Beginners - Introduce yourselves!

[ChessPlayer]

Hey everyone,

I am a 19 yr old 3rd year finance student. Been lurking the forum to see peoples opinions on some stocks i have purchased in the past. I didnt start with much but in 4 months went from 3K to 11K due mainly to a lucky investment in a gold exploration company, and some other purchases. Having suffered no loses, i decided to gamble a bit and lost a bit in QPN . This site makes me realize how much I dont know and how much there is to learn.

Look forward to chatting to you all in the field!

Cheers, Alex

 

[Julia]

HI I joined up a couple of days ago. I would like to start trading in shares or forex to make some money, not sure if that possible. Thinking a couple hundred a week maybe.

What is your capital base from which you intend to generate the $200 per week?

This site is a bit hard to navigate so any tip on getting around the forum would be great.

Jay

Have you simply gone to the Home Page and clicked on the various links at the top?
Joe has set out several threads about how to navigate the forum. Just take the time to read what you need to before deciding it's hard to navigate.

 

[Wysiwyg]

Hey everyone,

I am a 19 yr old 3rd year finance student. Been lurking the forum to see peoples opinions on some stocks i have purchased in the past. I didnt start with much but in 4 months went from 3K to 11K due mainly to a lucky investment in a gold exploration company, and some other purchases. Having suffered no loses, i decided to gamble a bit and lost a bit in QPN . This site makes me realize how much I dont know and how much there is to learn.

Cheers, Alex

Continue down that path and the house may take your bank. Chess players are strategic?

 

[isplicer]

Hi everyone!

I'm an 18 year old med student (visit my website: http://isplicer.net) who joined a month or so ago knowing absolutely nothing! But after a lot of browsing, reading and asking annoying questions, I've learnt a bit and I hope to continue building my knowledge. A big thanks to all the contributors, without you this forum wouldn't be able to run at all.

I've done a few trades and have hit a little jackpot with WPL =). SXY, AUT and RIO are amongst my other holdings.

 

[NewOrder]

Hi, another newbie to this site. I am not trading yet but doing a heap of self education first. I hope to begin trading later this year.

Cheers
Paula

 

[El Wardano]

Hi All,

Newbie to the site and fairly newbie trader - been trading for the past 2-ish years (started at the bottom of the GFC - it was a good year to start). I trade CFD's mainly. looking forward to hanging around.

Cheers,

E.W.

 

[Nortorious]

Hi All,

I'm a new member to the ASF and really enjoying learning more about the ASX.

A brief overview of my experience with the sharemarket to date:

• Year 7 and 9 (high school): participated in the ASX schools sharemarket game with mixed success, no real direction provided by teacher and it was more a game of luck than strategy for my classmates and I.
• Year 10 (high school): invested some money through my Auntie's broker and managed to make a profit of about 20% in six months. Cashed out so I could by something, most likely a mountain bike haha
• Year 12 (high school): Opened up an online trading account as I had some savings dedicated to investing (about $5,000).
- First trade: managed to jump on a stock that went up 20%, sold (at what I thought was its peak, would later see that it went up 240% over the next 18months, whoops!)

Buoyed by my first successful trade, fell into the trap that stock trading was "easy", next five trades were losses. Final trade ($5,115 of capital left), put into a speculative medical innovation stock that had "potential" to rise by 100% over the next 12 to 18 months and grow more into the future. Bought at $1.65 and was going to sell at $2.00 given growth was slow, the price got to $1.95 before plunging! Five years later, I still have the stock after many "bad decisions to hold and have faith. Now it is worth bugger all but at it’s price it is better to hold and hope than to cash out for $25 (minus brokerage!). Did not even think about holding multiple stocks!!! Young and foolish!

Since then, I have gone to university, graduated with an Honours degree, moved to the big smoke, completed a graduate program, received a promotion and seem to be on my way to building a fantastic career. I'm 24 years of age, will have all my liabilities (excluding HECS) paid off by July 2011.

At present, I save over 20% of my income (invested in online saver at 6.51%). After July, 40% of my disposable income will go to savings/investments without impacting my lifestyle. A great position to be in at my age.

I am looking at creating wealth for my future, to enjoy the "financial freedom" that many set out to achieve. Basically when I get to my Dad’s age (52), I don’t want to be working. I’d rather be up in the Northern Territory catching Barramundi!

I am a first generation white collar so have limited knowledge (other than what I have gained from my own exploratory research and experience) on financial management and wealth creation. I consider that I am now a more astute student with any endeavour I pursue. I have commenced reading books on the sharemarket, learning different strategies, examining the myths and truths etc. I also talk about stocks with my girlfriends Uncle who has successfully played the sharemarket and set himself and his family up for a comfortable life.

Rather than looking at my past experience of the sharemarket as a negative (lost my investment capital), I consider it a cheap education. University cost $30,000, whereas my loss in the sharemarket was $5,000. I committed all the “rookie errors” that I am now reading about and this definitely proves that more education and awareness will assist in investing successfully in the sharemarket. And I’m wishing I had have had a stop loss in place (automatic sell of stock when it falls below 10% of the purchase price).

I read about diversification and won’t be putting all my investment capital into stocks. I’m thinking around $10k will be a good starting point. I’m researching various stocks now and using the different analysis techniques to assess them.

Am I better buying up shares gradually or saving until I have $10k as my starting capital. I envision a portfolio of anywhere between 5 to 12 shares (most likely 5 for starters, with 20% of my capital in each). I’ll be looking at having a portfolio that is geared towards capital growth and income (through dividends).

Also would people consider the current market a bull or bear market? With the fluctuations I have seen over the last month or so, I’m not sure whether now is a good time to enter or if I should wait and see.

Look forward to hearing your perspectives on my situation and learning more about the sharemarket over the coming months, years and decades!

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

Hi all

Im a 20 year old 1st year uni student studying Forensic Science. Also (obviously) looking to start investing/trading. Have just applied for my CommSec trading account earlier today and am looking forward to the experience. My older brother ordered me the Interactive Share Market Trading Course off moneybags.com.au since he found out that this has been my obsession the past month (that should be at my door next week ).

Hoping to learn a great deal from this site and its members

Cheers
Donkey

 

[markhocky]

Ahoy-hoy,

I'm interested in mechanical (system) trading. I tried my hand at value investing but found i couldn't stomach reading through company accounts. Banging away at the computer running backtests on the other hand....

I've been researching and reading about the market for about 4 years now, but haven't been particularly active since some horrendous value 'investments' several years ago which i didn't research properly. I've now convinced myself to sit out until i'm confident i have an edge.

I use Matlab mostly for my testing, but also am handy with Excel. I'm currently still putting my system 'architecture' together. That is; how will trades be compared, risk control, how to combine systems, and calculating acceptable levels of leverage.

Once the 'architecture' is in place i intend to focus on researching indicators and modelling techniques to fit within the system and find statistical edges in the market.

I'm keen to hear from anyone else pursuing a mechanical trading strategy/methodology as i haven't seen too much in Aus (although i'm sure you're out there somewhere people).

Good luck to you all, whatever method you follow, and i hope to not have to take the opposite side of a trade with you! (unless i'm on the right side of course )

 

[Mrtibbs]

I have just inherited 500 k in sterling pounds. It arrived as a cheque and have been wandering over the last few days what would be the best way of turning it into Aus $.
Seems easy enough, but with all the tools we have at our disposal I want to be able to question the high street banks with their exchange rates and charges and do it myself. Some friendly options would be welcome. (Once completed, then the fun begins!)

 

[Mrtibbs]

Hi there,
I have just inherited 500 k in sterling pounds. It arrived as a cheque and have been wandering over the last few days what would be the best way of turning it into Aus $.
Seems easy enough, but with all the tools we have at our disposal I want to be able to question the high street banks with their exchange rates and charges and do it myself. Some friendly options would be welcome. (Once completed, then the fun begins!)

Tibbs

 

[prawn_86]

Hi Mr Tibbs,

I work as an FX broker and can get you access to better exchange rates than what the banks can offer. Please contact me via PM and i will get in touch personally

Thanks

 

[ChrisJH]

Hello Friends!

Thought I would say hi! I am almost thirty and have been playing around with shares for about a year now. Currently playing around with about 50k worth, really enjoying it and really wishing I had more to put into more stocks.

I really don't know what I'm doing, and I'm probably a fool for the way I've been doing things. I started out working like this: buying for a dividend, selling higher than what I paid, then buying something else for the dividend and so on.

I mostly just watch a bunch of stocks and watch their price fluctuation and things like that before deciding to buy. I think they say you can't make money picking stocks, but so far it seems to be working? I've sold a few for a few decent capital gains; and obviously a lot of my shares have gone backwards but they have all crept their way back close to what I paid, so I don't plan on selling anything for a loss.

At the moment I have most of my money in typical blue chip shares - which I figure gives me a decent dividend and a bit of stability, and I am trying to come up with more money to buy into muuuuch much smaller companies because there seems to be more potential for big gains in them, and so far I've had a bit of luck.

I kind of feel that I don't have enough wealth for my age, and am really trying to use this to get a bit further ahead in life. I'm on a pretty low salary so can't save much, but hopefully with a little bit of saving, a few dividends, and some gains I can slowly make my situation a little better.

Hope to learn lots here

 

[GreedFear&Hope]

Hi,
Very nice forum Joe.
Long time lurker here.
Hope to post more often.
The first post is the hardest.

 

[Bill M]

Hello Friends!

Hope to learn lots here

Welcome mate, you will certainly learn a lot here, good luck.

Hi,
The first post is the hardest.

Now you got nothing to worry about, welcome to you too.

 

[kingcarmleo]

A lot of young guys in here, great to see!

 

[GreedFear&Hope]

Thanks for the welcome Bill.
I am not one of the young ones unfortunately.
"Old age is a high price to pay for wisdom"

 

[RADO]

Hi everyone,

I came across this website a few months ago. And have been lurking around on here ever since. I've already learnt alot from this website, and I hope to learn alot more.
Im mainly into swing trading at the moment, but hoping to trancend to daytrading at some stage.

 

[Joe Blow]

Welcome to all our new ASF members! It's great to have you aboard!

If you're just finding your way around ASF here are a few tips to get you started:

Master the site search function and tracking down threads of interest will be a breeze! It's a lot more powerful than you think but you do need to spend some time with it. Take a look at the Tips on using ASF's search function thread.

The Five Commandments of Aussie Stock Forums will give you a greater understanding of what is expected from those posting here at ASF. We try to keep it friendly and constructive so ASF remains an enjoyable place for all to visit.

Aussie Stock Forums hints and tips offers some more tips on how to make the most out of ASF!

Finally, if you have a question about how to do something, post it in the ASF 'How do I do it?' thread.

 

[Angel3]

G'day everyone.

Name is Aaron. I've just sold my beloved car so I'm now going to buy some shares with the money made.

Firstly where is the best place to open an account for me to buy my shares? E.G - Comsec

I'll be putting in about $1000 to start off with. Also instead of getting a return I would like to put that return into buying more of the same shares. Can this be done?
I'm in for the long haul, more like buy and forget for a few years.

All comments welcome to put me in the right direction.

Thanks