Invest many years and earn small, can it be improved?

Table of Contents

Hard to improve

Many investors have been in the stock market for many years. But in your investment career, you only earn small amount of money or you don’t make a profit. How can you improve this situation to make your performance improve significantly? Frankly speaking, I think that the group of people who have only made a small amount of money in their investment career or who have not made money is more difficult than those who have never made money to improve the performance.

Interested readers can refer to my other blog article “Investing many years and never make money, what should I do?” Yes, it is much harder to improve (I know that most people disagree with my words, but I am telling the truth, which is why these people can’t make money). Because:

Why it’s hard to improve?

The investment style has taken shape: especially those who have made some money, resulting in an increase in confidence and making changes more difficult. It is even more difficult if it is a non-young person or is already old. People have inertia and it is difficult to change.
The preconceived situation is serious: things like investment that have subjective and value beliefs are not easy to change. Besides, people generally have their own opinions, thinking that they have not lost any money, but that they are not lucky (sounds like a gambler’s tone, yes).

I suggest you take a breath and read my other blog article, “Most investors’ problem is concepts and psychology, not stock selection“ and then come back.

How can we improve it?

Even so, here are some actions that can be taken to improve performance or make performance exceed the market. But the premise is “I must be willing to change, otherwise everything is in vain”:

Face yourself honestly: This is the most important point. If you can’t face yourself honestly, you will make no progress. The enemy on the investment road is yourself, not others. Take the time to study yourself, is it suitable for you to use the stock market for wealth management?
Get rid of laziness, finding shortcuts, seeking out touted stocks, or getting something for nothing: If you want to make money in the stock market, I advise investors with these mentality to leave the stock market as soon as possible, because with these mentality you will not make big money. Is there any way to be lazy or want to make money without working? Of course not. When looking for a job to earn a living, everyone knows that you have to go to work on time and your work has to be completed. There is no such thing as customers orders falling from the sky. It’s very tiring to go to work, and I don’t have time to study and do my homework. These are not reasons, let alone excuses.
Don’t shirk responsibility: do you owe it to your own wisdom when the investment goes smoothly, and when it fails, you are busy dumping others; or you often find reasons for yourself, never thinking it is your own problem. To get the bottom of it, you are the one who sends out the transaction order every time you click the mouse!
Don’t be a hater or troll: Don’t hate successful people or rich people, so you will never succeed. The vast majority of successful people come by their own efforts, not as people think they are born with golden spoons (skeptics? I suggest you find time to read “The Millionaire Next Door”). We should look at the strengths of each person and find out what is worth learning, so that we can make progress. If you often find loser to make warm with each other, and feel more happy, but what’s next? Successful people will do the opposite and will not waste such kind of time. The characteristic of haters or troll is that others always have shortcomings, and they are the best in the world, and they always find reasons and excuses for themselves.
Review your past records of every transaction: What is the reason for the transaction? Mainly make money from those stocks? Do you earn more and lose less or lose more and earn less? It takes a lot of time, but it must be done. You can refer to my “What information should investors take notes?” In the article, it is recommended that investors need to record those things.
Have you really read more than five well-known classic investment books? It is best to choose the one that suits your own level. I have listed 18 classic investment books for readers in the appendix of the book “The Rules of Super Growth Stocks Investing”. Or click on “Legend Investment Books” and “Other Investment Books” listed on my website. I personally haven’t known any successful investor with outstanding investment performance so far who does not spend most of his time reading books. It takes time to read books, but you can gain knowledge and force yourself to calm down and think. The reason why legend investment books are legend is that their content has been validated to be meaningful and successful, and it is indeed helpful for investment performance.
Take time to find out the reasons for failure: use the previous points, take time to find out the reasons and transactions for success and failure, summarize the rules, and then establish your personal investment principles (if you don’t have one, advised to establish it as soon as possible), Or modify your own investment principles. No matter what kind of investment principle, as long as it suits you and can continue to bring you satisfactory performance, it is a good investment principle; the style is not important, and the name is not important.
Quit watching financial TV or Internet celebrity programs. Watching financial programs is not considered as investment homework. Financial TV or Internet celebrity shows are the same as watching drama serials, which will only waste your time (if you watch them as serials every day, then the only functions is kill time, gossip, and have nothing to do with investment; because your starting point for watching serials is also not expect to gain investment knowledge from it). Save time to read investment books or study more in-depth articles.
You must read some “in-depth” articles or books to improve your investment ability. Reading takes time, especially legend books or articles; but if you want to improve your investment ability, this is the only way you can’t avoid it. As far as the information I have read, the successful investors I know, without exception, everyone spends a lot of time on reading. For example, spending money to subscribe to “Seeking Alpha, which can greatly improve the investment capacity of U.S. stocks” and the Wall Street Journal, is absolutely necessary to improve the performance of US stocks investment.
Make up your mind and don’t chase any touted stocks. People with this kind of thinking will not only never make money, but sooner or later they will lose all their hard-earned money. For the reasons, please refer to my other blog post “Investors who chase for touted stocks“
Excessive conceit: Usually the cause of arrogant people is caused by ignorance, and the two are mutually cause and effect, but it is difficult for human nature to admit this. Refuse to examine whether your performance is significantly behind the market. Without comparison and regular review, it is impossible to make progress. Don’t confront the market, don’t deny the facts, stay humble is the driving force of progress.
Willingness to make changes: It is difficult to change. If you are really lucky to find the bottleneck, please make up your mind and be willing to persevere (decision alone is useless) to make changes, because people have inertia and inertia. Make sure you are willing to invest time and effort in order to invest successfully. Investment is the same as work or study. Without paying efforts, there can be no good results.

Be honest to yourself

As I said in the last chapter of the book “The Rules of Super Growth Stocks Investing,” read more, study more, think more, everything is a little deeper than others think. Ask more questions and do your own research. Be honest to yourself, give time, and be willing to change; performance can only be improved finally.

Here is a quote from Keynes to share with you, “The difficulty
lies not in the new ideas but in escaping from the old ones.”

Related data and resources

“Legend investment books“
“Other investment books“

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