I had $40 in a stock that was going up.. then I put $400 more into it then it decides to go down, do I have bad luck or what ?

 the only question you need to ask with stock is- did I make or lose money buying then selling it

cos NOBODY ever became poor by making a profit

but they CAN become poor by chasing a profit by buying a stock just cos its price falls or rises

3 key rules

1)  ONLY buy stock when you have a reason to buy it 

that is - YOU have a reason to believe its price is gonna go up

 (i.e - you dont buy on the"hope" its gonna go up)

2) Only sell a stock when that reason no longer exists

3) there is no such think as "luck" - following rules 1 and 2 you will some you will lose some

  hopefully you will win more than you lose cos you will get better in picking your "reasons"

 you had $40 in a stock - WHY did you buy it?

 you bought $400 more stock - WHY did you buy 400 more? - and why did you NOT buy 440 in the 1st place?

 It appears to me you had NO particular reason to buy any in the 1st place, and only bought more cos its price went up

 that aint good or bad luck thats just stupidity

 (and you can forget stock analysis and charts - there are professionals doing this 24/7 and you aint gonna be better at it than they are

 the key is to keep up with the news (and preferably the news before it happens) and work out how you think it will affect the market and specific companies IN the market

  In the 2007 crash - it did not take a genius to work out that the US housing market and therefore companies making money out of loans were in a "bubble" BUT the markets ignored this on the basis that the US housing market had only ever crashed once . So those who thought differently made sort of bets against the loan companies and the banks supporting them . THESE people made billions (literally) out of the crash in 2007-2009 by going AGAINST the market. All THOSE people did was trace where all the money was coming from that allowed banks to declare HUGE increases in profits every year for 6 years

Well what stock did you buy???

I have had my stock account go UP or DOWN atleast 400$ probably atleast 100 times each day in the year 2019.

You buy if the company's net income is going up, long-term debt is going down, and you believe in the potential of the company's overall direction.

Never because of it's "price" which is incredibly fickle and moves on its own whims.

All companies on the stock market have their financial reports available on the internet, you just Google it. Not hard to read.

No, you have no common sense. You don't buy when stock goes up, you buy when it does down.

No, you do not necessarily have bad luck (at least with this). A stock will never keep going up. It is tough to time your moves, but know that if a stock goes up more than 3 straight days, it will likely falter soon afterward. If it goes up on good news, that good news and good vibes about it will soon wear off.

Luck has nothing to do with it.  Do you know how to properly read or analyze a stock chart for the purpose of determining trends, support/resistance, entry/exit points, setups, etc?  That is KEY when it comes to investing or trading.  You can't just buy randomly, even if the stock is in a general uptrend.

It's not bad luck, but bad knowledge.  Did you put the money in because it had already gone up?  That's reacting to past trends.  A stock went up for a reason.  Maybe it had good results, but the market has already adjusted by the time you buy again.  There is very little 'luck' if one is educated in how to properly invest.

Nope; just a law of nature. "What goes up must come down."

There’s no telling what a stock will do over the next 2 or 3 days but as long as it’s a good company and you’re holding for 2-3 years, preferably longer, then they generally go up. 

stocks go up and down. that's why the rule buy low, sell high always applies. if it's a good solid stock, hang in there with it. play the long game. check it out on Yahoo Finance. type in your stock symbol and see who else has skin in the game under the "holdings" tab. if Vanguard and Blackrock own shares, you're golden. just hang onto it. Yahoo Finance is an excellent resource to find out a stock BTW.