To follow – up on Maxwell Ma‘s suggestions on how to succeed as an investor, it is also critical for individuals to consider personal factors before diving into an abyss of red and green flashing numbers.

Although it is paramount to immerse oneself in researching the trend of the target market before settling in for action, the novice investor should also rationalize his/her own behaviour and norms prior to throwing down money.

Successful investments go beyond the normality of meticulous research and is actually tightly linked with psychology. An entire section of psychology – Behavioral Finance – is dedicated to studying what is formally known as the concept of “Investor Risk.”

Every prominent investor realizes that he/she is the worst enemy during the decision making process of whether or not to sell or buy. Contrary to popular believe that numbers rule the market, it is actually the emotions of investors that dictate the playing field.

While greed leads to impulsive actions, fear compels the mind to take on a “fight or flight” response, especially during heavy fluctuations in the market.

My suggestion to aspiring investors: to evaluate oneself and one’s potential behaviour within the market before cracking open the research documents.

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