My findings suggest the odds are that an investor’s great ideas will lose money. As such, before you invest a cent into an investment idea, it is imperative to have a plan of action as to what you will do if you find yourself in a losing position. When losing, the successful investors I worked with planned to become either assassins or hunters. Assassins sold losing investments that fell by a certain percentage or that declined by any amount and showed no signs of recovery after a certain period of time. Hunters invested a lesser amount at the outset and with a plan of buying more shares if the price fell. Hunters were also unafraid to sell if it became clear that they had made a mistake. The bad investors didn’t have a plan and consequently turned into rabbits. When losing money, rabbits neither bought more shares nor sold their holdings. Once forming an initial perception, rabbits were achingly slow to change their opinion of a stock. — Lee Freeman-Shor The trick is not to be the ...

Subscribe now to unlock this article.

Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).

There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.

Cancel anytime.

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.