Chapter 76 [Walking slowly on a long road - letter sharing part one]

Source:https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AnUtZXW9n/

[James’ Origin and Today] Chapter 76 - [Long Slow Walk: Letter Sharing Part 1] (10/24/2023)

Hello James:

In this issue, some friends asked questions about individual stocks, such as whether stocks of a certain concept can be bought, and whether those stocks will have the opportunity to rise sharply in the future. In my opinion, it may be that QQQ has started to correct after bottoming out, and everyone is more or less impatient (cannot bear loneliness, want to recover floating losses or want to make money faster). These psychological emotions are taboos when investing in the stock market.

Let me first talk about my experience in the stock market.

I entered A-shares in 2017. At that time, the domestic official media shouted that "4000 points is the starting point of the bull market." Then my friends and I quickly opened accounts, ran into the stock market, and then started to monitor the market every moment.

Until the index reached the highest point of more than 5,100 points, looking back, I and my friends not only did not make any money, but also lost a lot. At that time, I still hated myself for missing out on a feast of wealth.

However, the worst-case scenario doesn't end there.

Immediately afterwards, the A-share market started plummeting from the high point, with thousands of shares falling to the limit at every turn. Seeing that the stocks in my hand were trying to sell but could not be sold, the little funds left in my account continued to hit new lows in the falls again and again. Panic and pessimism spread from the stock market to life. At that time, I felt depressed every day when I went to work, and my friends gradually became discouraged and quit the stock market. I gritted my teeth and did not leave the stock market. I didn't dare to tell my wife the specific amount of my losses. Looking back now, I'm really glad that I didn't have much money at the time, and the absolute amount of losses was not too much. Otherwise, if I lose again like before, I may really lose my hands and feet, and I won't be able to turn around for at least five or six years.

Next, according to the plot of the movie, there should be a counterattack. However, no! For the next three or four years, I was still stumbling around in the stock market in a muddle-headed manner, with no direction or goals, and all my losses and profits ended up in vain. Just when I was exhausted physically and mentally, I discovered a "noble man" on the Internet.

He shares the delivery records of his stocks on the Internet, buying and selling mechanically. I looked through his past records and found that his operations were completely opposite to mine. He sold when I was chasing the rise, and he started to buy when I was cutting the meat. When I bought a lot, I asked him, aren't you afraid of being trapped? He said that to control positions well, you must have a pair of eyes that can see the future. When there was a big increase in sales, I asked him, aren't you afraid of going short? He said that when everyone thinks it can still rise, it often reaches a short-term peak. I even asked him when a certain stock had a major negative event, are you not afraid that it will be delisted? He said that the positions are diversified and the risks are shared. Even if the company is delisted, it will not be a serious injury.

So, I also tried to use this method to practice it personally. I bought it when it fell sharply (in fact, I was scared to death). After buying it, it still fell. I gritted my teeth and held it without cutting the flesh. Then, the stock price fluctuated up and down, and a long wait began. Sometimes it took half a year, and sometimes it even took a year to start to recover the capital and make a profit. The psychological process was quite painful. When the price really rose to a certain profit margin, the greedy devil came out again, and I was reluctant to sell for fear of missing the next big rise. Finally, I gritted my teeth and sold.

In this way, we abided by the trading discipline and strictly implemented it for more than a year. In 2022, when the market fell by 20%, we achieved a 20% profit for the first time. This kind of achievement is very proud for me, who has been harvesting leeks for many years. (After listening to James’s class, I discovered that people who operate like us are monkeys. Hahaha...)

If the first noble person I met introduced me to the stock market, then meeting James should have introduced me to the Tao!

The first time I heard James’ class was during the Chinese New Year in 2023. "Investment must be meditative. Market fluctuations have nothing to do with me, financial statements have nothing to do with me, market analysis has nothing to do with me, the economic situation has nothing to do with me, the international situation has nothing to do with me, everything has nothing to do with me, and I ignore the ups and downs of the market." After listening to this, I was surprised to find that my mental journey in the stock market over the past year was exactly the same as the investment experience preached by James. I knew I might be on the right track with investing.

Although I will have a 20% income in 2022, I am actually doubtful about whether I can continue to maintain such income in the future, especially the individual stocks in my hand. Who knows whether they can continue to exist in the market in the future?

So over the past year, I bought the Nasdaq ETF four times, and secretly made a plan in my mind to hold it for 5 years regardless of the rise or fall. In the following days, I formulated a fixed investment strategy, which is (half of my monthly salary, mindlessly buying the index, regardless of whether it rises or falls that day, and keeping the remaining half as a reserve. In case the index continues to fall and falls to minus 10 points of the cost price, I will start buying and reduce the cost of holding the position.). Although the teacher has said all-in and buying in time and space, I feel that my plan of "having a position when it goes up, and having money to buy when it goes down" will have much less psychological pressure on people like me who are never full of positions. Of course, when the price goes up, the absolute return will definitely be smaller.

Some people have doubts about whether the Nasdaq Index can continue to maintain the same returns as before in the future. Even if the time is turned back to 10 years ago and you were asked to buy it, you would still not believe it. As James said, (Those who believe will always believe, those who do not believe will never believe. Pessimists win the market, and optimists win money. The stock market is the trajectory of human growth, and the U.S. stock market is the leader in the growth of all mankind. If you want to have a towering tree in the future, the best time is to plant it now). Hopefully those doubters won’t regret in 10 years why they didn’t start buying today.

Investment is really a personal practice. There are many monsters, greed, fear and temptation on the road, and you have to constantly fight against your own inner demons.

James is a person who has obtained the true scriptures, and we are still on the road of obtaining the true scriptures, moving forward step by step with difficulty. I am really grateful that on this lonely road of investment, Mr. James can guide us like a preacher without asking for anything in return. I hope that one day when all of us who persevere can look back and see the way forward, we will have the feeling in our hearts that "it turned out that everything was just like this."

Thanks to Mr. James for taking the time to read what I, a person with only a junior high school education, wrote in three hours. The writing is not smooth, so please don’t laugh.

Finally, I wish all of us health, happiness, wealth, and most importantly, a long life!