Some mistakes I have made in my initial days of investing:

Trading very often
When I first learned how to buy-sell stocks, I used to do this very often. As soon as stock will give me 5% profit, I used to sell it off. Later, not sooner I realize, this way it's not me but it's ICICI Direct that's getting richer.

Putting all my eggs in one basket
Infrastructure was at peak when I started. I bought all Infrastructure related stocks. I am still hoping they will recover one day.

Sunk-Cost fallacy
I bought a share at its peak. It fell badly in few days. Rather then buying something else, I fooled myself and bought same stock again at lower price. Logic, if we can say it at all, was that by buying further I am lowering its average cost which will help me to recover my losses earlier. :(

Trying to time
Yes, I tried doing this. Now when I look back, I laugh on it. What else can I do?

Losing Patience
When I started trading Sensex was trading at 17K range. It then fell to 14K range and further to 8K before re-bouncing last year. I held my losses all the way through 17K to 11K. But at 11K, I sold my entire portfolio. Please don't even ask how much I regret it and how much I have learnt from it.

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