Stock Trading: A Crazy Way to Make Money

Online stock trading is one of the easiest avenues to make money. See, you only need to register to one of the online stock trading sites that abound the Internet. You open an account with them, deposit a minimum amount, and voila! You can already start trading online and making your way to being filthy rich! But beware, you might end up rich yet insane!

1. Patience is a virtue. Professional stock traders will always tell you this. Be patient, wait for the stock to climb up and surpass its resistance, then sell. But being a neophyte like me and having only about a few hundred thousand pesos (Philippine peso) to play with, this is quite hard to do. I’ve broken the basic laws of stock trading by risking money I can’t afford to lose. Thus, I usually end up selling too early. I sell today at Peso 5.50 and two days after, the stock would soar to Peso 6.50. WTF, right?! I tell myself that it’s okay, I’m not impatient, I’m just not greedy. Just a little gain and I’m happily selling my stock again. But then again, I could have earned more… if I only remebered to be patient.
2. Don’t be greedy. This is the second law of stock trading which is very essential, not only because being greedy is part of the seven mortal sins, but because you can end up bankrupt or as frustrated as hell. I buy three million shares of a stock for Peso 0.025, then its climbs up Peso 0.033, but I decide not to sell and wait some more, it might climb a bit more to Peso 0.034. The following day, the Dow collapses and my stock drops to Peso 0.024. Damn! I could have already gained about Peso 23,000 and bought back the stock again at its lows.

Stock trading itself is difficult especially if your trading money isn’t excess cash but rather some hard-earned money. You’ll always be on your toes, monitoring the stocks every hour or so to see if a new disclosure has been posted that will cause the stock to either climb up or drop. Given the two major laws of stock trading, which do you follow? You can’t be both patient and not greedy or you’ll really end up insane.

I believe that whether you choose to be patient or opt not to be greedy, one other law will save you from becoming one crazy trader. That is, never look back. Whether you’ve gained, lost, or let an opportunity slide, don’t look back. Stand by you decision and be happy with what you’ve got.