Selective Memory

Sunday, 16th May 2010 21:50 - by Boredmum

Have you ever gone through a tough time in your life when things were so hard that, when you look back, you only remember how bad it was and how tough things actually were? Equally, you may have had a really happy time in your life and you look back with fond memories, remembering how good the times were. I guess that is selective memory, as we usually only remember things dependant on our mood and feelings. I have had a tough couple of weeks where, unfortunately, my portfolio value has dropped. Of course, I am rather annoyed at this and was thinking of all the judgement errors I had made. My Broker sends me a paper copy of all my transactions. I tend to gather them up for a while, then open and shred them. As I shredded them this week, I was surprised at some of the things I had wiped from my memory. Of course, there were good trades where I had made money. However, the thing that I hadn’t realised as I looked at them was the trades where I had lost money but had done the correct thing in selling. I had came out of Leni Oil and Gas (TIDM code: LGO) at 2.8p; a considerable loss, but at that present time if I chose to buy back I could have done so at 2.4p. The same applied for Ascent Resources (TIDM code: AST). I had only sold around half of my AST shares, but had sold them at just over 4.9p and the opportunity was there to pick them back up at 4p. I sold half of my European Nickel (TIDM code: ENK) shares at just over 9.77p, only to buy back at 8.2p, 7.65p...and on Friday at 6.9p. In hindsight, I could have picked those up cheaper as they are 6.4p to buy at the time of writing. The point is that, although I have lost portfolio value in the last 2 to 3 weeks, I have no doubt saved myself from some greater losses. Isn’t it strange how we tend to be selective in our memory?