Young investors, time is on your side

[safetyfirst]

thanks for the sharing, i thought your sharing is way more precious than people around me who's always giving me advice that they hear from others - how others always make big money and yet i refuse to listen

i have also paid my fair share of school fees, and i have learnt to control my gambling/punting nature over the years

There is another 1 very good reason to start young. U only have that much to lose provided u dun use leverage. I seriously doubt anyone can learn everything they could before they start paying school fees to mr market. I for once, was burnt twice and return all my gains to mr market. When I am in university, the market went into a tailspin with the sept 11 incident, I bought SIA and it doubled within 15 months. Took profits and felt invincible. I also bought a few blue chips after that when the Iraq war and SARS were scaring the Sh** out of people and again make double digit gains on my investments within a year as beginner luck has it, I almost always enter when the market is at the bottom and it rebound shortly after.

I got complacent, even though I dun really know what is a receivables or equity then, I was giving stock tips to my mum- in- law because I felt all my counters were winners. My first stock tip was CAO and I lost all my savings when the company was suspended till the trading losses. I managed to get back 30% of my investment after they managed to restructure and start trading again. I calculate and realized I have return all my Gains to mr market and paid a school fees of 5k to mr market. ( which to me is not a small sum since I am still studying)

I stay away fro. Equity for a long time, hurt by the experience . But I continue to keep track of the market. When Lehman happens, I start investing again with greater knowledge of valuation, I can understand most items in a quarter report then, and wow, within a year , I make good all my loss and is sitting on paper profits of almost 100% for a few counters. I again got pig head again and start to invest heavily on s- chips whose valuations are ridiculously low. To be fair, my losses will be much heavier have I not made good money from gaoxian, hu an ... But what I made from fuxing, an Chun and china fibre tech and give back and more to mr market. And so now, my record is still neutral again.

A close friend once mock me, that I very Bo Liao, invest and then give back the gains, might as well save the efforts. But I felt the 2 school fees I gave to mr market is worth it as I learn really not to be emotionally attached to the high and downs of the market and I believe my knowledge is definitely is more than it was 2-3 years ago. Most importantly, I now understand I can never claim to have master the art of investing and I believe that on and off, I will still need to give school fees to mr market , I just hope in the long run, as I hone my investment strategies, I will pay less unnecessary school fees.

Hope those who start earlier dun start with a ego like me, which is the biggest mistake ...So that they will pay much less to mr market.