My real experience when I achieved financial assets of 30,000,000 yen (upper-middle class). I lost 5,000,000 yen in Chinese stocks, and I ended up selling NVIDIA at three times what I bought.
If a time machine were invented, I would swap my past self's mouse for a beetle.
To stop the sale of NVIDIA.
“Okay, it’s tripled. Let’s sell.”
Rustle rustle rustle.
“Wait. The sell button is walking away.”
That’s right. Please run all the way to the edge of the desk as you are.
I would投入 all of humanity’s scientific power to stop my profit-taking.
…Of course, this is fantasy.
Even invented a time machine, and ended up relying on insects in the end.
Couldn’t it have been a little better?
Hello, I’m Prindowater.
If I could meet my past self, I’d like to say kinder things.
But I’d want to tell my past self not to sell NVIDIA.
If saying it would stop it, I wouldn’t take the beetle with me.
This time it’s about when my financial assets were about 30 million yen.
I lost about 5 million yen in Chinese stocks.
Around the same time, I bought NVIDIA and sold it for about 3x.
Losing side is also frustrated.
The winning side is frustrated too.
Even after making a profit, I’d get insects again. It’s tough for my old self too.
“Ah, it’s 30 million.” But this time I’m a little happy.
Last time I wrote about increasing assets while working, and pausing individual stock trading after losing about 2,000,000 yen in Nintendo.
5,000,000 article
https://www.gogojungle.co.jp/mypage/display/navi/article/126361
10,000,000 article
https://www.gogojungle.co.jp/mypage/display/navi/article/126442
After that, I returned to stocks again during the Abenomics era.
From there, my distance to stocks drew quite close.
My impressions when I reached 30 million are similar to when it was 10 million.
“Ah, it’s 30 million.”
Words alone sound pretty light, though.
But I was happier than when it was 10 million.
“Finally I can buy stocks properly.”
That’s what I thought.
It doesn’t mean you can’t buy with 10 million.
It means I felt I could use money to buy the stocks I wanted and the amount I wanted.
“Now it’s reassuring.”
“Now I can buy them.”
The questions and the answers were pointing in different directions.
If I expected the face of someone who had reached the goal, there was someone taking off to go shopping.
And it was a light jog.
Calm down. You saved it, so it’s your money.
However, there wasn’t a sense of “enough already” or “I have leeway.”
I was glad that I could buy more things.
But if I tried to buy all the stocks I wanted, it still wasn’t enough.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have enough for living expenses.
When I researched, more companies I wanted appeared one after another.
I want to buy that too.
I want to buy this as well.
That looks interesting too.
With 30 million yen, you’d think it’s plenty.
If you showed my watchlist, the 30 million yen side would be upset.
“Am I the only one handling this?”
Sorry. Please first read to the end of the list.
“Is there still more below?”
There is. You can scroll.
It’s usually categorized as the upper-middle class amount.
However, Nomura Research Institute’s classification is “net financial assets” (household financial assets minus liabilities) of 30 million to less than 50 million yen.
The financial assets I’m referring to here have different calculation bases.
Even with a grand name, I still want “this, that.”
It feels like financial assets have attached to a kid who won’t move from the toy section.
The scale of buying has grown incredibly.
Creating 30 million was due to deposits and individual stocks.
So, how did it become 30 million?
I deposited money earned from work.
And adding the operation of individual stocks, it became 30 million.
It wasn’t all the stock’s doing.
I also worked, and put money in.
It’s not just the stock’s merit; it’s also the salary statement’s merit.
“Excuse me. The salary statement is participating too.”
I stood there with a backstage look, but I’m putting in money.
At that time, my investing was centered on individual stocks.
Although the gains from deposits and mutual funds were the foundation, after returning to stocks I looked for companies myself, bought, sold, and looked again.
If it had been only index funds, I don’t think I would have reached 30 million at the same speed.
This is my sense. I think this is one of the attractions of individual stocks.
I didn’t compare against another life’s performance.
It’s not that individual stocks are superior.
Some parts grew fast, others fell a lot.
It’s a tailwind. Please give it to my stocks too.
The Abe-nomics market was a tailwind.
In fact, after autumn 2012, the stock market as a whole rose significantly.
But I don’t remember individual stocks being easy.
The index was rising.
I looked at my stock.
Not rising.
I looked at the index again.
It was rising.
I think it would be okay to expect some consideration for me.
Of course it’s not that if the Nikkei rises, all my stocks rise too.
Individual stocks can fall even when the index is rising.
It was supposed to be a tailwind, yet it appeared.
The broader market’s story and my account’s story were separate.
My hobby is watching candlesticks (bars).
When I had 10 million, I wasn’t yet watching charts as much as now.
But when it neared 30 million, I watched about 3 hours a day.
“Three hours every day?”
No, I was just playing.
In my sense, that’s where it was.
Some people watch movies.
Some play games.
Some read books.
I watched candlesticks that express stock price movements.
They’re bars.
Of course, that movement is interesting, but to someone not interested, they’re just bars.
If in a hobby gathering we presented in order,
“It’s a movie.”
“It’s traveling.”
“It’s bars.”
Only my turn would the MC come to confirm.
“What will you do with the bars?”
“I’ll look at them. About three hours.”
“Then in one word, what is the charm of those bars?”
You’d better not say.
The three hours start here.
I’m having fun.
I look for good companies and study the charts.
I find stocks I’m curious about again.
It wasn’t a sense of striving to continue; it was that doing it felt like a hobby.
It wasn’t that I continued to strive; it looked like effort itself was a hobby.
So I can’t say, “Let’s do three hours every day.”
If I were shown bars that I don’t even like for three hours, it would be a pain.
Normally you’d leave in the middle.
Stay. You love it.
Since fear decreased, I increased the amount I could buy.
Around 5 million and 10 million yen, I hadn’t used margin trading.
Because I was scared.
What if it goes down?
Scary things are scary.
However, when it reached around 30 million, it wasn’t as scary as before.
The fact that I had 30 million helped suppress some fear.
The money I could use for individual stocks is increasing.
The number of desirable stocks is increasing as well.
cash alone isn’t enough to buy everything.
So I started using margin trading.
I don’t think I’ve become comfortable with it.
“I want to buy more” comes first.
The basket of purchases became full, so I didn’t reduce its contents; I added more baskets.
Calm down.
Margin trading is the practice of borrowing money or stocks from a brokerage using collateral as margin.
If losses grow, you may need to post additional margin.
Even looking back now, it isn’t something you handle casually.
The system didn’t grow kinder as I grew; it’s just that my fear decreased.
Even though money increased, I didn’t feel my mind unified with the balance.
It wasn’t that I grew my funds only, I fed my lust for stocks every day.
This thing eats a lot.
“You’ve grown big,” I used to say with joy, but it’s already choosing the next stock before me.
I lost about 5 million yen in Chinese stocks.
Back then, Chinese stocks were quite popular.
I bought in too.
And I lost about 5 million yen.
That’s big.
The first 5 million yen I saved with work.
That amount now appeared as a loss.
“A path to saving 5 million” and “a path to losing 5 million.”
Thinking back, that’s incredible.
The latter, I’d like to block off. I’d be in trouble if I entered again.
But if the entrance said “Stocks to watch,” I might pause.
Don’t read the sign. Go home.
I can laugh about it now, but it wasn’t a small failure.
Buying popular things didn’t guarantee my profits.
Even if assets increased, judgment didn’t automatically become smarter.
Looking only at the amount of 30 million yen, one might think I was doing well.
Among that, there were buy-sell transactions like these.
I was buying NVIDIA too. I didn’t have a clear view of the future.
Around the same time, NVIDIA was also one I held.
At that time, I remember watching the price around 35 dollars on my account.
Since NVIDIA underwent stock splits, you can’t simply compare with the current chart.
If I showed the current price to the me who sold at 3x, I’d faint from shock.
“You had foresight, didn’t you?”
I’d be happy to hear that, but
If you’ve read this far, you’ve already learned I lost 5 million in Chinese stocks.
It’s not a report of someone who saw the future.
NVIDIA was one of the stocks I touched around that time as well.
The me who bought NVIDIA and the me who lost in Chinese stocks are the same person.
Successful and failed investors don’t live in separate houses.
If you only let one of them stand on stage, there’s another me in the backstage in the same face.
“What about the Chinese stock story?”
Don’t come out now.
There were trades that hit and trades that missed.
Hitting one doesn’t make you someone who can predict everything, and missing one doesn’t mean all your trades were bad.
For me, I can’t tell the person from the other side unless I put both together.
And that NVIDIA.
I sold it when it was about 3x.
I made a profit.
By ordinary standards, that’s a very happy result.
But as I am now, I am as described at the opening.
I want to ride a time machine to stop the sale.
Yet I also have a case to make for the side that would be stopped.
“I made a profit, though?”
That’s right.
That’s the point.
From the future, I receive complaints from myself who returned with a gain.
There are too many choices for regret.
Lost in Chinese stocks.
“Why did I buy them?”
After selling NVIDIA, it went higher.
“Why did I sell?”
Then what if I hadn’t sold and held it and it fell?
“Why didn’t I sell?”
Even with profits?
“I could have gotten more.”
Does this leave an escape route for my past self?
In front of all doors, there is the current me standing.
Moreover, everyone knows the results.
My past self didn’t have the charts that lay ahead.
Yet the later me comes and unfolds a completed chart to grade it.
If I did this at school, I think the teacher would be angrier than me.
Investing doesn’t always lead to regret only when you lose.
Even the result of selling at 3x would change to “insufficient” when compared to what happened later.
Even with 30 million yet not enough for the stock I wanted.
Even with 3x, it wasn’t enough for the subsequent rise.
I kept comparing to “if only it had been better.”
No wonder I wasn’t easily satisfied.
The other party always had the best outcome picked after the fact.
In career changes or shopping, I think “if I had chosen the other way.”
But I’m not sure the life I didn’t choose would have always been smooth.
Stocks don’t end with “if you hold them.”
The question is whether I could stick through the intraday movements.
Even so, I want to swap the mouse for NVIDIA.
I understand the logic.
I’ve prepared the beetle as well.
Now, the money has increased.
When it became 30 million, it was “Ah, it’s 30 million.”
But it was much happier than when it was 10 million.
Looking at the money I increased through deposits and individual stocks, I thought I could finally buy stocks properly.
When I look back at that time, there are things that come to mind with the amount.
So many stocks I wanted.
The fear of margin trading had thinned compared with before.
Losing big in Chinese stocks.
I made a profit with NVIDIA, yet I still want to stop selling now.
And I enjoyed looking at charts every day.
Liking stocks didn’t mean I stopped losing.
Watching for three hours doesn’t guarantee victory.
But because I liked it, just watching was enjoyable.
That difference was big.
A writer who corrects a sentence many times even if not asked.
A fishing enthusiast who constantly thinks about the next tool.
For the person, perhaps that’s part of the fun.
For me, it was stocks.
There may be something hiding in those who say, “How can you continue like that?” about what they love.
I, who cried, “Finally I can buy,” still have a busy path ahead.
What I want increases, the fear changes, and I even complain about winning trades.
Even as money increases, the heart doesn’t necessarily complete with it.
Still, I found something I could be passionate about.
This is something that happened in my life aside from the balance.
I think I’ll continue writing about these kinds of self in the future, seen through investing in stocks.
Now, back to the time machine story.
Even if I ask the beetle to substitute for the mouse, my past self would probably keep watching the screen.
Even if it doesn’t sell, I can still look at the chart.
Three hours a day.
The beetle would tire first.
“Excuse me. May I return to the forest?”
Sure. I’ll keep watching.
Thank you for reading to the end.
I’ve dragged the beetle into the stock talk a bit too much.
Next is the story of 50 million yen.
If you’re willing to continue with me, I’d be glad if you’d follow.
※This article is based on the author’s memory of investment experiences and reflections. It does not recommend specific stocks or margin trading. There is risk of loss in investing, and past profits do not guarantee future results.