You don’t make money in shares when you buy them. You don’t make money when you sell them. The money is made in the time in between these two events.
The waiting.
That is when you ensure a good return from investing in shares. The company in which you have invested is doing what it does and, hopefully, increasing earnings. This increase in earnings will be reflected, over time, in an increase in the price of the share. And will almost certainly ensure dividend income for the shareholder.
The most important personal characteristic for investing in shares, therefore, is patience. You must be able and willing to wait. If you are not your returns will be spotty and inconsistent.
You must be prepared to buy and hold shares to ensure the maximum returns over 5 plus years. If you don’t want to do this you might want to consider something else for your money.
Remember that buying a share is not like buying a betting slip. You are buying a piece of a company. The company is making sales and profits and you are buying into a sliver of these profits with every share you buy.
The fact that the price of the share goes up or down in the short term is immaterial and should be ignored. The long term price of the share will follow the earnings achievements of the underlying company.
Your mind set needs to be to buy and hold. And wait. Then you will maximize your investments.
And you will ignore the certain market corrections that will inevitably come. You will ignore the bear markets. You are in for the long haul.
And you can even take advantage of the market falls when they arise.
If you are interested in learning about investing you may be interested in signing up for my free investing newsletter.