THE FISH MARKET EXPERIENCE

I went to a nearby fish market one breezy evening and observed how crowded it was for a Friday. One of my colleagues at work . . .

I went to a nearby fish market one breezy evening and observed how crowded it was for a Friday. One of my colleagues at work had told me countless times how great a place it was and how I could get discounted pricing if I arrived at a particular time in the evening.
Trust to say that i had timed myself accurately to beat the traffic mess and had come with a nice basket with layers of ice to enable me carry my beautiful purchase home.

When i got to the market entrance, i was thrown aback by the crowd waiting to troop in. Ideally, i would turn back and head back home, but i waited. I waited not because i had the luxury of time, but because i observed some things. 

What i observed threw me into a state of reminiscence. Firstly the market smelt like the sea side my granny took me during the cold rainy days, but more importantly i was fixated on the elderly fish farmer at the first corner stand.

He had a large aquarium and I watched as he fed the fish. When he threw the pellets in, literarily every fish in it swam towards him to get their share of food. This is similar to the stock market and dividends when shareholders rush to buy shares from a company because of high yields. A dividend is a particular sum of money paid by a company to its shareholders out of its profits. The shareholders are those who buy into the company and own shares in it.

Some companies pay out high dividend rates for some stocks to attract more shareholders, however companies which do this are best avoided since they might not retain enough profits to invest in their future growth and expansion.

Another important task you must do is to monitor your investments. You can do this by taking interests in the happenings of the companies you hold shares in by reading financial reports in newspapers, attending annual general meetings and asking necessary questions.

One major thing that struck me about the aquarium is the similarity it had to liquid stocks. Liquidity of stocks refers to the ease at which stocks can be traded and converted to cash. Some stocks are not liquid, hence when you want to sell them off you become stuck and unable to do so as no one would buy it off you.

As I journeyed through the market I ended up not buying anything and headed home to have a quiet evening with my amazing husband who was not suprised that I went to such market and returned with nothing. This reminded him of his days at the 8th floor of the NSE building when he would go with the intention to trade but because of illiquid stocks he would be unable to proceed further.

Other times he would be confronted with suspended stocks which would be flagged off and cannot be traded, but such stall usually happens because of fluctuating market supply and demand.

One thing was sure though, he enjoyed wearing the red trading jackets that identified him as a broker and guess what? My little baby girl waits for him to leave the
house daily and then sneaks into his closet to wear it with the intention of being a broker like her daddy someday. Oh what great ambition!