My Investing Shortcoming

Greg Karp's talking about a Putnam Investments listing of the traits that lead to successful investing & financial security. I'm pretty good at most of them, except #3 -- Patience in the face of adversity.

Actually I'm not sure if that's even correct. My investing problem is that I hold on to my loser stocks too long and get rid of my winners too quick, which leads to worse gains over the long haul. Luckily I only play with a small amount of my money & leave the rest to the mutual fund experts, because I repeatedly have been unable to stop myself from selling off when my stocks make a quick jump (I feel so smart to make such a big profit so quickly!) or to hold on when it's obvious a stock is headed for the toilet (the stock has to come back, I'm an investing genius!).

Otherwise, I'm pretty good on the other factors--I resist temptationm for quick rewards and I have realistic expectations (except for those stocks I buy and sell myself, that is). I'm doing OK, but I still haven't learned to be a good stock buyer and seller. I love doing it, but my track record is shameful. I really should just hand all the money over to the pros, but I can't bring myself to do it.