While not a finance student by education per say (actually an engineer by education), I first began looking into finance and ways to make money quick by attempting to day trade via Robinhood (like how many others first foraged into the investing world during COVID-19 lockdowns). While initially successful (quickly going up about 14% if I remember correctly on a variety of trades, mostly simply from looking for daily bounce backs on individual stocks), I eventually proceeded to go down 25% (at least, these are rough estimates) from my original deposit… While these were far from massive losses considering I had a fairly small investment account, it still seemed incredibly scary to someone as brand new as I was, and who had heard that the only tried and true ways to make money in the market were to “buy and hold forever”! However, not one to give up easily (usually out of pure stubbornness…), I kept trying, constantly tweaking my strategy through research, trial and error, and numerous other ways. Through all of this, I was focusing on technical trading, which means trying to use stock price movements and understanding different charts, as well as looking at daily versus monthly charts and using indicators such as the relative strength index (RSI) and the simple moving average (SMA).
I quickly learned that a better route, for me personally, was to focus on fundamental trading.
Obviously, technical trading seems to work incredibly well for many people out there, and props to them! They are incredibly intelligent and talented individuals, and are able to make money on seeing market movements before anyone else (sometimes before they even happen), and it also requires a much higher focus on daily market movements, starting in the premarket all the way until the after market movers. These traders tend to need to be glued to their screens much of the day, albeit they all have different strategies on that aspect, and I am clearly not an expert on best ways to make consistent money via those strategies… Fundamental trading, on the other hand, focuses more on company news, market catalysts, company financials, etc. I found this to be more in my wheelhouse, as I enjoyed looking into upcoming catalysts such as FDA approvals, new product releases, and so forth and looking to play run ups to those announcements using one general rule I like to stick to:
Buy the rumor, sell the news.
Using this idea, I would look into upcoming catalysts and try to play the run up, or if it seems to me that the news was potentially already built into the stock price, I would look for post catalyst movements to get in on. One example of a run up that I played was when Apple was rumored to be releasing the iPhone 12. This may have been one of the easiest run-ups to predict with all the hype around Apple, and I bought and held up until the day before, to take out any risk in the event of an underperforming release. While I missed out on a small gain in that case by not holding through the presentation, I have had other instances where I learned a hard lesson by holding through… I once bought a stock that was trying to get FDA approval for a drug that seemed absolutely incredible, a true game changer in my mind. However, for whatever reason the FDA did not give their approval, resulting in over a quarter of the stock’s price to disappear. Therefore, to limit risk, I have gone away from holding stocks through catalysts and announcements, no matter how incredible they seem to be. With this in mind, I tend to be a short to midterm swing trader, trying to get in ahead of the stock price going up in advance of a catalyst. This also fits my personal lifestyle a bit better, being able to do any research in the evenings after work and not needing to check my position too often, with the catalyst date on my mind. However, if I see the stock price shoot up a fair amount prior to the date, I tend to play it safe and sell at least a large portion of my position.
Take a win whenever you can!
After all this research, I realized that, even amidst all the hours I spent trying to understand the market, individual stocks, and setting up my individual future, I found that I still looked forward to even more research! I begin to dive into other finance areas, such as retirement, real estate, and everything else finance! This is when I began to see more of the philosophy side of finance and investing, with several great ideas sticking with me, including the idea:
If you find something you enjoy and love to wake up to do, eventually the money will find you if you do that task well.
This led to me considering further, safer ways to use my love of finance research and current knowledge and opinions to benefit myself and others. I first considered YouTube videos, but quickly crossed that off as I’m not the most camera friendly person… So decided that blogging would be a much better option! I am incredibly passionate about having a forum where I can express my finance ideas and tips to anyone willing to listen, as well as being able to receive feedback and tips from others as well!
While this blog is meant for me to share my ideas, advice, and knowledge, at my heart I will always be a student and yearning for knowledge, whether that be in finance, life, or any other topics. Therefore, please, argue with any ideas I post with your own opinions! A good debate is, in my opinion, arguably one of the best ways to learn for both sides as long as people keep their minds open and stay respectful!
So please, enjoy all I have to say, and above else, take everything I saw with a grain of salt, as it is all based on my current knowledge, opinion, and situation and I AM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR! The greatest thing to do after reading anyone’s opinion in a blog, video, magazine, etc. is to verify that with multiple other sources and develop your own ideas from that research.
Again, I AM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR AND ANY INVESTING TIPS, STOCK PICKS, ETC. ALL COME WITH RISK AND NO ONE KNOWS WHAT IS HAPPENING ALL THE TIME
My personal strategies for investing and various other finance aspects have been developed by doing plenty of independent research, watching or reading other’s opinions, listening to my parents, and many failures. Through all the different, often completely opposing viewpoints and advice thrown my way, I have formulated my own personal finance methods and goals, and I’d expect that yours are all at least slightly different depending on personal risk tolerance, life goals, timelines, etc.
However, if nothing else, I hope to be able to add even a tiny bit of knowledge to your financial know-how, and maybe even provide some stock picks that, after doing your own due diligence, that allow you to make even a bit of money or provide a savings tip that could maybe help you put a bit of spare change aside monthly, weekly, or even daily!
And I hope that the number one bit of advice you take from me is:
Investing and building your net worth isn’t about the money it brings in, but the piece of mind, security, and freedom that that money allows for yourself and your loved ones.
Meaning, money may not buy happiness directly, but the life that can come with that money, such as retiring early, working better hours, traveling, amongst other life aspects, will allow you to live a happier, less stressful life that will hopefully allow you to pursue any hobbies or passions, as well as spending more time with loved ones.