So someone gets into the stock market.

Opens the brokerage app, and there they are… “ideas.” Subscribes to a Telegram channel – more “ideas.” Goes to read some research – yep, “ideas.” “Top 10 stocks to buy,” “5 high-yield bonds,” “30% upside,” “idea of the year.” Wow!

Okay, fine.

Buys one at 5% of the portfolio. The next day – another. Skips the third idea, buys something else on day four. Then another one. Puts 5–10% of the portfolio into each.

Now what?

A couple of weeks or a month later, the portfolio is full. Literally. There’s just no cash left. The positions opened two weeks ago have barely had time to go anywhere. A medium-term investment idea can easily take months to play out, a long-term one – years.

But the analysts don’t stop. That’s their job.

Tomorrow they’ll send you another idea. The day after – two. Then it’s “10 stocks you need to buy right now.”

And what are you supposed to do with them?

Sell what you bought two weeks ago? Just because the new idea looks prettier? Add more money? A portfolio can only stretch so far.

Everyone talks about what to buy. It’s the same everywhere. Buy this, buy that, X% upside, hot sector, blah blah.

But what do you do with what you’ve already bought? For some reason, that question gets a lot less attention.

Why did we buy it in the first place? What has to happen before we admit the idea was wrong? What if the price is up 30%? What if it’s down 30%? Hold? Buy more? Sell? When do you review the portfolio? When do you rebalance it? And what, exactly, do you do with the next wonderful new idea when there’s simply no money left for it?

Buying is just the beginning.