It began with a phonecall from a friend telling me about the shares in a mining company he had just bought. He asked if I was interested in building a portfolio as well and learn along the way. Knowing the way this guy's mind works, I jumped at the opportunity. He's a man of logic, a problem solver, and has no time for BS.
We agreed to enter into this venture with our eyes open, prepared for the worst scenario of loosing everything or even waiting years for a return. We could put it down to the "price of education" if all was lost. Secretly i'd been wanting that playboy lifestyle for some time now and had to know if share dealing was the key.
Being a fairly critical kind of person, I knew this was the beginning of the learning curve and my judgement sucked. As I asked more and more people around the office if they had shares, ready to pickup valuable info, it became obvious that those few who did have shares had lost a lot of money in the last year as the economy took a plunge. The knee-jerk reaction of most people being "don't do it" and "stay away from shares at the moment".
Well I ignored them.
Carefully I had been taking notes on what my friend had bought and the price. Over the next few days I picked up shares in the same three companies. Looking back, my lack of research or thought before jumping in was equivalent to using a carrier bag as a parachute. I did it anyway and in my defence, I took advice from a man who knew more than me.
I spent £450 in total and now had shares in 3 companies. The deed was done, I made my choice and was left wondering if I had made a huge mistake.
Little did I know this was going to be one of the most exciting learning curves to date. Within three weeks one share went to 3 times its value. In a state of disbelief, i grabbed the phone, ran out the office and made an over excited call to the broker. Cha-Ching!
It took a while to sink in, but it was true. I'd made my first profit.
Well, I can't take the credit for being the next share guru, after all i'd just followed along for the ride. It started me on the path of wanting to know: when to buy, what to get, and why?
Hours of online chat turned from games to global economics and comparing notes on shares to watch.
If you want, i'd like to show you some of the tools I use and share some of the lessons i've learnt so far. I'm only six months into this and currently own shares across 12 companies in a few different sectors.
If you'd like to share any useful info or links please do so in the comments here.
I'm looking forward to seeing where this leads.
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