Days in Stock Exchange

For the past two days I've went against my usual routine. I was out of the office on a company training, which meant influx of messages in inbox. This equally translates to tons of work when I get back. But there's practically nothing to complain about. Catered meals and overflowing coffee's better than working or pretending to work. Except that the topic is all about Stocks.

Stocks immediately registered images of commodity in financial market, shares, Tom Hank's 80's movie, wall street guys in white shirts and ties, Ticker boards, company names, trading floor, phones, shouting, stress and stockbrokers in a den, that's what stocks is all about. But surprisingly, it's not that primitive anymore. Almost everything has already been automated. There's no more shouting as trade happens in the big electric board, silently, suddenly. The aura of sophistication and corporate elite envelope the whole area. As I walked the carpeted floors, I felt that it's a place that could give someone the creeps, and on others, thrill and excitement. This is where it all happens. This is where stocks rise to make thousands of people richer or poorer. This is where jubilation and depression happens at initial stages of win or lose. For me, this is where I become catatonic and vulnerable to massive mood swings.

You see, I have a couple of prejudices in my life and one of it is my feeling towards math or anything finance related. I can do simple math and simple money logic, but anything beyond that is complex to me. I have no interest and heart for computing. I like the generation, steady flow and management of money, although the nitty gritty stuff I tend to keep at bay. I'm not good with manipulating money through computation and certainly I didn't earn any professional degree to play around with the figures. That's why when I learned that I was going to be training about stocks, I was close to panicking.


I'm not going to recount the details that left my brain cells dry, but pretty much we discussed essential things when dealing with stocks. We had the usual introduction and history, regulations seminar, lectures on IPO and enlisting (just in case we would want to enlist our future company), managing and acquiring shares, fundamental analysis and technical analysis (Graphs etc.). There were times wherein my mind drifted into space and imagined the whole boardroom filled with shareholders as I am their chairwoman. There were also times when I'm looking at the speakers oozing with skill and knowledge, that soon, given my billion-worth company, I would hire their services and let them compute the EV/IBITDA. Damn, and let it be done with it. I am late for my lunch with Warren Buffet!

But seriously, at the end, I did gain some useful stuff and insight. I can say I'm not an ignoramus anymore with stocks. I know a bit. In fact I kept a couple of contact numbers and notes. But if there's anything important I gained with those past two days was my interest to invest. I may not have mastered or completely learned the various computation in the fundamental analysis. Nor am I an expert in graphs or technical analysis, but the strategies, gut feel and will to engage in stocks are something learned individually and doesn't take much of a PHD. If there's anything to be gained from this seminar is the heightened interest to invest, and I believe I'm going to score an A on that!