The stock market is growing, and many people are taking advantage of it to invest their money. However, so many people lack the general knowledge on the best investment plans. Alois Chami, who has shares in nearly all the NSE listed firms and more than 44 years experience in the stock market gives his advice on stock market. He is a constant feature at most AGMs and very vocal on issues relating to the companies he has invested in.

Get some stocks: Once you invest in stock exchange, you become a sleeping partner and the company becomes active. Later on you get profits and dividends. The initial capital you gave, which is your money, is protected. Nowadays there are regulations from the CMA and the NSE that protect shareholders in case a company goes under.

Be bold: When you want to invest, you have to have some confidence about it. When I started out, I would invest half of my salary in shares. I started alone, without anybody advising me. I went to the stock exchange back in 1973, found people on the trading floor and I got about three brokers. They told me “If you buy from this counter, if it is low today and goes up tomorrow and you come and sell, you will getSee Also: An investment product that pays Sh25k for Sh600 invested additional money.” I was inspired because I figured that since I will not have physically worked for that money, unlike in my 9-5 job, there was a good future in it. I started right away.

Go to the banks: If you want to start from scratch, approach any stockbroker for advice. We depend on them for whatever we do; buying and selling. Nowadays they are found within banks, which have taken over stock broking through subsidiaries and it is the best way because they keep money and cannot be broke. If the stock broker is weak, the bank supports the brokerage side with its own money, unlike before when it was done by companies owned by individual people who would sometimes lose money.

Buy while the prices are low: The best time to invest is when the company prices are low. This has been my guiding principle all through. Watch them, and if the company works well and the shares prices go high, then you can offload some.

You will not always get it right: We invested in some companies that went under later, like Kenya Finance. Nowadays that does not happen because there are regulations, but sometimes we also buy into companies that do not give dividends. Those mistakes are unforeseen.

They only appear when you have already bought shares. If you invest in a company which is starting out, you can buy shares at Sh10 and then it slows down and starts selling at Sh5. It is not a mistake of your own making but of the company that has listed itself on the stock exchange. You cannot avoid that, sometimes.

Read the signs: Monitor the stock exchange to see how share prices are performing. Also, if a company has good results yearly and quarterly, it gives you an upper hand of knowing whether it is doing well.

Stay informed: Companies announce their quarterly reports in the press. For shareholders, they also post brochures and sometimes brokers know how different companies are performing. Performance of a company also depends on the CEOs and Finance Directors.

Keep them on their toes: You do this by asking questions. I ask so many questions and sometimes I call companies I have invested in, wanting to talk to CEOs and they give me a chance. AGMs are must attend events for me as it gives me the opportunity to continue asking questions.

Learn some accounting: When you go to the AGMs and meetings where companies announce results, they will give you a big booklet that has balance sheets, cash flow statements, profit and loss statements and so on. I did accounting in 1965, so I know a bit of it. When you understand accounting, you are able to ask the right questions. That way, you get specific answers. If you smell a rat, you can sell your stock.

Diversify your portfolio: I decided to have many companies which are listed on the stock exchange in my portfolio, so that if one does not do well, another one doing well will recover my loss. I wanted to buy in many because some do not pay dividends, while others will pay big dividends and that covers the weak ones.

There's no mockery to Elliot Wave. Elliot Wave is for TA specifically for traders. But the story above talks about an investor who has held stocks for decades. FA is necessary ingredient for such long-term decisions.
Elliott Wave lives forevermore. Hats off to charts proponents!

Even the Chami guy must have been burnt along the way. It is not always rosy!!!

Show me a TA adherent over the long term and I will show you poor man who keeps losing his shirt from market cycle to market cycle. TA is fairy dust. The only more disastrous thing than a TA adherent is one who daytrades! In fact I can bet my bottom shilling that if you get a six year old to use darts on the financial section of a newspaper to make stock picks that they buy and hold for 20 years, the kid would probably make more money over that period of time than all the TA adherents in Kenya combined.

There's no one size fits all investment strategy.. Multiple roads may lead to success. Just not the obviously bad nyani, bandia paths like BITCOIN, MSC, HAFR, UCHUMI, OLYMPIA and others as known by Yasserbigchair list of stocks to sell