10 Reasons You Suck at Stock Market Investing + FREE Financial Book Giveaway!

Gains & Losses Total:   -$339.10   -39.62 % = This  is the result of my adventures in investing thus far.  Originally and naively I believed that I would be able to amass a small fortune in a relatively short amount of time because I consider myself to be a reasonable smart person.  Don't get me wrong I have been successfully maintaining my retirement portfolio (401K and Roth IRA) through Fidelity and consistently beating the market for the past 3 years.  But I really suck at investing in individual stocks.  After boiling it down, here are the 10 reasons why:

The sky is falling! What should you do with your 401K

The stock market is choking on millions of dollars in bad debt. Paulsen wants to infuse a $7 Billion dollar bailout, but the Bill was killed in the Senate due to partisan politics. The return on my 401K investment this year is a dismal -29.6%. A lot of people are panicking. The question is what to do.

If you are not close to retirement age then you can actually benefit from this market downturn. A majority of the stock market took a big hit on Monday. If you continue to contribute as you were, you will be getting more stock for your money. When things turn around, and believe it or not the economy will eventually improve, you'll be fine. At least this is my reasoning and what I plan to do. If you have a better idea, let me know.

If you are about to retire you are screwed especially if you had all your money in the stock market. Again it may take some time for things to turn around (I'm guessing 3 to 5 years) and if you can't wait out the depression, get your money in safer investments like bonds.

On a side note my bank Wachovia was purchased by Citigroup. I am interested to see what will happen. I'm not afraid of losing any money, but I hope Citigroup knows what they are doing.

I am not worried.

I'm in over my head.

About a week ago I jumped into a stock called MEDX after seeing it on CNBC's Fast Money. It had recently gained about 7% on news of a new anti cancer drug. I acted on emotion and greed. Don't make the same mistake. Not only did I deviate from my disciplined monthly investing of a small sum in a diversified index fund, but I payed a whopping $10 commission to make a real time trade using Sharebuilder. Now I'm in the stock and will probably lose money because I have to make more than $20 just to break even.

Did you ever invest with your emotions rather than your brain?

Stock Market going down today, time to buy in

Today the stock market will likely drop a few hundred points due to fears of increasing interest rates. When all the dipping is done, it seems like it would be a good time to buy in. I have about $200 to spend, I'll be opening a Sharebuilder account tomorrow and plan on picking up some stock. I am interested in Home Depot, Microsoft, McDonald's, and a few others. Any suggestions?