The real key to success in the stock market

Have you ever wondered if everything you’ve been told about success in the markets is wrong?

What if the secret to stock market success isn’t just buying the “next Amazon” or “next Nvidia?” We know it’s everyone’s dream. That’s why you see it in marketing messages over and over again.

Here’s some unconventional wisdom to consider when trying to grow your wealth…

It’s less about the stocks you buy and more about how you manage them that will really make a difference to your wealth.

That seems counterintuitive. Isn’t choosing the right stocks the most important thing?

It is not.

It’s like thinking that the road to success is always just about doing more. Success is about choosing what are you doing managing your career.

More effort alone is no guarantee of success.

New York Yankee legend Yogi Berra said it well: “You don’t have to swing hard to hit a home run. If you have the time, it will work.”

We are all familiar with examples of the importance of time.

Our food supply depends on time. We just passed the autumnal equinox, the day we go from summer to fall. For farmers, it’s time to harvest things like tomatoes, sweet potatoes, apples, and yes, pumpkins.

Good comedy depends on the perfect timing of the punch line.

Musicians need to know exactly the right time to come up with their instrument and how to stay in sync with the other members to create the optimal performance.

The same goes for your portfolio.

The dreaded round trip

If you’re like most investors, you got the timing wrong and held stocks for too long.

Stocks that have seen accelerated gains as a result of the COVID lockdown provide some excellent examples.

One of them is Zoom Video Communications Inc. (ZM).

Zoom is, of course, the video conferencing service still used today by many companies and individuals. When we were all faced with working from home and staying in touch with friends and family only remotely, Zoom became an important part of our lives.

And of course the stock went up. Below is a graph of the ZM share price from the first locks in late March 2020 to a year later.

Even if you bought the stock in April or May, you would still have seen gains of over 150%.

And the future looked bright. People have become accustomed to using technology. Many workplace experts have predicted that working from home will be the new norm.

But the following year, the market normalized. COVID vaccines have been developed. And in conclusion, people really wanted to be in person again.

Here is the ZM chart again, but covering two years.

It’s easy to see the back-and-forth that too many investors have suffered if they didn’t get out at the right time.

And it’s easy to imagine someone who was once up over 200% hanging on to a stock once it starts to fall, hoping to recoup some of the “lost” gains. You can easily see that happening in the chart above around mid-2021 when the stock went up again for a few months.

No one should feel too bad about it. We’ve all done it.

We are only human, prone to making decisions out of fear and greed.

In your efforts to grow your wealth, picking stocks is only part of the battle. No matter how good your entry point is, nothing matters if we hold a stock too long and don’t keep our gains.

Get the timing right

Long period of time Digest readers are familiar with our friend and macro investment expert Eric Fry.

Over his 30-year career, he has made dozens of bold calls that have resulted in big wins for his readers, including warnings about the impending bubble before it burst, to sounding the alarm about to the tech crash of 2022 months before it happens.

His ability to see what’s coming is why he has such an impressive record of picking stocks that rise. 1,000% or more.

And he didn’t just do it a few times, but 41 separate times.

Last week, Eric held a special event that wasn’t about stock picking. Instead, it was about helping people with a tool to help them manage their choices.

Here he explains why the event was so important.

Because the way many, if not most, investors approach the market is completely wrong – and is a possible setup for failure.

We’re on the precipice of a series of huge, market-changing events: recession rumors, one of the most controversial elections in US history, the staggering cost of living and more. It’s all a perfect storm for the most painful losses of some investors’ careers.

However, this is not all doom and gloom. There is a way to prevent this fate – and even come out a better place than you were before.

The stock market has had a great year so far—up more than 20% in 2024 as I write this Friday morning—and I hope you’ve shared in the gains.

But it doesn’t take much to see that there could be more instability in our near future. Highly contentious elections threaten to bring more chaos in 2025… Fed rate cuts could reignite inflation… war in Europe and the Middle East could widen and threaten energy supply chains… and AI will build and is destroying businesses at a record pace.

Spending more time picking stocks than managing those picks is a recipe for trouble.

to The big sale of 2024 event, Eric reveals a simple way to determine the best time to buy a stock before it goes on a huge streak, and how you can use the same method to determine the best time to take profits off the table before an investment to head south.

You can bet that those who have held Zoom for two years could have used it.

See his record The big sale of 2024 event by clicking here.

Enjoy your weekend.

Luis Hernandez

Editor-in-Chief, InvestorPlace