It's been said that the best way to make sure you understand something is to try to explain it to someone else. As a relative novice investor, I want to make sure I've got it right. That's why I posted a lengthy article on here about limit orders. Since I just experienced a stock split, I've got another article in the queue on that topic too. Posting here helps me and hopefully it'll help other people too.
Also, posting here helps keep me on the "strait and narrow" (yeah, that's "strait," as in the "Strait of Gibraltar," i.e., a difficult passage, not "straight"). Frankly, when I was buying stocks yesterday, I was tempted to buy some Cheesecake Factory (CAKE) or UnitedHealth Group (UNH) instead of Sears Holdings (SHLD). But I hadn't really done my homework on either stock and I'd never even mentioned UNH on this blog. It would be a complete surprise to my readers were I to buy UNH, and I'd have to explain here why I'd changed my mind and picked it instead of SHLD. (Okay, my readers are largely hypothetical right now. But I'm perfectly happy just pretending.) Stocks are one thing you should never impulse-buy!
The third reason is to give me a record of my thinking so that I can periodically review my progress. As I gain more experience, I fully expect to be able to see the mistakes I made early on. When I do, I intend to point and laugh at myself.
Posted by kindall at July 9, 2005 05:09 AM