There is a lot of people who likes to control something that are not controllable by them. For example, they would want to predict the share price movement and predict the profit that the company will earn in the next quarters by using extreme optimism. The writer would say that these are all things that we can’t control, why not we invest alongside with things that we are controllable.

The first thing we can control is broker fees. As we all know, broker fees will be charged for each transaction, regardless of it being to buy or to sell a share. Let say you are transacting twice per day, hence 40 times a month, and the broker fees including all stamp duty will be around RM10. The amount you will be losing without even accounting your share price will be RM400 per month, and that is about a third of Malaysia’s lowest income limitation. However, if you can control yourself to being a long-term investor with only transacting once per month, you will be able to save up to RM390, and spend it on other stocks.

The second thing we can control is risk. In order to control and manage risk, we will need the margin of safety when buying stocks. Never buy the stocks when they are overvalued, and buy the stock when they dropped to a reasonable price. Hold a certain amount of cash to counter any uncertainties that may happen in the future. If one has no cash left and the market suddenly crash, all we can do is just watch. Although the market will eventually rebound, but the opportunity is definitely missed.

The third thing we can control is our self, and our emotion. Whenever there is a market crash, normal people will follow others and sell their position just because they would like to get their cost back. However, a more intelligent investor should see this as an opportunity and buy more so when the market returns to normal, they will be able to earn more. Besides, there will be certain stocks they will surge continuously and they may look tempting to buy. However, it is the best to control your emotion and resist buying stocks that are going up continuously and getting higher valuation. That way, you reduce your risk for not buying a high valuation stock.

In short, investors nowadays like to time the market and would like to control the price movement. However, these are the things that we small investors can’t control. So, why not we just focus on smaller things that are within our control, and resist our self from making silly decision. This way, we can also prevent unnecessary losses without having the concern of share price either.

有很多人都很喜欢控制那些控制不到的东西。举例，他们会想要预测股价的走势还有用很乐观的心情来预测下几个季度的盈利。笔者会说这些东西都是不能被控制的，为什么我们不要投资在我们能够控制的东西上呢。

第一个我们可以控制的东西就是水钱。我们都知道每一次的交易都会要付一次的水钱。假设你每天交易两次而每次的水钱大概是RM10，那么一个月下来你总共会有40次的交易，并且总共花了RM400的水钱，而这也是马来西亚底薪的三分之一。但是，如果你能够限制自己只做长期投资的话，你或许一个月只交易一次，而这样你便能省下RM390来做更好的投资。

第二个我们可以控制的东西便是风险。一个人要想控制风险，我们必须要在买股前设定好安全边际。永远不要买入被高估的股，而只买入跌倒合理价位的股。此外，投资者最好留有一部分的现金来应对任何在未来可能发生的不确定性。如果你是满仓的话，那么在股市崩盘时，你能做的就只是看着它跌，而尽管股市还是会回弹，但是你却失去了最好买股的时机和机会。

第三个我们可以控制到的东西便是我们自己，和我们的情绪。当股市下跌时，我们总是跟随大众来卖股就只是为了拿回当初投入的本钱。但是，一个比较聪明的投资者反而会视这个为好的买入机会，而它们也可以在股市恢复时赚的更多。此外，总会有一些股的股价不断地上升，仿佛吸引着大家来买入般。但是，我们反而在这种时候更应该控制自己，抑制买入的情绪。因为这会导致你买进高估值的股，并且提高你买股的风险。

总结，现在的投资者总是喜欢预测市场及股价走势。但是，这些事是我们这种小散户控制不了的事情。那我们不如尝试专心在我们可以掌控的事情，也避免自己做出不理智的举动。这样，我们便能避免不必要的损失。

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