What would be the title of your autobiography as a PSE investor?

Thank you to all the readers who participated in this Free Stuff Friday survey and shared “PSE investing journey” autobiography title. I’m going to share some of the (anonymized) responses that I received. As usual, no names or identifying info! 

• An Investors Guide to Overthinking the Stock Market
• Laban Pilipinas: To the Moon
• Out of the Bear, Into the Bull(sh*t)
• The Sukuna
• Red Port Series: Still HODLing
• REITs: My Successes and Failures
• FAISAL MUSA: My First Millions in PSE Investing
• I’ll Get Into the PSE Next Week!
• Buy Low, Sell High
• If
• Nothing to Ceiling: Tales of Insider Trading at the PSE
• Time Flies, but Not My Stocks: JROI Waiting Game Story
• Saan Ako Nagkamali!
• Investors Are Stupid: You Can Be One Too
• The Life of a Hopeless Romantic: My One-sided Love Affair with the Market
• The Waiting (and Waiting) Game
• From Ipit to Millionaire
• Greed Gone Wrong: Why Slow and Steady Wins the Race
• A Series of Unfortunate Events
• A Long Walk to Greendom (Still In the Red)
• Highway to Hell: How I Survived Entering the PSE During COVID as a Novice Trader
• A Boring Story About Investing in the PSE
• Hunyango: Day Trader When Winning, Long-Term Investor When Losing
• When Do I Sell Again?
• Bahala Na Si Batman!: Investing in the Dark
• How My Psychiatrist Got Richer After I Invested in the PSE
• It’s Not a Loss Until You Sell
• WAG LANG SA BANGKO – My Investor Story
• Genius Lang Pag-Bullish

MB bottom-line: I don’t know what it says about me as an investor, but even though my lifetime performance is positive and my years of investing are filled with some fantastic trades and positions that I built at the right time that went almost exactly as I thought they would and result in great profits for me, I still can only really remember The Ones That Went Wrong. The trades that blew up despite my best efforts. The dirty little side deals I made that were losers from the start and only got worse as the days went by. The big bets that tied up capital for months and years that never ended up paying off. That’s why my two examples were so negative! (Example 1: “MERKADO BARKADA: Grabbing Pesos From in Front of the Bulldozer” and Example 2: “Aaaaand It’s Gone: The Merkado Barkada Story”) As you can probably tell by now, I lean heavily on gallows humor to make talking about my investing mistakes easier and less stressful. It seems like many of you who participated in this FSF question feel the same way. I have to say, though, the one that stood out to me (and punched me in the gut) was the very simple yet ruthlessly effective “If”. There is so much pain in that one word. So much opportunity cost. So much investing drama and life in that one word. Thank you to everyone who participated! Congrats to the winners!

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