top of page

Interview with the President of the ASF US Business & Finance Club on the Stock Market

Emiliano Tornel

As a kid, I always thought the stock market looked cool. I never really understood it, but I found it very interesting how people managed to become rich off of researching companies and understanding markets.


Pedro Iglesias is a Junior at the American School Foundation. He was the president of the Economy Club in 2022 and is currently the president of the Business & Finance Club. He has been trading since 2019 after a friend back in Brazil inspired him with his earnings and still actively participates in the stock market to this day.


Seeing as I’d never gotten around to learning about the stock market, and that some other people likely also find it interesting but don’t know where to start, I decided to interview Pedro and publish it so that his guidance could reach a larger audience. Here it is:

 

Interviewer: Hello. It’s great to be able to talk to you about something so interesting. First of all, could you please explain, in simple terms, what the stock market is?


The stock market is a very broad set of exchanges where you can receive ownership on anything. It could be a company, it could be an ETF, it could be a cryptocurrency, it could be a type of forex fund, it depends. And so the stock market in general is usually seen as a place where you trade stocks and it has a stock exchange particular to it. So for example, the New York Stock Exchange in Wall Street


Interviewer: How can someone who knows nothing about stocks get started in understanding and following the stock market? What are the first steps someone should take?


So the first thing is dedication. It's going to take time and dedication for you to learn anything. And so I would say that the first few months are very tiring, you get tired, but apart from that it's very easy.


Then you just get on your way and start looking at the charts, stay informed every single day, and that just becomes a habit. You just wanna learn about how everything is doing and it also helps you get a good insight around the world around you.


Interviewer: I've often heard the terms "stocks" and "bonds" thrown around and now you’ve mentioned ETFs and forex funds. Can you clarify the difference between these?


So ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) are basically funds that symbolize certain assets or bundles of assets on a special type of market. An example could be a symbol that measures the US economy. Another example could be the S&P 500, which is a symbol that has many different types of ETFs. You cannot buy the S&P 500 directly, you need to buy it from an ETF which could be VOO or many other ETFs that are available.


Forex is basically currency exchange and exchange of commodities like gold so you can buy the euro against the dollar, the dollar against the yen, whatever type of currency you like.


Bonds are a loan that you give someone and then you expect an ROI (return on investment) over a period of time. The ROI and time that you have to wait depend on the type of bond. You can also give your bonds if you are a very wealthy investor, to new startups and businesses.


Lastly, stocks are basically a small percentage of a company, one stock and then it's traded in stock exchanges.


Interviewer: What are some reliable sources or tools for tracking market trends and individual stocks? Are there any specific websites, apps, or resources you recommend for beginners?


So you can get into the stock market by watching YouTube videos and just going on Google and looking for resources and checking the price of everything. To check the stock market and every type of currency exchange and all the prices I would recommend Trading View.


However, I need to clarify that there are a lot of trading gurus who offer their courses which are scams. And that happens a lot in the field of day trading and many types of trading in which they fake their results in order to sell more of their courses.


Interviewer: Good to know! Finally, when it comes to trading stocks, what are some key factors or strategies beginners should keep in mind to minimize risks and potentially make informed decisions?


So as Benjamin Graham’s book, The Great Investor, says, you want to minimize your risk and maximize your chances of profit. So the idea of that is that you're going to want to invest with a really small risk-to-reward ratio–you do not want to invest and lose a big percentage of your income.


I’d also recommend you develop some type of strategy when trading and also researching some indicators like the RSI, volume or one of the many indicators available.


What makes you a good trader is not how intelligent you are, but as The Great Investor says, it's how disciplined and how well you can control your emotions.


Interviewer: Those are some great recommendations. Thank you for your time, it’s been great talking to you.

 

Thank you for reading! If nothing else, I hope you gained a basic understanding of what the stock market is or at least a good understanding of how you could dig deeper into the topic.


Comments


Commenting has been turned off.
bottom of page