Two in One
If you live on the East coast, then you know that the big celebration in the spring is in DC where the cherry blossoms bloom. This year the city celebrates 100 years of the gift of the cherry trees from Japan. The opening ceremony was on March 25th but no one told that to the cherry blossoms which had pretty much left town by then. Rumor has it that the Japanese ambassador was praying for snow to slow them down. But forces of nature being what they are, all he could do was joke that coinciding the timing, though nice, would be like having Christmas and your birthday rolled into one. Better to baloney-slice out the celebrations.
You may be nodding your head in agreement. Think about those sorry souls whose birthdays fall on Christmas and how they will forever be gypped of presents! Yes, most of us feel it is best to spread out the cheer; however, when we invest, don’t we pray for Christmas and our birthday on the same day?
When we buy a stock, we want all the good news to happen immediately. Sure there is a real opportunity cost to money. We want to cash out quickly so we can move on to the next great investment. Can all the stars align and we make our 50% upside in 2 weeks instead of 2 years? Maybe. But more times than not, we’re waiting longer than we’d like for the stock to go up.
Worrying and waiting for the stock to pop upon purchase is like hoping for a two in one celebration. Most of us wouldn’t want this in our personal life and expecting this in our investing life makes it harder to look beyond the short-term noise. We end up selling and often times too soon.
Investing takes patience and expecting Christmas and your birthday rolled into one is what drives us batty. While we’re certainly not going to pray for snow to slow things down, if you’ve done your research on the stock you own, then Christmas and your birthday should come around, they just may not be on the same day.
By Christine Song of Small Investing Insights
