Personal stories amid Covid-19 lockdown; What defines a intelligent investor & a wise investment of time?

I am a small investor, also a student of BSc CSIT. I'm going to share my lockdown experience to the readers, which initially started with boring days but later improvised. As per the TU notice, our college, along with all other TU affiliated colleges have been closed since Chaitra 7^th, 2076 due to Covid-19 pandemic. It’s been more than a month, people have been staying at home due to the lockdown.

I spent the first few days of the lockdown with NO specific schedule. I used to wake up around 9 or 10, spent whole day watching random videos on Youtube, binge-watching series on Netflix, chatting with friends, playing Ludo on messenger, and scrolling through newsfeed on social media. I didn’t notice the days were passing by so quickly and without doing anything useful. It was probably the second week of the lockdown; an idea struck my head on how to make best use of this time. I thought of utilizing this valuable time learning something worthy. Since I am interested in stock market and already invested on some public shares, I thought of learning more about stock markets.

First, I started with learning the basics of stock market through various websites. I spent few days learning how to make fundamental analysis of companies. I learnt about different financial ratios, profit margins, returns, and growths. Since I don’t belong to commerce faculty, It was much difficult learning the fundamental analysis then the technical one. After completing the fundamental analysis, I started learning different methods of technical analysis. I learnt how to use different indicators to find the convergence/divergence and trending patterns of stock charts. After learning how to use some most common indicators, I thought of reading book to broaden my knowledge on investments. I searched for recommendations online and selected the one recommended by Warren Buffet. It was “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham who is also known as “The father of value investing”. This book was also recommended by other successful investors. It took me about a week to complete the book. I found this book very fascinating and very useful for value investing; for both the beginner as well as investors who have been trading/investing in the stock market for a long time. This book best describes the way we can simply avoid common mistakes during investments. Personally, I want to recommend “The Intelligent Investor” to all the investors and those who are interested in investing.

To all the people staying at home due to Covid-19 lockdown, I suggest you to make the best utilization of this time, since this time is the perfect time to develop your skill, knowledge and improvise your hobbies. And for those interested in stock market, investment alone doesn’t mean the investment of money but also the wise investment of time.

Romin Karki, small investor and student of BSc CSIT