@Mutaga,i see we are in the same profession. Lookin back to the time i was your age,i would have achieved much more had i been a little bit more patient.I know it's tough when you invest in the stock market & it goes into a bear rather than a bull.Just to encourage you,last year was my worst year in stocks in the sense that i made some bad decisions on Transcentury & Britak & eventually had to sell at a loss. Why did i lose?I was simply greedy.The stocks were already overvalued compared to their peers at the time of their debut.Lesson learnt.Don't chase stocks,chase value.A bit of technical & fundamental analysis ie PE & PB ratios helps. I became wise & instead of running away from the stock market(what we call selling fear,i decided to rather buy fear.So i got into KCB at 14.75 in Oct when inflation was almost 20% & interest rates at 25%. Its fundamentals were lookin great & so were the charts(technical analysis).That decision paid off big time.
So i encourage you to learn from your mistakes,face them & then make much wiser decisions.
Even people like me who have traded stocks for years(and have a background in Finance) still lost some cash. But that was then,we are coming off a high interest & inflation environment plus the elections in March next year(hopefully) should sort out the political risk!
In the game of stocks,patience,once you have made informed decisions really pays. Learn to sell greed & buy fear & you'll always be ahead of the crowd. At your age,i really envy you,you truly have a bright future should you stay focused!Take time to study the stock market,its history,where we are headed in terms of futures,commodity markets & REITS. Also study other markets in Africa eg JSE,Europe,Asia & North America! This will help you know where we are going at the NSE.
Happy investing!
@SufficientlyP