I am sure many people know the famous quote by Warren Buffett, "Be greedy when others are fearful, be fearful when others are greedy". There's probably a good reason why a widely-spread saying from him has nothing to do with analysis skills. As I have probably said multiple times already, WB made a huge impact in my investing journey, he is a mentor to both my analysis skills and character, the latter being the much more important aspect of investment in my opinion.
Anyone can pick up analysis skills such as understanding financial reports, numbers crunching and graph-plotting, but everyone has their own personalities. The interest in finance is rather rare in my circle of friends. Coming from the engineering field, it shouldn't be a surprise I guess.
I would say my friends who came from a business-related diploma
courses or had investor parents would have much less difficulty picking
up finance than I did, but then apparently none of them had much
interest in it. So there wasn't really anyone to guide me on what type of investing suits my personality. My parents knew nothing about shares investing either, my first introduction into shares was a google search of 'stocks'. It has been a long way since then.
It could be sort of a blessing in disguise. Since I started writing on this blank piece of paper with only my own pen, I was largely unaffected by the styles and character of others, I managed to develop my investing principles best suited to my character, while drawing serious influence from Buffett, Graham and Fisher. Of course at the beginning I didn't knew what kind of investor I am, but as I read through their books, their investment philosophy felt more and more like 'yeah I could definitely see myself doing that', it feels right - and good - to adapt their principles. During the start - the most exponential growth of my learning curve - I burned through piles of finance books in the library. I needed to know what I didn't know. From that experience I can definitely tell you that some investing principle are not suitable for everyone. I am rather averse towards the idea of using technicals to invest.
Personally I would say that I have sufficient knowledge of technical analysis - that's what majority of forex is. I did forex for some time before I realized that the profits does not outweigh my unrest. From basic SMA and candlesticks pattern to more complex indicators such as bollinger bands and ichimoku kinko hyo, the charting techniques like Fibonacci retracement and Andrew's pitchfork, along with oscillators such as RSI and MACD, I had my fair share of technical analysis. I would go out on a limb and risk sounding cocky (I am definitely not) to express that I doubt many business undergrads have TA knowledge that exceeds mine.
With that said, I absolutely do not use nor recommend technical analysis in my investments. One important thing in any learning journey is to know what isn't suitable for you. Technical analysis helps out my trading a lot, but it absolutely has nothing helpful in aiding my investing judgements - so I'm simply not using it. You don't have to apply everything you know, that's where analysis by paralysis comes from.
I have gotten quite a number of requests and questions asking me and also expressing the interest to start investing. Sure I can definitely tell you how to set up a brokerage account and buy shares, I could even give recommendations to which stocks to buy (I am definitely not liable for your losses). However, for one to really improve their circle of competence and principles, one have to understand what investing principles suits them best. Some people cannot hold their equities for more than a few months, some people can't sleep well at night knowing they have positions open, while some simply want to buy and forget about it. These factors, while definitely nothing skill-related, will surely plays a part in any investing journey to come.
Happy investing!
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