My experience in buying good stocks but losing money

You know I've held the honour of holding great stocks like $Google (drop of $280 per share), $DBS (drop of $5 per share) and $OCBC ($1 per share). But alas, I've come to learn that even if you pick a good stock, I will still lose money? I've learnt that I've picked these stocks at the wrong time where I bought them at the peak.

I've come to learn that although Benjamin Graham says not to time the market and to buy a stock but ignore its price, he also mentions to watch for the cost. I am still learning to understand P/E ratios and to listen/read about the profitability of the company.

In my learning journey, I've also come to learn that one must observe the surrounding market conditions. As a naive newbie who bought $DBS GROUP HOLDINGS LTD(D05.SI)$ at it's peak, I feel that I should have anticipated and sold when I heard about the war and the recession. I often wonder, how do you time the market, without timing the market?

But I remind myself about investors who got in at $18-21 and I ask, surely they started from somewhere?

Then I realise that the next I need is time for the stock rise. I guess those who previously bought it at $18-21 in 2020 at its peak asked themselves the same questions then.

I am currently my savings so as to be able to have more time for the stock to eventually recover and hopefully reach new heights. This discipline of setting a fixed allocation each month is important and something I intend to adopt over the long run (I've been investing for 5 months now).

In the Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham highlights that the average investor held the stock for 3 years in 1970. In 2002, the holding time was reduced to 11.4 months.

For me, I am committed to test the theory that holding works. Will it work? I don't know but I'll let you know when it does (or doesn't).

That's my sharing for today!

@TigerStars@CaptainTiger