Investing in stocks is something that was very foreign to me for years, but in the past week or so I find myself actively building my knowledge surrounding this topic. It has interested me much more than I anticipated, partly because of the prospect of earning money, but also because it has forced me to be more aware of my habits and finances.
My curiosity regarding different companies has immensely grown in the past week; questioning their strategies, goals and how they plan to expand to name a few. My knowledge of what companies exist has also broadened considering my past knowledge only consisted of the most marketed such as Apple and Coca Cola. Now I am interested in companies I didn’t even know existed!
I have gained a greater understanding of investing due to numerous people, one of the most notable being Aswath Damodaran who made a brilliant video at Talks at Google where he speaks about the value of stories in business. From what I understood from the talk was that companies always portray the story of their company and Aswath Damodaran asks us to question if those stories are true and believable. When investing I understand that I should not be easily persuaded by a company’s story because on a surface level every company’s story is appealing. Only after a little bit digging can I get an idea of their real story.
I have to be aware of how I am feeling and not make decisions on impulse based on my emotions as that is a recipe for disaster; in other terms I must avoid investing my emotions. My aim is to be level headed and realise that I will not succeed every time. This is something I keep telling myself to prevent my emotions from getting the better of me.
I look forward to learning more on this journey!
