Read about my successes and failures. Learn from my experiences and gain insight without losing any cash!!!
Lesson: Catching a Falling Knife
Lesson: Currency Exchange
Lesson: Mutual Fund
Lesson: Paid to Wait
Lesson: Pricing in a Downturn
This is where you’ll find find my Blog. I will comment on the latest news relating to investing, real estate, and the financial markets.
Age: 29
Location: Calgary, AB
Occupation: Project Coordinator for an Environmental Service Company
1) How did you get started in investing?
I was in school until I was 26, so my dad actually got me started
because I was getting older with no RRSP's, no investments...literally
living paycheck to paycheck (and enjoying every minute).
2) Tell me about your biggest investment success and the lesson you
learned from it.
Vaquero Energy and Bell were my biggest successes, I was able to
purchase the stocks/units, hold onto them for 2-5 years and sell prior
to the company's heading south. With he Vaquero stock I learned about not
just recognizing the company and their financials, but also the
individuals operating the company, there reputation and history. Once they
were acquired, there price was stable for half a year and then dropped.
3) Tell me about your biggest investment failure and the lesson you
learned from it.
Onolytics Corp - an attempt at diversifying my portfolio that has gone
sour, I still have the stocks, they've dropped in value by about %50
over the past couple of years but the company has several patents and
clinical trials on the go. I have a small enough amount of money
invested in it that I'm willing to ride it out. The lesson here is learning
when to pull out. Maybe should have sold off last year when I would
have taken a %25 loss, but we'll see how it plays out in the long run.
If every stock was a winner we'd all be rich, and there'd be no market.
4) What is your current investment endeavor?
I am still attempting to diversify my portfolio. Being an Alberta boy I
found I had too many stocks and units in energy companies. The trust
announcement definitely hurt. I've diversified into mining a fair bit
(not gold as I think it's topped out for a while now, similar to the
early 80's) and also housing developments (property managers/senior housing).
5) What investment advice would you give to our readers?
Read 'the little book that beats the market' and continue reading from
there. It's a game of averages. You need to stay in the market
consistently but find good value companies. There is a lot of junk out
there, especially with how everything has been going up for so long.