As with any investment, it is wise that we educate ourselves before we dive deep into the investment. It really is illogical for us to go into an investment that we do not understand. No, this is not risk-taking. Making this move can cause you greater harm than you would have expected. Believe it or not, there was a time in my youth where people around me constantly told me that it was important that I invested in the stock market when I reached the age of 21. But I had known nothing about the stock market and what investing in it meant.
Since everyone was talking about it, I got a little curious. So I spent days looking into the stock market and trading. What was it important, and why did I need to take that risk? Let me tell you about the things I found out. Basically, the stock market is a collection of markets and exchanges where regular buying, selling, and issuance of shares of publicly-held companies occur. (John, 2020) In a country, there can be more than one venue for stock trading to occur.
Now, what is stock trading? Stock trading denotes the buy and sales of shares in a certain enterprise. Owning stocks meant owning a portion of the company. If you own .025% worth of stocks, your interest in the company is .025%. Did you know that companies can buy stocks for as low as a few dollars? Well, the key is to have stocks in a few companies but do not overdo it.
There has been a study released on whether or not stock trading or the excessive act of trading can be considered a form of addiction that causes stock market anxiety and affect your mental health. In reference to the information taken from the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances back in 2013, a family of two in the United States have stocks in public trading companies, direct or indirect. That is 48% of the family of two populations compared to 1995’s forty percent. The study also mentioned that despite a boost in the market worldwide, traders who have committed suicide are also on the increase. The term trading addiction is passed about and not given any importance.
Furthermore, the study entitled “Is Pathological Trading an Overlooked Addiction” has concluded that pathological trading a necessary area of mental health research and must be considered a disorder as it is. Meaning that if people are actually taking their own lives over this activity, then going into stock trading and investing in the stock market means that you will have to make sure that you are mentally healthy.
Much like everything else in our world, we must put ourselves and our mental health first. Putting ourselves in a stressful situation when we are not in a good mental space can cause us a lot more harm than we would want to put ourselves in. Studies have shown that a healthy mental state can also lead to a healthy body meaning that if we allow our mental state to get worse by the day progressively, then we are also allowing our bodies to decline in health.
Like with anything, it is important that when we go into stocks or trading, we remember that not every day is a winning day. There will be days that we lose more than we expect, and there will be days that are harder than the other, which is why we should make sure that going into this trade that we are in the healthiest mental and physical state possible. It is also important that we surround ourselves with people who support us and people who go through the same thing so that when the going gets tough, the tough can get going.
There is a lot more about the stock market, stock trading, stock exchange. The whole thing is bigger than we actually think. Before you go into it, and before you take that risk, you have to dive deep into research and strategies on what is best to do when going into the business.
Everywhere on the internet, there is something that can help you understand a little more about it, and that takes you a little closer to understanding what you can do to do well in stocks. For example, you could always find a beginner’s guide, or maybe you could find a stock trading for dummies book somewhere out there. In any case, there will always be help where you need it. It does not matter what the help is for, but help is here when you need it.
Reference:
John, Y., 2020. Basics Of Stock Market » EQSIS PRO. [online] EQSIS PRO. Available at: <https://www.eqsis.com/pro/basics-of-stock-market-144/> [Accessed 17 October 2020].