A Real Investor?

I see myself as what I would call a "small investor." I would like to invest in the stock market to make some money to help pay for college and the expenses that come with it. I do not see myself making a career out of it but I do enjoy investing and I think it could help me in the future. There is a lot of risk involved because one bad move could be financially damaging.

What Would I Do Differently?

If I started over again I would do more research on the companies. I feel like I may have just chosen companies with big names at the beginning because I just expected that they would grow (bad idea). I started learning my lesson a few weeks into the project. I would also not give up on companies so quickly. If a company did not do very well for 2 or 3 weeks I would sell if for fear that it would continue to drop.

What Have I learned?

I learned that being involved in the stock market as an investor is much harder than I imagined it being. When working with the stock market one needs to research the company they plan to invest in. Just because a company is currently doing well does not mean that it will be a year, month, or even a week from now.