-So a little backstory-

 

     There have been a handful of elderly people that I have met since I was a kid who has (let's just say) done very well for themselves. Not like "filthy rich" well but they sure don't/didn't have to worry about money. I remember asking my parents long ago what they did, their answer (with a good portion of those people) was investing and the stock market. Now the stock market could defiantly mean a multitude of things, and the same goes for investing. I was mainly intrigued by how their lives were because of what they did! The stock market, real estate, and investing, in general, have always caught my attention since I was a young age and grew more and more the older I became. I love the idea of possibly making "UNLIMITED" sums of money, while doing whatever I want, wherever I want, compared to the job I'm used to which requires a shovel and the pay will eventually top out. Needless to say, I have always been curious to learn what I have always been interested in, but like everyone else, I don't have thousands of dollars to invest, and the people that invest are geniuses, right? 

 

     My initial introduction was in 2014 with a phone call from my father (who is very beginner), telling me that he found a penny stock that is a huge money-making opportunity, and that I needed to buy in now before it "EXPLODES!". I didn't have a brokerage account and didn't even know how to get one, so he filled me in on all those little details, and as soon as I came home from working out of state, I went straight to the brokerage I was referred, Scottrade. At the time, the only way to open an account with them was to show up in person with a cashiers check. 

     I brought $500 that day, excited to open up my new "Investing" account. After everything went through and my account went active, the man behind the desk politely asked if I needed investment advice. I politely declined because I had my heart set on one stock and one only (all or nothing!), MCIG, a marijuana vaporizer cigarette!

I raced home as fast as I could with that $500 burning a hole in my pocket already, and the whole way there I was trying to make sense of the chart!

All the way home that one stock was all I could think about, o man, I was going to be rolling in money! When I arrived home I wanted to at least pretend I knew what I was doing and the one thing that seemed alarming was that the stock price went from $0.20 a share to $0.80 a share in a couple days, it's all-time high if I remember right. Worried, I called my father with my concern, it wasn't "experience" talking, it was my gut, and I should have listened. $500 isn't a ton of money, but it's my money, I bled and sweat for that money! My father assured me, "Jeremiah, this company is going on to do great things, this is easily going over $1.00 per share, believe me, you will definitely thank me later, just do it before its too late"! I gave in and threw all my eggs in that single basket at $0.86 per share!

     From my understanding of how the stock market worked was that you sink all your money into one thing, then wait! Over time it will build, and build, and build, and "wham-bam" you're rich! Boy, I was wrong!

     Two or three days later I excitedly logged into my account to see how much wealth I've accrued over that short amount of time. What I saw made my guts clench, I originally paid $0.86 per share, and it dropped to roughly $0.50 or $0.60 per share! Not knowing what to think I gave my ole man a ring frantically asking what happened! He said, "Jeremiah, it's not a big deal stock goes up and down, it'll come back up, stop watching it!", so that exactly what I did! I didn't log in for a couple months, I didn't look at it, I didn't follow it. After some time I decided to check to see where I was at. Opening my laptop and logging in (more wearily this time), I went into a sheer panic! My tiny $500 account was worth less than $50 bucks! That was all it took for me to understand that this wasn't for me. I never did sell, I mean what's the point honestly? Every year that went by that account dropped more, and more, and more. I eventually stopped watching and I forgot about it. 

 

     Last spring (May or June 2018) I had the thought of giving it another shot!

I've never taken stock advice from my father again, and we laugh about it now. 

     I started a new brokerage account in July of 2018 and was putting $100 in here and there, just figuring that I would start off on a pretty slow pace. I started putting my focus on knowledge. The career path that I have done for the past 9 years has kept me away from home and traveling, I would work 14 to 16 hour days, on a certain lengthy stretch, minimum 14 days straight. I put all of my lonely time I spent on the road away from my family cramming any information I could get my hands on, I was putting between 10 to 12 hours a day in studying stock. Eventually, I came across Tim Sykes and I really soaked in the information! The market was good in July and August but I wasn't, finally, September came and some things finally started clicking. For the last week of August and the first two weeks of September, I couldn't make a bad pick. I was nailing everything, and my paper trading account was finally doing good, my actual account was down more than a grand, but it halted and I was starting to slowly look up!

Getting cocky I started thinking "hey, if im doing this good and am getting it, let's start playing with bigger money so that my account can get caught up"!

1st trade, I made a big trade and profited roughly $500 in a couple hours!

2nd trade, gambling even more money I profited roughly another $500 in a few hours.

"I'm getting this" is what I thought!

3rd trade, I dropped over $2500, most my account value! This was the best looking set up in my opinion! I even had this huge elaborate plan on what it was going to do and I was going to do. I bought in the morning (thinking it was going to climb all day, it was going to drop a bit before market close, but it then was going to make its spike in the after hours when I could sell for a nice profit! Everything was exact! After I made my purchase the stock gradually rose all day! I was up over $500 dollars in profits! But why would I sell when it's going to make its big spike after hours? So I held! Right before market close, the stock started to drop a bit (exactly what I called), I was getting a smile on my face, then it plummeted. 

I was trying and trying and trying to sell, I was in a frantic, but it was dropping faster than I could get rid of it! 

I got it sold, and I lost almost $2000 bucks in one day. Ugh, I felt sick! That was the day I noticed the crash. From then to November I was losing money almost daily and had no one to blame but myself! What a depressing thing, seeing your money dwindle! But I'm persistent, and I kept studying!

 

     December started to have a turnaround, slow but noticeable. But Since January to current, I feel like I'm actually "BUILDING" my account!

 

Study study study! 

Don't gamble what you can't afford to lose!

Cut losses quickly!

Don't get cocky!

Oh ya, did I mention study? 

 

My first blog post so I'm not exactly quite sure what im doing! But I figured this would get everyone up to speed on how I got started!

Feel free to ask any questions or to give me pointers/slash advice! I am definitely new in every aspect and love to learn, just figured I would share my long story so people can either relate or they can have a laugh! Sorry for the spelling or confusion if this is hard to understand, I am very much new lol.