"I'm Only Human, Born to make mistakes".  Taken from a verse of a song titled "Human" from the 1980's Band Human League.  Making mistakes could be painful specially when it comes to personal mistakes.  This defenitely includes loosing money in making mistakes in personal investment decisions.  

As the market goes up and down so as the emotions of new and novice investors.  As the market goes up, the hopes of earning more money and thinking of that extra cash gives excitement.  During an economic or market downturn, emotions starts creeping in.  Worries of loosing the money at the beginning .Worries later on turns into Panic Selling as the losses mounts up.  And as soon as you sell the investment, the market turns around, and here comes REGRET!!! And the Emotional Cycle continues.  Does it sound like a bad relationship with a girlfriend?

I remember these emotions too well during the first years of developing my first portfolio.  And even now 10 years later, these emotions still creeps in but this time well maintained.  So what can an investor do to control these emotions?  Well here are some of the things I do when it starts creeping in:

• My Portfolio itself is a BUSINESS.  Think of your portfolio as a business.  There will be days where sales is up and days where sales are down.  Not every business you start  ends up as a success.
• EXPECT the worse case scenario before you even start creating your portfolio.  Every money you put into your portfolio, think of it as money you have lost already.  (But ofcourse try not loosing it when managing your portfolio!!!)
• Control GREED  on up markets - be content of some returns and don't hope for TOO MUCH
• Control Panic on downturns - DO NOT PANIC.  Observe, Think, assess the investment, decide and act on your decision
• MOVE FORWARD - Do not linger on your mistakes too long.  Evaluate your mistakes and Learn from it then Move on to the next investment.  Only look at your mistake to remember the lessons you have learned so you can apply it to the next decisions making process.  But not to somber on it.

People are attach to their money specially when they need it.  That is why different types of emotions are attached.  Emotions are hard to control in the beginning.  But once a person is able to control these emotions, He/she can access the situation a lot better and this leads to a  better decision thought process in making better decisions.

LESSONS LEARNED: Leave Your Emotions Outside The Door
(a) Think of your portfolio as a BUSINESS, and
(b) All Businesses have UPS AND DOWNS, so
(c) THROW AWAY those Emotions to
(d) DECIDE (make a sound business decision), and remember
(e) NO REGRETS Once a decision is made 

RULES OF INVESTMENT: Think of your portfolio as a Business.  All businesses have ups and Downs. You may win some and Loose Some.

Source:  From the Desk of iMOBHQ.COM's Chief Investment Strategist - Rules of Investments