There is no shame in being in cash.
Most experienced investors trading their own account use this to their advantage. Knowing everything about Technical Analysis and Fundamental Analysis will not help you at all, if you refuse to move to cash when the market enters a serious bear phase. Money management and preservation of your capital is critical. If you risk too much and lose too much you will not have enough money to invest when the going gets good. The more you lose in a downturn the more you have to make on the upturn just to break even.
If you hit a losing streak, and it is not because what you are doing is wrong, that tells you the whole market may be going bad. If you have five or six straight losses, you want to pull back to see if it is time to start moving into cash. You can’t control what the market does, but you can control your reaction to the market. Smart investors need to follow new strategies to make profit from falling stocks.
Start to change your position quickly when you are proven wrong in a trade. Every active trader should learn to trade instead of gamble. Successful trading is about managing trades once you are in them, regardless of where they came from. Buy stocks that you will feel comfortable holding. You should also be prepared for the unexpected news and developments that can make nonsense of the most careful and meticulous calculations. If you buy when the stock price is well below the earnings line and sell when the stock price is above, you should be successful.
When things go wrong, that’s not the time to complain. It’s the time to innovate and commit to making valuable improvements.
People think a successful person is either lucky or right most of the time. This is not. Successful people make mistakes; Every time they fail, they keep trying much harder and more often than the average person does.
Good luck and safe trading
Asoka Samarakone