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I started out investing in 2015 after giving up my job in the City in Investment Banking where I led a number of teams developing Fixed Income trading systems.

The job was very rewarding and I’m proud of having developed a number of key trading and risk systems, but 20 years of the commute was enough for me and I decided to create a home based set-up where I could balance my time between IT consultancy, investing and just generally enjoying a better work/life balance!

My first dabble in the markets was after reading the Naked Trader, a great book as it goes with a very sensible approach to starting out investing. Lets say its a world apart from the small cap AIM market but a great way to start!

Once I’d made a few successful investments my confidence grew and I got drawn (like I should imagine many) to the ‘Top risers’ lists on my ADVFN watch-list!

Needless to say, these were AIM stocks (high risk, small cap, low liquidity). Now I’ve got around to starting a site I’ll probably do a separate piece for newbies to try and help them avoid becoming one of the statistics ie one of the circa 85% of people who lose money investing!

My first AIM investment was Desire Petroleum drilling in the Falklands along with Rockhopper. Not sure how I picked up on it (probably on a top risers list!) but it seemed interesting and I think I threw a grand in for results.

I can’t quite remember what happened but I know eventually it was a ‘duster’ (a no oil hit) but before that happened I’d seen around a 100% increase on rumour and speculation. I banked the cash and had bagged!

Wow 100% returns why am I messing with growth FTSE stocks?

Well needless to say I was brought back down to Earth in due course and lost my gains on another AIM stock, meanwhile the FTSE ones such as Easyjet were up nicely.

Basically Desire was a gamble and it paid off for me but I realised I couldn’t carry on gambling, I needed a system or at least clear reasoning why I was going to invest in a high risk company so I started researching and jotting down factors I could see that would mean the share-price would likely appreciate.

But the AIM market isn’t that simple, there are so many factors at play (working against you) and you as a retail investor are ‘lunch’ if you don’t know what you are doing.

Anyway the point is I had to do things the hard way and research. And then once researched evaluate whether there are clear catalysts to increase the share-price.

If you are interested, I’ve put together an outline of my strategy here

A few years down the line and I have been very successful with consistent portfolio growth. I enjoy doing the research and if I get to the point where I produce research notes or videos it means I’ve invested and for a reasonable timeframe to see what I hope are significant returns.

I hope you find the research info I post helpful, please don’t rely on it though and it’s not investment advice. Its my view on the world and I don’t necessarily get them all right !

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