They all believe newcomers make mistakes by not investing for the long term and for failing to diversify their portfolios with at least 30 well-researched names. Here are the other things they see people doing wrong, based on their experience:When Heloise Greeff decided to plunge into the stock market in 2016, she did what any good scientist does — she experimented.
Greeff loves looking for patterns in oceans of market data. When the S&P 500 Index and other benchmarks were hitting all-time highs late last year, the data was sending her a powerful signal: It was time to retreat. “I am a conservative trader so I liquidated 60 per cent of the positions in my portfolio, and while I missed the highs of January, I had peace of mind,” she says.
Birse knew concentrating her portfolio in tech was a perilous move, and sure enough she lost 3.8 per cent in 2018 when the Nasdaq index swooned. But she stuck with her strategy. When the industry rebounded in 2019, so did she. The mother of two teenagers splurged on a beachfront dream house on the Mediterranean and a London flat.Mik Mullins says he felt like a blind, drunk monkey stumbling in the dark when he started investing in the early 2000s.
The rush of newbie traders into flashy equity-trading apps have already led to some grim consequences. In June, Robinhood pledged to change elements of its options trading platform after the suicide of a 20-year-old user who had an account that showed a negative balance of more than US$700,000.The company’s co-founders said they would consider additional eligibility requirements for users who wanted to tap more advanced options strategies.
The markets have seen this retail “expertise” before, and wall street is all too happy to accommodate. The dot com craze of 2000, the fin bubble of 2008, etc. History repeats itself because human nature doesn’t change. Do a follow up piece on the returns in the next 5 yrs or so.