How do you get over bad feeling of not making enough on investment?

[Nika]

I am having these irrational feeling every day that apple stock goes up, and I can't seem to shake it.

I am regretting not buying a $450 option before the earnings announcement (DH was driving and could not pull over before 4... and I was not 100% sure about it), but mostly, I regret not keeping more of the stock and instead selling it at $447.

I keep thinking how much more money I could have made.
Now, we kept 30 shares, so on those 30 shares alone we made $3,500 profit (unrealized yet), plus $3100 realized from the sell of the 70 shares and $300 from the earlier option. So all total $6,900 profit. But knowing it is too late to do another option (too risky at this point) is eating at me and I am kicking myself for not maximizing when we had a chance.

And even though I gain more money on my little 30 share stake that I still have, every time it goes further up I just feel bad.

I know it is crazy, but I can't help it. I just feel like I will never get a chance like that again.

[Mr Nice Guy]

You are definitely not alone!

Don't let your shame take up valuable time.

Evaluate what went wrong, and don't let it happen again. What works well is keep a journal of things you did well, and things you didn't do so well. Then consult it regularly.

[bjl584]

Story of my life! Day late and a dollar short. I've lost count of how many stocks that I was watching and didn't buy in time. It's just part of the game.

[disneysteve]

Great question. The easiest way is to stop looking, though since you still hold shares that's not really an option. The one thing you could do is set a target price for your remaining shares and put in an order to sell at that target. Then you could stop watching.

[jpg7n16]

Set better goals up front. If your goal is: "earn the most possible money" - you're setting yourself up for failure. If that's your goal, you'll never have enough.

So shift your focus to something else. A target number of successful trades/month. Increasing the number of successful trades vs unsuccessful ones. A rate of return over a 6-12 month period higher than some benchmark of how you could have invested.


The only way to make the absolute max is to literally sell at the peak. All other people left money on the table. So would you rather try to be that 1 guy, and be unhappy when you miss? (99.99% of the time) Or be one of the thousands who happily made a successful trade?


Or you could always do what I do - if you're in a spot where you think it's a good exit, but you're not sure, just liquidate half your position. Then if it goes down - "good thing I at least liquidated half!"; or if it keeps going up - "good thing I only liquidated half!"

[KTP]

Find the next Apple.

I personally think it will be Nokia with the upcoming Lumia 900 launch in March.

Shares are trading for $5, they have $4 cash per share on hand, and they are partnered with Microsoft...oh yeah, and they also get $8 to $10 royalty from Apple for each Iphone sold (well over $1 Billion a year from that alone).

Apple may go to $600, but I think Nokia will go to $10.

[ahcjar103]

i mean this in the nicest possible way.

1) grow some balls.
2) stop playing the "if only" game. if you do you're going to go crazy.

there's always another earnings report.

[kv968]

I am having these irrational feeling every day that apple stock goes up, and I can't seem to shake it.

I am regretting not buying a $450 option before the earnings announcement (DH was driving and could not pull over before 4... and I was not 100% sure about it), but mostly, I regret not keeping more of the stock and instead selling it at $447.

I keep thinking how much more money I could have made.

Its the old "shoulda, woulda, coulda" dilemma and unfortunately you just have to get over it. You're never going to sell at the absolute top and you're never going to get in at the absolute bottom. If you do either it'll be a very rare event.

I know you feel as if you left a lot of money on the table (been there myself), but look at the bright side, you made a very decent profit. You could be on the other side of the coin with Apple plummeting and you wishing you would have had the insight to cut your losses short. If you can't somewhat detach your emotions from trading, you're going to be in for heartbreak with every trade you make because they never go perfectly.

Remember, you're looking in the rearview mirrow with what you should have done. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that. You even say yourself you weren't 100% sure of buying more and how could you be? Anything could have happened with that announcement. At the time I applauded your DH for selling some and you for keeping some and I still hold that sentiment because had things gone wrong you would still have at least made something. Well things went better than expected, you still made money on what your DH sold AND you still hold onto some shares. A win-win if you ask me.

Don't fall in love in with a stock and let it waste all of your energy. Keep an eye on just for the fact that you still hold some shares but move on and look for the next opportunity. There's thousands of stocks out there that can do the same thing if not better. They may not be as touted or in the spotlight as Apple, but they're out there.