I was kinda sulking around and procrastinating in my job search after I got the email saying that I didn't pass for the counsellor interview... so it was near my bdae then. Then I kinda stopped submitting and instead went to look at my stock portfolio more, cos though I didn't stare at the screen all day, I do check everyday.
I finally settled myself down to calculate my portfolio gains in 2015 then in 2016. To have the numbers and see if I had managed to improve from my 2014 and previous years. I had aimed to 1) increase my dividends and distributions & 2) reduce and take-loss on my losing counters. Both which I did, especially the second one to heart-pain last year. With the numbers in, I could evaluate my strategies - which counters to increase, decrease, cut-loss, monitor, how many lots to buy/sell etc. So 2015 was quite positive, thankfully. 2016 was overall big loss cos I finally cut-loss and realise again that the maxim " The first cut-loss is the smallest" is very true yet again.
But with the cut-loss, my overall red portfolio turned green in January. So without a main income, I decided to 'trade' some counters, ie do more buy-and-sell to earn some monies. It is arguable that I could have gotten more from doing buy-and-hold but "a bird in hand is better than two in the bush". So I sold off some counters for small gains that by absolute value alone, matches or exceeds my monthly part-time tuition income (think about that). Then now I get back my capital with some gains. And now on the look-out to buy back these counters at my designated price ranges.
Then there was more rise and in one of my main counter, I sold off half my lots, kept half for a good return. At least with $$ in the pocket, I have more holding power to wait for more rise. Which it did and I decide to sell off another quarter of my holdings. Left one quarter which I have a comfortable buffer in my pocket now to wait even longer for greater rise. Which it is now still rising. If I look back, I could have gotten much much more if I had hold and wait until now then sell. And this is called "seller's regret" but I remind myself that previously in 2016, there were such rises but I held on yet prices fell back. So this is a better strategy for me. At least I got a fatter pocket than the last time by actually realising the capital gain instead of waiting and refusing to sell.
With that and a round of dividends and distribution (apparently January is a dividend season), I have hit my first investment target. So far so good, hope to keep it up for the rest of the year and reap more substantial absolute gains. No more bad picks that cost me those losses. More weary after making several costly mistakes in recent years. Still hurting from those, though they didn't dent my capital but my total efficiency of the portfolio dropped cos the previous cumulative gains were dented by the significant accumulated losses. ie, my average gains per year has been lowered by a lot with these losses.
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After mopping around from the week before my bdae until now that my bdae and even CNY has passed, there was time enough for me to pick myself up and build up enough drive to move on forward again. I will do so, though the road ahead seems blurry, uncertain and scary, I remind myself "路是人走出来的" and move onward. I saw a very good phrase which applies to me a lot - "人不怕慢,只怕站; 不怕没进步, 只怕不起步."
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