Hold Those Stocks! But add that Stop-Loss

Last week we watched the stock market have quit a roller coaster ride.  As in life we have our ups and downs.  It's those downs that make us appreciate those rides up!

Don't get me wrong, I did have a moment of panic, wondering how low it was going to go and if I missed it.  It is never a good day when 14 out of 15 of your stocks are showing RED/LOSS!  It is down right scarey.

My husband was one that wanted to sell all - but I just could not justify selling all our stocks at a loss would help.  Especially when the majority of them are good blue chip stocks that pay a nice dividend.  If anything I wish I had more money to buy those stocks at a much lower price and average down a bit.

Thankfully two days later things started to climb up and a got my dig in - sorry, tacky - but "I told you so" did slip out of my mouth.  It could have gone the other way - where I was banging my head on my computer saying "Why, why, didn't I sell?"

I did do alot of researching to ease my mind.  It just wasn't justifiable to sell at this point.

But one major thing that I will add to my portfolio is "stop-losses".  We do have some penny stocks that I know we will hold until we make a decent amount of cash (though I am hoping for ALOT more) on.  But seeing how low they can go and knowing that for some of them, I really don't want to add anymore money - even to average down.

Learning to add a stop loss at a point of either 5% loss and then buy back or whatever you are comfortable with is sooooo important in ending up on the winning end of these things.

So on that note I have not done my part.  Now I am at the point where I am below that so I want to hold out and seriously crossing my fingers and having enough research and belief in those companies that they will come back a bit.

Hard lesson to learn, but a good kick in the butt!