G'day
Let me start by saying thanks to all the people who contribute to this forum, sharing your knowledge, experience and opinions. Because of you this place is loaded with great information. Ok, so with the brown nosing out of the way....
I'm 27 years old and looking for new ways to invest and make money. A couple of years ago I had saved up some cash and was looking for the best place to invest. I thought to myself, "I'm no financial expert, I studied electronics and telecommunications, not finance. I should hire someone who did study finance to show me the way." Sounded reasonable to me. So I went to a few seminars and signed up with a financial planner who did the whole 'buy and hold' method, invest in an ASX200 index fund, don't try to beat the market by picking the lows or the highs, just make money from the franked dividends and average yearly growth of 10%. Sounds ok, and for two years it did great... enter 2008.
The trouble with 'buy and hold' is there's no stop loss. The trouble with paying someone else to manage your money is that no one cares as much about your money as you do. So now I'm looking to take charge of my own investments and better protect myself from future market drops. My ultimate goal is to become a full time trader. But first I need a business plan, the required capital, and a well tested trading plan with positive expectancy. It'll be a long, probably bumpy road, but I look forward to the journey. I hope that someday I too will be able to contribute something worthwhile to this forum.