Stock Market Wannabe
April 30th 2008 00:53
Hello people!
I decided to write this blog because there are a lot of people out there who has money problems. I hate that because I hate poverty. And I hate poverty because… well, isn’t it true that a good percentage of the world’s population belong there?
Hold on a minute, though. Before any of you begin to think that I am a self-proclaimed messiah who is barging in to pretend to solve everyone’s financial woes… very quickly, allow me to claim the opposite. I am no seer and neither am I an expert. So, what am I doing here talking about money problems?
Let me put it this way, I have been to a place where huge amounts of money are being made and lost at the same time and there is opportunity there for everyone. It is not a secret place. Millions of people have been there before me and many of you have probably been there too. In fact, that place is in every country where money can be made – it is called (I’m sure you’ve already guessed it) the Stock Market.
What’s the big deal? The big deal is – Forbes Magazine has recently listed Warren Buffet as the world’s richest man. He has dethroned Microsoft’s Bill Gates who occupied that post for a long time. And of course, you know who Warren Buffet is. I have been reading about him before but his name was only imprinted inside my thick skull when he donated more than 30 Billion U.S. dollars to Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. At the time of the announcement of the donation Bill Gates, whose worth was estimated at more than 40-B U.S., was still Forbes Magazine’s richest man (Buffet was 2nd richest). Buffet’s companies are behind the big U.S. acquisitions of late and he made his money from the stock market. That’s the big deal.
Buffet has the reputation of being “The Sage of Omaha”. Obviously, he is an investment expert or even far beyond that. He was described by some U.S. financial writers as “sophisticated investor”.
Now, if he is all that and I have just said that I am no seer and neither an expert, the question returns – what am I doing here talking about money and stocks?
Well, sometimes, questions are better answered by painting a picture. So, let me try to paint one. There are people out there who are poor because they lack education and, therefore, the knowledge to make a lot of money. But there are also people out there who had all the best education anyone can get and they work for people who lack the kind of education that they have. There are people who are losing money in the stock market because they know too little and there are people who are once again bankrupt because they know too much.
Look at the kind of people who are hardest hit by the “Subprime Mess” and the resulting credit crunch - hundreds of billions of dollars in losses - these are the financial people. They are the experts in handling money. They are the experts in mortgages. They are the experts in lending.
And what caused their losses that cost not just hundreds of billions of dollars but also thousands and thousands of jobs lost? Like I said, I am no expert so please correct me if I am wrong. But this is how I understand it. The financial people lost all that money and jobs because of: Expertly packaged collateralized debt obligations tied to mortgages lent to the sub-prime borrowers who defaulted on their payments! Now, how could that have happened to them money guys when the whole caboodle is their expertise?
And guess what, there are some red faced experts too whose expertise is to rate the expertly done jobs of other experts like the collateralized debt obligations expertly called as CDOs. I mean, those CDOs were made by experts and rated by rating experts – some receiving the AAA ratings and yet where have all those CDOs brought them (and all of us too)? The same ratings agencies have given developing countries in Asia a much lower grade and yet look at those countries now. Faring a lot better than the U.S. where the experts are based.
Forgive me fellas, I am not trying to demean the meaning of the word “expert” or the experts themselves. They earned those titles and for very good reasons I’m sure. But I am stating my observations and these are the things that I see. And this brings us to the answer to the question: what am I doing here?
Given all the above, I guess what I am doing here is try to open to the poor and the non-experts the vast money making opportunities in the stock markets anywhere in the world. Not at the expense of the experts where I will point you to for advice and reference most of the time but with the caveat that while they are the experts, they are also like us – humans - liable to commit mistakes. Likewise, I would like to emphasize that while we – mere mortals – are not the experts, we are also capable of thoughts and observations.
We may see things differently from the experts, but that’s where the beauty of it all lies.
You see, I keep saying that I am not an expert because I am not. If you consider the entire investing world and compare my knowledge to theirs in this business, mine would be like that of the Stone Age Man’s knowledge of the securities market. I do believe, however, that in the present days there are still a lot of people who are interested to get into the stock market but whose level of knowledge in investing is like mine.
So, I am proposing to do what the Neanderthals did when they wanted to build a fire. Get a few light, combustible materials and ignite a rock. Once in a while, I will throw in bits of pieces of ideas about stock market investing and hope to stimulate enough curiosity from those who are interested and start a discussion. Maybe we’ll all learn how to make a lot of extra bucks.
Let me emphasize again, however, that this is NOT an expert’s opinion corner. This is a discussion page that hopes to create knowledgeable men in the distant future. I said distant future because I expect those who wander into this page to eventually seek higher learning by questioning the wisdom of established authorities in this field, reading books, consulting experts, attending seminars and maybe even enrolling in a business course or two and taking a stab at dislodging Mr. Warren Buffet from the top of Forbes’ richest list. (Hey, it’s free to dream ain’t it?)
By the way, I am not a stock broker. I am not related to one. I don’t sell books on investing, I don’t sell or push stocks and I don’t organize seminars. I am just a very-very small private investor wannabe who believe that money can be made in the stock market (probably not your bourse
, so I can’t influence, no matter how small, the movement of prices of your stocks), who wish to exchange ideas with others.
I hope you join me in my blogs.
I decided to write this blog because there are a lot of people out there who has money problems. I hate that because I hate poverty. And I hate poverty because… well, isn’t it true that a good percentage of the world’s population belong there?
Hold on a minute, though. Before any of you begin to think that I am a self-proclaimed messiah who is barging in to pretend to solve everyone’s financial woes… very quickly, allow me to claim the opposite. I am no seer and neither am I an expert. So, what am I doing here talking about money problems?
Let me put it this way, I have been to a place where huge amounts of money are being made and lost at the same time and there is opportunity there for everyone. It is not a secret place. Millions of people have been there before me and many of you have probably been there too. In fact, that place is in every country where money can be made – it is called (I’m sure you’ve already guessed it) the Stock Market.
What’s the big deal? The big deal is – Forbes Magazine has recently listed Warren Buffet as the world’s richest man. He has dethroned Microsoft’s Bill Gates who occupied that post for a long time. And of course, you know who Warren Buffet is. I have been reading about him before but his name was only imprinted inside my thick skull when he donated more than 30 Billion U.S. dollars to Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. At the time of the announcement of the donation Bill Gates, whose worth was estimated at more than 40-B U.S., was still Forbes Magazine’s richest man (Buffet was 2nd richest). Buffet’s companies are behind the big U.S. acquisitions of late and he made his money from the stock market. That’s the big deal.
Buffet has the reputation of being “The Sage of Omaha”. Obviously, he is an investment expert or even far beyond that. He was described by some U.S. financial writers as “sophisticated investor”.
Now, if he is all that and I have just said that I am no seer and neither an expert, the question returns – what am I doing here talking about money and stocks?
Well, sometimes, questions are better answered by painting a picture. So, let me try to paint one. There are people out there who are poor because they lack education and, therefore, the knowledge to make a lot of money. But there are also people out there who had all the best education anyone can get and they work for people who lack the kind of education that they have. There are people who are losing money in the stock market because they know too little and there are people who are once again bankrupt because they know too much.
Look at the kind of people who are hardest hit by the “Subprime Mess” and the resulting credit crunch - hundreds of billions of dollars in losses - these are the financial people. They are the experts in handling money. They are the experts in mortgages. They are the experts in lending.
And what caused their losses that cost not just hundreds of billions of dollars but also thousands and thousands of jobs lost? Like I said, I am no expert so please correct me if I am wrong. But this is how I understand it. The financial people lost all that money and jobs because of: Expertly packaged collateralized debt obligations tied to mortgages lent to the sub-prime borrowers who defaulted on their payments! Now, how could that have happened to them money guys when the whole caboodle is their expertise?
And guess what, there are some red faced experts too whose expertise is to rate the expertly done jobs of other experts like the collateralized debt obligations expertly called as CDOs. I mean, those CDOs were made by experts and rated by rating experts – some receiving the AAA ratings and yet where have all those CDOs brought them (and all of us too)? The same ratings agencies have given developing countries in Asia a much lower grade and yet look at those countries now. Faring a lot better than the U.S. where the experts are based.
Forgive me fellas, I am not trying to demean the meaning of the word “expert” or the experts themselves. They earned those titles and for very good reasons I’m sure. But I am stating my observations and these are the things that I see. And this brings us to the answer to the question: what am I doing here?
Given all the above, I guess what I am doing here is try to open to the poor and the non-experts the vast money making opportunities in the stock markets anywhere in the world. Not at the expense of the experts where I will point you to for advice and reference most of the time but with the caveat that while they are the experts, they are also like us – humans - liable to commit mistakes. Likewise, I would like to emphasize that while we – mere mortals – are not the experts, we are also capable of thoughts and observations.
We may see things differently from the experts, but that’s where the beauty of it all lies.
You see, I keep saying that I am not an expert because I am not. If you consider the entire investing world and compare my knowledge to theirs in this business, mine would be like that of the Stone Age Man’s knowledge of the securities market. I do believe, however, that in the present days there are still a lot of people who are interested to get into the stock market but whose level of knowledge in investing is like mine.
So, I am proposing to do what the Neanderthals did when they wanted to build a fire. Get a few light, combustible materials and ignite a rock. Once in a while, I will throw in bits of pieces of ideas about stock market investing and hope to stimulate enough curiosity from those who are interested and start a discussion. Maybe we’ll all learn how to make a lot of extra bucks.
Let me emphasize again, however, that this is NOT an expert’s opinion corner. This is a discussion page that hopes to create knowledgeable men in the distant future. I said distant future because I expect those who wander into this page to eventually seek higher learning by questioning the wisdom of established authorities in this field, reading books, consulting experts, attending seminars and maybe even enrolling in a business course or two and taking a stab at dislodging Mr. Warren Buffet from the top of Forbes’ richest list. (Hey, it’s free to dream ain’t it?)
By the way, I am not a stock broker. I am not related to one. I don’t sell books on investing, I don’t sell or push stocks and I don’t organize seminars. I am just a very-very small private investor wannabe who believe that money can be made in the stock market (probably not your bourse
I hope you join me in my blogs.
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Comment by Harry
Sydney Diary
Personals
Brisbane Diarystar
Zoo Parent
Comment by Market Newbie
Stock Market Punk
Thanks for your confidence expressed in my first blog.
I hope I am not disappointing you that much so far
Market Newbie