Maybe I'm just a generally easy to stress person

It is well known to my friends that I suffer from "Economist Stress" (the uncomfortable feeling one gets on a Thursday afternoon when you know you won't have finished reading last week's Economist even though the new one will arrive in the mail on Friday morning).

I've now realised I also suffer from Investment Stress. I've created my trading account and loaded it with cash but now I can't bear to log in... every time I do, the money is just sitting there taunting me. "Why haven't you invested me yet? What's wrong with you?"

To make things worse, I know what to do and I know where to put it... I just can't seem to get round to it.

Example: as soon as BT announced they weren't going to award any contracts to Marconi for their "21st Century Network", it became obvious that Marconi would be a takeover target.

The bad news caused their stock to tank... (50% wiped off) yet there was an excellent chance of a white knight coming along and causing the price to shoot back up as people rushed back in. Yet.... I did nothing. Grrr.

Let's look at how much I could have made:

First, let's look at their six-month stock history:



That precipitous drop in May was when the bad news from BT was announced.

Where did the stock drop to? Around 270 is the most realistic lowest closing price (there's no chance I would have spotted the low). Where are they now? 305 and rising. That's a 13% rise in three months..... Grrr!!!

I should have the courage of my convictions.