Like most retail investors, yeah punters more than investors, ups and downs of the market really do suck. Sometimes its not a matter of making losses … sometimes its just the horrid feeling of missing the bus, or in my case of getting off the bus too soon.

 

I once made this mistake, quite recently really, of buying in an ‘up’ market. Of course I thought it was going higher. Guess what? It went down right after! No surprises there.

 

Now, that’s not the worst part. Being an experienced punter, if there is ever such a thing, I averaged down. That means I bought at lower prices to bring down my average cost of holding the shares. Therefore, the share doesn’t have to rise as much for me to bail out at a profit.

 

That was my second mistake.

 

The prices just went downhill from there, eroding some 30% of my total fund size. Cold sweat? You wouldn’t imagine. Well, actually you could if you’ve played the market at some point of your life. And all that happened within a week thanks to my unusual risk profile of ‘extremely high risk, low returns’.

 

So there I was holding a fraction of the value of my investment. I knew that the prices would recover. It was just a matter of time.

 

Recession, you say? What recession? The stock market doesn’t believe in all those economic forecasts … it just runs on fumes and hype. Or so I’d like to believe when I’m so deep in the red I can’t see where my next mortgage payment is coming from.

 

After a gruelling two months (for punters, investments gone ‘long’ are investments gone wrong – and two months means something did indeed go wrong) the prices started to edge up. Yippee!

 

After switching portfolios several times in the meantime, the shares that I now hold move up at the speed of a tortoise being chased by a snail. Of course, the rest of the market was on steroids, shooting for the stars … including the shares that I had traded off for the current set. Huh, no surprises there either.

 

Finally the laggards that I now held rose and held at a price where I could escape with a very minimal gain. So small, in fact, that I would have been better off just keeping the cash under my pillow all that while.

 

The price holds for a few days – and this is a big deal since a few days in current market climate means that the market can turn directions and I would once again be stuck at a negative net position. Pushing my luck, I hold it for another half day before finally selling at a meagre 1% net gain (after costs).

 

Happy that I’m out and not sacrificing too much, I go out to lunch … and checked the prices that afternoon. It was up 12% by the time the market closed that afternoon. I almost fell of my chair!

 

Hating myself for selling, I bitterly waited for the next day to see the price drop as it had done on me so many times. Seriously, I’ve had my fair share of immediate drops after purchase.

 

It was up another 6% by mid-day the following day! That’s a total of 16% in the span of 24 hours after I sold my holdings … and last I saw, it was still climbing. I can feel a tear forming in my eye …

 

… if only I had hit on the head by a falling bird and been rendered unconscious the morning that I made the sale. Oh well … at least I'm not owing anyone any cash.