What is the common and fastest step we take when learning new things?

We imitate, we copy, we follow.

Certainly, there are things we can directly copy, and there are things that we can’t.

I believe many of you have read the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.

Perhaps it is not hard for us to follow those habits ‘physically’.

But, the more essential part would be the core values behind those habits.

And it is hard for one to imitate such values in a short time.

After making my first profit from SEAL, I started to spend more time in KLSE.

I’m eager to find the next stock that could earn me more pocket money.

But, without sufficient knowledge on fundamental and technical analysis, I had no idea where to begin with.

There were too many financial jargons for me to start with fundamental analysis.

Yes, I could find those figures and ratios, but I had no idea what they mean.

Price chart did look a bit easier for me to start with back then.

Still, I had no idea which technical indicators should be given more weightage.

I even spent about one month just to understand What a Candlestick Is.

I told myself that, “well, I’ll try to learn these down the road, but now I don’t want to miss the next stock that can earn me money.”

So, I turned to this silly resort, I followed others.

I mean, how worse could I get if I follow majority?

I searched through blogs and forums to find out which stocks were actively discussed.

I tried to identify experienced investors and followed their stock picks.

When there were more people discussing and following an actively traded stock, I tend to be more confidence on that stock.

If that stock had been highlighted by some guru, it further gave me the impression that this should be the one!

The result of this resort was a mixture of earning and losing.

When followed the correct stocks, I cheered for myself that luckily I follow the crowd.

When followed the wrong stocks, I hypnotized myself that, ‘well that’s not so bad, at least others are also making loss as I did….”

This is how absurd I was.

This kind of herd behavior is common among newcomers, as we want to pick up things fast.

The outcomes may not necessary be negative, but we must avoid being a lazy herd.

Don’t just follow ‘physically’, but spend time to pick up things slowly.

Follow the right path, learn the correct criteria used in stock selection.

Cultivate correct mindsets in investing and instill right values in our investing life.

Try to be a hardworking and responsible herd.

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P/S: To sharpen my skill, I do share some stock watch in Invest for Life and facebook https://www.facebook.com/investforlife.com.my/.