My first exposure to the Stock Market came when I was a fresh engineering graduate and started my first job as a Software Engineer in India back in 2007.

My financially literate friends began buying and selling stocks. It was a fanatical time when upper circuits were standard, and money was raining down. I have only been exposed to the stock market through my father, who has made a decent fortune investing in stocks. Unlike the rest, I have had no formal financial education. I did not know what to expect from investing. All my father ever said was if I had PPF (Pension Fund), which gave 8%, it should be enough for me in the long term. He didn’t explain the Stock Market (later, he did explain it when I became more serious), why Pension Funds are a good deal, and how to differentiate between good and bad investments.

When everyone around me was making money, I was too busy with my work, but the idea of doubling money every couple of months didn’t leave me. I wanted to start but was not sure from where. Eventually, I enrolled in a trading account and started. It was December 2007. I can’t recall my first trade, but I was sure that the markets only go one way, which is up. My lifetime lesson in investing was about to take place when I didn’t realize it.

I invested in around 15 securities. I traded a few now and then based on analysts on TV and kept others because my father told me to hold them. Soon I was down 65%. I jinxed the stock market, which started the financial meltdown observed & feared across the globe.

I was down, hurt, and wasn’t making money in the stock market. My savings were going down the drain, and making it worse, I decided not to invest. I left my investment account with 15 securities, of which I picked 12 based on analysts on TV & the Internet and others that my father told me.