Have you lost money like Steve Jobs?

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source: http://www.blogworld.com

“I’m the only person I know that’s lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year…. It’s very character-building.”

- Steve Jobs

Have you lost already in your stock investments like Steve Jobs? Probably not or probably you might have. And as the great man of marketing and innovation said "It's character-building."

I have two online stock brokerage accounts. Ask me now how is my portfolio on both accounts? Answer is: Both are at negative after the sudden stung the stock market took from recent economic woes. How much? About 1/5 of my total investment. 

It is sad to hear when people ask me about my stock investment and how much I already earned expecting me to say that I already earned one million in just 6 months but in reality I only earned about 1/4 from my original investment(which is not yet a million by the way). And when they learned about it they would say "oh I thought I can be a millionaire in the stock market."

Here is the truth: The stock market is a risky place to invest but along with risk comes returns.

source:http://wilderdom.com

That is why we have what we call calculated risk. We place our investments in stocks that will generate an acceptable future earnings at the same time buying such stocks when they are at their bottom prices. We only put free cash in stocks. We are investors not gamblers. 

From time to time we might do short trades on our stocks to seize the moment and pocket gains to further buy stocks of great value that will give us at least two bagger returns within the next 3-5 years.

So should we stop investing in stocks because we made a bad stock investment decision and lost money? 

We should rather be good students who learn from such mistake and use that learning experience to avoid the same mistake and develop a better way of doing stock investing.

Yes as Jobs said it is humbling; accept your mistakes and learn how to  turn your mistake into your point of achieving your goals.

source: http://www.triathlontrainingisfun.com

Is it very depressing to see the stock market slump again

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source: http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/economic-downturn/

Many of you might be re-thinking if it was mistake putting money in the stock market.

Or maybe many of you might be thinking you entered at the wrong time, that you should have bought that stock you got this time rather than two weeks ago? 

Yup it's depressing to see that the stocks you bought are in the red right now but always remember you have not yet sold those stocks so in reality have not yet any loss. If you have sold such then I say you have lost. In stock investing you can always chose when to sell or not. Holding unto stocks for the future might be a blessing in disguise. It may be very low today but as long as the company is in good financial shape it will withstand all this roller-coaster ride of the stock market.

So hold on and be calm. Once you panic you already lost the game. That is why I keep on re-iterating to only invest free cash. You must always set aside emergency money in case you need it really badly. 

As a friend always remind us in our forum "trade at your own risk." There maybe risk in investing in stock market but it is still a computable risk. You are in control of this game so take control and don't let fear take over you. 

You are in control, you can make profit even in the midst of downturn. Stay calm and control the risk.