Subject: Advice - Errors in Investing

Last-Revised: 2 Aug 1999
Contributed-By: Chris Lott (contact me), Thomas Price (tprice at engr.msstate.edu)

The Wall Street Journal of June 18, 1991 had an article on pages C1/C10 on Investment Errors and how to avoid them. As summarized from that article, the errors are:

• Not following an investment objective when you build a portfolio.
• Buying too many mutual funds.
• Not researching a one-product stock before you buy.
• Believing that you can pick market highs and lows (time the market).
• Taking profits early.
• Not cutting your losses.
• Buying the hottest {stock, mutual fund} from last year.

Here's a recent quote that underscores the last item. When asked "What's the biggest mistake individual investors make?" on Wall $treet Week, John Bogle, founder and senior chairman of Vanguard mutual funds, said "Extrapolating the trend" or buying the hot stock.

On a final note, get this quote on market timing:

In the 1980s if you were out of the market on the ten best trading days of the decade you missed one-third of the total return.