Stock Market for Dummies (Like Me)

Wall Street, Dow Jones, Brokers, trading, stocks. For most of us who only watch and hear these things on TV or read it in the business section of the newspaper, this may all seem like a blur. Terms like these may make one wonder, “What in the world are they talking about or “What will I get out of this”? And true enough, all of these words seemed intimidating, mind boggling, scary even. In the parlance of a commoner, the Stock Market isn’t as simple as it may sound. In fact, “simple” would be the last thing to define it. The words mentioned above would be more than enough for an ordinary guy to pass out or hallucinate.

But for all those “chosen few” who would like a whole new adventure, especially in making money, this is gonna be one for the books.

It was already my 2nd time to attend the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Stock Market 101 seminar. I had attended a prior seminar in the same building (Tektite) but that would be straight from the broker itself. And honestly even with a few nods and “Ahhs”, I couldn’t digest nor grasp what was discussed then. And thought then that maybe, it was my waterloo or I wasn’t business minded or I’ wasn’t at all a risk taker. Whatever my reasons were, it was just too obvious, I had too many excuses.

And so as I braced for yet another serving of this “numbers trade”, I said to myself, “Maybe, it’s worth the try, maybe it’ll all be much clearer the next time.

And as if “Halleluiah” was in place (no pun intended), somehow, I am beginning to finally grasp the idea. Don’t get me wrong, I do not claim to be an expert yet. But I’d like to believe, all these talks about stocks and trading, buying and selling stocks, IPO, gains and losses, fundamental and technical analysis, are somehow coming to play. (Yeah! I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

And as every lecture prospered, as every fact is presented using PowerPoint presentation and real life examples of people whose life had been dramatically changed when they started to join this activity. And I realized that most of the speculations and apprehensions I had about this are all just what they are, “fear of the unknown”. It’s as if my wrong presumption about this are all just what I thought they were, “Presumptions”. I had seen what others would think as” seeing things in a new light. Oprah calls it, “a light bulb moment”, as if I could hear that “Ting” at the top of my head. Again, I do not claim to be an expert, but let me just share a few things I’ve learned:

That SAVING is very different from INVESTING. Saving mean setting aside a portion of your money while Investing is making your money grow and work for you.
That the principle of taking part in the Stock Market is not as complicated as it may sound.
That you don’t have to be rich or have millions to invest in it. All you need is to thoroughly research about it and be aware of what you’re getting yourself into.
That it’s a shame that out of the 265 companies or corporations available for investment in the market, only 1 % of us in this country are involved in the Stock Market. The low turnout of investors may be caused by fear or lack of knowledge about it.
That being a stockholder of a big company or corporation doesn’t mean you have to buy half or even a quarter of the company.
Lastly, I learned that there really is a niche for ordinary and not so rich people who would like our hard earned money work for us.

Whew! That was a lot to digest. And now the question you might want to ask, “So, how does it work”? Well, from what I gathered, these are the basic steps to know:

First, open an account with an accredited PSEI broker. You can choose between a Traditional also known as Call brokers where you have to constantly call and bug them and thrown in a fit when your stocks start to go down and you were not able to sell right away. (I don’t actually recommend that you do that.)
Or you can join in with Online Brokers where all the buying and selling would be available at your fingertips.
Next, once you have an account, you can already Order and Sell. This is already the part where you already doing the buying and selling. Be careful that you lose track of your investment. Always monitor the progress of your transactions as you’re bound to lose a lot if you just “wait and see”. Being in this game requires you to be always proactive.
And lastly, settle within T+3. T+3 means once transaction is made, between the seller and buyer, the buyer has to receive his shares and the seller has to receive his money within 3 business days.

So, how’s that for a starter? Have I convinced you yet? Or the better question would be, Have I already convinced myself after everything that I’ve said here? Well, as for investing me probably have to get my account stable enough to sustain the investments I plan to attain for the long haul. As our mentors have said, getting into the Stock market doesn’t mean you have to give up your day job or not work at all, like any business, it comes with risks, and we’d have to be ready for safety nets or fall backs in any case. And if you’re going to tell me, “Boo! So, when exactly are you going to be ready”? Well, I’m keeping my fingers crossed again, and pray that this could happen, very very soon!

Note: For those who might be interested to know more about the Philippine Stock Exchange, they have regular Tuesday seminars every week or you can log on to their website, www.pse.com.ph and check everything that you needed to know.

Special Thanks to

PSEI

Philippine Stock Exchange Building, Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig, 1605 Metro Manila

Image downloaded from Google Images