If you have ever attempted to time the stock market, chances are you bought a stock high and sold low - the opposite outcome you would have hoped for. Due to the constant unpredictability of equities coupled with our behavioral tendencies to naively intervene at the worst moments, actively investing can be one of the hardest challenges any individual can try. Rather than focusing on why buying stocks is so difficult, I want to focus on why it speaks deeply to my creative desires.
The stock market has always represented more than just a stream of income to me. It was an area where most of my interests collided; economics, psychology, innovation, technology, and programming. The mere ability to invest in some of the most generationally-defining companies was also a gift I never wanted to pass up on. However, the question was: how could I effectively allocate my capital to the most promising companies in emerging trends I believed in?
This question created the spark for developing a weekly ritual of scouring through company 10-k filings, studying bond and commodity markets, screening stocks for hours on end, and theorizing how breakthrough technology would drive change going forward. From common themes such as electric vehicles, AI, and the semiconductors to lesser-known ones such as genomics and robotics, I was thrilled to discover how fast the world was progressing. In addition, knowing that I could potentially reap the benefits of these revolutionary sectors through the stock market was a feeling second to none.
On the outside, investing in stocks can seem relatively linear; you bet on companies and try to make money. But when you peel back the covers, the true fun lies in designing a completely unique process that convinces you to play what is otherwise a random and haphazard game. Holding through the euphoria-driven peaks and the panic-selling troughs is an emotionally demanding task like no other, but being able to express my creative side by designing my own investing approach is what makes it more than worth it.