Reading the stock market gave me more than what I thought it will give me. At the beginning, yes, there was confusion, and then after some time (six months… and going), illumination. I had a “feel” of the market, and somehow, my “gut” was developed. I would know if stocks are on the rise, or if it is on freefall, which is the time to buy. The green and the red arrows in the newspaper actually meant something, but only as supplements to the general, wonderful, engaging world of numbers. And when I recently had a report on my stockholdings and saw a 5% growth rate per month, I knew why a lot of other people play this game, and why they become greedy.

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Like the shepherd Santiago who had come full circle in his journey of self-discovery, I too have come to that junction. I can almost hear the fireworks. But there is a great deal to do, questions to ask, things to learn and re-learn.

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Let me tell you, I hardly ever looked at the business page before. It screamed boring! to me. After all, who cares about companies and mergers and acquisitions when there’s news that Actress A is pregnant and the dad is Actor B who is married and their story is played till kingdom come and I had 30 minutes to spare? Even the cartoon page would get first dibs. I do not know what happened between that point and now.

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It could be quite frustrating to be told that you cannot buy something that you really, really want to have. But that is the function of a financial planner – he will tell you if you can, when you can, how you can. He is my personal financial brakes, someone to tell me that I am going overboard, or that I am just being silly.

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Be warned, though. The stock market is not for the faint of heart. It is a very volatile market. Millions are made and lost in a heartbeat in this game. But you can (kind of) play with stocks via the route of mutual funds, a pool of stocks managed by a fund manager, and a good option for first time investors. But this is long term (read: at least 7 years) so the risk is eased out of the equation. Okay, okay. It is not very exciting.

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I remember Mr. S now, and Warren Buffett, both of whom are probably besotted by the plagues of the stock market because of the crash of the world economies in October 2008. But I remind myself it is a bear market once again, the kind that Mr. Buffett, and Mr. S, his follower, wait for and thrive in. I wonder how they are.

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