The Price of Impatience

My dumbest investment move was that after buying retailer TJX in 1999, I got impatient soon after and sold, in order to buy more of Texas Instruments. Well, Texas Instruments didn't grow all that quickly, but TJX sure did. My mistake was selling. Patience is a virtue, and the lesson is clear: If the company was good enough to justify a buy, don't sell if the fundamentals are still solid. Another dumb move was buying into a few IPOs. They promptly went south. I consider those losses the price of tuition at "Investment U.

— D.L., online

 

 

 

 

 

The Fool Responds: Investment U. can be costly, but you can gain by reading widely and learning to avoid many mistakes. Texas Instruments has averaged 7 percent annual growth over the past decade, while TJX has averaged 15 percent. Meanwhile, IPOs (initial public offerings, when companies first sell stock in themselves on the market) are notoriously risky, frequently surging before you can buy in, and then falling back. It's often best to give new stock a year or so to settle down before buying.

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