Successfully Staying the Course: Insider Tips From Long-Term Investors
Today we have a guest post for you from Sharon. Enjoy!
Investing in financial markets is always going to come with risks attached, and there are plenty of examples of investors who have gambled on making their fortune but come unstuck, although you will also find plenty of long-term investors who somehow managed to stay the course and grow their money successfully.
Checking with MoneyMorning.com on Alibaba stock and others, on a regular basis, could be one of the keys of keeping on top of your investments. It could also help to adopt some of the rules and strategies that many successful investors have developed over time, so that you might also be able to stay the course with your own financial plays.
Be wary of stock tips
A number of us will at some point have been told by someone that they are buying into stock that is expected to soar and they are telling you about this “hot tip”, in case you want to follow them in and hit the jackpot.
These sort of tips should be heeded with as much credence as being told about a four-legged “certainty” that is running at a race track. No doubt some of these tips will come in from time to time, but if you are looking at staying in the stock market for the long term and really want to grow your wealth rather than risk it all on the roll of a dice, the best advice from most professional investors is to be very wary of any such tips and mainly ignore them, if you want to keep hold of your cash.
If you do want to listen to anyone, it would actually be far better to listen to what markets are saying rather than any individual pundits.
Making it big
The lure of penny stocks is entirely understandable and this is an area of investing that has dragged many people into the financial wilderness.
The simple line of thinking amongst a number of mainly novice investors, is that you don’t have to risk losing much when you invest in penny stocks, but the upside could be massive, if the stock price soars at a later date.
We all hear about the investors who bought into a stock when they were a complete minnow, to see the stock price move into the stratosphere after they become a well-known brand, but for every incredible success story, there are thousands of penny stocks that turn out to be complete duds and result in you losing your money.
You might be concerned that you are missing out on some big profits by resisting the temptation to invest in penny stocks, but there are plenty of professional investors who won’t touch them, so you might want to consider taking the hint.
Different winning formula
If there was a specific winning formula that guaranteed you a reasonable return on your investments, we would all be doing the same thing.
It should be remembered that successful investors often develop their own methods and rules for picking stocks and investing in general, so the general advice would be to work on developing a strategy that works for you, in terms of risk-profile and other factors, then stick with it if it is working, rather than endlessly trying to find new ways to make money from the markets.
Switching strategies will often make you more vulnerable to losses, and you won’t find too many long-term investors who are prepared to abandon a winning formula once they have established what works for them.
Patience pays
Day-trading is not for the fainthearted and not recommended if you intend to try and grow your capital and generate a decent return.
You can always find someone who seems to have a knack of making money by quickly turning over stocks for a fast profit, but the majority of seasoned investors will mostly offer the same view, which is that patience invariably pays off.
Holding the same stocks for ten or even twenty years or more, provided you have chosen wisely, will often see you achieve a decent if not necessarily spectacular yield.
Another distinct advantage to playing the long game with your investments is that you tend to ride out the bumps in the road on the stock price, without having to stress about whether to sell, only to see the price rebound.
Stock values will often display a certain amount of volatility and if you are patient enough to just sit tight when things seem to be heading in the wrong direction, you will invariably find that your patience will be rewarded.
Sharon Butler has been investing for many years, and is able to share her knowledge on a wide range of financial matters. She writes about personal finance, investments and industry news.
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