Thursday 19 December 2013

Timing The Market - Oxley Holdings

Today, I am going to do a short post about timing the market, both when you buy and when you sell. The reason I am talking about this is because just 2 days after selling my shares in a property stock, I watched its value shot up by 4% while the transaction is still in the midst of settlement (T+3). That could have reaped me an additional returns of $150 but I was too impatient. Therefore, I have decided to write this post to remind myself about the pitfalls of impatience and not knowing the stock you buy well enough.

With regards to the stocks that I purchase, its actually Oxley Holdings. I was getting uneasy after it held at the $0.465 level for a few weeks. Thus, I sold it 2 days earlier and watching the price shot up today made me feel inadequate as an investor. I guess the main reason why I sold the stock was because I did not had an in depth knowledge about Oxley Holdings as a company other than the fact that the CEO was a former cop. I was treating it as a speculation play after hearing hot tips from friends. Moreover, after going through the various investing and trading materials that I have been doing, I decided to sell it as I did not know the stock very well.

Therefore, this incident has reinforced my beliefs that I need to study extremely hard for the next few weeks before the winter holidays are over. The failed bulge bracket interview, the prop trading lesson that I have went through, all are good indications of my own naivety and eventually, it has to stop somewhere. Working harder and harder, I have to brush up my skills and resolve more to win over myself.

2 comments:

  1. Hi,

    Don't have to regret when you sell a stock too early. The most important thing is to know why you sell it. Market timing is quite impossible actually. It is very hard to know when exactly is a low or a high. You can use technical analysis to determine entry or exit points but that too is not perfect. As investors, we can only plan the best and act accordingly.

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    1. Hi,

      I do agree with you and the regret came more from not knowing what I buy well enough. I knew that I was also selling too early as Oxley announced a 3 cents dividends per share and I did not hold it out too long because I thought that there was a better opportunity for the profitable capital to be put to use.

      Now, I just realized that my broker has sent a cheque instead of crediting the amount into my bank directly. That will make me extremely disappointed if I am not able to make a purchase I want at the right price from the sale of Oxley Holdings.

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