Charles Rotblut – Realize When You’re Lucky and Walk Away

<p><strong>BIO: </strong>Charles Rotblut, CFA, is a vice president and financial analyst at the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII).</p><p><strong>STORY:</strong> Charles bought a Dotcom stock in 1998. A week later, the stock had tripled. His dad advised him to take the profits, but he insisted the stock would keep going up. Three days later, the stock lost almost all its value. Charles sold the stock and made very little profit.</p><p><strong>LEARNING:</strong> Don’t confuse luck with skill. Utilize a rolling stop loss to manage risk. Always have a diversified portfolio.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><blockquote class="ql-align-center"><strong>“The market has an uncanny ability to make you look silly. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, how skilled you are, the market can and will make you look stupid, and not just on one occasion, but on several occasions.”</strong></blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center">Charles Rotblut</blockquote><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Guest profile</h2><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-rotblut-cfa-985b66/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Charles Rotblut</strong></a>, CFA, is a vice president and financial analyst at the <a href="https://www.aaii.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">American Association of Individual Investors (AAII)</a>. He is the editor of the AAII Journal, created both the PRISM Wealth-Building Process and VMQ Stocks, and authors the weekly AAII Investor Update email. His book, “<a href="https://amzn.to/46ekv2f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Better Good than Lucky: How Savvy Investors Create Fortune With the Risk-Reward Ratio</em></a>,” was published in November 2010. Charles holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and has analyzed both publicly traded and privately held companies.</p><h2>Worst investment ever</h2><p>Charles bought a Dotcom stock in 1998, right before Thanksgiving. The stock took off, and he made triple-digit gains. On Thanksgiving day, Charles told his dad about the stock, an