How did you begin?

hey guys,
share your stories on how did you begin trading and what made you do it.

I showed interest in the stock market since i was 15. My brother in law which invested in telstra shares, taught me afew basics. From then i decided to teach myself, by doing online courses, reading papers and ofcourse these forums, which help me get to where i am. I then came to a decision to do a course in economics and finance, currently studying it. I enjoy the markets, there are so many things to be learnt. I want to become a successfull stock broker like (australian stock broker of the year) rene rivkin,(before he was convicted of inside trading).

emily
happy trading

12 yrs ago I was having a discussion with a mate of mine who casually mentioned.
"There must be a quid in this stuff look at how much press it gets!"

We both then messed around with warrents and options knowing bugger all.
We both lost enough to stop doing what we were doing.

I took up technical analysis and he stopped.
It got me well and truely hooked particularly in an effort to run a profit.
I could get profits but consistant profit elluded me for 8 yrs.

I have no intention of trading fulltime as I dont want to.
To me it is another necessary string to my investment bow---everyone should have an understanding of the markets.

I began trading as means to save money. This sounds odd, but after not managing to save anything worthwhile in cash accounts (the old case of save a few grand and then blow it on something), I looked to other ways to promote saving.

Trading has helped me save because I enjoy doing it. It encourages me to forego spending in the short term with the goal of creating wealth in the long term. I find it entertaining because I've always liked the idea of gambling, but have never been into it because I don't like the idea that odds are skewed in favour of the house. With trading I feel that I can skew the odds in my favour, even only marginally, by continually learning through books and those more experienced.

I still work the old 9-5 job and spend 2-3 hours a day trading, studying or searching for prospects. I've been very successful so far, but my focus has shifted to trading to increase my investment capital and reduce debt with the goal of increasing my passive income.

I'm happy to say that this forum, in particular Tech/a's contribution and some old discussions on Reefcap have been amongst the biggest influences on my trading methodology.

Currently my focus has shifted to preparing myself for the inevitable bear market. I'm bullish by nature (The chart inversion technique of Guppy has saved me much in this regard), inexperienced in bear markets and lack the ability to short sell with the ease that I'm used to going long. When the bear market comes, it will be a challenge for us all and it will be interesting to see how many arm chair traders disappear.

Howdy Emily,

I started by hearing about covered calls at a seminar, reading a few books, placing a couple of paper trades and then completed a few buy & writes (my first two were on CWO & MIM - touch of death?)

I found I enjoy trading equities themselves more than the options so that's the direction I headed now.

Good luck with the course

In 1994 I bought a small parcel of Qantas shares when it floated.

I watched them go up and down over time and in 1997 I bought some Telstra shares when it floated and I made a nice stag profit, selling out within a few months.

I thought if it was this easy to make money without knowing anything about the stockmarket I could probably do better for myself if I took some time to learn something about it. (Not that I've actually learned that much about the stockmarket in the interim, mind you)

Then came E-trade and the tech boom... and suddenly it got a lot more interesting, exciting... and perilous!

...and somewhere along the way I got distracted by the internet and figuring out how websites were made.

I've been interested in finance and stocks for awhile and partly because of all the excitement in the press over the recent boom years I started following things more closely. I think the Telstra float (read as 'publicity', 'excitement') and the ASX's role in educating and helping investors has encouraged me enormously. It's only recently after learning a bit more about money management and TA and the ease of trading via ComSec that I decided to trade.
Still learning and that's part of the attraction, also love Teachnical analysis and its perspective, it's great and is what made me think that I may be able to manage my time without having to analyze every inch of a co.

I haven't really thought it through but those are the reasons that come to mind.

I started off out of interest. My first trade I got run over by the market and lost 10k. I was in shock and had to come to grips with it. I decided then and there that the market wasn't going to beat me and made an all out effort to learn everything I could about trading. I went back in after three months of tracking price movements and and started trading slowly. I trade full time now and have moved from being in front of the computer all the time to being able to have a fair idea where the price is going to be. I don't have to be in front of the computer all the time now and make a very good living out of it. I occasionally still get run over by the market but it only forces me to refine my trading. My last four trades have been over 100% in returns with the best being BHP which I sold out of this morning for 150% profit. Actually, I missed out on selling my CCL options for 500% profit because I was in New York for the last two weeks and could only get 250% today.

My only advice is when you get good enough, don't be afraid to experiment because you learn more that way and you could find new profitable ways to trade.

began in about 1992, by putting away 10% of my wage and purchasing parcels of shares every time i had saved $1'000.00.

I was working as a pearl-diver (Broome) at the time and earning a good wageat the time,quiet time at sea gave me time to read and learn.

i purchased BHP, GIO, CCA, and Fosters and traded some others and later sold the lot for about a $3000 profit only to buy a duplex block of land and sell it 3 months later for $15'000 profit (after costs).

i've then stayed with property, though kicked myself when a work mate who was into shares told me toget into the market about 3 years back, to his credit he has done 'very' well over the years..

i eventually re-entered the market some months back

I've always loved reading the business pages of all newspapers. It was an escape from the reality of working a trade for a living.
The stock market was exciting, Rene Rivkin etc.I even subscribed to his newsletter, which I loved reading. It was like a drug when I stopped subscribing to it. I would re-read the old recommendations regularly.
I printed and filed all his issues. Still have them.
I sacraficed Rene for investment properties.

I only trade the Ords. I don't under stand warrents etc enough to put money into trading them.
I'm very much a novice at this game.
With my profits, I'm building my capital for more investments, shares and property.
My share trading capital is fifty thousand dollars, I don't add to it.


bruham.

I got interested in the stockmarket @ around 15, at which point I'd inherited a small portfolio of blue chips. Am now 18, only a "casual" trader I suppose, but looking to make a living out of it in the not-too-distant future. Have been making tidy profits on shares like BHP & Suncorp as of late (70-120%), with only one underperforming share left in my portfolio..so far so good . I essentially want to educate myself as best I can, and surround myself by smart traders (hence why I came here ). Best way to make an informed decision.

Very grateful for communities such as this, which create an environment in which to share such a wealth of knowledge and learn from one another :bier:

Cheers,
T.

Congrats Taurus on doing well!
Make sure you learn about money management and position sizing AND exits so you can actually keep your profits and keep making more. Try searching this site for keywords (like the ones I mentioned). Tech/A has some great threads going too. I'm a beginner and would have lost less money initially if I'd followed money management policies- there isn't enough info on it available in the general papers and magazines.

I started back in 1997 at college looking at the share tables, looking at different companies based on 52wk highs/lows and the various ratios
I think I picked out about 5-6companies and looked at how they would go for a few months
I think I was up 5% or so over 9months
After that I took a break for a while and did some paper trading in 1999-2000, read some magazines (Shares, Personal Investor etc)
I averaged 21% over that time, with only a few tech shares in there

Got into the physical market in 2000 and started adding small cap resources (gold explorers) over the next few years
Had a good 2001-2003, last year was mostly out of the market but getting back in as I see some value in a few materials shares now

hope to make more from trading/investing but painful when tax man grabs it off you

r/
bvb

Paid an overpriced seminar to learn options trading. Discovered paper trading that the system was going to send me broke. Was inspired to learn more and started reading and talking with traders. Started learning technical analysis and discovered there was a lot of information out there.

Joined investment networks, attended better seminars and started forming my own ideas and testing them. Have now been trading options for reasonable profit (about 25-40%) for 2 years and am road testing some writing strategies that should provide further income.

Was advised very early on in the piece to treat trading like a business with a realistic business plan, set hours and profit forecast. Its the best advice I can give as well. It really focuses your mind beyond those looking to "get rich quick" or the armchair speculators.

Cheers

MICK