<buggycoder>

Learning the Trades

Shirish Kamath -

Our products work pretty well unattended now, requiring less overtime from me unless external factors throw things out of place. After working through the night, mornings are when I "come home from work" to leisure time. I installed Steam on my laptop thinking I could spend some time gaming. But then I found a more appealing pass time — trading in the stock market.

It's an experience I would recommend everyone to try, mainly because with little care you can actually place safe bets and get decent returns. It can be fun if you're investing money without the expectation of the returns supporting your future, i.e. if you expect to receive at least exactly the amount you put in back and you only invest in low-risk stocks.

IMO, a good attitude for beginners investing in the stock market involves:

  1. Target beating the current bank FD interest rates for a 1 year period
  2. Only invest capital that you don't mind leaving blocked for multiple years
  3. Only invest in stocks with decent market cap, repute, and a historically proven performance
  4. If the stocks you purchased aren't yielding expected returns, prepare to HODL for multiple years
  5. If your stock starts tanking, don't be tempted to purchase more shares at a lower level to improve your avg buy price. People end up investing more capital than originally planned sliding down this slope. Be patient
  6. Maintain a portfolio with only a handful of scripts across multiple sectors. Place larger bets on proven market heavy-weights
  7. Avoid advice from analysts and biz news. Monkeys can beat them at picking stocks
  8. Don't give or take stock advice. You may feel like an expert when your stocks are doing well, but trust me — that feeling won't last for long. The markets are a humbling force
  9. Don't be disappointed by your choices. You will make mistakes, and that's fine. You haven't lost your principal amount yet (unless something has gone crazy wrong with the company). You cannot predict the future

It's a roller coaster of emotions with real money at stake — which makes it better than most PC games. Last week, I was in serious red and on Friday everything was green green green, and I didn't do a thing thing thing! Enjoy the ride!