A story of mistakes, overconfidence, and finally, self-control
It was a Tuesday morning when I received a message from an old friend:
“Did you see the market today? Everything’s tanking! Should we sell?”
I sighed, already knowing what I was about to read next. Panic. Urgency. Fear. The same emotions that drive thousands—if not millions—of investors to make catastrophic financial mistakes every time the market stumbles.
I used to be one of them.
Years ago, I remember watching a promising investment crash 40% overnight and, without hesitation, hitting the sell button—only to see it rebound 60% the next week. I was devastated. I had let my emotions control me, and I had just locked in my losses.
It took me years—and several more painful mistakes—to realize that the biggest obstacle in investing isn’t the market. It’s you.
Overconfidence: The Silent Portfolio Killer
I used to think I was a genius.
In my first few years as an investor, I made some lucky bets—buying tech stocks right before a major surge, catching a cryptocurrency wave at just the right moment, getting into an IPO that doubled in a month.
I genuinely believed that I had some special instinct for investing. That I was somehow smarter than the market.
I wasn’t.
A few good calls in a bull market had inflated my ego. When a real downturn hit, I ignored the warning signs. I bought more because I was “sure” the stock would recover. I disregarded risk management. My conviction turned into stubbornness, and my stubbornness turned into massive losses.
Here’s the painful truth:
🚨 If you think you’re a genius investor because you made a few good trades, you’re already setting yourself up for failure.
The market rewards patience and discipline, not arrogance. The greatest investors—Buffett, Dalio, Bogle—don’t succeed because they take big, risky bets. They succeed because they respect the unpredictability of the market.
FOMO: The Fear That Costs You Money
In late 2020, I did something incredibly stupid.
I watched as everyone started buying into a certain tech stock that was skyrocketing. It had already doubled, and every finance forum I visited was buzzing:
“It’s still cheap!”
“This is going to $1,000 easy!”
“Don’t miss the train!”
I told myself I wouldn’t buy. I knew better. It was too late to enter. The rally had already happened.
But the fear of missing out was stronger than my rationality.
I bought.
The stock crashed 50% within two weeks. I had ignored my own rules because my emotions got the best of me.
This is one of the biggest mistakes I see investors make—chasing hype, buying at the peak, and then panic-selling when things turn sour.
🚨 Lesson: If you feel the urgent need to buy something because “everyone else is,” that’s a sign you should do the opposite.
The best investments are made with logic, not emotion.
The Key to Mastering Your Investing Mindset
After years of struggling with my own psychology, I finally developed rules that I now live by:
✅ Detach yourself from the daily market noise. Stop checking your portfolio every day. Stop reading every finance headline. Long-term investing doesn’t require 24/7 monitoring.
✅ Always have an exit strategy before you enter. Never buy a stock without knowing under what conditions you’d sell it—either to take profits or cut losses.
✅ Keep a journal of your decisions. I started writing down every trade I made and the reasoning behind it. Over time, I saw my patterns—and my biases.
✅ Understand that the market owes you nothing. The stock doesn’t “have to” recover. It doesn’t “owe” you anything because you bought at a high price. Remove ego from the equation.
Most importantly, I’ve learned to accept this:
🚨 Investing isn’t about beating the market. It’s about beating your own worst instincts.
