have a workable plan and stick to it.

through a blog i came across recently, i saw that some people buy based on recommendation on other people's blog.

now, the reasons for the blog owner's buying might be different from that of the readers. or worse still, the reasons might NOT be sound at all.

so it's far more important to develop a strategy based on one's own unique situation and circumstances and buy/sell/hold based on the latter.

personally, I feel it's important to question the purpose of buying an equity. is it for long term capital gain or short term flipping (the latter type i do not practise and i do not recommend? is it for dividend income? what is the downside of the equity we are talking about? what are the safeguards?

in addition, for myself, I ask the following questions:

a) how does one know and have this conviction that price increase will happen in the next few years?
b) how does one know and have this conviction that dividend increase will happen in the next few years?
c) what then is the appropiate entry price, wrt a long term investing horizon?

the answer to b) is actually sufficient to answer a), as dividend increase will invariably be accompanied by share price increase.