Stock investing – gambling, hobby or an opportunity? Read this and you might get rich or dry your pockets trying
Not so long time ago my idea about investing was that only old, rich, cigarette smoking rich people do it. Well, how wealthy do you actually need to be to invest in stock markets? My consideration is that people can start investing even with small amount of money. Probably few hundred euros as first investment is plausible for a student. If you think it isn’t you could start doing calculations on your monthly expenses. Do you perhaps visit pubs with your friends after long school day? Do you perhaps own a car for your two kilometers commute to school? Think, cut the expenses and begin preparing for the moment you really need the money!
Ok, how to start your personal stock rally? There are various agents that handle buying and selling for you with few clicks. I can still remember my first time buying stocks. It was a leap of faith when approximately 700 euros started its journey with just few clicks. That leap of faith cost me 7 euros of commission but it was certainly worth it, I was hooked. From that day it has become almost daily routine for me to check on my investments. In the beginning most of the people are worried if their portfolio value drops a few percent during one day. Don’t worry because you get those nice positive surprises usually more often! Most importantly you don’t need to be staring on your portfolio value 24/7 because the companies you’ve invested in will probably try to do their best to keep you satisfied.
Maybe some of you have now bought this idea. So, how to begin with your personal journey towards markets? If you have some friends that are interested with similar topic you could ally with them to discuss about the possibilities. This far I’ve got best investing tips from my friend with education in the field of economy and engineering. It is certain that he is the mathematician of us two, but this year even I’ve been able to foresee stock opportunities that have climbed extremely high. You should also concentrate on what is taught in some of the courses because they might also give you the upper hand in the stock markets, especially technology stocks. One angle to approach the investing ideas is to listen discussions between your school mates and their ideas on what is cool at the moment. Signs are there you just need to figure out how what of those to follow.
I’m certainly not a mathematician or economist but by reading lots of news and following forums you can find interesting information on the forthcoming trends that might increase the amount of your chips. Some might consider it a sort of gamble but just make sure that you invest on company that has healthy balance sheet. At this point it might be good time for you to think what kind of trends of future you’re visioning the world is going towards. There are no limits. If you find correct paths and agents you can basically have securities around the globe and in amazingly many sectors. At the moment my personal stock portfolio includes American and Finnish companies and their core business vary from construction to health care sector.
Nordic agent Nordnet is my choice for stock exchange service, but there are plenty of others too. Kauppalehti Online forums and Seeking Alpha articles with discussions are quite good sources to read just to mention few. Just remember, having no money for investing is an bad excuse if you own a car or visit pubs few times a week. Place your bets and enjoy the stock roller coaster instead of drinking your brains off and having such a luxury as a car with student status!
Mikko Hautanen, Student BIT2SN
