Patience and experience are key share-trading qualities

Wednesday, 12th August 2009 13:17 - by Boredmum

I have spoken before about patience...or rather my lack of patience, but I think it is an important thing to learn. There was a respected poster on lse.co.uk who, last year, seemed to ‘go away’. Now, it could just be that they decided to go skiing (or snowboarding) for winter, or it could simply be that they were patient. I can’t speak for this particular user, although I can say that they restricted their posts and we didn’t see much of them. Now that they are back, the shares they hold are really gathering momentum. It got me thinking that they are probably quite clever and experienced. You can believe in a particular stock and its ability to go towards a certain price, but the price may be being driven down by market sentiment. If you continue to believe (and truly believe) in it and time is not a factor in releasing funds, then is it really so wrong to wait for a recovery? I know that many people will say no, sell and buy back lower. It’s hard to call the bottom, but if you have a belief in the company, then by all means average-down and reap the rewards when the market recovers. I have seen this happen with EMED, buying in at 9p and watching it fall to under 4p, only to rise up to more than 14p and settling around 12p. I believe the potential is there for 30p+ so, with this in mind, I shall hold.