I made $12,000 in the stock market!

Unfortunately, the $12,000 was fake money. It was all part of an investing exercise a few of the newer employees at Stockwatch took part in, where we could use a total of $100,000 to invest in no more than 10 companies at a time. I never used that entire amount, investing about $70,000 maximum, to get $12,000 in proceeds.

Not bad for a beginner, I'd say. Before starting at Stockwatch the stock market was as strange and arcane to me as driving a car would be to a dog.

I'd definitely recommend anyone interested in dabbling in the stock market to start by spending from three to six months setting up a personal portfolio of companies for an investing simulation before actually putting down any money. It's a good way to learn about investing quickly.

Another year older

Well, it's my birthday today. It's really not as big a deal as it was when I was younger. I'm getting to the age where I'd rather not say how old I am, but suffice it to say I'm in my 30s.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing for my birthday after work tonight. Lauren is planning something, but it's a surprise. I'd rather not have any expectations about it, so I haven't tried to guess at what the surprise is. I'm sure it will be great.

I've been doing some writing lately, for both Stockwatch and alive magazine. So far the writing for Stockwatch is nothing meant to be published, but that will change in a few months. My short articles for alive magazine will be published in the December 2008 issue, available at your local natural health food store.

As far as other things go, I've got some vacation time lined up for the end of August. Lauren and I will be going on a short camping trip to Vancouver Island. It's still mostly unplanned, and we only have three days for the trip. We'd like to visit some caves while there, but the rest is unplanned.

Investing exercise

I've finally gotten used to my new working hours at Stockwatch. They're from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., which means my day starts at 4:15 a.m. every weekday. As long as I get enough sleep, I feel great.

I'm starting the Canadian Securities Course this week, which will teach me all I need to know to become a stock broker. I'm not planning on changing careers, of course; I'm just taking one more step to becoming a business reporter. The home-based study course will come in handy over the next few weeks as I set up 10 portfolios to invest $100,000 total in 10 companies. The money is completely fictional, of course, as are the investments. The exercise in investing is meant to help me learn the market and gain investment strategies.

A couple of years ago I asked my uncle, real estate businessman Eric Trygg, what I should do to learn investing. He suggested something very similar to the exercise above. He also added that, since the stock market is so huge, I should specialize in one or two areas (such as mining) and really learn those sectors of the stock market instead of trying to spread my interests too thin. That advice is good for anyone getting into the stock market.

Legalese

Much of my time spent copy editing is weeding through the legalese. A large number of the news releases that funnel through and eventually appear in some altered form in Stockwatch are riddled with ambiguous terms and virtually unreadable legal-type language. As a copy editor it is my job to turn this headache-inducing text into prose that is informative and helpful, if not always exactly a pleasure to read.

What do I mean by legalese? I'll give you an example. Immediately below is a sample of unedited text from a news release. Admittedly, its main fault is wordiness, so it's not the best example of legalese.

In accordance with the provisions of letters of transmittal previously provided to shareholders of the Company, share certificates for Post-Reorganization shares of G____ are now issuable to shareholders against exchange of their certificates representing Pre-Reorganization shares of G____ with C________ at its principal transfer agency in Toronto. The exchange ratios for each of the classes and series of shares of G____ which were reclassified pursuant to the Reorganization are set forth in the Company's Management Information Circular dated January 21, 2008 (the "Circular").

Guh? I know. I had to edit the above text, which is virtually unreadable, to the text below, which is moderately more readable. I'm still not entirely satisfied with it.

In accordance with provisions in letters of transmittal already provided to company shareholders, certificates for post-reorganization G____ shares are now issuable to shareholders against exchange of their pre-reorganization share certificates with C________ in Toronto. The exchange ratios for each of the classes and series of shares of G____ which were reclassified according to the reorganization are set forth in the company's management information circular dated January 21, 2008.

And even now I realize that I forgot to abbreviate "January" to "Jan." according to the Globe and Mail style. Oh well.

Anyway, I deal with this kind of text all day. You might say that, as a copy editor, I'm on the front line of a war against user-unfriendly language. Every word I strike down is a bullet that doesn't make it through to strike some poor innocent reader.

...

OK, now I'm stretching things a bit. And that's my cue to exit.

New job

Yesterday was my first day as a copy editor at Stockwatch. I've always wanted to learn all I could about the stock market, and now I'm getting paid to do so. They'll be training me for the next few months, with the aim of making me a business journalist.

The hours are a bit unusual. Since the stock market opens on the east coast at 9 am, three hours ahead of us, I start work at 6 am. It's a 45-minute commute for me, meaning I'll have to get up at 4:30 am each morning I work that shift. Since Stockwatch is a 24-hour operation, I will also occasionally work the night shift, from 10 pm to 6 am, for a month at a time. After being used to students' hours, this is quite a change for me. But it's not a big deal. I just have to shift my hours earlier. No more late nights for Kai.

Meanwhile, now that I don't have to spend my remaining hours constantly looking for work, I'm free to do a lot of things I've been putting off. Since I get off work mid-afternoon, I have the rest of the day to go out biking and work out, work on various writing projects, and take on some freelance work.

Last month I designed an ad for a client, and I'll be designing another ad for them soon. Thanks to my status as a student, last month I was also able to pick up Adobe Creative Suite 3 for a mere fraction of the price. I've been using the whole Creative Suite (Adobe InDesign, Acrobat, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver) almost constantly since then. I'm hoping to do some more freelance writing work as well.

Good luck to all of you looking for work. It's definitely out there.