My 2-3 Years of Learnings in the Markets

Investing Journey Over the Past 2-3 Years..

Shuchi. P. Nahar

Life is all about learning. Sometimes we fail and sometimes we succeed but when it comes to investing why people take it otherwise. Staying in the industry for just 2-3 years I have learnt a lot and here I would like to share my learning with you all. 

Don't consider investing or markets otherwise, it is part of your life and its not your whole life. Success and failures are irresistible. Learning from them is the biggest key for a happy and wonderful life. Hope this article will be a value addition. 

 11 Important Lessons that I Learnt from my 2-3 years of Experience in this Roller-coaster Ride, 

That's Just Begun....

  

1) Be Observant

So when I began my investing journey , markets & investing were all new to me, having the best opportunity and best mentor around me , I couldn't let any of those moments be wasted. 

Having a desire to learn every second is the only thing that will always keep us on our toes and will never let us take things for granted. This key helped me to gain maximum and learning every second was the biggest takeaway.

Being extra attentive then others will not bring any problem, rather it will help you imbibe all the qualities that you see around. 

Mentors will guide us, they will show us the right path and way to reach , but in the end it's upon us how we ride the journey. 

2) Great Losses are Great Lessons 

When I entered the markets in early January 2018 markets somewhere just started to fall and looking around me I observed that someone were confused about buying options or someone was struggling about their current portfolios. 

I realized one thing: Never marry your stocks. It was the falling market which made me think (Gladdd!!!! I wasn't invested) 

Looking at all of it I understood one thing , that take risk as per your appetite not looking at what others do. It's not important to always to learn from our own mistakes, sometimes taking advantage of others' mistakes will save our money and time.

One incident that i can relate with : one of my colleague got heavily invested in one of his diligently researched stock. He concentrated his entire portfolio in that one stock and when markets started crashing down, he went upset. 

Looking at him I realized one thing that never put all your eggs in one basket and secondly if things don't go according to your research in one year of your purchase start moving out. 

3) Documenting Every Stuff

This was one the best lessons I learnt by attending one of the courses of Neeraj Sir. He urged everyone to write and prepare journals and by listening to him I felt there is nothing wrong to have proof of everything. It's one of the best habits that I cultivated.

It's not just a proof but it's a journey that will keep on improvising throughout your life. Sometimes you may forget your mistakes but your journal won't let you repeat it again. I started documenting from that same day Neeraj Sir said and today after two years of that I have each and every small/ big mistakes or an achievement written. Everything has been recorded. I call that journal or diary a Hall of mistakes.

4) Appreciate Yourself

Never compare yourself with what others do, or what they have achieved. I learnt this when I started my journey, that everyone around us is going to be better in something or the other, where we cannot reach. So it's better to concentrate on what abilities we are born with rather than wasting time and cribbing over other's success. 

I learnt this in markets, whatever is written in your destiny sooner or later it will happen. Doesn't matter if my researched stock is bought by someone at a lower rate and I couldn't step into it.. It's fine! It's absolutely fine if you cannot, wait may be some bigger opportunity waiting. Just never let your morale and enthusiasm come down. They are the key for us to stay motivated. 

5) Be Frugal

Don't spend money for something unnecessary, or else one day you have to sell your necessary stuff for money. It's not about not enjoying or not doing something that we love, it's about knowing when to spend and how much to spend. 

When I started living far from my hometown for my job I realized life is not that easy what I imagined. Staying alone teaches a lot. We all will agree but I learnt the greatest lesson and that was to spend every penny so carefully that you don't regret ever. Now when it comes to investing just don't spend your hard earned cash on something you are not sure about, there will be a lot of noises around we have to filter the best one. 

6) Stay Away from Biases

Biases will never let you grow in the real world as well as in investing. Sometimes we all become the victims of one of the biases. Be that a recency bias, researched stock bias, conservatism bias or closed mind bias. Something or the other once in a lifetime everyone of us would have faced. 

Avoiding such biases will help us avoid many mistakes and surely will help us to make confident decisions. When we fall into the trap of any such bias we don't know where we go wrong and the second wrong thing we do is blame others. Blame game won't stop ever, and success begins when we ourselves take charge of our mistakes. 

Do your own homework, and write your own exam. In the end you and your luck should be the reason for every decision. 

Just to add an real life my experience: I had one company that I studied for approximately 3-4 months and made a report and did all the due diligence required and after few days someone very close to me gave a negative perspective about it, for which I wasn't prepared. I got bamboozled now what ? Itni mehnat ki and ab all in vain but then too new to markets have that research bias wala keeda - kar diya invest.. 

So here came my researched stock bias and unfortunately I made my dad invest in it. So just one crip takeaway keep both the perspective in mind and people who are pessimistic will always help you find the flaws nicely. 

7) Be Fearless

Why to fear losses or failures? We all are learners here !

I learnt this from my mentor Chetan sir. Initially when I began my journey I feared what if I don't do things properly, what if Iose money, what if people will judge me that my thesis went wrong. 

He just said one thing: we all are learners, no one is perfect and no one is supposed to be perfect. We all evolve, we should learn from our mistakes and just keep moving. 

We should not be afraid of trying new things, or we should not be afraid of things that don't go in the same manner we planned. We are riding a rollercoaster, just enjoy it!

Breathtaking moments will surely come but in the end you'll definitely smile. 

Higher the risk, higher the returns. We should not worry about returns just give a best shot while taking risk, and return will take care of itself. 

8) Stay Dedicated

Dedication is the most important thing that can change anyone's life. If you are dedicated to something , nothing can stop you to excel in it. I started at the age of 18 and heard many people around me saying that she is just a kid. Thinking about what I would be knowing at that age and stepping my foot in one of the complex sectors(Pharma)as all says. 

After two years I realized one thing if you are dedicated to something there is nothing that can stop you. If you are dedicated you don't need any motivation to get up everyday for office or you won't need any vacation either. Doing what you love will always keep you dedicated. Never let anyones opinion change your decision. It's you in the end, who matters the most. 

9) Keep Learning 

Our minds are like parachutes, it should be open everytime or we will die due to narrow mindness. 

We all are students, no one is an expert. Some will have more experience and some with less experience. But there is always room for improvement. Never ever consider yourself superior to others, that will be the stage when you will be deteriorating. 

No matter how well known or rich you are, it's just a phase of your life. Never take that too seriously! Once it's gone it will be gone forever. What will stay with us forever is our learnings and our politeness. Be humble, be kind and keep learning. 

There are a lot of amazing things that we can never reach in this lifetime, so never stop learning. 

10) Stay Jolly 

Above all this is THE MOST IMPORTANT lesson that I learnt. Stay jolly -Staying happy is the only way we can achieve whatever we want in life. If we are not happy by what we don't we cannot go the long way. Work is a part of life, it's not life. Spending time with family, friends and most importantly with yourself is the best way to stay happy and enjoy every moment of life. 

Thanks to this covid-19 which helped binding families together, knowing what was more important. People who owned Mercedes were also at home and people owning a rickshaw were also at home. 

Doesn't matter how much you earn or how much the world recognizes you, in the end you should be able to bring smiles to your near and dear ones that's the real wealth. 

Smiles don't come only through spending money, it comes by spending our valuable time with our dear ones. 

11) Staying Positive

There will be lots of moments when things will not pan out the way we imagined. Some days will be there when all the hard work goes in vain. That's not the time to mourn or be negative about yourself , it's time to learn from those failures and prepare yourself for the next move. 

Thought process evolution after this 2020 market fall…

This market crash taught me to be more confident in myself. Where everything was falling and people were panicky “ab kya le” “sab toh ghir raha hei” “aur kitna niche jaayega”. 

I learnt one thing never deviate yourself due to the market noises, time kharab tha , company thodi kharab hai. Just stick to your thesis , go and read history. 

Sit back and relax and continue with your reading and learnings. Don't go in herds just because someone close to you is going. It's fine if we don't follow the crowd . 

What we need to do at that time is just to make your thesis strong, grab opportunities by having strong conviction from inside, not the distraction from outside. 

Doesn't matter how many times we fail, go wrong , or get criticized, if we are confident in ourselves , things will definitely go our way. 

Everything happens for something good. If you cry over things that you don't have , you will never appreciate what you have been working so hard. If you are here , reading this today - you are alive ,you can do wonders if you want to , you are blessed. 

Appreciate that blessing. So lastly I would thank everyone who was directly or indirectly part of this learning journey. 

Stay happy ! Stay positive ! Keep reading..

                     SHUCHI. P. NAHAR