Investing Regret

I am annoyed at myself for not sticking to my guns and keeping some stocks I invested in a few short weeks ago. If I had just done nothing for a while, I could have made lots with this "hobby". I sold my Bank of America options too early and broke even. Why? I mentioned this to a co-worker and she didn't think Bank of America was a good idea. It planted some sort of dumb curse in my head. As soon as I bought my first call option, the value began to decrease a few cents in the stock price, but the option value started to fall dramatically. That was really scary, and while I didn't panic sell, I thought I wanted to get out of that stupid trade and get my money back. For a while I had thought I'd lose it all, but a grueling few days later it went high enough to break even, and that was good enough for me. I'd invested way too much emotional energy to this stupid trade and was happy to get my money back. But that wasn't it. My co-worker who made me feel stupid for getting into the trade in the first place reminded me that the stock was doing great, and had I not sold my option so soon, I would have made a nice profit. Several lessons learned here: 1) Don't tell your coworkers when you buy and sell because they make you feel stupid no matter what, and 2) Be willing to lose as much as you put into every stock/option purchasing decision. 3) Time seems to be on one's side (at least in the current market). So don't freak out so quickly. 4) Stop listening to other people's opinions and do whatever the fuck you want.

There are other stupid decisions I made like selling FaceBook at 175 because I was afraid that "regulation" would kill it. Lesson learned here: Don't listen to the fucking media (could be the same as lesson 4 where media == "other people").