Hit by stock market losses? Here are my lessons, learnt while losing 50% of my hard earned investment dollars

A common rephrase is "Invest in stocks with some basic knowledge and you are bound to make some money". I have to confess I took that to heart and what I had left was burnt fingers and more. Very few people can time the market and its not by merit but by pure coincidence they are rewarded. Losses can be a hard pill and once tried you will never want to risk your hard earned dollars.

So what's there for stock market novices?

1.  Do your own mock portfolio of 100 stocks that you are impressed with (for returns, management prowess, insider ownership, P/E, Beta values, or disruptiveness of business). You can set it up using Yahoo! finance or Marketwatch etc.

2.  Follow these for at least 12-24 months.

3. Choose 10 stocks that belong to different sectors (technology, commodities, infrastructure, consumer durables, retail, etc.) that you find moving in the right direction. In my view that which grows at least 25% or above on an annualized basis.

4. Your strike rate will be very close to 60% (ie 6 out of 10 can yield results expected).

P.S. Keep doing your research 7 days a week. Don't fall for any one pundit or guru on stock recommendations. Most of their agendas are unknown to us. Stock markets are meant for the sharks and the retail investor just gets lucky now and then.

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