Yup, and profit isn’t profit until you sell too!
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Thank you all for the replies, it has helped me have a better understanding, and actually achieve some focus on what I am doing!
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Why do your head in like this? Start small with an ETF that tracks something like the FTSE 100. In time you can build up your own share portfolio and take more risk. Investing is not trading! Just because markets are volatile right now, doesn’t mean you need to buy without doing all your research first.
I second what some people already said: whatever money you have to invest per month start with 10-20% and then add another 5% every few days and make sure you still have about 20%-40% of your monthly budget left at any time to buy a possible dip.
When deciding when to buy short term i am using https://walletinvestor.com/ weekly price forecasts. Huge disclaimer: it’s 100% machine learning based so it doesn’t account for any big news coming out or any external factors but in the absence of any news I find it somewhat useful to decide which day of the week I want to buy. It’s free, you can keep an eye on it yourself and see if it’s worth it.
Starting with companies I believed have a bright future long term worked for me - that way you can at least convince yourself that even if Facebook is dipping because of the scandal it still has 3 billion largely unmonetised users and it’s not going to keep dropping forever. Buying and selling with no clear strategy (especially on US stock market that has substantial fees) is the probably the worst thing that can happen. Do your research and try to get yourself into stocks that you can resist an urge to sell for at least 3-6 months.
Start small with an ETF that tracks something like the FTSE 100
Massively diversified funds might end up being a roller-coaster for the next year and it’s not THAT cheap right now, but it’s certainly not the worst choice.