1. Thou shall not go against the trend.
If it be down, let it be down. The market is bigger and stronger than you.
Follow the market but be one step ahead of the crowd.
2. Thou shall not follow the herd instinct
Just because many people are buying a certain stock does not mean you should follow suit. If people want to buy rubbish stocks, that is their bad luck. Don’t make it yours.
3. Thou shall treat the market as a business, not a casino
The stock market is not meant to be a casino and you should not be there to gamble.
4.Thou shall not buy high-debted and no-earnings stocks
All companies that folded are highly geared with negative earnings. Don’t buy rubbish shares; don’t buy somebody’s liabilities.
5. Thou shall only buy solvent companies with good-growth prospects
Present earnings are important, but future earnings are more important. That’s why we have companies selling at high PER (Price earnings ratios).
6. Thou shall not be overconfident
Overconfidence leads to overtrading. Once you overtrade, you may not be able to control your own emotion. Fear may set in when the market is not going the way you expect it. It may disrupt your plan, turning your profitable trade into a loss.
7. Thou shall invest within the comfort zone
Don’t be too greedy; don’t play with borrowed money. Debt is a disease. It can cause you a lot of problem if you are not careful.
8. Thou shall be patient
The market is designed to transfer money from the impatient to the patient. You must have very good reasons before you switch counters. Very often, the shares you sell move up faster than the shares you buy.
9. Thou shall be disciplined
Don’t change your strategy at the eleventh hour. If you have placed a stop-loss in your chart, don’t remove it unless it is replaced with a trailing stop-loss.
10. Thou shall be knowledgable
Investment in knowledge pays the best dividend. No one is so skillful that he cannot better his best. Keep learning for knowledge is boundless
Archives of “overconfidence” tag
rssWhy having too many white males can derail markets
- How more racial diversity on Wall St could fight bubbles
I need to start this column with a disclaimer. I am white and male. This will surprise nobody, and not only because my photo makes my gender and ethnicity quite obvious. Finance, and its surrounding fields like financial journalism, remains a white male club to a stunning degree.
There are ample arguments that this is unfair, along with other arguments against intervening. But this important debate is beyond my scope today. Rather, the point is that if investors want better outcomes, they would be better served if capital is allocated by diverse teams.
And the issue is not just about white males. When a team or market is dominated by any ethnicity, it tends to make worse decisions.
Behavioural psychologists have long established that markets are prone to herding and groupthink. It makes sense that a homogeneous team will be more prone to these problems. Now, the effect has been startlingly well demonstrated in academic experiments held far apart in Texas and Singapore. (more…)