27 Tips and Lessons Learned for Investing in the Stock Market

​​The Tips and Lessons Learned shared in this article are based on interviews with stock market investors. Their experiences range from more than 30 years to under 10.

Some built their net worth to over one million dollars while others are in the process of building their retirement account. 

They found success through various methods; For example, Jordan chose an index investing strategy while Liz finds that a subscription service works best for her. Tom, Nick, Ivan and Elias on the other hand, prefer to analyze individual stocks. There are also investors who chose to invest through a financial advisor, Ken and Micheline.

While they each had their preferred method, they shared these core beliefs: 
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• They believed that investing is a must.
• They believed the strategy they chose was the right one for them.
• They had an unwavering commitment to continue despite the challenges.​

Tips and Lessons Learned

For Investing:

• Start investing early, think long term and take a broad approach.
  
  
• Identify what your needs are, now and in the future. 
  
  
• Know what your financial objectives are.
  
  
• Correctly identify your time horizon: how far into the future do you see yourself?
  
  
• Stay true to your chosen strategy. Make small adjustments if necessary but be careful about making drastic changes.
  
  
• Know that risks change based on age, for example, when we are younger, we can afford to take more risk.
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• If you are young, don’t be too worried about risk because time is a great diversifying factor.
  
  
• Understand that a riskless world doesn’t exist.
  
  
• Understand what instruments are available to you, such as tax leverage and types of investments.
  
  
• Practice self-discipline to consistently save money and invest.
  
  
• Continuously learn about the market by reading reliable reasoned research.
  
  
• Understand that it is truly difficult to outperform the market.  Don’t beat yourself up if it doesn’t work out, take the pressure off yourself.
  
  
• Although you don’t have to be right all the time to be successful, it is important to learn from your mistakes and do your homework. Remember that it’s a constant process of learning.
  
  
• Don’t buy a stock unless you are convinced by your own research that it is a good buy. You need to feel confident about it to weather the fluctuations in the market. 

For Trading:

• Don’t trade unless you are extremely well prepared.
  
  
• Start small. Only increase when you see a steady rise in your equity.
  
  
• Focus on protecting your capital. Accept that some periods won’t be as profitable as others. Fluctuations are to be expected, however if you lose your entire capital, you’re out for good.
  
  
• Learn multiple methods – learn when they succeed and when they fail. Learn about money management. Learn about yourself. In short, learn, learn, learn.
  
  
• Find your best style and your best instrument. Find what works for you. Remember your method might not work for others.
  
  
• Realize that trading is a stressful occupation and a solitary activity. Find an effective stress reliever for re-centering, and find a way to temper the loneliness, or learn to be comfortable with solitude.

Getting Through the Challenges:

• Have a vision of what you want and establish your priorities.
  
  
• In difficult times, look at your situation from a global perspective, and then break it down into smaller pieces. Tackle each piece one at a time.
  
  
• Take it one step at a time when you are feeling overwhelmed.
  
  
• If you try something and it doesn’t work, don’t be too hard on yourself because it didn’t work. Realize that not all solutions work for everyone.
  
  
• Create small victories. It is very important to give yourself some rewards.
  
  
• Find the positive in everything. For example, instead of looking at a difficulty as a struggle, see it as an adventure to find a solution.
  
  
• Create moments to appreciate the positive side of life.

In the following weeks I will post the individual investor stories to help you identify the investing method that may be best for you, if you don't already know.

By providing examples of what the choices look like in real life, my hope is that it will help you discover your best-fit strategy. It may jump out at you as you read the stories, if not, you may arrive at a decision through a process of elimination.