Three Most Important Concepts
The best thing I got out of this experience was an understanding that the economy is - by nature - productive. I dispelled my belief that for every dollar someone makes in the stock market, someone else has to lose a dollar. The average return on the stock market is more than any bank will provide, so the stock market is definitely somewhere that I want to be.
I've also learned that there is no easy way to judge a stock. There is no magic number, and judging a stock is a lot like judging a person. The more time you spend getting to know the company, the more likely you will be to make a fiscally responsible decision when investing.
Finally, I learned that the ticker really isn't relevant for most stocks, unless it's in a crisis and every minute means big percentage changes in price. Successful investors invest for the long term, so a day's losses or gains are negligible in the long run. Getting worked up over a 2% drop is pointless. If a stock has been properly researched and has no reason to plummet, it won't.
