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I have only been buying and trading stocks for a month come September the fourth. I write this up on Sept. 1. Today was a very bad day for all my stocks with many taking a major hit. I do not pretend to know much about what I am doing but I have made a few hundred dollars my first month and I think I have learned a little. Since I am writing for those like me who have little to no idea what they are doing in investing in and buying and selling stocks, people who may only be a few days behind me in their stock trading career, I am going to be bold enough to pass along what I think I have learned to date. When the market is bad as it is now one needs to be attentive to the points I am making.

(1) Don’t get greedy. If you have made a little money on a stock sell it. Yes, you may leave a nice sum of money you could have had had you kept the stock and it continued its upward rise but the old saying that a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush has merit and will not serve you wrong in the long run. Greed leads to gambling and no gambler is going to win in the long run. There is no one living who can tell you how high a stock will go or when. If it is up enough to make a little money sell it and put the money in your account.

(2) Buy stocks you have faith in and do not mind holding. If you have a good stock, a good company, give it time. If it is going down so what? Like a basketball it will come bouncing back in due time. This leads to a third point.

(3) There is nothing like patience. Patience will make you a winner everything else being anywhere close to equal. We may be in a downturn now that will last a few months, maybe many months, no one can say. It may reverse itself tomorrow also (I would not hold my breath on that though). But remember this as I told my wife – you cannot lose what you will not sell.

This does not mean you might not be money ahead to take a little loss once in awhile provided it is “very little” but there is little sense in voluntarily losing money by selling a stock that is down substantially. You would not do any better even if you had the money in your bank in a CD. We are getting 3% on a 4 year CD where I live. I plan on making a whole lot more than 3% on my investments in a 4 year period of time – that is if I live that long. Patience will make you money so hang in there and do not panic. The stock market is not a bad place to be compared to the alternative.