The following commentary on six key rules to invest like Jim Cramer was adapted from the CNBC Investing Club’s second annual meeting , which was held on Saturday in New York City, and past dispatches about Jim’s broader 25 investing principles . 1. Bulls and bears make money, pigs get slaughtered: This is closely tied to the notion that discipline trumps conviction. Discipline keeps you in the game and staying in the game is the most important factor in long-term investing. As discussed during the Club’s annual meeting, the big keys to making money long-term are (1) not having big losers and (2) not giving back large gains. We most recently demonstrated our adherence to this rule with our first trade of 2024, when we trimmed eight mega-cap tech stocks that significantly outperformed last year. As noted in the trade alert, we made these sales because we were feeling greedy, not because we had soured them. After all, these eight are, in our view, among the greatest companies in the world. The names trimmed were our Significant Six — Apple , Alphabet , Amazon , Meta Platforms , Microsoft and Nvidia — plus, Palo Alto Networks and Salesforce . You aren’t always going to be correct and many of these stocks just kept going up and up after our sale. However, booking some gains was the disciplined move and that’s what we have to do. What happened with Palo Alto Networks shortly after that trade is a perfect example of why you can’t be greedy. We sold at around $286 (though our alert went out with shares closer to $293). Yes, shares did then proceed to rip higher, topping out at around $377 apiece. Do we wish we held on and sold at $377, obviously, but hindsight is 20/20 and to think you can time it every time and sell right at the tippy top is simply put, wishful thinking. One bad earnings report later and shares plummeted last week to about $262 per share, roughly 8% below our selling price. Had we not made that prior sale, we would not have been as well positioned…
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