I always see people making fun of the statement "Do your own research" or pushing back on people when they suggest it, and I've never understood that because "do your research" is probably the best advice anyone can give you. It puts the ball completely in your court. I remember it took years for me to even strike up the courage to put money into the stock market. Investing seemed so inaccessible to me. Like, what do you mean people just throw their money into the market and "hope it goes well"? I think maybe I was on a Reddit thread and I kept coming across that line, "do your research" and "start learning about the stock market". I realized I'd been waiting for someone to take me under their wing or to maybe find some course, or meet some stock broker on a plane, but I decided to just jump into it. At the time, it seems like a completely different language. P/E? Earnings report? Brokerage account? Liquidity? Margin? The first time I even looked at an earnings report I had no idea what I was looking at. When I first started researching, I thought I wanted to be a day trader, but as I started looking into it and the statistics, the success rate, the taxes involved, I realized I was more of a long term trader. I started watching Youtube videos, reading articles from Bloomberg, Reuter's, The Financial Times, Investing.com, joining Reddit threads, watching the Schwab Network, listening to the Motley Fool podcast at night. It was slow at first, but as I started to understand the terms, and see what one should not invest in - the mistakes and successes - I started to get excited. It was maybe 6 or 7 months before I bought $VNQ and $NVDA. Both of which I had decided on after looking at the holdings and past earnings reports for both of them, respectively. I spent months and months, thinking about both of these, looking at charts, watching interviews, talking to different people, watching videos on Youtube about people's investment theses before I decided to actually buy. So, I never took a course, it wasn't exactly one person who said, "Go, buy this". Each one was an investment thesis that had began through careful consideration, research, debating in my head, and slowly grew like a snowball. That has always stuck with me. Everything that I have ever bought has been after days, weeks, months, even years of reading up and trying to figure out everything I possibly can about $BTC, $CRWV, $DRAM, $NVTS, $AMD, $PLTR, you name it. Have I made some mistakes? Definitely. At the end of the day, research can only take you so far, eventually, you have to jump in the pool and start swimming. But the best advice I could give any brand new investor, is just start teaching yourself. Maybe not everyone is going to be quite to the degree of obsessiveness that I am, but I believe anyone can learn about investing and become a good investor. It's like with anything, the only things you really need are time, motivation, and hard work. Don't wait for someone to come around and try to sell you a fucking course, or think ChatGPT or Claude is going to make you a millionaire. If you REALLY want this, start reading, take the time, teach yourself. We are in the 21st century; we have a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips. So, go get it.
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12 Comments
Vishal @thegodinvestor · 7h
Yeah. I got into TTD because I did my own research. No one would’ve suggested it! Why? Because it is down super low and had potential!
Matt @tissuet · 7h
I don’t really like the slogan “do your own research,” because technically, when you’re researching something, you’re usually just going over someone else’s research and information. I think a better message would be: “Invest in what you believe in.” At the end of the day, it’s about understanding the information, forming your own conviction, and investing based on what you believe.
Dany @danman · 5h
Great post
Marsia @gnomishness · 1hEdited
I agree, really good post. I started investing 11 months ago, and recently started listening to earnings calls. Sometimes it’s like drinking from a fire hose, but sometimes I actually get the main points, and it’s very exhilarating. I still feel like I make every mistake imaginable, but I really am learning a new language and discipline, and I figure I have more money than when I started this, so it’s like a course that paid me to begin to learn the material.
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