Stocks: The Beginning

Jun 2011. My first bonus was sitting in the bank and the second was on its way. Reading about people younger than me doubling their capital when they bought blue chips at the low in early 2010 was something exciting for me - low risks, good returns. Alex and I have attended some financial talks organised by the company so investment was something on our minds. So when we chanced upon UOB Kay Hian while walking around Suntec, we did not hesitate to open an account so i could enter the market once the opportunity comes.

the time to buy stocks is when nobody else wants them.

My opportunity came quickly, it's the Greek-euro crisis; and that marks the beginning of me learning about transaction fees, contra (havent played it yet), blue chips, mid-cap,... My initiation was conducted mainly by colleagues as almost none of my close family members trade. I chose blue chips to play with - Singtel, SPH, SGX (tho SGX was not strongly recommended). It was quick money and all it took was some sentiment reading. I told myself I would nv let myself lose sleep over stocks. Nv to get too hung up over it.

Riding on the confidence, I started buying more stocks - F&N, Yangzijiang, Biosensors, more risky stocks - United Envirotech. I began to remember stocks by their codes. T39 - SPH, S68 - SGX... I enjoyed trading, reading graphs, analysing the news.

A month on, it was the U.S. debt crisis, hitting the debt ceiling of 1.4 Trillion. Aug 2011, my family was in Korea to ride on eldest sis' company trip. I struggled every morning watching the stocks drop. That was tough. Eventually, I gave up and just sold all the stocks so I could cut the emotional pain. That was dumb. I did what every trader should never do - panic sell. In that 3 trades, I lost more than I ever made from when I started to when I stopped in early 2012 (when dad was diagnosed with cancer and I was simply too busy and cannot be bothered with stocks). To be fair, it was 2k+ loss which is not considered much of a loss compared to other traders but it was a setback to me. It wiped out all my profits... to date overall loss is about 900. *sighs*

i quickly picked myself up because for every down, there is an up. next, i ventured into the oil&gas which was heavily sold in aug and had the highest potential for returns. i chose semb marine which gave me handsome returns despite me still selling too early. during this time i re-bought sph and was happily collecting dividends. that was good.

market has been roaring for the past year. i thought that it was high, and do not dare to enter the market but always in the dilemma - whether to ride on the rally or not? the market continues to climb higher to get me all hung up.

i wonder, can the risk-adverse me and the greedy me ever co-exist? i got to let one go.

now, my portfolio is empty and i want to re-build it. i hope that the portfolio would be something low maintenance - no need to check everyday, don't have to double in a year - ok w 5% dividends but of cos the more the better, protect my capital - risk adverse!! i believe blue chips is the way to go - long term growth, stable dividends.

Alex and I even agreed on a rough percentage to keep in fixed deposit, to invest in 1) blue chips, 2) speculative. so if we agree that a penny stock is going to run, we can still put in some money that we can afford to lose and NOT feel heart pain over.

waiting for my opportunity to enter all over again.
in the meantime, reading : The Warren Buffet Stock Portfolio