I know the 'feeling' and have been working on a strategy to avoid such anguish. The first step was to be my own broker so I could afford to sell and change my mind, the second step was to use the internet and not believe newsletter recommendations. I 'follow' a whole bunch of stocks myself now. The problem I've found is selling too soon to lock in profits, and just plain moving my money around. The later is emotional not wanting to get sunk in a stock and/or take a loss. Sometimes the big move comes right after I sell.
So now that I've developed a system to control big loses and eliminated the broker overhead, I only have to pick winners and control my emotions. This is not easy, learning how to trade is very hard, when you have a stock you like and it moved up from a loss, sometimes you can sell and buy your way to bigger profits than if you hold, and sooner.
I sort through 'tanked' stocks to understand what the signs are in advance and have concluded 'tanked' stocks are a good place to start investing. A typical example is my experience with COMS. Bought last year in low 30s about 1000 shares, and ZIP, to 22, I managed to maintain my confidence in previous research, but OUCH. I sold too early at the second trip to 46, watched it then hit high 50s. Later bought some at 49, sold at 55, and guess what, it was 30 a few weeks ago, now nearly 40 and I missed it.
So my healing approach is to TRADE, love a stock till I sell it, which is when it makes OUCH or makes good, and always be looking for another buying opportunity.
I don't know what hit APPLIX, but a guess is MS NT? |
