The lack of knowledge of what it takes to move forward in the adventure of buying and selling shares has discouraged many potential investors from investing in shares in Nigeria and beyond. Even most of those who already trade stocks often burn their fingers due to inadequate knowledge of stock analysis. It was the desire to guide these people that made Ayo Arowolo, my former managing editor/CEO at the newspaper “Financial Standard”, Lagos, Nigeria, write this article entitled “Fire Your Share Analyst”.

Arowolo, also the author of “The Capsules of the New Millionaires,” is a Reuters Award winner who has been involved in financial education for more than 20 years as a financial and investigative journalist. He has worked for major Nigerian newspapers including the Concord Group, “The Guardian”, “The News” and “This Day”. Arowolo was the founding CEO of The Investment Club Network (TICN), Lagos, Nigeria. He now speaks to audiences across the country, focusing on how people can take full charge of their personal financial affairs.

The author says that this text is designed to help personal finance consumers acquire the basic skills necessary to make wise and prudent investment decisions. He adds that the purpose of the text is to create an easy-to-read guide that allows people to easily navigate today’s complex investment market. Arowolo emphasizes that the text contains a lot of practical advice, which will help people spot any shortcomings they may have, as well as how to take advantage of the shortcomings.

He teaches that a requirement for making money on any investment is to gain a thorough understanding of the particular investment terrain before making any financial commitments.

Arowolo explains that there is a banquet of prosperity in the Nigerian stock market, because it turns individual investors who invest in shares of listed companies into millionaires on a daily basis. However, he adds that many private investors also lose money in the market on a daily basis.

The text is segmented into six chapters. Chapter one is titled “The Fundamentals.” Here, this author says that many people who put their money into stocks don’t realize that investing in stocks is like buying a company. That is, you are co-owner. Therefore, Arowolo advises that before you put your money into shares of any company, you should ask certain relevant questions. As he puts it: “Would you invest, for example, in a company that you know nothing about its management? Would you put your money in a company without proper paper investigations that would reveal the financial health of the company… Without However, this is what many stock investors do. They put their money in the hands of brokers who might be experimenting with their retirement money.”

Arowolo adds that this explains why many investors see their financial fortunes disappear on a daily basis. He points out that a smart stock investor only calls his broker after he has decided on the stocks he wants to invest in through research. The author states that a smart investor would not rely solely on what the newspapers say to make decisions because it is often too late by the time the information is in the newspapers.

He advises that you should instead snoop around the company you want to invest in and gather relevant information that can help you make informed investment decisions. Arowolo interestingly says that this exercise is usually not as difficult as many people think. “Do you know, for example, that if you know how to read the official daily listing of the stock market, with a little bit of analysis using the companies’ published accounts, you can make smart investment decisions for yourself?” he asks rather rhetorically.

On the choice between putting your money in the bank and investing in stocks, the author says that if you put your money in a bank, you can only get back what is known as “interest,” which is your reward for letting the bank use your money. money It extends that if, however, you invest in shares of a good company, you can get what is called a “dividend”, which is a part of the profit that the company earns that is distributed to shareholders. Additionally, Arowolo stresses that if you decide to sell your shares, you can get capital appreciation if the price you’re selling is higher than the price you bought the shares for. Educate that some companies also reward shareholders with free shares, that is, bonuses.

Chapter two builds on the topic of getting started. Here, Arowolo says, before you invest in stocks, you need to be clear about your goal of wanting to buy stocks. The author cautions that your investment objective must be determined and understood first, even before you begin inquiring about investment opportunities. Arowolo says that starting to invest in stocks without a clear goal is a recipe for confusion and retirement misfortune.

He advises that the next step is to look at industries that have growth prospects that you can consider. According to Arowolo, part of his research at this stage is also to find out key economic indicators and how they would impact industries. He adds that he must also find out if there are any government policies that could have a positive or negative impact on the target sectors and ultimately the companies in which he wishes to invest. The author says that he should also evaluate the companies whose stocks he may want to include in his investment basket.

According to him, “Factors you can consider include dividend and bonus history…, sales history and profitability. You can also decide whether to include companies whose shares sell below N10:00 (penny shares) or expensive stocks. You may not do any extensive research at this stage. The goal is to make sure you don’t waste time looking at stocks that are worthless in the first place. You don’t need to go through the entire list of publicly traded companies. Values ​​before deciding the few to consider”.

In chapters three through five, Arowolo analytically discusses the concepts of interpreting the stock market chart; do it yourself; and Moneywise analysis process.

Chapter six, the last chapter builds on the topic of the Moneywise guide to analyzing companies. Here, the author quotes John Maynard Keyness here thus: “The social object of qualified investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and the ignorance that enveloped us.” Arowolo emphasizes that a rewarding hobby he can develop as a stock investor is learning to use a company’s publicly available information, especially its annual accounts, to determine how good the company is.

He stresses that this surprisingly doesn’t require any special skills; neither does it require you to be an accountant or an economist. In Arowolo’s words, “Once you have a basic understanding of the components of an account, the balance sheet, the profit and loss statement, and the cash flow statements, and with determination, you can determine the health of the business you are running.” is investigating quite easily.” .”

As for the style, this text is fine. Arowolo injects enlightening quotes to achieve conceptual amplification and give authorial credibility to the text. In addition, he also employs graphic embroidery to visually reinforce readers’ comprehension. The language of the text is simple and the concepts are compelling.

However, some errors are noted in this text, but Arowolo has compiled these errors and corrected them in a section called “Corrigenda” on page one. He probably realized the errors after printing the text.

In general, this text is intellectually rich. It is highly recommended for those who want to be successful investors through solid financial and investment knowledge.