"Toyo Keizai ONLINE Column Series: If you’re not making a profit, it’s because you’re not keeping an investment diary."
Good morning, this is Matsushita.
If you are not making profits in investing,
the reason is
that you are not keeping an investment diary.
For people who have never kept an investment diary, the reasons for losses are as follows.
1. Repeating trades based on emotions and feelings,
lacking knowledge and theory
2. Since trades are based on emotions and feelings,
you end up making the same mistakes again
3. No trading rules
4. Taking profits small while losses become large
5. Unable to seize opportunities
6. Having created trading rules but unable to follow them
For this and other reasons,
people who have never kept an investment diary
will keep making the same mistakes forever,
and will lose money while still not knowing how to change it,
even if they work hard.
All investors do not want to lose money, so they try hard.
However, this effort is misguided in direction and strength.
If you want to avoid losing money and work hard,
you should keep a small daily investment diary for a day and
continue it for three months, six months, and review it regularly.
The effectiveness of an investment diary has been demonstrated by me personally.
I am a “voice of the experiencers” of investment diaries,
a “before & after.”
I bought my first stock in February 2001,
and every weekend I would buy a chart book at a bookstore,
and I studied hard.
Even so, profits did not rise.
I learned from some book that “an investment diary is important,”
and from then on I started keeping an investment diary.
As of September 2001, I was keeping an investment diary.
The reason I remember this is that
on September 11, 2001, I clearly remember keeping an investment diary on that day.
Keeping an investment diary does not instantly yield profits.
However, as I kept it,
I realized: 1) how wrong my daily judgments were;
2) that I lacked sufficient knowledge to generate profits;
3) that without trading rules I would likely lose;
4) that the current activities were not enough
and so I continued to learn.
The days of losses continued a little longer,
but those days eventually ended and days of profits began.
One of the big reasons I was able to become profitable
was that I kept an investment diary.
If I had not kept an investment diary back then,
I would not be here now.
I would have lost my capital,
and, like about 80-90% of the market,
I would have given up investing in despair.
And my life would have been incredibly different.
I do not intend to say that profits come solely from an investment diary.
However, I believe profits cannot be achieved without keeping an investment diary.
Because I truly think so,
I have been advocating the importance of investment diaries for 14 years.
As proof, I personally supervised and wrote an investment diary,
and began creating and selling investment diaries.
Here is the investment diary I supervised and wrote.
In a free online school as well,
in more than four videos totaling 40 minutes,
I teach its importance and necessity.
Free Online School
This is the “Recommendation for an Investment Diary.”
Keeping an investment diary is a path you must take to
achieve profits.
Keeping an investment diary is
a hassle.
But if you do not overcome that hassle,
and if you cannot profit without overcoming it,
will you still call it troublesome and keep avoiding
investment diaries?
I do not recommend that.
Those who are not profitable, please start soon.
Even if you are profitable, if profits are not stable and you lack confidence, it will be highly effective!
