7-1-25: Don’t Make My Early Mistake – Selling too Soon

by Jason Bodner

July 1 , 2025

How does one become a successful investor?

One way is to teach investors how to do it, but how do you decide which system to use? There is an endless amount of information about pursuing profits. Countless words have been written, books sold, and videos recorded. Endless news stories, interviews, chat rooms, and newsletter services are out there.

A better answer might be more memorable – in showing you what not to do, in my own real-life example.

Like most things in life, I learned the art of investing the hard way. This column offers a real-life case study of how right Jesse Livermore was in our opening quote: “Big money is made sitting and waiting.”

Chasing your tail is an exhausting (and often fruitless) method of investing. In the end, you only hear about a few success stories of quick traders, not the vast graveyard littered with losing day-traders.

Proven long-term investors, such as Warren Buffett and Louis Navellier, say that identifying great stocks is only part of the battle. Holding them long enough for massive gains is where real discipline comes in.

This is a story of how my mistake ended up costing me a small fortune, so maybe you can let my failure become your pre-paid tuition of a potentially profitable master course. I am offering you a way to avoid one cardinal sin of investing: Don’t make rash short-term decisions with huge long-term consequences.

How I Met Louis Navellier – at Age 17

Life usually contains a series of ironies. You may know that I have worked with Louis Navellier for nearly 10 years now. I have written Sector Spotlight for Navellier Market Mail for 9+ years, a long time!

What you may not know, however, is that I have known Louis Navellier for 33 years, since I was a teen. I first met him in 1992, between a trip to Lake Tahoe and a white-water rafting trip, when we spent five days navigating the Green River. We camped at night on the riverbanks with fire-cooked meals and bright moonlight bouncing off the canyon walls. It was an awesome experience for a 17-year-old – or anyone!

The beginning of our trip was far less exciting, though. First, we flew from Florida to Reno. I remember not thinking much of Reno, but then the drive to Lake Tahoe was beautiful and the lake was gorgeous.

After that trip to Tahoe, my dad had scheduled a meeting with an investment manager he saw on CNBC – yes, it was Louis Navellier. Dad liked his approach. He seemed logical and smart while remaining cool about the market – as cool as a cucumber. Dad wanted to invest with him but wanted to meet him first.

So that’s what we did – and he took me along. We went to his office building in downtown Reno. Louis shook my hand and then showed us around. As a teen, I was more into music and girls than finances and computers – or people in professional office attire – so I don’t remember much about that encounter.

Then we went on our trip to Grand Junction and the real fun began – for me. In the end, dad did invest and he also started a small account for me, probably $1,000, at the same firm, Navellier & Associates.

Fast forward to November 1998. I had graduated from college and had moved to Boulder Colorado to play keyboards in a band. I was a starving artist. After nearly three years of toiling in obscurity, I was as broke as could be and weighed 145 pounds, so I moved to New York City to try my hand at music there.

Struggling was too generous a word to accurately describe my first years in The Big Apple, 1998-2001.

I needed money… badly.

Then, suddenly, I remembered my dad’s tiny account for me at Navellier!  I had no idea how much he started with in that account. I just knew now, at the age of 24, there was a secret stash I forgot about.

Since I had kept a few statements, I rifled through my papers. After a frustrating while, I found them.

The first statement I saw said that I had $2,900 waiting for me!  I hit the JACKPOT! I was rich!