“I bought this stock for $1.50, a share for 1000 shares, and later sold it for $2.30 a share. I just made $800.” These are the kind of words I have been hearing from my mom for the last two years. No, she is not a stockbroker; she is far from it. Her career does not even fall in the same field as finance. She works full-time, but she invests in stocks on the side.
My mom works a full-time job Monday-Friday, and sometimes a part-time job on the weekends, all as an Occupational Therapist Assistant. She makes good money from her career, but she always finds ways to diversify her income, and investing in different stocks is the way she does that. Rather than investing in the large-cap stocks like most people, she invests in penny stocks, which are shares of small public companies, such as new companies, where the prices are low. These stocks do not require that much money to invest, as they are usually under $5 a share, so one does not see themself putting too much money at risk.
My mom learned to invest in penny stocks from my uncle in Canada, who works for Fidelity Investments. She was looking for a way to have another income, and my uncle came in and showed her the way. He taught her everything: the pros and cons of investing, which stocks to invest in, when is the best time to sell, and how to observe different trends. I have never seen my mother so excited to learn something new, not since she was in college. She quickly got into investing, and before I knew it, she would be on her phone daily. Normally, I would never see my mom on her phone, (only to text a few people and go on Facebook here and there). That habit changed quickly, and anytime I would see her sitting, she would be on her phone. I would take a glance and see green and red arrows (indicating the status of a stock.) At first, I thought investing in stocks was such a huge gamble, as you can never anticipate when a stock can plummet and you can lose a substantial amount of money. My mom changed my views, however, when I witnessed her make good money from it. In fact, she even took us out to dinner one time, using her earnings from her new side hustle.
My parents always told me that I should pursue new things, to have an eagerness to learn. I decided to act on that and learn what my mom’s new interest was. A recent example of my mom’s endeavours includes Sesn Bio. I sat down and said, “Mom, tell me about the investing you do.” She actually became ecstatic when I asked and proceeded to tell me about what she was doing with Sesn. “I recently bought 1000 shares of Sesn, at $2.29 per share, so I invested $2,290 into this stock. I monitor the stock ticker, and at times, the value dropped, and raised slowly again. After a while of monitoring, I sold the stock for $2.86 a share, so $2,860. I got $570 in profit, within just a few days!” I was immensely astounded from what she told me. This happens quite often, her yielding profit from her stock endeavours. Sometimes, she is in a loss, as a stock she buys ends up going lower and lower on the stock ticker. She never panics, as some people do. Rather, she just waits until something happens, either the stock price increases, or she has the opportunity for a buyout. A buyout opportunity is when a big corporation buys the penny stock for a big price. I asked, “What’s an example of a buyout?” “Say Pfizer looks into buying Sesn Bio due to them having credible research and data on cancer. Pfizer decides to buy Sesn Bio at $20 a share, which would give any stockholder a huge profit. Pray for me that I get one,” she would respond. As you can see, it is a rare occasion that my mother waits for.
During my senior year in high school, I was trying to discover what my interests were and what major I wanted to study in college. Thinking about my different conversations with my mom, I realized that stocks and investing were my interests; the stock market, financial markets, and investment banks attracted me heavily. Witnessing the whole idea of investing, tracking stocks, and doing research on what a stock is from my mother seemed rather riveting to me. Looking into a major relating to stocks, it came to finance.
Finance as a major is all around us in the world. It is a driving force for corporations and the economy. I am more of a math person than a science person, and I enjoy number crunching, thinking analytically, such as deciphering trends to figure out when is the best time to invest, and recently, stocks. I did have trouble thinking about what major to pursue during senior year, but the world of finance welcomed me with open arms.