August 2022 Edition!

Introduction When good investments are made, the market always offer returns. The major reason why investors missed out this return is because of the various mistakes that they commit. In general, learning is best viewed from getting the best and learning from those who did the best or from those whose performances were outstanding. This best is always the one we can copy. It attracts people’s attention and is often worth celebrating. In business the best is good to learn from as well as the worst (Stammers, 2016). This article focuses on identifying some of the investment mistakes that are likely to be committed. Also, it highlights ways in which such errors can be curbed so that businesses could be managed in order to maximize the output. Coming out with some of the ways that these investment mistakes can be avoided can help entrepreneurs on how to open and sustain a good business. Thus, contributing to foster the UN sustainable developmental goals for the citizens. This worst is important because it helps investors to watch out on certain aspects. The worst performance of someone’s business often helps as an eye opener especially on those things/concepts that led to the poor output. Also, it can even open an entrepreneur’s eye to see and understand a business area that may be no one has never thought could be problematic. So, getting the worst or mistakes of others act as a steppingstone for a more successful approach in business. According to Warren Buffet, a good number of investors do not find pleasure investing. They do not allocate time for it; even their feeling towards investment is questionable. They no longer feel very good at all. Unfortunately, most of the advisors commit the same errors and mistakes that the individual investors makes, (Tillinghast, 2017). So, the actual reason for investor’s underperformance is not only as a result of the different market scenarios but also as a result of the mistakes of the investors and their advisors. It worth nothing that all of us are liable to one or more of these mistakes. Many great investors admit their awareness of investment mistakes and have raised mental blockage so that they are prevented from it. According to (Warren, 2003) “risk is the outcome of not being fully aware of what you are doing”. One of the key issue in investment is that the investors should be fully aware that returns are variant and this variance is continuous throughout. This is one of the key concept the investor needs to be aware of before investing. A good comprehension of it is a prerequisite to the avoidance of the investment mistakes they may be making, or ever attempt to make whether they have a discipline plan or they fall prey to some performance data that may be misleading, (Ben, 2015). So, in this article, some of the investment mistakes and how to avoid them are discussed. Thus paving a clear path towards which successful investment can be achieved.

Mistake 1: Investors not having a clear cut investment goal In the business world, especially in trading the goal of a business is view in a different manner. Usually many people invest their finances because they want to make profit. That is to say after one sells the items, the money obtained is more than the cost price. So that some money is obtained as gain/financial profit. This is alright. This will meet only the individual’s (entrepreneur’s) financial needs and may be contribute to better his life and family only. Obviously the business has solved a problem; which is personal. The issue here is that even though a problem is solved, it has not contributed anything great to the community. A good investment goal is set so as to positively affect the community in which the business is located, (Bodie, ZVI et al, 2013). Having an investment goal is the same as stating where you are going (destination of the investment). If someone on a journey does not have a specific place where he or she is going, then it is either he or she is going nowhere or finds his or herself somewhere he or she does not understand. In business, aspects like from planning of the investment, to the techniques or strategies to be used and designing of portfolio is one of the primary key considerations to make. Selecting the different asset classes are structured with the main goal in the mind as a reference point. Having this goal in mind will point the investor’s focus on both the short term as well as long term investment objectives. As a result other business side tractions will be easily identified and could be avoided.

Clue to have a good investment goal. According to (Batnick, 2018), a good investment goal should be such that that it is beneficial to the entire community. So, a business goal should be framed so as to solve a particular problem in the community. This means that it will affect a large number of people. Consequently, the outcomes will be profitable both to the community and to the entrepreneur. Hence, the problem is resolved and people are rejoicing. Then the entrepreneur is will also be rejoicing not because he has helped to solve a problem, but also because his expectations are met. He is a fulfilled personality that is important and useful to his community. He is regarded as a well valued person in the society. So, before thinking of investing your money in to a business think of What particular issue you are going to address in that community. Once this problem is identified, you then think of the roadmap, (Firth, 2015). Mistake 2: Timing of the market Market Timing is a term commonly used in the stock market. It is an idea that tries to put forward that there is a period (time) that the investor has to be in the market and there is a time that he or she should be out of the market. For example some investors like try to “protect” their capital investment by going out of the market whenever they noticed and sensed a drop in returns. At this point, they load up with stocks that are more risky in anticipation of future recovery. This approach is called timing of the market or market timing. It is not advisable because is an investment mistake. It is not very possible for the market to be calculated. This is because return is not as linear as the investor may think. However, market timing applies to all forms of trading. Below are some of the ways market timing can be identified, (Batnick, 2018). Elements of market timing The mind of the investor is full of some thoughts as given below. • I already have some funds kept side for investing; I am just waiting for things to go down. • Even though I have some money, I think I will invest after the elections. • From the way this country is so indebted, I will wait a bit and see how thing unfold. • I will like to do provision business but why is there no provision store around here? Hmm! May be I wait and see because I suffered to raise my capital. If you have ever had a thought like one of these, then, you are doing what is called market timing. Market timing is an investment mistake. Many people may lure you to commit it. For example, some family members may erroneously jump out of business before a major crisis step in and they may misinterpret it as smartness and lure to do market timing, (Al-Janabi, 2020). It is not advisable because it may not turn out well as theirs turned out. This is because even though it sounds true and real, this advisor is likely depending on the one time he made a good decision and may be forgets the many times his decisions failed. Another reason why market timing is not good is because if you succeed you have beaten the market. In investment, it is difficult to beat the market because at any given point in time in an efficient market, the present price of asset/security gives the estimate of intrinsic value of security, (Chuck A. Arize et al, 2016) Evidence of market timing Getting Information from the Media. Very often investors turn to get information from the media this includes; information about the items that are more costly, rapidly traded stuffs, price fluctuations, scarce commodities and so on. According to (Lei, 2015), sum total of the information (and its value) obtained from the media with respect to the market is zero. The reason being that following up the market on media trends usually creates a result that is often negative. The purpose of the media is for adverts not market information. So, getting and using media information for market projections is an evidence of attempting to time the market. Forecasting. Forecasting deals with fore telling or predicting the price and sales depending on issues like: • Weather • Period of the year • Events at hand • Predicting base of comparative records of the past. • The market trends in the near-by market and so on. Forecasting is dangerous because it reveals more about the person forecasting (forecaster) but say nothing concrete about the next moment and the future, (Bodie, ZVI et al, 2013). Findings show that economists do not have the ability to predict the direction of the economy. The reason is because there are several known and unknown variables that influence it. These variables limit the accuracy of the prediction.

Switching between traded items or class. Switching between tradable items is the investor’s ability to rotating items that are being traded. For instance, a trader may select times/periods or seasons to trade with particular products or to enter the other part of the market. The main purpose here is to protect trade downside. So, they turn to estimate the market trends of a particular item. A good example is a provision trader who calculates and says ok it is Christmas period let me limit the purchase of provision and get toys and Christmas trees obviously I will be able to make more profit since in December especially from the 20th upwards everyone is having the charismas spirit. This idea looks good but it is purely market timing and could be disastrous when items or stocks are being switched periodically or annually. Some of the disadvantages is that, it could lead to: • Reduction in trading capital especially in the case where the items switched were not all sold, or maybe they were sold below the expected or cost price. Reason could be that the period (Christmas) is almost finishing and very little or no sales are made. So, for fear of losing all the invested capital, the entrepreneur chose to sell below cost price. • Complete loss of capital • Inability to really follow up and master the items in trade in which one is involved. • One could be trading for years and have no mastery and so the business sustainability is not guaranteed • Poor selection of the switch items and sales may be poor. There are some traded items that cannot just go together. So, selecting and blending traded items should be done following diversification principles.

In business, switching between items is greatly discouraged because one key concept in trading is that when the investor concentrates on one item he/she understands and masters the trend of that particular good through experience and the taste of customers are captured. So, depending on the period you can meets the needs of many customers this will rather help to increase the traded volume and generate more profit. It even helps you to build lasting relationships with the clients and the business sustainability is sure. Therefore, switching from one class of assets to another is called market timing, (Piketty, 2014). This kind of supposed tactful way of trading often gives less than expected results. Usually when the period is over, some goods are left unsold. Warren Buffett a modern time investor has greatly discouraged market timing. Amongst all the investment techniques and strategies, market timing is one of the most greatly mocked, (Ben, 2015). He explained further “forecasting is the senseless thing that an investor can do. I have never met a man that has successfully timed the market”, (Warren, 2003). So, overall one can conclude that market time is not a good practice. You cannot really decide when to enter adequately and when to go out of the market. Neither can one determine when to leave one part of the market and go to another part of the market. This is a common tendency amongst traders that looks like common sense trading and at times one may be deceived to think that it works; may be simply because upon one such manipulation some gains were obtained.

How to avoid market timing Understanding market volatility. One of the best way to avoid market timing is to first acknowledge the volatility of the market. Market timing is a temporary investment approach. This is because there are so many market disorders. Investors must therefore understand the major movements in the market. When the market movements are understood, then their frequencies should also be noted. Let’s consider this life example of trading fresh tomato in a quarter market where the researcher lives. Over the period, the market scenario is as follows: It will be difficult to know why a basket of tomatoes that was sold between 2500 francs to 3000 francs during the first week of December 2021 and by the third week the price of that same basket of tomatoes went up to 11000 francs. Looking backwards, by September 2021 and November of the same year the prices of that same basket fluctuated between 2000 francs and 11000 francs. This is a clear indication of the volatility of the market. So the best way out of market timing is to acknowledge that the market is volatile. With this in mind the investor should endeavor to understand the market tumor. Have an idea and frequency of trade within the intervention to have a possible return however small because the market is volatile.

Consistent trading. Another solution is that, it is better and advisable to carry on consistent trading. That is to say remain investing and focus to know the investment portfolio than attempting the trade-in and trade-out of the market. By engaging in regular investments which is the opposite of market timing. Since one cannot successfully predict the market, because an investor can be out of the market and an unexpected market scenario surges upwards. For instance, an investor may predict that the market will go down. So, he sell off the stock and protects the money by involving in some conservative investments. Then realizes that while his money is not in that stock, the market trend shoots upwards and there is a period of high performance. Thus, this investor timed the market wrongly. One of the easiest way to get a solution of a problem is to look for the opposite of that problem. The opposite of market timing is regular investments. This means that the investor buys stock, hold and observe as the market goes through different cycles. Once upwards trend shoots more upwards, he launches the sales (exit).By so doing, regular investment is encouraged. Regular investment, and constant portfolio checking is one of the easiest way to track the investment goal, and thus avoid timing of the market, (Baker, 2019). To be continued