Kyle C. - Laymans Guide to Investing, with a bit of common sense

Laymans Guide to Investing,

With a bit of Common Sense

KYLE C.

Copyright 2020 Kyle C.

All rights reserved. No content of this book may be reproduced and republished in any form and in any means without the permission in writing from the author of this book.

The main purpose of writing this book is to provide a brief account of my investment journey, the concepts that I had learned along the way, the general mistakes I made and more in an easy to understand guide.

This book will not be discussing topics on how to read the charts and candlesticks or how to instantly earn big bucks from the investments. The market price is continuously volatile and very susceptible to the ever-changing economy trends globally. However, having the correct mindset and attitude is key to be a successful investor, which I had learnt the hard way. Bear in mind that the content of this book is based on my personal accounts and my personal view. They are not meant to challenge the suggestions and ideas that are brought forward by other authors and professionals out there.

I hope that you have a good time reading this book and hope that the information in this book is able to assist you in your investment journey.

After completing my studies, I was like any other normal fresh graduates out there, taking my first step into the working world that was completely foreign to me. It was a new adventure into the unfamiliar, and much-complicated stage in life, the Adult Life. Armed only with advice from my parents to find a good job, I started my career in a multinational company based in the UK as a software engineer as it would allow me to gain more experience, to an extent, politics and the survival skills needed to survive in this cruel, harsh world. Apart from that, being a newcomer, I was eager to utilise my know-how that I have learnt from my university days and freelancing experience to build the next big solution for the company. I was very much into programming and all the technical stuff. A complete nerd if you will. I loved all the technical jargon, buzz words and latest technology trends coming out of the silicon valley. Tinkering with the latest software libraries and picking up new programming languages became my hobbies during free time. Business and financial stuff were the most boring topics for me. I would fall asleep within minutes reading on the Financial Times or articles on the Wall Street Journal. The investment road was the last thing that I would dabble in my life, at least that was what I thought it would be.

Then on one fateful day, my university mate came to town for a visit. It had been six years since we last met. We only had communicated occasionally via WhatsApp. I did not know how he is living his life now. His profile picture on the WhatsApp was a flower picture, and it was the same picture since he started using the application. He was the person that would shy away from all the social media stuff out there. The only post that he had on his Facebook was his profile picture six years back. Nothing else. He was one of my close mates. We used to travel around places and did a lot of stupid things together back then. I was curious to know what he has become since graduation and was exceptionally excited when I received a meet up request from him while he was in town. He came for business at a company, coincidently near my office. So I sent him the location of the nearest Starbucks for a quick catch up after work.

He had changed a lot since then. He used to be a nerd like me, with his big glasses and plaid shirt. Now, he looked like a proper businessman with that smart three-piece suit. I almost missed him at Starbucks since I still had the old image of him in my mind. At first, I thought it was a prank to get me embarrassed for meeting the wrong guy. Anyway, after we "reintroduced" each other, we got into the familiarity like we had back then instantly. We teased and talked like how we were used to when we were in our study years.

Our conversations were mainly on reliving the unforgettable experiences that we had together during our studies. When we finally got into the details of our latest life, I found it slightly astonishing that he is now working in the finance industry, and had accumulated quite an impressive investment portfolio. He started just like me, an engineer at a major electronics component manufacturing company. After experiencing with stock investing, he found a new passion in the business and financial sector, compared to the boring engineering stuff, and began shifting his career towards them. Soon the stories of his investment achievements got me interested. I had always loved playing with numbers and data, and soon I was fascinated with return percentages, profit projections, and those fancy charts that he had shown me. From that day onwards, I was eager to get my first bucket of gold through stock trading and investments.

For my initial capital, I was prepared to use the money that I had accumulated for my latest PC setup. Since I am still working and the pay was more than enough to cover my basic needs, I could save up the money for the PC later. Perhaps I could earn enough from my investment to pay off for the new rig. I was that optimistic. Seeing that I had become interested in the investment game, my friend took out a name card and handed it to me. It was a contact of his friend that works at an investment bank. He told me to give his friend a call and I could have the stock trading account set up in no time.

I did so without any hesitation.

In less than a week, my trading account was set up. I was so excited to begin my investment journey. The very first thing I did was, of course, transferring the money that I had saved up into my trading account. It would take a day before I could use it to buy some stocks. Optimistic, naive and gullible, I thought after that money would start rolling into my accounts the minute I started buying the stocks through the stock trading platform.

For the next few weeks, my eyes were glued 24/7 on the investment and stock trading forums, scanning through stock recommendations, buy and sell strategies and reading up on all the advice as well as the success stories by the experts there. Rather than doing my own research on the stocks, I have placed too much faith on those forums, even stupid enough to pay for subscriptions on a newsfeed to get the so-called insider news about a company or a stock in order to get some added advantage when I choose the stocks to invest. In the end, I traded solely on public opinions on the forums and "stock analysis" portal. I was just following the footsteps.

I had made some good money at first, around 30-40% returns from my initial investments, which was terrific for my initial attempt. This had gave me unprecedented confidence and I pumped more money into my trading account, hoping that it would generate more money for me. Greed had consumed me at that time. I could not think of anything else other than dreaming of making millions from my investments.