Hey all,
So, just a bit about myself & my investing journey: I'm from Hong Kong & was first introduced to investing at 13 after reading bits of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Having an older baby boomer British father who always thought stocks were "gambling", I struggled with the scarcity mindset that I was brought up with & had to take the longest time trying to change this mindset.
I never started investing till I was about 22 back in 2020 & even then, I was a very conservative investor & only invested about US$130 a month into a unit trust fund from my bank (HSBC) - I blame my lack of financial literacy at the time as I didn't know how to open an investment account & was so hesitant to transfer money out of my bank account. (What a waste of an opportunity.)
Later that year, I got thrust into the world of speculation after being asked to recommend stocks by a friend who wanted a very aggressive approach with his investing (At one point, he wanted to go all in on one stock.)
As I was risk averse, I never attempted to try picking stocks with my own money & as it turned out, using Reddit as my main source of information as a retail investor, my stock picks were actually winners if I had sold them at the right time at the time - I looked into BYD, NIO, PLTR, MARA, DDD, OCGN, GME.
Fast forward 5 years & my financial literacy has improved as I spent hours listening to finance podcasts & reading investing books. I've managed to put in consistently put money into VT each month & the more financial content I consume, the more I realize that I'm more geared towards being a broad index investor rather than a stock picker.
I still haven't started picking stocks & I can't help but beat myself up for not taking the risk back then. The hindsight bias has been brutal & taxing to my mental health knowing how life changing the potential return could've been but anyway, would've, could've, should've, I understand Hindsight is 20/20. I still have these lingering questions at the back of my head:
* Am I bad at taking risks?
* How do I make of this experience when I was an absolute beginner? (Was I too harsh on myself?)
* Should I even be trying to pick stocks based on Reddit advice knowing how indecisive I can be making such decisions as we all know markets are forward looking & the stock prices have the possibility of already being priced in?
* How do I learn from the experience & most importantly, moving forward, how do I develop the CORRECT mindset for my investing journey & rid myself of the regret from the hindsight bias I've been struggling with for some time now?
I would love all your feedback & opinions on this & would love to know if you have any stories related to this that you would be happy to share. (It would definitely help a lot!)