Huge losses from trading but tempted to restart.

Hi AK,

I am always tempted to trade and also I see many courses out there on trading and saying that they have earn so much from trading. I never sign up for any of them but there is always a temptation.

should i go and attend trading course and start trading again which I have made huge losses before, or do the AK way, be patient, be pragmatic , be prudent? ie just do income investing?

Hi,

There are different ways to make money in the stock market. 

We just have to find a way that we are good at, a way that suits our temperament.

You should know yourself best. ;)

Best wishes,
AK

Please see related posts below.

Related posts:
1. Trading to put food on table.
2. Trading for extra money.
3. Find our own way to be richer.

"With as little as 30 (or 20) minutes a day!"

High frequency trading. Try beating this! I blur...

Feeling so warm! This is although I have taken a shower just now. 

Alamak! Why like that? Flu? Cold? Fever?

Aiyoh, none of the above lah.

I climbed some stairs again.

Usually, I would have to shower twice after my stair climbing exercise. Once after a twenty minutes cooling down time and again half an hour before I go to bed.

Sweaty!

I have been eating a bit too much comfort food lately and this being my birthday month doesn't help. 

Friends and family are showing their love in the usual way, if you know what I mean. Burp.

With more buffets on the way for the rest of the month, I must really step it up. Pardon the pun.

Anyway, it isn't the first time I have blogged about the benefits and convenience of stair climbing as an exercise in Singapore.

With 80% of us living in HDB flats, we have easy access to stairs. We are also very lucky that HDB flats have stairs which are well ventilated and not closed in like some I have seen in private housing here.

Go climb some stairs!

If you have not been exercising for a while, stair climbing could be demanding. I have been there. I know. So, don't be too ambitious.

Take a step at a time and see how many floors you could climb before you start huffing and puffing. That's a sign to slow down and, maybe, stop. 

Do this regularly and you will be able to climb many more floors without feeling winded in time to come.

Frequency? 
3 times per week is good.

Number of floors? 
Depends on your fitness level but you should be able to climb many more floors by the end of the 3rd or 4th week.

Advanced technique?
When it becomes easier, try taking two steps at a time. This creates a bigger mechanical disadvantage and is more demanding. It will help to strengthen the legs and butts faster.

With stair climbing, the excuse that we don't have time to go to the gym is a less convincing one because for, most of us, the stairs are there outside our home. 

Seen stuff like this before?

Unlike some trading gurus who tell us how we can become richer trading just 30 minutes a day, we don't even have to climb stairs daily to become stronger. 

3 times a week, 20 minutes to 30 minutes each time. That is all it takes to climb stairs and to become stronger.

Finally, we don't have to worry about Mr. Market's health. We should take care of ours.

Related posts:
1. Climb stairs and be better investors.
2. Passive income and a topless pic.

"If you worry about corrections, you shouldn't own stocks."

A trade or an investment?

If a counter we'd bought into moved up within the first three days, should we do a contra and sell off or should we hold on? The answer would depend on many things. One is whether we'd bought into the counter as a trade or as an investment.

If it was meant to be a trade, we should sell and, actually, what we would receive is free money! We did not pay a single cent and we would just receive an angpao for buying the right stock at the right time.

If it was meant to be an investment, then, it usually means we should be prepared for a longer holding period. It usually means that we saw value in a stock (i.e. it was a bargain). Usually, we would form a fair value for the stock in our minds and would not liquidate (not 100% anyway) unless the fair value was hit.

So, if we sort out our motivations each time we buy into a counter, our strategy would become clearer.