My year-end results are in and I locked in an eight-percent gain this year. I made a lot of right short-term calls, on BABA, gold, and the Nasdaq which helped me make those gains.

However, this year I ventured into the options and futures market for the first time. These are highly leveraged investment vehicles compared to straight stocks. And whenever you try a new vehicle or investment style regardless of how long you have traded, there seems to be a learning curve with new vehicles, and I learned that this year. 🙂 Thus I experienced some drawdown as a result. Chalk it up to experience and education gained.

The most important lesson I learned this year was first, listen to myself. Listening to any so-called veterans or market legends with high-powered computers, and relying on such advice can prove a detriment to your psychology and put extra stress on particular trades that go opposite such advice. This can hamper performance. For example, in May I listened to a so-called market legend who insisted on a large market correction during the summer which never materialized. As a result of having paid thousands of dollars for this advice, which I relied on, I missed many good opportunities and overtraded over the summer due to heightened concern over an imminent crash.

Luckily, I still had my wits about me and can read price action on my own and managed to make a gain this year. Interestingly, my husband, who does not trade, does not care about market legends, does not do leveraged trades, and maybe looks at the market perhaps once a month, did much better than I locking in about 40% gains this year just holding (partially in thanks to me telling him when and what to buy and then his refusing to listen to me when I told him to sell) lol.

Thus, I have to remind myself about the sage advice my dental hygienist gave me about her investment in Facebook (FB). Let the market do the work for you while you do your other job, is what I remember she advised. She bought FB years ago when it traded about the 30 level. She said her husband day traded and never did as well.

I thank my dental hygienist and my husband for teaching me good investment principles, which I plan to implement for 2018. Importantly, I thank you for reading me this year, and for asking me for longer-term perspectives. Readers have often told me that I execute many more trades than they ever do and want trade ideas that will last longer than a few hours or a few days and weeks. These lessons I learned this year have prompted me to have a longer-term perspective, trade less, use leveraged investments less, and engage in another business to occupy the rest of my time. I have often read one ought to have seven different streams of passive income to retire wealthy.

I hope you have found my posts useful, learned how to use the block trader, taken an interest in Elliot wave, and have a wonderful and Happy New Year!