.Cooper.
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Not a financial advisor. Personal experience only, not advice, do your own research.
START HERE
Everyone wants to hear about the wins. Nobody posts the losses. But the losses are actually the more useful part, because they're specific and repeatable if you're not careful.
Sold a position way too early because I was scared of "giving back the gains." It kept running for a long time after I sold. The lesson wasn't "never sell winners," it was that fear of losing paper gains isn't a real reason to sell. Covered this more in Guide 1.5.
Held onto a position way longer than I should have because I kept telling myself the original reason I bought it still applied, when it clearly didn't anymore. I was protecting my ego, not my money. Confusing "I don't want to admit I was wrong" with "I still believe in this" cost me real money.
Early on, I sized a position way bigger than I should have because I was overconfident. It worked out that time, which is honestly the worst possible outcome, because it taught me the wrong lesson for a while. Position sizing discipline matters even when a reckless bet happens to pay off.
Panic sold something based on a scary headline instead of actually checking whether it changed anything about the business itself. It didn't. The stock recovered shortly after I sold.
Think about your worst trade so far. Was it actually a bad pick, or was it a discipline problem? Most people find it's the second one.
Long Term Investing 1.6 [Mistakes That Actually Cost Me Money]
◆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◆START HERE
Why I'm Doing This One
Everyone wants to hear about the wins. Nobody posts the losses. But the losses are actually the more useful part, because they're specific and repeatable if you're not careful.
Mistake 1: Selling a Winner Too Early
Sold a position way too early because I was scared of "giving back the gains." It kept running for a long time after I sold. The lesson wasn't "never sell winners," it was that fear of losing paper gains isn't a real reason to sell. Covered this more in Guide 1.5.
Mistake 2: Doubling Down on a Broken Thesis
Held onto a position way longer than I should have because I kept telling myself the original reason I bought it still applied, when it clearly didn't anymore. I was protecting my ego, not my money. Confusing "I don't want to admit I was wrong" with "I still believe in this" cost me real money.
Mistake 3: Going Too Heavy on One Position
Early on, I sized a position way bigger than I should have because I was overconfident. It worked out that time, which is honestly the worst possible outcome, because it taught me the wrong lesson for a while. Position sizing discipline matters even when a reckless bet happens to pay off.
Mistake 4: Reacting to Headlines Instead of Fundamentals
Panic sold something based on a scary headline instead of actually checking whether it changed anything about the business itself. It didn't. The stock recovered shortly after I sold.
The Actual Lesson
None of these mistakes were about picking the wrong stock. They were all about psychology and discipline, which is why Guide 1.1 was the first one in this series and not an afterthought.
SYSTEM CHECK
Think about your worst trade so far. Was it actually a bad pick, or was it a discipline problem? Most people find it's the second one.
