Newbies Blog 2022: Just sharing things I've learnt

First off, thank you Tiger for giving us a chance to share our investing review. Creating these topics always helps me share my thoughts with a specific direction.

Next, I would like to share my investing strategy for next year. This is literally what I learnt about investing for the whole entire year from 1st Jan. I would like to add as a disclaimer, that I'm currently at a loss. ($3500 as of today) I always put my losses in my profile so everyone can see where I stand (and whether to follow my advice or not, haha). But honestly, if you ask me whether I'm grateful for the mistakes, well, if at the end we learn from our mistakes, it's worth it right?

One of the most important things I want to exercise next year is my patience. This is with reference to my entry point. While I know we can't time the market, I realise that when we see a downtrend, we tend to get excited at purchasing a stock at its low. This happened to me with $DBS GROUP HOLDINGS LTD(D05.SI)$ . It is on a downtrend today and there were signs that it would get lower. But I couldn't hold myself and bought. Where I could have bought at $33.50, I had already lost some of my capital buying at $35. Today, I'm somewhere in the middle at $34 (as shown in the photo below). Getting in at the right entry point gives me confidence to hold because I spend less time in the red. I make it a point to remind myself so as to quell my FOMO thoughts. I honestly knew DBS would fall after reaching $35. Although I anticipated it too early, it did fall after 3 days (I wanted to beat myself up for that, but I reminded myself no one can time the market).

This brings me to my next strategy. It is normal to want to buy everything in one fell swoop. But that's bad. I realise that I shouldn't be so greedy to want all my stocks to rise at once (hence spend all my capital at one shot). Thus, I think for the STI, it is better to buy one lot at a time and see how the market reacts. If it rises, don't beat yourself about it. You would make some money right? But if it falls, more importantly, it allows you to DCA. Note that for the S&P 500, the number to buy at one shot may range from 1 to more ( I would buy 5-10 for $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$  , for example).

The next thing is understanding macro conditions. Now I know I mentioned not timing the market, but I think understanding the overall market conditions is important. If the overall situation is bad, stocks tend to be bad. Now here's the thing. If you look at macro conditions, you have to look out for macro fluctuations or rather long term growth. This is because the market is prone to general sentiments. What this means is that there still might be a rally when times are bad, because investors will be desperate for good news. Looking back at this year, it has been a bad one, with recessions, war and inflation occuring. But there have been rallies, almost as recently as 2-3 weeks ago before expectations were dampened by the Fed's outlook. So, while macro conditions will help, it is not a direct indicator unless you ignore the noise, which cause the minor fluctuations.

This brings me to my final point. Noise. Dyson recently came up with a noise cancelling device. I wish I could use it when investing. When we purchase stocks, we should do it through our own conviction arising from proper analysis and research. We should and must not be influenced by others who say "Buy this now! This is one of Warren Buffett' top 10 purchase!". It is incredible how much people want to buy stocks based on recommendations. Trust me, I've learnt this the hard way. I've made more money buying $Grab Holdings(GRAB)$  than DBS, simply because I bought DBS when everyone asked me to and assured me that I could not lose. I bought Grab when it wasn't popular ( I don't think it's very popular, but there is growing sentiment it will improve) and stuck to it, managing to make a bit of profit. Ownership of our choices is important. I feel that's what differentiates investing and gambling. It is also what separates a mature investor from a new one. As a sub point, I think it's also important to see if a stock has room to grow. I used to own$Alphabet(GOOGL)$ once, but looking at its growth and compared it to Grab, I felt that Grab, as an emerging company (well, I know it's been 10 years but it is really growing and reducing it's losses) has more potential. It is important to remember that we buy stocks at current value, in anticipation that it will grow. This is what allows us to make a profit and is also the reason why we must look ahead. This is what I've learnt.

So, thank you for reading my long post. If anything, I wish everyone not just prosperity in investing, but (1) patience to wait for the right price, (2) patience to buy small, (3) wisdom and awareness of conditions and finally, (4) ownership and long term perspective over your investment. I hope what I've learnt benefits you. Have a good year ahead everyone!

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