Back on the 22nd I bought 8 shares of Novavax at $125.25 per share which I sold last week for $206.84 a share. That's a nice hefty profit but had I held on to it, I could have sold it yesterday for $268 a share. I'm sorry to say but I didn't see the continued spike coming. Do I kick myself for not holding on to it? Yes but no too hard. After all, I did make a good hefty profit selling when I did. And had I held, I might have had the attitude of "hold it even at $268 since maybe it will go higher" only to watch it go lower. Ultimately I'm satisfied with how it went. That doesn't mean though that I won't research backwards and see if there's something I missed that could have illuminated my mind better. You always need to look back at both failures and successes, trying to eliminate the former and improve the latter.
Playing a few rounds of this showed me that I'll never be able to time the market...don't beat yourself up! https://www.personalfinanceclub.com/time-the-market-game/
I don't bother with market timing. Dollar cost averaging into sturdy organizations and plan for the long hold. Use reason when the market dips and project out how long the dip will occur. If you become poor in a dip, then you were too invested in the first place and probably poor as you invested. That doesn't mean that I won't take advantage of market opportunities at moments in time. But that doesn't mean that you time the market. But to take advantage of moments of opportunity you will need to have cash stockpiled and you will need to already be registered to a broker. If you aren't already there then you'll never be approved and backgrounded in time for your opportunity. I know guys who wanted in on Discover's dip to 20 bucks a share last April, but couldn't get on board until it had already risen to $40 because they weren't prepared to deploy. That was a million-maker opportunity. It's Discover - the company originated by Sears that survived them, one of the top four major creditors and now one of the most used online banks by millenials. It's an 80 - 90 dollar stock. Don't time the markets. Time your entry ahead of time instead. And time your exit. Set a ceiling to sell at. Don't become obsessed with the "but if" - instead set a sell limit of your own and when you hit it, that's your victory.
