My S&S diary - investing from February 2026

masonic

🤦‍♂️

So what are you going to do if the market climbs the wall of worry another 10% and then treads water for a while?

LL_USS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81976930#Comment_81976930

@masonic I have no idea- what do you think?. Just not comfortable thinking of a crash (like they said housing crash in 2026 and where is it 😋) just too soon after I entered the market on high. I used to be fine keeping cash and still keep a considerable amount in cash (fixed saving for a few years for now) and I feel I deal with "losing out the gains" better than a crash. I will DCA more in once I know a bit more about the impacts of AI over-investments and private credits.

masonic

The concern is that you've been in and out a couple of times now already. You are demonstrating the characteristics of the type of person who tends to lose money investing due to their own behaviour. It seemed like you had learned a lesson, but then sold again. This is how people significantly underperform their investments and has been the cause of people throwing in the towel at a loss and never investing again.

If your aim is to not be invested when markets are near an all time high, then you'll spend most of the time out of markets.

aroominyork

As masonic says, "If your aim is to not be invested when markets are near an all time high, then you'll spend most of the time out of markets."

michael1234

I say this as someone who has actively posted about "are the markets going to crash".

What if (as is likely) some time in the next few hours (its possible if unlikely), days, weeks or months the market sees a permanent solution to Iran and Hormuz looks to be open for the foreseeable. I think we'll see oil ploummet and stocks rally.

Then lets pretend the Ukraine/Russia war finishes with smiles in a a few months - that could be another catalyst to sentiment.

So it could go either way and if I sell out of my stocks now I'd lose out. That said I currently have a fair amount in cash (maybe 40%) and I don't feel overly tempted to shovel that in. I'll probably regret it but at least I've hedged my bets somewhat.

cloud_dog

I think it is worth remembering that @LL_USS is running this as a 'live' experiment for reference purposes, and at the moment I feel they are expressing all the usual emotions and experiences of a trader, together with the struggle that the human soul goes through in trying to manage / control and conquer them 😁

masonic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81977718#Comment_81977718

Perhaps this is right, and if so this thread may serve as a cautionary tale to other would-be short term traders. Still, I'd rather there wasn't a human casualty on the other side of it. I suppose I had hoped it would be the ill-advised activity, rather than the emotional consequences of it, that would be managed/controlled/conquered.

HedgehogRulez

weakness shall be punished

LL_USS

Just pop in to say hi and thanks for all the posts - interesting and helpful.

I am back to work so I am keeping only a few company shares that will take a while to go up (and if they go down I'll wait longer). Trading was fun and I came out tired but okay, knowing it's not sustainable. The majority of investments still in area indexes.

kempiejon

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81978627#Comment_81978627

Not sustainable how? Too tiring?

I spent several years researching and buying FTSE100 stocks in the early 2000s, made a few quid with successful picks and still hold a couple of shares from way back then. I tried a few strategies but it was the time that eventually put me off. Compiling my own spreadsheet from company accounts, looking for undervalued business and then waiting for that perceived value to realise, then there's the problem of when to sell and where to put the released money. I might have been clever or lucky as I was returning above market average for several years. I now prefer to invest much wider, using global markets and hold debt, equities, commodities, precious metal and I think diversifying away from the UK was a good choice.

I found the process of valuing companies and learning when to buy, hold and finally sell was a good exercise in accounts and self knowledge. I still hold and occasionally pick individual companies usually UK listings though I have some holdings on foreign exchanges. It is very easy to monthly drip into a global tracker and not be too wrong.