Newbie's Blog: A year in learning (DBS and Grab)

I have been a trader for almost 2 years now, having started in Jan 2022. I choose my terms carefully because I would like to grow as an investor, holding stocks long term. As it stands, I sell too early and buy too soon, a key mistake which I still make. This has been a painful lesson which I am trying to learn from. My losses have been reduced, having ballooned from April 22 last year to $6000, then to $8000 in Oct 22. As I held on longer, it was reduced to $2200. Not learning from my lessons, I made the same mistakes again and once again, inflated my losses. I would like to share these learning moments as of today with you. Hopefully, you will benefit from them. I will use 2 of my favourite stocks as sharing.

A key lesson I've learnt is understanding that the market is sentimental and not entirely llogical. I first purchased $DBS GROUP HOLDINGS LTD(D05.SI)$ in Jan 22. It was a much heralded blue chip stock. Back then, like every other stock or company which survived covid-19, it was on the up and up. 

When I first bought it, it went all the way to $37 and I continued to buy! What made it worse was that I had not learnt to deal with dips or understand that dips were part of the stock movement. I sold when the stock fell and it promptly rose! I bought when the stock rose and it promptly fell. Its behaviour can still be seen today, as it has fallen to $33.70 from a high of $34++. This also applied to Grab, when it rose all the way from $2.80 to its current high of $3.85 (it has started falling). By the time it broke out, I had already sold both stocks before their highs because I was scared. At that time (in 2023) DBS had dropped to $29-30 and Grab was at $2.80-2.90. When they rose to $32 and $3.20 respectively, I sold to cut losses. And what happened? They rose! The key lesson here:

Buy very red and hold. Sell when high and don't regret. 

That being said, I tried to hold off buying either when they continued rising after that. Especially since its earnings season, I convinced myself that the highs are temporary. So far, it seems to be true but knowing and having a buypoint is important. While I do regret selling too early, I remind myself that investing is a long journey and there is always room to improve and learn.

I hope this lesson helps.

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