Hey... Guess its just another about me post...

Discussion in 'New Member Introductions' started by Alexander Gray, Jun 4, 2016.

  1. Alexander Gray

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    Hey,
    I am a 14 year old value investor who loves economics & politics. I am very keen to learn anything I can about Mr. Market and have read several books on the subject.

    I really like value investing and have started to run a blog on the subject (not sure if I am allowed to advertise but heck with it: valueiseverywhere.wordpress.com). I do not confess to being any good since I am relatively new to doing it but when I get stuff wrong I hope I can learn what mistakes I made. I also am an admirer of Buffett, Bury & Munger.

    The stock market is such a fascinating area and I don't understand why more people don't invest and become active in economics. This seems like a great forum and I quite wait to become active on it!
     
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  2. Gray Wolf

    Gray Wolf Well-Known Member

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    Welcome aboard Alexander. It will be nice to have you around. Maybe I'll learn something from you about economics as I think it is very important to investors to understand the current state of the economy and where the indicators say we are going. That's a tough thing for those of us that don't fully understand the economic side of things.
     
  3. Tiptopptrader

    Tiptopptrader Well-Known Member

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    Just curious Alexander, are you actually investing and if so is it though a custodial account or something of that nature.
     
  4. Alexander Gray

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    Unfortunately, due to my age I have no funds to invest. But I don't like value investing for the money per se. I like it because I find it truly fascinating. I figure contributing to forums and writing a blog allows me to do something with my passion and actively improve. Each mistake I make I can learn from. So when eventually I can muster funds or start work in the financial sector I am prepared. Anyway thank you for the comments :)

    And Jerry I am sure there will be stuff I will learn from you on.
     
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  5. Gray Wolf

    Gray Wolf Well-Known Member

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    Check this post that I put in awhile ago: http://stockaholics.net/threads/how-to-paper-trade-with-google-finance.693/

    Paper trade as much as you can, it will re-enforce things you are learning and allow you to try different methods without having to pay the price in real money. Setup a portfolio for each different method you might want to experiment with. Yahoo Finance has the same type of portfolio if you prefer but I like google because it automatically adds in dividend payments on paper trades.
     
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  6. Alexander Gray

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    I have tried that but only think it is half good because of the psychology behind the money - aka, I know its fake. Because of this I do not make the same decisions and have less emotion towards my actions. Charlie Munger talked about the psychology of security analysis and human misjudgement. And I do have a theoretical portfolio on my blog (valueiseverywhere) which shows the stocks I recommend on the site and the change in position since I recommended them.

    I will have a look at google finance paper trading.
     
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  7. Gray Wolf

    Gray Wolf Well-Known Member

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    I agree that paper trading does remove the emotion but emotion is something you strive to eliminate when trading real money. The advantage of trading in paper money is that you can test methods and establish firm investing rules on what to buy, when to buy it, how much to buy and when to sell it. You make mistakes in paper money, refine your rules and over time will gain confidence in the rules. This just might allow one to go to real money with the confidence that their rules do work and be more apt to follow them.
     
  8. Alexander Gray

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    Yes, confidence definitley. And I do understand emotion is what needs to be removed to make good, sound investments. However, you cannot remove something that isn't there. So when, finally you start investing with real money you are hit hard by mistakes in your analysis and workings because you never worked on minimizing your emotions. But yes, paper trading and money is much better than doing nothing!
     
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