How To Really Ruin Your Financial Life and Portfolio

Chapter 5Pour Continuer . . . Sell When Things Look Bleak . . . and Stay the Heck Out of the Market

That’s right. Just as it was vital to buy when things were hot, it’s just as vital to sell when they are cool. If stocks take a really big dive, then it’s time to sell them, and fast. There is no bottom, really, except for zero, and you sure don’t want to be there when the stock market hits zero.

Plus, your friends who say they have already sold will be telling you to sell, and you want to take their fine advice. It’s interesting, by the way, that as I navigate through my older years, I can recall with such vividness the friends who comforted me when I was in distress about the stock market by telling me they had sold at the peak. These are good friends indeed, and you can be sure they wish you well. My old Mom used to tell me that her friends would always tell her when they had sold at exactly the right moment but never when they didn’t sell at the right moment. And they would discuss the stocks that went right but never the stocks that went wrong. She must have been right. Obviously, not everyone makes all of the right moves in stocks or everyone would be a billionaire and no one would ever lose money. We know that neither of those scenarios is true.

But to get to the main point, it is crucial to realize that when things are looking bad financially and economically and perhaps even politically, there simply is no limit except annihilation to what can happen to your stocks.