I just stopped and ended an ETF that it has been dead for a year already, and the thing that I’m not expecting it’s going to come back. I was buying SOXL, which I was recommended by an online person whom I barely know. Other ETFs are Indian ETFs, which I invest in just because a friend of mine told me that India is going to perform great, and then the same friend told me that weapons manufacturing is going to do well. The things that, let’s just not listen to everyone, but rather do your own research and decide based on your logic, and even if it’s not correct, you are going to learn some lessons still.
Secondly, I learn the hard way to just not invest based on the “feeling”, the markets always favor “good stocks” and good stocks, in my terms, are of good companies. If companies are good, then stocks should be good years to come. In a market crash, everybody is going to fall, but companies that are fundamentally good (with good people, leadership, and serving the customers or market demands) will survive. But the thing that is, markets always adjust, most money will often pour into high-stakes / high-rewards stocks that people believe will grow, like Tech companies have been getting that favour for a long time. For me, investing in conservative market sectors like energy or consumer goods not always guarantee growth, money can be stuck forever or even get worse.
Market lifecycle, yes, this is definitely where we want to look out for, even for me who prefer value investment, which of course is less risky for longer game play, like if i decide to invest and forget for 5 years in a row, then market lifecycle can be ignored, but for who want to optimize their investment, I believe watchout for market adjustments, if it’s already too high then it’s good chance that we back off, especially if we seeing the company is overvalued.
How the company is being valued it’s really based on numbers/indexes/ratios and historical data, as well as financial performance. Information that’s not reflected in published news is important too, like leadership’s planning, or existing news can also affect market emotions
Overall, my idea is that lessons learns from past mistakes
- Do not invest based on feeling alone; you need data to back it up
- Don’t just blindly invest; you need careful research
- Investment is a long game, not for short-term earners.
My strategy now is, yes, look out for good stocks, but it shouldn’t be your full-time job; it’s more like your side job, which gives you insights into the market so you know where to invest your money. And to have the money, it’s better to focus on growing your income: be a better, more productive employee/worker.