abu - potential not possible?, page-13

Askari, thanks for all the extra information about where you stand with investing/trading. If you are now sitting at an average of 0.025 that still sounds good to me. I'm really impressed that you talk of your losses as learning experiences - it took me decades to get to that point. A few extra points from my (limited) experience.

(1) Fair value: In one of my former lives I ran a large horse agistment property (c.120 head of other people's horses plus a few of my own) and often people would tell me that they wanted to sell their horse and asked me what I thought it was worth. I only ever had one answer and that was "What someone is willing to pay for it". And I have the same attitude to "Fair value" on the stock-market. A stock is only worth what the market is willing to pay for it at any given nanosecond. Any talk of what it may be worth in the future, especially by brokers, is all conjecture. Look at what recently happened to Forge (FGE).

(2) Over many years I have variously been an academic, a public servant, a small business owner (I established and ran a meeting management company for many years and later bought and ran a travel agency), a farmer, a consultant (in medical biotechnology), a internet marketer (I still have several ebooks selling on the internet on hobby topics), a real estate developer, a professional technical writer, and a trainer delivering courses to the public and private sectors, plus three times I've dabbled in trading (with mixed success, though lately things are looking OK), plus been a single parent since my 2 sons were 8/9 (now in their mid 20s, phew!). I recount all this only because if there is one thing I have learned is that successful/happy people find what they really, really love to do and focus on that until they are successful. They don't muck around doing what they think they should do, or other people think they should do. So if you are interested in equities investing/trading, stick with it through thick and thin until you become an expert. Splashing oneself all over the place, makes one wise maybe, but not necessarily rich.

(3) A good Australian book for general market knowledge is Mathew Kidman's "Bulls, Bears & a Croupier". You may relate well to the introduction. Other Australian authors include Daryl Guppy (quite a few books but may be a bit old now) and Louise Bedford ("Charting Secrets"). But the best book ever is "Trading in the Zone" by Mark Douglas, because it deals with optimising one's trading psychology and acquiring a strong, resilient mental attitude.

Stay in touch on this Forum and don't be afraid to keep asking questions because, as someone wrote recently, it's kindergarten compared to some of the other bear pits on HC. If you get ignored, it just means that people are too busy at that moment to reply (hopefully making money).

Cheers, GW