Source: BURSA ACADEMY | Published: August 2020
For the investor in you, when and how to invest your hard-earned money is, undoubtedly, a major decision. It is a financial decision that cannot be and should not be taken lightly. To make the right investing decisions, you must analyse and understand your financial circumstances, your investment goals and your expectations, including the level of risk you can afford to take and are willing to take when investing your precious savings.
A fear shared by people of all economic classes is the fear of losing money. Many also equate losing even a bit of their money with losing all their investments. This fear of losing soon grows into an overwhelming fear of investing with an increasing abhorrence of risk.
Your appetite for risk and your tolerance of risk are critical pointers in finding out what type of investment works for you. Typically, the higher the potential returns from the investment, the higher the risk involved. In other words, a risk-free high-return investment is simply a mirage. If someone promises you such a scheme, you need to be wary.
One way to not fall prey to fraudulent advice is to dig deeper into what the investment is all about. However, many might find it daunting to devote a lot of time to active research on investment opportunities and market behaviour. Seeking assistance from a licensed adviser is certainly an option. Do keep in mind though that financial advice that suits others may not necessarily work for you.
A different way to overcome the fear of investing is to get the right facts on what the stock market is, how it works and what it offers. Today, people instinctively turn to the internet for advice and, unfortunately, a great many of them fall into the clutches of anonymous shysters who lure them with promises of wealth.
Although the internet is a vast repository of useful information, knowing which adviser and what advice is credible is critical to your financial health. Listening to a dubious adviser who peddles some persuasive version of a get-rich-quick scheme is not a good idea. Nor is it beneficial to take lessons from an online self-promoted expert whose only aim is to get you to pay for what is likely to be a worthless advice and, more often than not, financially dangerous guidance.
What few people realise is that the biggest risk in investing arises from reckless, ill-informed and irrational investor behaviour. Usually, this results from either ignorance or a lack of reliable information. It is no secret that informed investors do better than ill-informed and uninformed investors.
Informed investing starts with learning.
The good news is that, now, anyone can learn.
The great thing is that Bursa Malaysia is making it happen.
Learning How to Learn
Today, several self-paced investor education avenues are available across Bursa Malaysia to bring you up to speed on the key facets of the stock market, ranging from terminology and behaviour to expectations and trading. What's more, you can build for yourself a practical foundation in investing by researching a wealth of information on risk, tools and strategies.
Let Bursa Academy Empower You
As part of a massive effort to achieve financial literacy in the community, Bursa Malaysia has been continuously driving investor education initiatives. A digital leap in this direction is Bursa Academy, a new content-rich e-learning platform that combines an informal learning experience with a comprehensive overview of the capital market.
At Bursa Academy, you can dive into a massive pool of curated learning content that covers the retail investor's primary markets – Equities and Derivatives – and also the socially responsible investing market of Islamic Equities. Here, you can access a wide range of easy explainers, articles, tutorials, quizzes, videos and webinars on the fundamental structure, principles, instruments, challenges and opportunities of the capital market.
Also available at Bursa Academy are compact courses, structured in the form of self-paced learning modules in both English and Bahasa Melayu, that can help bring new investors up to speed on a variety of market-related topics.
The platform also provides investors a wealth of information and tools to learn how to navigate and enjoy returns from the volatile capital market. The goal is to help budding investors learn market concepts, strategies and practices that will allow them to plan their investment journey and achieve their financial goals. Bursa Academy is a one-stop free e-learning platform for everyone – it's the easy first step to a bright investing future.
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Tags: DAY TRADING, STOCK TRADING, VOLATILITY
