Short story) My Journey as the "High School Stock King": A Rollercoaster of Trials and Lessons

<My Journey as the "High School Stock King": A Rollercoaster of Trials and Lessons>

 

 

Hey everyone, I’m Jason Lee, a high school senior, and today, I want to share how I became the "High School Stock King" — but it wasn't all easy. My journey is full of setbacks, mistakes, and growth, but if you stick with me till the end, I promise you'll find something helpful!

Just one year ago, I was a typical high schooler. My interests were mostly gaming and following the latest celebrity gossip. Then one day, while scrolling through social media, I saw a headline: "Young Investor Turns $500 into $100,000 in Stocks!" It hit me — if they can do it, why can’t I?

First Challenge: The Price of Ignorance

That’s how it all started. I dove right in, convinced I’d be the next big thing. My first stock? A company that managed my favorite K-pop group's label. Why? "I love them, so everyone else must too!" That was literally my entire strategy.

My uncle, who’s a financial advisor, warned me: "Jason, investing isn’t that simple. You need to study financial reports and understand market trends." But, being a teenager, I brushed it off. What do adults know anyway, right?

Well, the results were disastrous. Within two weeks, half of my money was gone. The stock plummeted because the company had major debt issues I didn't even know about. The news broke right after I bought the stock, and boom — I lost half my allowance.

That was my first harsh lesson: ignorance is expensive. I realized that skipping research and ignoring good advice was a rookie mistake.

Second Challenge: The Trap of Overconfidence

After licking my wounds from the first failure, I decided to be a bit smarter. This time, I targeted a seasonal product — ice cream. Summer was around the corner, and I figured, "Everyone’s going to be eating ice cream, right?"

I was confident this would work. I even checked weather forecasts and last year’s sales reports. I even asked my friends, “You guys gonna eat a lot of ice cream this summer?” and they all said, "Of course!"

So, I invested in an ice cream company’s stock. But guess what? The stock didn’t go up. It barely moved, and eventually, it started dropping. I was shocked. How could this happen when I had done my research?

Turns out, lots of other investors had the same idea long before me, and the stock price already reflected those expectations. I had fallen into the trap of thinking I was smarter than the market.

That’s when I learned a valuable lesson: you can’t assume you’re the only one with a "brilliant" idea.

Third Challenge: The Danger of Greed

After two failures, I knew I had to be more careful. My next focus was tech. A major smartphone company was about to release a new model, and I decided to buy stock in one of its key suppliers.

This time, I went all in. I read tech articles, watched product reviews on YouTube, and even spent hours analyzing the company’s financial statements. I was sure I had it figured out.

At first, everything went great. The stock was climbing, and I was riding high on success. I bragged to my friends, “See? I told you this would be huge!”

But once the smartphone launched, the stock crashed. What happened? The company's results were solid, but the market had hyped the stock so much that even good news wasn’t good enough.

I realized then that greed had clouded my judgment. I’d been so focused on making big gains that I hadn’t seen the warning signs.

Fourth Challenge: School vs. Stocks

Investing was starting to take over my life. I’d wake up every morning and check the stock market before even getting out of bed. During class, I’d sneak a glance at stock apps under my desk, and it didn’t take long for my grades to slip.

Midterm report cards came out, and my grades were a disaster. Math? I was practically failing, which is ironic because I’d been doing well in Economics (go figure). My parents were disappointed, my teachers concerned, and my friends... well, they were making fun of me. “Jason, what happened to you? You’re always on your phone during class.”

That’s when I hit a crossroads. I had to make a choice: either quit investing or figure out how to balance it with school. In the end, I chose balance. I set strict limits on when I could check the stock market and gave myself more time for homework.

Slowly, my grades improved, and at the same time, I became a more focused investor. This taught me the importance of balancing passion with responsibilities.

Fifth Challenge: Information Overload

As I got deeper into investing, I realized that there’s a lot of information out there. I subscribed to financial newsletters, followed investing channels on YouTube, and joined stock market forums. I thought I was getting smarter, but in reality, I was getting more confused.

One day, I’d hear that buying Tesla was a no-brainer. The next, someone would warn that Tesla was overvalued and about to crash. Who should I believe? I spent sleepless nights poring over charts and reading opinions from every corner of the internet.

Eventually, I learned an important lesson: filtering information is just as important as gathering it. I started focusing on reliable sources and tuning out the noise.

Sixth Challenge: Continuous Failure

At this point, the failures were piling up. Every time I thought I was onto something, it backfired. I was starting to feel like maybe I just wasn’t cut out for this. My friends were telling me, “Dude, just quit. You’re losing too much.”

One of the hardest moments was when I convinced a friend to buy a stock, and they lost money because of my advice. I’ll never forget the look of disappointment in their eyes. It was brutal.

But then my dad gave me some advice that stuck with me. “Jason, failure is the foundation of success. Every loss is teaching you something.”

That shifted my mindset. Instead of quitting, I decided to embrace my mistakes and learn from them. It wasn’t easy, but I began to see the value in persistence.

Seventh Challenge: The Criticism of Others

Eventually, I started making money again. But just as I thought I was back on track, the criticism started coming in. People said things like, “You’re too young to be doing this,” and “You just got lucky.”

What hurt the most was when a teacher I really respected said, “Jason, you’re wasting your potential. Focus on school, not the stock market.”

I felt crushed, but my mom reminded me, “You know what you’re doing, and you’ve worked hard for this. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.”

Her support gave me the strength to keep going and ignore the doubters.

Eighth Challenge: Overconfidence

After I finally made a big profit, I felt invincible. I started thinking, “I’ve got this figured out!” I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was getting too cocky. I made my next investment without doing much research, just going on instinct.

At first, it seemed like another win. But a few days later, the stock plummeted. I was devastated and embarrassed. How could I have been so careless?

That’s when I learned the most important lesson yet: never let success get to your head. Stay humble, no matter how well you think you're doing.

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Wrapping Up

Looking back, my journey as the "High School Stock King" was filled with more failures than successes, but each failure taught me something important. If there’s one thing I’d want you to take away, it’s this: don’t be afraid to fail. Embrace the lessons, and keep moving forward.

Now, I’m getting ready for college, and while I’ll keep investing, I’ve also learned to balance it with the rest of my life. Thanks for listening to my story — I hope it helps you on your own journey!

 

 

 

#ref:

https://sosohantry.tistory.com/entry/book-투자에-대한-생각-심층적으로-생각하라

book) 투자에 대한 생각 - 심층적으로 생각하라