Oh, man. These days I feel so important. You know, becoming an investor is not only a great privilege, it’s also a great responsibility. I mean, ask Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Mark Cuban or George Soros or any other famous stock market name how they felt first time they became investors… ๐

I got this idea from my uncle a few months ago. Last year sometime, around X-Mas time I believe, we were discussing the topic of what one could do with an extra few thousand euros. Start a business? Invest? I came up with using the money as a downpayment to buy a small flat (to rent). But, the times when Berlin was a real estate investor’s paradise are long gone and the only option left was the stock market, according to my uncle.
So I started playing with this idea and boy was I lucky – this time it actually turned out good for me that I’m a world class procrastinator thinker and thorough evaluator with a proven track record. Just imagine me investing back in December 2019 in all kinds of stocks and enterprises… and then a few months later there comes bloody COVID-19 crises and takes away half of the investment. Puh… luckily that didn’t happen.
Towards the end of March 2020 I decided to give it a try. You know, buy a few stocks to get my feet wet. I opened a virtual portfolio in my online banking account and started adding stocks: Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Colgate-Palmolive, McDonalds, Netflix, PayPal, Coca Cola, Tesla, Starbucks… like a kid in the candy store. I added anything and everything I could think of at that moment and I ended up with some 50-60k worth of stocks. It’s virtual money anyway, so I let my immagination run wild. This was approx. end of March or very beginning of April 2020. Markets have hit the bottom between 12th and 23rd March, after a short recovery and subsequent correction (“correction” is what they call when your investment incurs a serious loss).
Before I could actually go crazy buying stocks for real money, I had to learn all about what is the bid price, what is the ask price, types of orders, order options, limits, who to listen to, what stocks to buy… oh, man. There is so much to learn. Not not mention all those metrics and definitions such as Price-to-Earnings, Debt-to-Equity et al. I’ll be honest with you – I’m still learning.
My first actual purchase: Amazon.com Inc. Bam! Just over 2.000 euros worth of… one single share. Haha. Crazy shit. Jeff Bezos seems to be doing a really good job. So after a thorough risk evaluation I purchased that one share at the point when stock markets practically already recovered to their pre-Corona levels. But, ok. I mean, c’mon. What could possibly go wrong?
The very moment I bought this one share, it went down 54 euros. What?? How? Why? No idea. All this time it was just going up, up, up… Immediately after I got the email confirmation that the order has been processed I lost 54 euros. What a start, ha? BTW, Amazon 52w low was at ca. 1.440 euros. I wish I was ready at that moment. But I wasn’t. โบ๏ธ
And the story doesn’t end there! Me being the “great investor” – I totally chickened out. “Oh, man. What if I loose the money?” Even though I’m not actively watching the news, I couldn’t help but notice that media was all about the “worst economic crisis since the great depression” and “second wave is imminent” and “we don’t know how long this is going to last” and what not… Therefore, in attempt to save my hard earned money, I sold the bloody share as soon as it went back up (I even “earned” 19 euros after taxes). Haha. Risk 2000+ euros to get 19 euros in return. Dunno. Is that good? You tell me.
Full disclosure: I bought the bloody share again. This time at a much higher price. Why? Because the moment I sold it last time, the whole fcukin’ stock market went nuts about Amazon and share price surged to new heights in a matter of days.
Now, I’m sure you can guess without a hint where the stock price is currently at. Heh… Never mind. I’ll just wait for it to go back up and then I’ll probably sell it again. Or perhaps, you know, as my colleague investor Warren Buffett says: “hold the stock forever”… We’ll see… ๐