Yesterday I owned the wrong stocks. Ford Motor (F) fell another 0.51%. Lithium producer Albemarle (ALB) dropped 1.39%. Deere (DE) gave up 1.38%.
Today I owned the right stocks. Ford was up 3.55%. Albemarle gained 6.02%. Deere picked up 1.59%.
And other stocks in my portfolios–on line and personal–did even better. Oatly (OTLY) gained 6.93%. Electric vehicle charging network operator Chargepoint (CHPT) climbed 14.05%. American Superconductor (AMSC) increased 8.08%. Nvidia (NVDA) continued its run before Wednesday earnings by adding 9.18%.
I expect I’ll revisit both the extremes of “idiot” and “genius” again before this market turmoil is over.
Rather than give you any strategy or stock picks in this post, I’d like to say that what’s most important right now is keeping your head. Don’t beat yourself up. Don’t get too overconfident and giddy. Throw Self-loathing out the window and into the street so it can keep “Self-satisfaction” company.
This is a tough market. The day to day swings are being driven not just by events but also (and perhaps more so) by emotional reaction to those events. You’ve got a lot of traders out there–on and off Wall Street, with big and little portfolios–that are trying to make money out of the short term swings in sentiment and who are, therefore, accelerating the reaction to those shifts in sentiment.
At a time like this it’s more important than ever to stick to your (undoubtedly) well-thought-out investing strategy. And not to abandon your discipline to go chasing the phantoms of day to day moves.
