| Careful going from programming to investing. In programming you have a confidence & that makes sense because the results are often up to your own skills. With investing.. there is so much that is beyond what you know. Things go against you all the time. There is all the finance stuff. But then there are mechanics to the market that can surprise you. Triple witching? (etc etc) It's often not about the fundamentals of a company but what the perception or the trend is. If I could give myself advice a year ago it would be to start with a paper account, & seriously try to make "money" that way. It requires a ton of research & time. Everyone else is trying the same thing so not only must you figure out which company is under or over valued, you must figure it out before others do. People with entire staffs doing just that. As programmers, it can be a good idea to stick to software & service companies, because we have a leg up on the understanding of how big those things can get. A lot of investors fail to realize how software companies can grow. Check out Square. Square has some of the best programming talent around. They have a Point of Sale system but are also expanding into small business services (like running payroll). I imagine they will tackle inventory, maybe wholesale ordering, do they have a loyalty system? They are using AI to choose who gets small business loans. They offer loans that are smaller than a typical bank would, thus carving out a new niche. As long as they don't hand out too much money to the wrong people, I see this business growing massively. No other software companies seem to combine a great UI, with a mobile / tablet focus. The moat is just once you get set up with it, it'd be a pain to switch out. Curious what others think. (hijack the thread!) It's my top pick at the moment. I saw it at 9 a share last summer & did not invest enough in it. Even with a market cap of 7 billion, it would seem that it could fit those shoes & then some. |