re: flats - how old r u? i'm new here
Started trading when I was young (under 18 - under my fathers account), I remember spending half the day in a brokers office with my father when I was in primary school. This is before the Internet and telephone trading.
When I left school I went to university and worked for my father to make some extra income. My father said he would pay for my studies so I got the cash upfront off him and put the course on HECS. With the money I got for Uni and ploughing all my savings into the stock market I started investing.
Ever since I was little I was fascinated with computers so when the IT Boom came along I didn’t invest because I didn’t think it would work. At that time I remember people making a killing on some stocks and I was trading stocks like Australian Pipeline Trust and Woolworth’s. *Yawn*
Sometimes I was able to make some nice trades in between lectures.
Around 2000 I invest some money into some suspect stocks (oilers/bio techs), when the tech wreck occurred everything got smashed down, in particular small companies that had no revenue, volume dried up as well. A few of my companies went under.
For the next two years I didn’t buy much as I was still reeling from the losses.
I still had a decent amount of capital however I wasn’t trading shares much. Instead I was working and saving into ING.
In 2003 I got back into the market in a big way. Had some a few trades with 50 - 100% returns in a few months, mainly small cap shares.
Today I mainly invest in small cap companies (ASX 300) that have decent assets, producing a profit or will soon be producing a profit.
The initial money I got from my father has been turned over a few times and I conservatively estimate that might be worth 300% the original amount.
I hold an office job and often monitor the market, however I have some core stocks that I’m holding for the long term and as such I don’t trade much.