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“After a year of investing in the stock market, I had turned my starting $1,000 into $722.14. Over the course of my first 12 months investing, I lost $277.86, completed 19 trades, paid $132.05 in commissions, and invested in eight different stocks. [...] Yet, I learned more from those first twelve months investing my own money than I could have ever learned from a book. By investing and losin g my own money I was able to recognize the weaknesses in my investment process. In addition, I gained valuable insight into my psychological behavior when I experience investment losses. I consider the $277.86 of losses to simply be tuition paid in my investment education.”

“Although this account will detail many mistakes that I made investing my own money, the lessons I learned from this exercise were invaluable. I am a better investor today because I risked my own real money buying and selling stocks. I didn’t truly know what I was doing at the time. Yes, I made mistakes. Yes, I lost money on some of my purchases. However, I also made money on some of my purchases. Each of these experiences taught me something.”