The point of a stock journal is to write down exactly what you bought, when to cut losses, and record gains. A journal will help all investors who have a hard time selling loser stocks. As you have noticed, a lot of my articles have this concept in them - when to sell. For many people, this has been the biggest issue to grapple with. If are not strict to this rule of selling losers at 8%, you will lose money more often than not.

You cannot second guess yourself saying, “Well, what if the stock goes up?” This is not okay, this will make you lose more often than not. Keeping a journal will make the line of selling more definite. You could also go on to record what the stock did afterward for the first few times to see what you would have lost afterward just to prove my point.

*Journals can be paper-bound or electronic on the computer.