First of all I own about 35 different stocks, and yes I know I should be buying index funds, but all of us make mistakes don't we. I have been moving money from cash into my stock account for 2 years and slowly buying up different companies.
Well I ran some numbers to see what percentage gains i have averaged and that is why I am posting. Mind you I could have plopped all this money into my stocks right from day 1 but I was new to stock trading and wanted to do it slowly (about 1000/month the first 6 months, 2000/month the next 6 months and then doubled that the next year). My gains were 16.3%/year taking into account how long each batch of deposits were invested.
Now this shocked me in that had I simply invested in VTI I would have realized 44% returns for 2 years. Instead some of my deposits have only been invested for a few months and returning much lower %.
Again I just wanted to put myself out there as an example, and express my regret for not taking the advice I have read on here.
Oh I forgot to mention I had been selling some in the money covered calls, which lowered my potential gain, but provided some level of protection.
I have another stupid mistake (with my retirement account but I will save for another topic)