The Amateur Investor. Ep 3: Like getting into a cold pool

There’s a strange feeling that I sometimes get in my stomach when I know that I’m on the edge of something new/big. The first time my girlfriend kissed me was one such occasion. The first time I experimented with my cooking, the first time I competed in rock climbing. Life is full of such moments. They can be intimidating, but they also grant a level of clarity and focus that is not common to everyday life. This was one such moment. 

Since my first meeting with the rest of Mockingbird, I had been giving Bill’s advice a lot of thought. Investing in stocks in and of itself is something that can be quite intimidating. Fiction and nonfiction is populated with tales of people who both ruined and built their empires on the backs of a few good stock picks. Upon further investigation, I found that a majority of the worst-case scenarios happened as a result of little to no research followed by wholesale overcommitment. Simply put, they did little research on the horse they were backing, and went for broke betting on it.

Needless to say, I have no intention of making crazy speculative bets, but I was still nervous to say the least. I was moving into the realm of playing with real money, and what’s worse, it was and still is my money. I had looked at a number of companies that I’d heard of from friends and fellow investors. So far all of them had seemed like relatively safe options, but I was yet to be fully satisfied. I had only just finished navigating the rabbit warren of registering a Commsec account and a linked CDIA, (essential if one chooses Commsec as an investment platform as it acts as a bank account you can transfer funds to to buy stock) and was still reeling from the headache. 

Even without investing, I’m finding a higher degree of interest and alertness in world events, especially with the current global pandemic of COVID-19. On a general inspection, now seems to be a good time to begin investing, as in many cases share prices have dropped quite drastically due to the ongoing health fears, though it’s projected that the market will continue to dive. I’m still working on my allocation strategy and trying to wrap my mind around how to scope out potential investments.

I’ve yet to work out a proper sign off, which is required or I’ll risk doing that thing my parents sometimes do where they go to leave a party but never actually leave and keep rambling on. 

So for now I’ll close with Bill’s advice once again.

Go slow, play small, learn the process.