A Revisited Whim: Turning Money into Something to Capitalise

One Decade ago I had set up a trade account with the intention to buy stocks. That was the goal, nothing more, just to buy them. No research or knowledge on what it would cost or what it would require me to do. Just buy ‘it’ and then move on I guess. Since the 14th October 2010 the trade account sat untouched and in fact the password forgotten. Nothing purchased and nothing lost, an account was created on an impulse, just never to be touched again. But it never left my mind and my interest remained.

Eight years later in 2018, I called up the provider to get my account back and reset my password. Still with the same intentions, to just buy shares. By chance, it was on the 30th October. Graphs, tickers and a whole heap links and pages of information appeared on the screen. To quote a message sent to a friend that day.

Got my trade account sorted…. and immediately dazed and confused by what it was presented…

I did not know which company I wanted to buy in to, well not one I could afford. I was always an interested in technology and I looked at Google and other large companies. But so had everyone else, many years ago in fact, meaning their prices were way above anything affordable. So back the account went into hibernation.

Digital Trading

Breaking in to this idea of buying in to some digital or ethereal object that you throw your hard earned money at and you may or may not see returned. Was the surgeoncy of Cryptocurrency in to my life. It had interested me, the idea of Bitcoin when it first came out in 2009. I had the mining software installed some time between the launch and when it was only viable for businesses to mine. I could not find any of the files, so I don’t know if I was ever successful. Then the value of Bitcoin surged, on a training course discussions ventured onto the existence of other crypto and my interest grew.

In the timeline of this story a year passed. And it was time for me to do something with trading again. I created an account on the 30th October 2019 so I could give money away to a scam. And after this I realised I could do trading but with reasonable amounts of money. Using the learning program with the vendor I earnt little bits here and there and bought less than $10 here and there. Easy as that. Watching it grow, trading between currencies and learning about new ones.

Investor

During this month, I have been reviewing which crypto I am using and been getting more serious. Before the consolidation, I had a number of different crypto, but now I only have a couple. Daily I check the trends and make a decision on whether I am going to trade some or just leave them. Most of my strategy is to set and forget, but a small amount I move around. Now that I have a bit more of an understanding, I feel it is time to step in to the stock exchange.

So one of the limits you have to deal with is the entry costs. I received an offer a couple months ago for $1 per share. It was from a company I was actually interested in investing in. Knowing that they were new to the market but were very likely to grow. I was definitely interested, but the minimum of 2000 shares meant it was a stretch. I considered it but did not go ahead. Instead I waited some more. It isn’t like I haven’t been waiting already. Before I left for work on the 19th November 2020, I did it. Looking at what the minimum costs were and failing to submit my order a couple of times. I bought shares and became an investor. A shareholder.

Hereafter

A whole decade after I first had the idea that “it’s a good thing to do”, I am taking the same approach as I did with the crypto. Intending to invest in these stocks for a decent amount of time and not react to the first little bits. Confidence in the company is high so I will give them a couple years. I might end up buying some more, selling a little or investing in other stocks. And I will keep stuffing around with crypto. One day I will end up making the decision to sell, but it won’t be right now. Plus the longer I put it off, the longer until I have to face the hurdle of filling out a tax return with a capital gain (I hope) or loss. Wish me luck.

Oh and I don’t know what it is with October and November. But apparently that is Investment month for me. I also reviewed by Superannuation too. November of every year is Canada’s Financial Literacy Month, so maybe it’s that.