Recently, have you often heard people around you said: It’s easy to make money by investing in stocks. Just buy stocks that are on uptrend, and you can easily make money by buying and selling them! These remarks make investing in stocks sound like a way to make quick money. Furthermore, since the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia in March 2020, the local stock market has suddenly seen an influx of new investors, suddenly the local stock market became a hot topic among the people.
Why these new investors enter the stock market during this pandemic period? I think it is due to the following reasons:
Work from Home: Many are required to work from home under the MCO, which means they got more spare time to look at the stock market.
Decline in FD’s rate: This has caused many who originally put their money in FD to start seeking higher-returning stocks as investment.
Extra income: Due to the pandemic, many people realized that their jobs are not as secured as they had imagined, so they began to look for extra income through stock market investment.
Everyone Buys Shares: When people around you all started to discuss about stocks, you will be influenced by them and start to learn to invest in stocks, maybe plus a little bit of FOMO (fear of missing out).
The extraordinary performance of glove stocks: This makes many investors and stock rookies feel that making money in the stock market is very easy, so they invest their money in the stock market
These new investors not only contributed to the record-breaking trading volume at Bursa Malaysia last year, but also pushed up the price of the pandemic beneficial glove stocks to an unbelievably high price. Many investors earn multiple fold last year because of glove stocks. For example, the world largest glove manufacturer 7113 TOPGLOV soared from around RM 5.80 in March 2020 to the highest peak of RM 29.30 in early August, gaining as much as 405% within 5 months! 7106 SUPERMX surged from around RM 1.50 to the peak of RM 24.40 within the same period, gained 1525%. A 2020 phenomenal in Bursa Malaysia.
I’ve seen an increasing number of comments from stock novices on stock investment websites and apps, which lived up the normally quiet comments section. There are all kinds of information and personal opinions or questions in the comment section, but what really caught my attention is that most people mainly focus on the following two questions
Can buy this stock? What’s the target price?
Can this stock go up to RM X.XX? Can I add more now?
In fact, I have always known that there are more speculators than investors in the stock market. It’s just that in the era of ‘everyone buys shares’ we’ve seen last year; it is really hard for me not to worry about these new investors. How many of these share market rookies are speculators who want to make quick bucks in the stock market?
By definition:
Investing – To acquire a security or an asset with an intention of holding it for a long-term period with a view that it will gradually increase in value over that period, after studying all the information available for that security or asset.
Speculating – To acquire a security or an asset without any knowledge of the said security or asset, and hoping to sell it at a higher price, generally in a short period of time. In short, it’s as good as gambling.
I’ve made a simple comparison below:
First and foremost, investment is not something that will earn you profit within a short period of time, because investment usually takes some time to actually create wealth. For example, when investing in real estate or a business, it takes several years to breakeven before it starts generating profit. Even if it really breakeven or make profit within a short time, those are normally pure lucky. It’s the same for stocks. If you want to make long-term profits, you must look at stock investment like real estate or a business investment. However, due to high fluctuation of stocks price, many think they can time these fluctuations to buy-sell and make money within a short period of time. This is not investing, but speculating.
Almost 100% of those who ask the 2 questions above online are speculators because they have no idea what they are buying. They only know that they have to sell their stocks at a higher price, and they don't bother about the value of their stocks or the business behind them, so they need to ask for others opinions. If you want to invest in a certain stock, you will definitely analyze and study the company behind the stock in detail, its business and financial state, and estimate your return on investment based on its past earnings and the current share price, and then come to the final conclusion: buy, not to buy or sell.
The main characteristic of speculators is that they want to buy stocks that are on an uptrend, and hope to sell them at a higher price in a short period of time to make a profit. They generally think that good stocks are those that will rise in price, and do not spend time on stocks that do not fluctuate much in price. They usually monitor the market closely, and their state of mind is tie to the ups and downs of the market.
Speculators do not understand the stocks they bought, so when the good news causes the stock price to rise, they simply don’t know how to digest the good news and re-evaluate the value and price of the stock. Instead, they sell them when the price went up marginally. Therefore, you often hear them complaining: Why did the stock price rise as soon as I sold it? Conversely, when unfavorable news causes the stock price to fall, speculators do not sell immediately because they don’t know the impact of the news on their stocks. Instead, they hold on to it and expecting the stock price to rebound, eventually get stuck at high price.
Based on my observation, speculation in the local market is indeed worrying, especially in this era of ‘everyone buys shares’. Many youngsters and even students have early exposure to stocks, but they have wrong perception about stock investment. Most of these stock market newbies only care about whether can they make money in the market, not to learn how to make money in the stock market. I often see people asking for information that is easily available on the same website or app; some even ask basic questions that they should have understood before putting their hard-earned money into the market. Sometimes I really can’t brain how can you put your money in without even having a basic understanding of stocks? Most of them have the same problem: they buy far too sloppily, and cry too loud when losing money. Investing your capital into the stock market in without basic understanding to the market and hoping to make money from it is a classic example of speculating.
I’ve have not seen a retail investor achieve financial freedom or became wealthy through consistent speculating in stock market. Professional traders are different, because they spent so much time studying all sorts of charts and data, which most of the us don’t. While earning a few quick bucks sure sounded great, but one must also realize that why that particular transaction made money. Is it really your skill? Or just pure luck? The problem is many speculators blame the luck when they are losing, amazed by their ‘skills’ when they are winning, and they plunge themselves into a vicious circle, and continue to lose money in the stock market.
Disclaimer: This is a personal opinion recorded for my personal record. Nothing on this Blog constitutes investment advice, performance data or any recommendation that any security, portfolio of securities, investment product, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. The author shall not be held accountable for any investment decision made by the reader. Invest at your own risk.
您最近是否常常都听到身边的人说：投资股票赚钱很容易的，只要买入正在上升的股票，一买一卖就可以轻易赚到钱了！这些言论让投资股票听起来像是一个可以赚快钱的方法。而且自2020年3月在马来西亚首次实行行动管制令(MCO)以来，本地的股票市场突然间多了很多新的投资者，令本地的股票市场突然间成为了人民的热门话题。
为什么这些新力军会在这个非常时期大举进入股票市场呢？我认为是以下几个原因：
居家工作：许多人在行动管制令下都必须在家里工作，所以多了许多时间进行股票投资。
定期存款利率的下降：这导致很多原本把钱都放在定期存款的人开始想要投资在回酬更高的股票。
想要赚取额外的收入：因为疫情的影响，很多人意识到原来自己本身的工作没有想象中的稳定，于是就开始想投资股票以赚取额外的收入。
全民皆股：当您身边的人都开始讨论着股票，您也会影响而开始学习投资股票，可能还有一点点的FOMO（害怕错过）。
手套股劲爆的表现：这让很多投资者和股票新手觉得在股市赚钱是件非常容易的事，于是就把钱投入股市。
这些新力军不仅仅在去年让大马交易所屡次创下历史新高的交易量，更是把在疫情当下受惠的手套股的价格推高到一个令人难以置信的高价。许多投资者都因为手套股而在去年赚了好几倍。例如全世界最大的手套制造商7113顶级手套TOPGLOV就从2020年3月的RM 5.80左右一路飙升至8月初的最高峰RM 29.30，五个月的涨幅高达405%！7106速柏玛SUPERMX更是在同时期从RM 1.50左右狂飙至RM 24.40的顶峰，上升了1525%，堪称2020年马股的神话。
我也在各大股票投资的网站和手机应用程序看到了很多股票新手的留言，让平时相对冷清的留言区突然热闹了起来。留言区里有着各种各样的资讯和个人意见或疑问，但真正引起我注意的是大多数人主要都是在围绕着以下两个问题：
这只股可以买入吗？目标价是多少？
这只股可以去到RM X.XX吗？现在还可以加码吗？
其实我一直都知道股票市场里投机分子是占大多数，只是在去年这种全民皆股的时期，我实在是很难不去为这些新力军感到担心。到底这些马股新力军里有多少巴仙是想要在股市里赚快钱的投机者呢？
根据定义：
投资 - 在研究该证券或资产的所有相关资料后，购入该证券或资产以期长期持有，以便该证券或资产在该期间内增值。
投机 - 在不了解证券或资产的情况下购入该证券或资产，并希望在短时间（通常）内以更高的价格出售。
我在此做了一个简单的对比：
首先，投资并不是可以让您在短时间内赚取利益的一项技能，因为投资通常都是需要一些时间才可以为您带来财富。例如投资房地产或是一门生意，通常都需要数年的时间才可以回本，然后才开始赚钱。就算真的是让你短时间内回本及赚钱，那也是一时幸运。股票也是如此，如果您想要长期的赚钱，您就必须像投资房地产或是一门生意来看待股票投资。但是由于股票的价格波动很大，于是很多人都认为可以把握住这种波动以便在短时间内以一买一卖的方式来赚取其差价。只是，这种方式就不叫投资，而是投机了。
在网上抛出以上两个问题的几乎100％是投机者，因为他们不知道自己买了些什么，他们只知道要把手中的股票以更高的价钱卖出，而对其股票本身的价值，其背后的生意一无所知，所以需要询问他人的意见。如果您是要投资某一只股票，您必定会详细的分析和研究股票背后的公司，其业务和财务状况，还有根据其过去的盈利表现与现金的股价比较而预算出您的投资回报率，然后得出最终结论：买入，不买入或卖出。
投机者最大的特征就是希望买入正处于上升趋势的股票，然后希望买入过后能在短时间内以更高的价钱卖出而赚取盈利。他们一般相信只要是会涨的都是好股，不会花时间在价格没有太大起伏的股票。投机者通常会长时间留意着股市的动向，其心情也会随着股市上上下下而不得安宁。
投机者因为不了解他们买入的股票，所以当有利好消息令股价上涨的时候，投机者不知道如何消化这些好消息然后重新评估该股票的价值和价钱，反而因为看到股价稍微上涨而卖出套利。所以您很常听到他们会抱怨：为什么我一卖了股价就立刻上涨？相反的，当不利消息令股价下跌时，投机者因为不会判断这些消息对其股票的影响而没有即时卖出，反而抱着期待股价回升的心态，最终就演变成‘被套在高楼’的情况。
根据我的观察，本地的投机现象确实令人担忧，尤其在这个全民皆股的时代，许多年轻人甚至是学生都提早接触到股票，但是却对股票投资有着错误的认知。这些股市新人大多数都只在乎能不能在股市中赚钱，而不在乎学会如何在股市中赚钱。我经常看到一些人在网上问一些在同一网站或应用程序上可以轻易获得的资料；有些甚至会问一些在他们还没将自己的血汗钱投入股票市场前本就应该明白的基本问题。有时我真的想不通这些人怎么可以在没有对股票投资有基本了解的情况下就投入资金？他们当中的大多数人都有相同的问题：买的时候很草率，亏钱时就大呼小叫。在基本知识都不清不楚的情况下把资金投入股市，而且还希望可以赚钱，这就是典型的投机。
我还没有看过有散户通过不断地在股市上投机来实现财务自由或致富。专业交易员跟一般人不一样，因为他们花了很多时间研究各种图表和数据，而像我们这些散户却没有这种时间和数据。虽然赚一点快钱感觉是非常不错，但您还必须意识到为什么这笔特定交易可以赚钱。这真的是您的技术了的吗？还是纯粹的运气？问题在于，许多投机者将失败归咎于运气，成功就是实力而将自己陷入一个恶性循环里，然后不停地在股市里亏钱。
免责声明：这只是个人意见，记录下来供我个人使用。此博客上的任何内容均不构成投资建议，绩效数据或任何建议，任何证券，证券组合，投资产品，交易或投资策略均适合任何特定人士的建议。作者对读者做出的任何投资决定概不负责。投资风险自负。