Ashraf Bava – Research Before Investing to Reduce Investment Portfolio Risk

Ashraf Bava is currently the Chief Executive at Nael Capital (Pvt.) Limited and a Director at the Institute of Capital Market in Pakistan. Also, he is the current President of the CFA Society in Pakistan, and a Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) nominated director.   Ashraf Bava holds both MBA and CFA degrees and started his career as Chief Security Officer (CSO) at Mobilink in 1995. He joined Elixir Securities in Equity Sales, was promoted to the position of Head of Sales in 2004, and eventually became CEO in November 2005. He joined Nael Capital in 2009. During his career, he was also a consultant at the World Bank Group In this episode, Ashraf shares his painful stock equities investment story because of his overconfidence and improper portfolio approach.   "Whatever you invest in, whether it is a stock trade or real estate whatever, just study, read. You have to read. You cannot go blindly into anything without any research."  -Ashraf Bava    What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast?   Tell us here!  Resources: My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 00:42 – Ashraf’s professional and investment background 02:06 – Ashraf describes his level of investing experience 02:54 – Ashraf describes the circumstances that led him to invest in Attock Refinery Ltd. 03:30 – Ashraf's overconfidence which made him overlook the risk factors of his trades 03:50 – Investing 80% of his portfolio in one particular stock 04:27 – Attock Refinery stock’s performance when Ashraf entered 05:49 – Volatility of his stock pick and how wiped up his profits from his 2 years of stock market trading 09:55 – Ashraf’s Takeaways from his investment experience 11:39 – Andrew summarizes the critical learning point from Ashraf’s experience 15:14 – Ashraf’s actionable advice to help listeners protect their investment: Read and consider investing long-term. Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: It is important to have a proper portfolio approach. Your portfolio should meet your future capital requirements and give you peace of mind while doing so. Lesson 2: Make investment research before investing in any venture. Read reports about the particular industry you are investing in for example about the international oil prices and what the stocks broker is telling that particular stock. Lesson 3: Get insights into the particular investment that you are making. It is important to stay cool, calm and collected when trading. Lesson 4: Always cut your losses short. Cutting losses quickly prevent you from suffering a devastating fall that's too steep to recover from. You can also check out Andrew’s books