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Four Reasons to Give Up
When I first learned that you can make money selling stock options with a mathematic approach, I was excited. I’d been looking for an investment strategy that wouldn’t rely on luck or incredible analytical skills.
I soon hit the first obstacle: no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t understand slightly more advanced concepts. I figured that if I opened a demo account and tested the strategies with virtual money, perhaps I would learn how it works in actual practice. I was dumbfounded when (according to all of my calculations) I should have made money, but instead I lost it.
I went back to studying theory, determined to understand every single part of the process. I reached out to other investors and asked them questions, referred to videos, articles, and books, but I still couldn’t figure it out. It was as if somebody sent me back in time to Ancient Greece — I couldn’t make sense of this world and its language.
In the end, despite my initial enthusiasm and persistence, I gave up. I’m glad I did so, because I avoided losing a lot of money. I also discovered that I have a penchant for simplicity in investing, and selling stock options is anything but simple. In the end, this experience helped me choose an approach that was better suited for my personality.
So far, we have covered how to deal with various types of failure, recover from them, and resume working on your goals. However, it doesn’t always make sense to be persistent. Sometimes failure signals that you should stop because you’re wasting your time.
In the last part of the book you’ll learn about the four most common reasons to give up. After you finish reading this part, you should have a clear understanding of when to continue with your objective or move on.
