2015 Stock Market Challenge Journal Entry 8

A technique that I have to learn when it comes to trading stocks is that sometimes you can’t be paranoid as it clouds judgements and does not let investments reach their maximum potential. By being paranoid of a stock rising or falling too high and in turn pulling out of the investment, the stock can then skyrocket or plummet which could be a ten thousand dollar missed opportunity. As much as it is important to be very careful and tender with your money, sometimes you have to let the stocks play out and just benefit from the return. Being too paranoid with your money can make a possible $20,000 return a mere $500 gain. It is important to allow your stocks to fluctuate to bring in the best/highest return you can.

2015 Stock Market Challenge Journal Entry 7

A valuable lesson when it comes to trading stocks, is that sometimes it is necessary to accept your loss. When an investment goes south and you begin to lose money, it is not a mature or useful technique to keep your investment while it plummets in hopes that your investment will eventually gain it’s money back on it’s own. This was a difficult lesson for me to learn as I never wanted to accept my loss and actually lose money. This mistake allowed a stock that I had originally lose $2000 in to bring me down $15,000. It’s a hard decision to make because you can never truly predict that a stock will go and to pull out of an investment while it has lost you money is extremely difficult because there is always the possibility your investment can even out or even turn out positive. This is an important lesson because it is much more convenient to accept a $2000 loss than a $10,000 loss. Learning this the hard was painful but in general it is beneficial to know and can easily save me from losing countless amounts of dollars in unsuccessful investments. 

2015 Stock Market Challenge Journal Entry 6

During my time trading stocks something that I have learned that can be valuable to trading, is that sometimes it can helpful to get some advice. Although, when it comes to managing money, you need to be in control and make educated decisions for yourself, sometimes others know best and their input can help to boost you forward or even guide into making a beneficial, educated decision for yourself. I learned this when a peer of mine had told me about a stock he had recently invested in, he had explained to me how the stock had become relatively volatile and if you could invest in it at the right second and pull out when it reached its peak, it could bring back a high return. At first I was hesitant but after researching the stock I was able to see that he had been correct and from that place I was able to make a decision for myself, with his advice that brought me back a high gain.

2015 Stock Market Challenge Journal Entry 5

While trading stocks it became more and more apparent to me that as much as short selling is a valuable and sometimes regarding strategy, buying and selling stocks at the appropriate moments is just as useful of a technique. Being aware of your stocks and stock prices all the time is extremely important when making investments in the stock market. I’ve learned that most stocks can be extremely volatile and when making large investments and purchasing high amounts of shares the slightest jump or fall in price can impact how large or small your return is or even how much money you are losing. It’s extremely necessary to be conscious of stock prices all the time, or else investments can simply turn into blind prayers. By keeping up with the prices on your investments you can really make educated decisions, based on fluctuation, as to where you want to pull out or dig deeper into your investment.

2015 Stock Market Challenge Journal Entry 4

Over the course of my experience trading stocks a valuable lesson which I have to learn in order to increase my success is to not let my losses demotivate me or cloud my vision of the bigger picture. The important part about the stock market is you’re going to lose money, just as much as you’ll bring in returns. I had lost a large amount of money in stock that I decided to short sell. After becoming frustrated with the huge loss and blow to my confidence, I stopped trading for several days and made no efforts to try and make my investment back. I realized how this as a huge mistake because as I was not focused on my stocks I could have made that money back within a day of planning and strategy. Understanding that there will be highs and lows to your trading is important, this keeps you grounded and allows for you to make mature decisions which can ultimately result in higher returns.

2015 Stock Market Challenge Journal Entry 3

Over the period of trading stocks a lesson to learn that became apparent to me was that there will be good days and there will be bad days. The important part is not to let the bad days get the best of you. I was having a good day and had brought in returns of close to $9000 and was really excited. I was so desperate to bring in more returns that I prematurely decided to short sell a stock which was skyrocketing erratically. The stock only continued to rise and by the time I had refreshed the page I had lost $4000 and the number was only increasing. I let the price of the stock continue to rise as I did not want to cash out my loss. By the end of the day I had lost $20,000 in the stock. The lesson learned here is to not to let your returns affect your mindset. Always remain focused and make appropriate decisions from an unbiased and clear standpoint.

2015 Stock Market Challenge Journal Entry 2

Entry 2

During the previous week I lost around $1000 in a stock a decided to sell, Finish Line Inc. I was fairly unhappy with this loss as I don't like losing money. I wanted to gain back my lost money as soon as possible but I still hadn't had much luck in making invests that bring me gains. I had got a tip from a friend that CyberArk Software was the most volatile stock in the game at that time. I had never really invested in stocks that fluctuated quickly and highly so I wanted to see what type of gains I could return off this investment, so I bought 500 shares. I was still curious as to what short selling actually did and what some potential downsides could have been so I decided to read an article on what short selling is and what cold go wrong if you do, http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/01/13/how-to-sell-stocks-short-risks/. After reading the article I was able to take away that short selling stocks can be very dangerous because there is essentially no cap as to what a stock can rise to, meaning you could lose your entire investment and still have to pay back the broker who you borrowed the shares from. Although I do see the validity in this, from my personal observations I can see that I am much more successful in bringing valuable returns from short selling as supposed to buying. I decided to continue with this strategy by shorting stocks such as TJX Co., Mobileye and Biocept Inc. each bringing in relative gains.