What information should investors document? Why?

To obtain long-term and successful investment returns, recording one’s investment career is one of the indispensable success factors. Thanks to the development of modern science and technology, this kind of work has become easier and can also make this work more efficient.

Table of Contents

What must be documented?

The following things are what every investor must record:

The record of every purchase and sale in the investment career: This is the most important item. All investors must do the work, and they must be reviewed regularly. Doing so has many advantages: remind yourself whether you deviate from your investment principles and holding strategies, whether you make the same mistakes again and again, whether you trade too much, and whether you violate your own taboos? And most importantly, it can be used to analyze data or calculate your own return on investment.
Return on investment over the years: Although I am a proponent of long-term investment, I cannot neglect to review my return on investment regularly every fixed period (at least once a year) to see if I am interested in the rate of return. satisfy? How does your return if compared to the broad market? And find out the stocks that paid better and worse during the period, so that you can easily see your ability circle objectively.
Own investment principles and shareholding strategies: investment principles and shareholding strategies must be written down and written; it is best to use a few simple items to remind yourself at any time.
Watch list: prepare a list of stocks that you like and have been thoroughly researched at any time; so that you can buy or add to it at the right time. Successful investors generally do not buy and sell holdings randomly; they usually have a watch list of their own. Like everything we do, after planning and careful consideration, the chance of error or failure can always be minimized.
Reports of companies holding shares: You can imagine yourself as an analyst on Wall Street, writing an investment report for yourself for each of your holdings. The content and the level of detail can vary from person to person. Update the content at any time so that you can check it immediately. You could refer to my book “The Rules of Super Growth Stocks Investing” example in section 4-5.

Why document?

My reasons are:

You will forget: Perhaps some people think that their memory is good enough, or that their investment principles are very simple and do not need to spend time recording them.
Technology helps: Now that mobile phones and cloud tools are developed, you can find fragmentary time to record at any time, and it doesn’t take much time.
Forced thinking: Writing these things is for myself to see, I later found out that this is the same as writing a book or blogging; because I have to write it down, so it takes time to think, which will make me think more deeply about what I wrote, you might find various problems from it.
Data analysis: After the data is written and filed, in addition to knowing how our investment performance is, we can use computers to compare, search, and analyze numerical values when necessary.
The basis for performance and comparison: Another reason that you need to document is that you can compare these things with the investors you admire; or put it to the next level, and have a basic basis when discussing or discussing ideas with friends or colleagues.

Investment never success without document

If you don’t document the important numbers, methods, and processes of your investment career; I really can’t think of any reason to become a successful investor. Basically, the probability is zero. Without documentat, how do you know if you are making money? How much money did you make? How much did you lose? Is the method effective? How are you different from you ten years ago? You can’t answer these important questions at all.

Regarding the importance of this, I suggest you refer to my other blog article “Investors should pay attention to the annualized rate of return (IRR), How to calculate?“.

All in all, recording your own investment is not only in your own hands, but also the fastest way for investors to improve their abilities and remuneration.

Disclaimer

The content of this site is the author’s personal opinions and is for reference only. I am not responsible for the correctness, opinions, and immediacy of the content and information of the article. Readers must make their own judgments.
I shall not be liable for any damages or other legal liabilities for the direct or indirect losses caused by the readers’ direct or indirect reliance on and reference to the information on this site, or all the responsibilities arising therefrom, as a result of any investment behavior.