by I_eat_insects
Many of us “know” not to time the market and to avoid over-hyped stocks, but despite this we sometimes let our less rationale selves win. That’s what I did and I lost $5745 since Jan 6th of this year.
- Lost $470 because I decided to drop $1000 into bitcoin due to all the hype. I happened to buy at it’s second highest peak and I’ve lost 53% of the initial investment.
- Lost $1098 on weed and online gambling (stocks) due to similar reasons. I bought into the marijuana stock hype for $3,000 and bought $500 worth of online gambling stock to try and capitalize on the recent US Supreme Court decision that online sports betting is now legal. Both down a total of $1098.
- Lost $4177 by trying to time the market during the drops in early February (even though I know not to do that). I sold off my holdings in one account in time to avoid losing a few extra percent, but totally missed the boat on the market rebound and ended up 4% worse than if I had stayed in.
In total, these three stupid mistakes have cost me $5745 since the beginning of this year (not counting that additional gains I would have had from putting the $4500 I spent on BTC, weed stocks, and gambling stocks into an index fund instead).
While these wont screw me financially, it amounts to ~6% of my invested net worth so it stings a bit for sure. Also, I know that the first two losses above aren’t realized until I sell the holdings, but I’m being stubborn and hoping they rebound a bit before I do. This is also probably a bad idea…