Have you ever invested in the stock market?

[coffee_rules]

1 hour ago, Lord said:

 

Can you please elaborate how you started (in stocks) and what things you look for while choosing stocks?

 

I started with Tech stocks,  people claim there is still overwhelming material to read before you start. But, you will end up getting too much advice and will never start. So, I did some limited reading :
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/investing-beginners-best-ways-start-175205650.html

https://www.yahoo.com/now/pick-stocks-7-things-know-190006014.html

 

and started with tech stocks only:

https://finance.yahoo.com/u/yahoo-finance/watchlists/tech-stocks-that-move-the-market/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALaq2ixjInnTKwfn_WwZ9FLMDAvB8vzUiBnDCxz7DJaCi8l81IC14viu2YDVQVaD9cJBbjalf_CRSCenR0HSv6XO5IQh4a-7c4-V3L7Vg1xl0r8bPty93u2n7z2_Di1PbTK1xXB-qj8Ot-Uv-tCPZf5ac1DtlicC89TYJoVjK0an

 

This is one of the sites that I visit once or twice. a week. Look for some companies based on Twutter news that I follow.  Look at companies that interest you, which generally say their ticker price is down in the last week or so..

Say, https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMD

 

Look at historical data - 6M, 1Y, 5Y etc.

Fair value is usually Overvalued for tech stocks. 

Look at Earnings graph and see how often do they miss earnings targets in the past.

Also look at Risk score.

Financials give Revenue and  earnings  bar charts and see if they earnings are up.

Performance Outlook shows if it is short term.long term buy

Risks

 

Finally look at Recommendation trends and rating.  I go by instinct betwwen Buy and Strong buy (with in 2).

 

 

 

People Also Watch shows stocks that are similar and you can diversify. I have now dabbled in Pharma and service companies like Uber.

I keep the overall value within what I can afford to lose for a short term. @velu or @Straight Drive are punters who do daily trading and can give the best advice. They might laugh at this, but this is what worked for me so far to earn some extra money on the side better than a MF or CD . I hear the fluctuations are so high in foreign markets that Hedge funds and daytraders mint a lot of money based on volume of stock traded. That is all for big players.


 

Edited July 26, 2023 by coffee_rules

[velu]

On 7/24/2023 at 8:43 PM, Lord said:

Where to start? 

 

twitter is the best starting point for trading/investing .. FinTwit

all kind of scammers will be there as well , but twitter is best for learning followed by youtube

[Bublu Bhuyan]

7 hours ago, Lord said:

 

Any source to read more in detail?

 

How is the 'The Intelligent Investor' for beginners if you read it?

I can guarantee you won't understand a thing written in the book. Even experienced people find it hard to understand anything reading that book.

[Bublu Bhuyan]

I tried reading 'The Intelligent Investor' and understood zilch from it.

[Bublu Bhuyan]

10 hours ago, randomGuy said:

If you are new 

1. Don't touch fno even with a ten foot pole

2. Most mutual funds can't beat index due to expense ratios...so etfs are the best goldbees niftybees bankbees etc , index funds come second.

3. do sip investment or invest during 10-20% correction from top

4. When the market is really really down in the dumps, invest in small cap mutual funds for outsized returns

5. Invest for long term...

 

(Have been investing from 2014)

Actually quite a lot of mid cap and small cap funds do manage to beat their respective index. But when it comes to large cap funds, it's better to invest in index funds since most active large cap funds fail to beat their index.

[Bublu Bhuyan]

10 hours ago, randomGuy said:

If you are new 

1. Don't touch fno even with a ten foot pole

2. Most mutual funds can't beat index due to expense ratios...so etfs are the best goldbees niftybees bankbees etc , index funds come second.

3. do sip investment or invest during 10-20% correction from top

4. When the market is really really down in the dumps, invest in small cap mutual funds for outsized returns

5. Invest for long term...

 

(Have been investing from 2014)

Bro, would you mind revealing your portfolio value since you have been investing for quite a while?

[randomGuy]

3 hours ago, Bublu Bhuyan said:

Bro, would you mind revealing your portfolio value since you have been investing for quite a while?

I sold everything in October 2021 (at nifty 18500) ... presently, have liquid funds (debt funds) and goldbees.

[Bublu Bhuyan]

4 hours ago, randomGuy said:

I sold everything in October 2021 (at nifty 18500) ... presently, have liquid funds (debt funds) and goldbees.

Any reason why you decided investing further in equity? Afterall, that is where money is made.

[Bublu Bhuyan]

1 minute ago, Bublu Bhuyan said:

Any reason why you decided investing further in equity? Afterall, that is where money is made.

I mean, decided not investing further in equity.

[randomGuy]

7 minutes ago, Bublu Bhuyan said:

Any reason why you decided investing further in equity? Afterall, that is where money is made.

Right... awaiting that elusive 20% correction...even liquid funds are giving 7% plus per annum since I invested thnx to repo rate increase, there is no exit load etc. , provides liquidity.... since everything is about risk vs reward and I think gold has less downside at this point compared to equities, and as much 'reward' potential, so I have goldbees as well ...

[shychipmunk]

hi!

 

 

 

hi

Edited July 27, 2023 by shychipmunk
edit image

[shychipmunk]

My current portfolio 

Edited July 28, 2023 by shychipmunk

[Nikhil_cric]

Coming from a family that has had pretty decent investments for over 2 decades, and having an MBA in finance, just keep a few things in mind. 

 

A lot of stuff in finance is unscientific gibberish and don't let experts either in your social circle and especially in the media convince you otherwise. They are not theoretical physicists and they are all out to make money off of you. If you ever hear fin. talk **** like 50 basis points, it only means .5 % Many only sound smarter because of these buzzwords.

 

Don't listen to stories of Buffett and Jhunjunwala etc. Buffet's father was a Congressman and Jhunjhunwala had more friends in high places than people realise. Easier to get crucial insider info.

 

Start off by asking 2 questions - what do you want out of it - do you want a steady source of yearly income or are you looking for long-term growth? 

 

 AND

How much time and energy are you willing to invest?

 

If you are looking for a source of yearly income, I suggest you also look at bonds like the RBI bonds et. where you can even get tax benefits. Dividends are taxed and high dividend yield stocks are sometimes risky in my opinion. Unless you have the time and energy to go through the financials of all high dividend yield stocks, they are best avoided because you have shitty companies like Vedanta desperately trying to cling on to investors.

 

 

If you are looking for long term growth and have no time or energy, passive index tracking ETF's are your friends. Virtually, no expense ratio and you will get market returns. Beating the market is not at all easy and there is no fool-proof way for retail investors to pick stocks especially if they are not solely dedicated to it.

 

If you do have the time and energy, don't start off by trying to understand F&O CDS etc.  Start with a large-picture view and see how Federal Reserve(affects the world) and RBI policy affects markets. For eg, if the dollar is likely to appreciate, that would drive up import costs and those industries that depend on imports are going to see a fall in demand and vice-versa for exports etc.

 

 

 

Diversify and diversify to reduce risk.  Don't blindy trust anything any institution says - whether that's FII's, DII's , rating agencies whatever. Rather watch where they put their money. Also whether promoters are reducing their holdings or not. 

 

Remember that more than anything, stock prices are driven a lot by institutional buying and selling. So, when they talk about stocks to look out for, it largely depends on whether they buy them or not. They drive the market and most of the time it is a self fulfilling prophecy rather than the 250-input analysis or whatever the hell they do. 

 

Also, slowly do your own analysis and start with simple metrics like market cap/sales to see at quick glance whether it's overvalued and if there is actual demand for the product/services. You should eventually progress to understand the balance sheet and cash flow statements . These are more important than ratios .  There is only one book you need to read and absorb - "Financial Shenanigans" by Howard Schilit to detect suspect revenue and cash flow statements etc.

 

This is essential because then you will have a much better idea as to how much risk you are taking on by buying a stock. Retail investors can't really understand and visualise risk with just a few numbers.

 

But once we understand and see possible irregularities in the accounts, we generally have  a better understanding of what we are going to buy - a simple concept but lost on many.

 

NEVER invest heavily in a single/few stocks unless you understand financial statements and irregularities.

 

Once you've reached this stage , then you can do the whole process

 

- Look at larger monetary policy/economic trends, identify sectors you want to invest in - ideally something as simple as FMCG first and Banks/financial institutions last (their financial statements reporting and especially cash flow is not exactly for beginners and can be misleading) , identify a few companies of value by screening for market cap/sales, P/E or some simple relevant metric, look further into their financial statements for discrepancies and identify the one or two you want to buy. 

 

After that, it's your buying and selling strategy. I  personally prefer to wait patiently for a bear market and then buy them as low as possible and sell them in a bull. A lot of it is luck but I bought ITC at 218 in 2021 and sold it at 495 not long ago. That's the best I've done. Bought HBL power at 55 and, against my better judgment, did not sell at 200 yesterday which I now regret, lol. But that was pure luck unlike ITC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by Nikhil_cric

[Bublu Bhuyan]

This is why you should never even touch option trading.

 

Bengaluru: Stung by stock market losses, Andhra techie commits suicide after killing wife, two daughters, says report

 

Link: https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/in-focus/story/bengaluru-stung-by-stock-market-losses-andhra-techie-commits-suicide-after-killing-wife-two-daughters-says-report-392970-2023-08-05