Stock Trading.

DISCLAIMER!

Do not use this post as financial advice. The following information in this post is purely my comments and thoughts. Please consult your financial advisor to discuss your financial goals. Current / past performance of stocks / investment instruments are NOT indicative of future performance.

Stonks!

There are plenty of tools for wealth accumulation; be it endowment plans, stocks, gold, crypto, forex, so on and so forth. Right now, I'm into stock trading. I feel everyone should partake in some form of trading to, at least, accumulate some wealth on the side, besides your own month-to-month pay cheque, because relying our monthly salary or the peanut-interest rates from your bank savings account(s) are not gonna cut it.

Furthermore, with the advent and advancement of Aritifical Intelligence (AI), in which it could take up most of the jobs out there in future, humans will have limited ways to make money. This is why Trading is the way to go. It is kind of sad that they do not teach this in primary or secondary schools. Trading, and how to do your taxes. The government do not want the people to get rich (wearing my tinfoil hat).

A little history...

While studying for my Financial Consultancy license back then, we had to go through a few modules which included Trading. We had to know what the different market indexes were, what put or call options were, what going long or short were, and many other stuff. I did not really put those into practice back then, as I was quite focused on Life Insurance rather than Wealth Accumulation.

It was not until last year which I started Trading proper. Again, AlaskanTF came in to help refresh my memory as he had been trading for quite some time. With his expertise and rediscovering my once forgotten knowledge, I dived into Stock Trading, and trying to make the most out of it. I have financial goals that I needed to acheive by a certain time frame, and I have to say, Trading has helped me quite a bit.

My only two regrets were: I should have started Trading at a earlier period, and I should have invested in some crypto (Bitcoin) about ten years ago, when each coin was hovering around USD 7000 (now, it is at USD 109,000 as I type this post).

What I started with...

I started with some low-risk stocks, such as SP500 ETF, and Grayscale Bitcoin ETF, topped with some volatile stocks such as NVIDIA, and Palantir. Ever since then, I added more stocks into my portfolio, which covers tech, energy, defense, and the above-mentioned ETFs. I even experimented with some other stocks which did not go well; meme-stocks such as Krispy Kreme, or even Sunrun. After learning those lessons, I regrouped, and refocused on my strategy, which focused on some stocks on my portfolio.

While investing in stocks, whereby I have to input some money monthly, what I adopt is something called "Dollar-Cost Averaging". This is a strategy whereby you input a certain and regular amount of money, in a regular time-frame, regardless of the ups and downs of the certain index or stock. This, conversely, earns you more money, compared to buying a certain stock that keeps going up in said regular time-frame.

As you can see, Example 2 resulted in a higher yield. This works if you are investing for the long-term. If it was a short-term investment, you will not really see results.

Options

Once I feel like I have gained enough wealth, I went into Option Trading to further my wealth accumulation. There are two different types of Options: a Put, and a Call.

Put Option
A Put Option is some form of contact betwen you and the fund manager, whereby when the Stock hits the "strike price" of, say, $50, you, as the trader, agree to buy 1 Lot (100 Shares) of the Stock at $50. If the Stock does not hit the "strike price", you get to keep the money of what you sold the contract at to the fund manager. Basically, in one way or another, you are making money literally out of thin air if the Stock does not hit the "strike price".

The thing about Put Options though, is you have to be prepared to buy the 1 Lot at the "strike price". You have to ensure you have enough funds and liquidity in your portfolio to execute this.

Call Option
This is when you already own at least 1 Lot (100 Shares) of a Stock. When you sell a Call Option, you and the fund manager have a contract whereby if the Stock hits the "strike price" of $50, you agree to sell the 100 shares at $50. If the "strike price" does not come to pass you get to keep the money of what you sold the contract at to the fund manager. However, if the "strike price" does hit, you get the money of what you sold the contract PLUS $50 x 100shares, so in totality, over $5000.

From the time I started Option Trading in the earlier part of this year, till now, I have made quite a good chunk of money. As I mentioned, literally making money out of thin air. Of course, it was not always a bed of roses. There are times whereby a stock I predict is going to perform positively, but it went haywire. You always learn your lessons the hard way, and try not to make the same mistake again.

A final word...

The picture below shows my Rate of Returns since I've started trading. Till the 30th August 2025, it is at 97.25%, with the peak being 146.54%, outperforming NASDAQ, S&P500 and Dow Jones, in this time period. This is just the stocks I'm trading in, not inclusive of Options.

Of course, if you were to change the time horizon to "All-Time", the above mentioned market indexes definitely outperform me. But what I am trying to show is that Trading definitely works, if you know your stuff, and if you know what you are doing.

Trading, by far, to me, potentially gives me more returns to other wealth accumulation tools. The thing about Trading is, you have to be okay to lose your capital and your return of investments, as the higher the risk, the higher the rewards, also, the harder the impact, when it falls. If you dare not take the risk, stick to other safer forms of investments such as Endowment Plans, Fixed Deposits and such, in which I would be sharing about it in a future post this month (I guess this month's theme is about finance).

At the end of the day, do your own research on the stocks you want to trade in. The market is super volatile, especially at this time period. No one knows how the market will go, least of all, Warren Buffet or even the fund-managers. There are a lot of factors which can affect the market.

Once again, please consult your Financial consultant to discuss your portfolio and financial goals. Past / Present performance of stock ARE NOT indicative of future performances.

Warmest
- Stephano