CMa - Reflection On A-Term

    Although I am experienced in the realm of investing, there is always more to learn and I did a lot of that over the past week. Over the course of the two weeks, on top of learning, I helped teach many of the topics and gave tutorials on how to use websites and other investing tools, which refined this information for me, and forced me to dive deeper and get a more comprehensive understanding of these subjects. As is the case with many stock traders, I have taken on stock options and although I have developed a good understanding of them, I had never looked at selling options. For nearly the entire first week, I looked into selling options and strategies that took advantage of time decay to make money. I learned about call and put spreads and took this further by learning about Iron Condors. As I grasped these concepts, I looked into manipulating these strategies to take bullish or bearish positions mid-trade, and watched many videos that backtested these strategies. The most important thing I focused on was protecting my downside which is difficult when you are selling options. During all of this, I was using technical analysis to help find good entry points and did a couple of trades on paper which have turned out well!

    At the same time, my interest in private equity was revived as I looked for websites and platforms to invest into small businesses and startups. Though I haven’t found any investments, it was great to learn how to evaluate small businesses and knowing there are platforms I can use is helpful for future opportunities because I want to get involved in small business investing. However, angel investing is extremely risky, so I want to make sure I have secure investments before diving into that field. In the midst of this, I looked into ways of actually getting money to invest. It’s easy to tell teenagers to get in early, but they first need capital, so I looked into different ways to earn money and it was interesting finding obscure ways to make money that weren’t sketchy. To build on this, I looked into methods of making passive income. I don’t want to dive too deep (check out the Padlet for more information) but there are a lot of ways to passive income. With some being more rewarding than others, it was great to gather all of the information. To put it in one sentence, these two weeks were spent finding methods of investing to use in the future.

    Lastly, my passion for Real Estate was renewed on the last day when Connor McGill came in to talk. Seeing someone with an obtainable, reasonable amount of capital, who is just years older than me showed me how it’s possible to get in, and make money in real estate. Though his market in Connecticut is much different than Houston, many of the things he discussed can be applied to any real estate venture. Dr. Ott has always encouraged us to purchase multi-unit properties, and Mr. McGill built upon this suggestion. He spends just 1-2 hours a month managing his few properties, yet makes a great passive income. Of course he spent a lot of time upfront, but profiting over one thousand dollars a month for little labor is rewarding! 

    These have been two of the most productive weeks of my life because I have never spent two straight weeks just learning how to invest and make money. I would recommend that anyone who is vaguely interested in any topic in investing takes a course like this because you will find something you love. Courses such as these prepare you for life after school, and I could not be more grateful for the experience!