Beginner's Notes on Learning US Stocks 77

Pursuing stability is the biggest risk

My mom is a retired teacher who watches me busy as a dog every day and can't understand it. Her biggest wish is for me to take the civil service exam. This wish persisted until I officially turned 35 last year, making it impossible. For 26 years, her nagging direction became: "If only you had taken the exam earlier..."

If there's one thing in this world that never changes, it's probably change itself. (Hahaha, saying this out loud might easily get me scolded, but I genuinely agree. Cultural values are great for self-discipline, but when used to demand things from others—especially when those in power don’t practice what they preach—it becomes absurd.)

The market is doing well today. Sold some META at 660, and will sell the rest at 685, 720, 750, and 780, then stop. Also smoothly sold some UNH at 350 today, with plans to sell the rest at 375, 400, 440, 470, and 500, then stop. Placed a PG order to reduce position at 155, hoping for a chance. MSFT hasn’t reached my target buy-in price yet but has already turned green. Will keep adding if there’s a chance; otherwise, I’ll just hold. Still buying too much, making each add-on too small to reach the target position, or ending up with insufficient funds. Will tighten up later—if I can’t accumulate enough, I’ll just sell. Let’s keep it to no more than 5 positions per account.

The on-exchange market has been good lately. Only holding funds and ETFs there—no individual stocks. As a busy worker, I simply don’t have time to watch the market (and honestly, I don’t really get it either). My annualized target for on-exchange was 5%, but it’s already nearing 6% in less than a month—ridiculous.

Lately, I’ve gradually noticed the differences between US stocks and on-exchange trading.

For US stocks: Only buy leading companies, only buy the actual stocks, manage positions well, and patience is key. Buy the dip, sell the rally, lower your cost basis, and hold long-term.

On-exchange is the opposite: No chance to buy the dip—when it crashes, you have no idea where the bottom is. No value investing; cut losses quickly. No "getting rich slowly" either—it’s all about riding the momentum. No one knows when it’ll stop, so take profits when you hit your target.

Bought dividend and healthcare ETFs with a classmate, agreed to add positions together on Monday. For the sake of hitting a target number, I kept trying to add from Monday to Friday but failed. Hilarious—didn’t dare tell my classmate, afraid of getting scolded, hahaha. My ridiculous OCD—still haven’t exchanged that $6.97. Once the last 10K is exchanged, I can top up together.

Five minutes left to hit my "sleep before midnight" goal. Goodnight~