Stock Market Essay

The stock market it a confusing, risky, exciting place. Luck, skill, and strategy are all great ways to succeed in this risky business. This essay will give you the advice from previous experience that you need to be able to achieve success.

The companies I selected were F5 Networks, SPDR Gold Shares, and Apple, and I chose them for many different reasons. I picked F5 Networks because my dad works for that company. When I bought the stock, it was doing very well at the time. F5 helps technology run faster, and I hate slow electronics, so I decided to invest in it. I decided to invest in SPDR Gold Shares because I needed one more company to invest in, and this one looked very consistent. Though I didn't know much about this company, when I looked at the yearly graph, it averaged very well, and didn't look risky, so I decided to invest in it. I bought Apple because I have Apple computers, phones, and other electronics at my house, and I think they work very well. Apple is a fairly new company, but I think it's popularity was starting to grow, so it would have higher sales. For each of the companies, the reasons I invested in them differed completely.

Now that I've watched my stocks rise and fall, I have a few changes that I would make to my strategy. One thing I would’ve done is sell my stocks earlier. When I bought my stocks, they were all at a fairly low price for their average. Around January, they all shot up extremely high, which brought me in a huge profit. If I had the choice, I would’ve definitely sold them earlier because after January, all of my stocks dropped considerably. Another thing I would’ve done differently is buy less shares of one company. If I could go back in time, I would’ve evened out all my shares. I ended up investing a large part of my money in one company, which didn't end up helping me. Some of the companies I invested less in did better, so my total amount of money was much less than what it could have been. The last thing I would've done was take more time to select my stocks. As we didn't have much time to choose one, I chose some of them rather quickly, instead of taking the time I should have to look at them more closely. If I had of done this, maybe my choices would have been better supporting of my financial state.

Seeing how the stock market works for a good amount of time now, there are a few things I would recommend, and a few tips I have on how it works. Something I would recommend doing is evening out your shares. This way, if one of your stocks fails to please you, you don't have all of your money riding on that one stock. It is also a good idea to have a variety of companies to invest in. For example, if you invest in all seafood companies and suddenly all of the ocean life dies, you have a problem. If you have a broad horizon of companies, if one type of product isn't selling for some reason, you don't have to worry as much. The last thing I would recommend doing is to research your stocks. Before you buy a company, research it's history and recent stock patterns. This way, you have a fairly good idea on what your putting your money into.

Hopefully, as you read this, you've begun to understand how difficult and deceiving the stock market can really be. Now that you have an idea how this topsy – turvy thing works, you can begin your own adventure into the stock market. Remember, though tips and strategy can help you suceed, you never really know how well a stock is going to do, so good luck with taking the risk that many regret, and some consider the greatest decision of their life.