When it comes to making investments wisely, few things count as much as having the right attitude. What does attitude have to do with it? Well, it’s simple: investments need to be based solely on information and particular reasons that relate strictly to the investment itself and not anything else. The worst thing an investor can do is end up making decisions based on extraneous affairs that are irrelevant to the investment. That’s where the saying “Plan the trade, and trade the plan” comes from. This article details some points which may assist with this.<\/p>\n
1. Never invest money you need to use for your living expenses. Even if you don’t need this money this month, next month, but you know you’ll need it in 3 months, don’t invest it. If you put money in any investment market that you need to pay for your living expenses, at some stage you will need to make a decision about that investment, due to your living expense commitments.<\/p>\n
As an example, let’s say that the money in question needs to go to a repayment on your mortgage loan which is due in about three months. Luck may just have it that the investment you made takes a sudden fall on the precise week of your repayment. In ideal circumstances you would let the investment continue its course, give it the time to bounce back; but since you are strapped for cash and have a payment looming, you close it. Ultimately, your decision was driven by factors irrelevant to the investment and a loss results. The lesson here is that one only invests money which they do not need to get by.<\/p>\n
2. When making investments, it is often a helpful technique to imagine to yourself that that money has been completely lost the minute you invested it. The simple reality is that many investments look bad before they end up looking good, which is simply due to the normal fluctuations in investment markets. Countless investments have been ruined by people (myself included) who chickened out too soon and didn’t allow the investment to come to fruition in time.<\/p>\n
By telling yourself that it’s lost money the moment you put it into an investment, you are adopting an attitude which will spare you from the nervous impulses that ruin many investments. Take my word for it: few things are as frustrating and disappointing as pulling out of an investment to incur a loss, only to see it bounce back for others later and go on to perform excellently.<\/p>\n
3. Another part of your attitude as an investor must be the recognition that failed investments are just a part of the game. Any investor will incur losses at one point or another during their track record; what’s important is to know how to react to those losses in the right way, with the right attitude. Letting them affect you in disproportionate measure will keep you from ever becoming a savvy investor in the long term. Below are two very helpful ways for viewing unsuccessful trades:<\/p>\n
3a). Instead of looking at your portfolio as a series of individual investments, think of them as a group or a totality. Imagine that based on a certain investment strategy you are running, four out of every five investments runs a profit (which alternatively means that one out of five is a loss). Instead of considering the losing investment as independent of the other four, rack all five up together in terms of net profit and then divide that by five, not four. The answer, which is your profit per trade, must reflect on all trades in the strategy and in that sense, 20% of the final net profit is courtesy of the failed trade. Remember: if it’s a necessary part of the overall strategy, it is not strictly a loss.<\/p>\n
The end result of this kind of attitude is that you don’t let the fear of tiny mistakes or failures keep you from accomplishing larger goals.<\/p>\n
3b). Consider your losses to be tuition for your investment education. In case you are not one of them, most of the people in this industry have put down many thousands of dollars and dedicated many years of their lives on getting degrees in the matter. For those that jump in without such degrees, the education comes as part of the failed trades: hence, make sure you learn from each and every one of them! The right, professional attitude is necessary here, free of emotions, as otherwise you’re sure to lose the long term profitability of such endeavors.<\/p>\n
Investment markets are renowned for being able to bring out the very best and the very worst in people. It is fundamental that an investor learn how to dominate and control such emotions, remove them from the decision making process, so that they don’t weigh where they don’t belong. Remember the saying: “Plan the trade, trade the plan.<\/p>\n
Damian Papworth invests for his lifestyle and his family. Not too long ago he investigated baby high chairs<\/a>. He put a website together with his findings on high chairs for babies<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When it comes to making investments wisely, few things count as much as having the right attitude. What does attitude have to do with it? Well, it’s simple: investments need to be based solely on information and particular reasons that relate strictly to the investment itself and not anything else. The worst thing an investor can do is end up making decisions based on extraneous affairs that are irrelevant to the investment. That’s where the saying “Plan the trade, and trade the plan” comes from. This article details some points which may assist with this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.grinwebbus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3309"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.grinwebbus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.grinwebbus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.grinwebbus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.grinwebbus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.grinwebbus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3318,"href":"http:\/\/www.grinwebbus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3309\/revisions\/3318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.grinwebbus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.grinwebbus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.grinwebbus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}