Saturday, 13 December 2025

Some Investing Principles which cannot be disputed

 

Some Investing Principles which cannot be disputed

Wednesday, 2 September 2009

 https://myinvestingnotes.blogspot.com/2009/09/some-investing-principles-which-cannot.html



Summary of Indisputable Investing Principles

The provided article outlines several key principles for online investors to adopt for long-term success, emphasizing research, discipline, and a focus on the big picture rather than short-term noise.


1. Managing Winners and Losers

This is perhaps the most difficult principle to practice:

  • Ride Your Winners: Do not cap your potential returns by using arbitrary rules (like selling after a specific multiple, e.g., "sell-after-I-have-tripled-my-money"). If a stock is performing well and your research supports its future potential, let it continue to grow.

  • Sell Your Losers: It is crucial to be realistic about underperforming investments. Holding onto declining stocks in the hope of a rebound can lead to substantial, potentially complete, losses. Selling losers is an acknowledgment of a mistake, but it prevents greater losses.

  • Focus on Merit: In both cases, decisions should be based on research and the company's fundamental merits, not fear or rigid personal rules.

2. Research and Independence

  • Ignore "Hot Tips": Never invest based purely on tips from anyone (friends, brokers, etc.). Conduct your own thorough research and analysis before committing your money. Relying on tips is a gamble and prevents you from becoming an informed, long-term successful investor.

3. Maintaining Perspective

  • Don't Panic at Short-Term Volatility: As a long-term investor, ignore day-to-day or minute-to-minute share fluctuations. Short-term movements are for day traders. Your gains come from market movements over many years. Stay confident in the quality of your underlying investments.

4. Avoiding Common Traps

  • Do Not Overemphasize the P/E Ratio: The Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio is just one of many analytical tools. Using it in isolation to decide whether to buy or sell is dangerous. It must be interpreted within a broader context and used with other analysis.

  • Resist Penny Stocks: The misconception that there is "less to lose" in a low-priced stock is false. A plunge from $5 to $0 is a 100% loss, just like a plunge from $75 to $0. Penny stocks are often riskier and subject to fewer regulations.

5. Sticking to Your Plan

  • Stick to Your Strategy: Many successful investing strategies exist. The key is to find a style that works for you and stick to it consistently. Constantly switching between different stock-picking strategies is counterproductive and essentially turns you into a market timer, which is usually detrimental to long-term goals.


The core message is to be a disciplined, informed, and realistic long-term investor who makes decisions based on objective research and company merit, rather than emotion, tips, or short-term market noise.


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