My First Trade in Stock Market..The Journey Begins.

My foray in Stock Market & Trading was a mere co-incidence. This was sometime in 2002-03.  After completing Mechanical Engineering from Pune University, I was couple of  years in my job at Tata technologies in Pune. Tata technologies is subsidiary of Tata Motors and looks into R&D of many of Tata Motors Automotive Project. I was working in Engineering Research Centre of Tata Motors in Medium Commercial Vehicle (MCV) Dept.

ATM Machine at Bank was a new thing back then and I wanted to have a feel of withdrawing cash from machine rather than standing in queue and waiting for my turn to take my cash from Teller. I went to ICICI Bank branch near to my home to open bank account which will enable me to be part of new banking revolution.After happily signing account opening forms, I was asked by Bank Executive if I would be interested in opening DMAT account. I was clueless what it is and wanted to hide my ignorance. However, I gathered the courage to ask him what it is and what can I do with DMAT account. The executive patiently explained to me the whole world of Stock Trading of which I could understand only a fraction that time. However, I went ahead with account opening as it was linked to bank account. Eager to understand how stock market works, I logged in to icicidirect.com and started to explore the financial jungle.

I clearly remember the day when I made my first trade. Tata Motors was to launch the 207 DI Pick Up truck that day & I was part of the team that had designed the vehicle. I was full of excitement  and proud of my work. It was Thursday, which was weekly off for Tata Motors in those day. Also, Thursday used to be a power cut, so we had to rely on Cybercafe for internet on those days. Market used to open at 10 AM. I got ready and headed straight to SIFY Cybercafe, which was quite popular back then. Reached at 9:45, logged into my account in icicidirect and started waiting with bated breath for market open.

The plan was simple. New Tata vehicle was launched, people were going to buy it in droves, company was going to make record sells and stock was going to rise straight up. So I was going to buy 1000 shares at open, the profit was already counted and I was going to be happiest sole at market close on 3:30.

Market opened. Tata Motors share was flat. I happily bought my 1000 shares and started looking at screen with wide eyes to count my profit. An hour passed . I may have watched every tick of price change in that hour..Nothing Happened..Why? May be people are not aware of the news yet. They will come to know by afternoon ..Lets wait.The clock kept ticking and the ticks in Tata Motors became slower and slower.. Nothing was happening..

Time passed by..It was 2PM. I was hungry but decided to skip lunch so that I don't miss the single  moment of action..2:30 and the action started..Only difference, the direction of action was opposite.. To my utter horror, Tata Motors started falling. I was hurting inside but hopeful price will reverse ..At 3 PM, it was down by only 1% but that 1% felt like somebody has robbed me at gunpoint. I wanted to use all my might to stop the slide and reverse the fall but was feeling utterly helpless. Ok..What to do know? How can people be so dumb and naive to sell Tata Motors today. Any way, it has to close up at 3:30... I have more money to buy the stock..Lets make even more profit than planned and I bought 1000 more shares. Ok..Now it will reverse and go straight up..

My hand was sweating..Throat was going dry..But hey, it's another Half an hour and then party is on..Carry on..I was talking to myself.. The ticks were being watched even more closely to see any signs of revival and they were coming regularly..5 paisa up..10 paisa up..But every 10 paisa rise was followed by 20-30 paisa of fall..

3:25..Tata Motors was quoting 2% down..I was in loss of about 6000 Rs, which was my 1/3 salary of month. I wanted my money back but I was not going to get it..Why it so happened? What went wrong? And then I started plotting worse scenario..What if it falls 10% tomorrow.. I can't afford loosing that much money..Although I was hopeful that it will rise tomorrow, the deadly scenario of 10% fall was playing havoc with my mind.. I surrendered and got out at 6500 rs loss at 3:30

I was sulking.I wanted to cry, shout at that moment and break the PC.. though the upbringing of maintaining decorum in  public place restrained me..I simply logged out of PC, paid to cybercafe , kick-started my bike and began the longest journey back home.. I was full of shame..Didn't want to face my family or friends after doing a ghastly act of losing 1/3rd Salary in a day.

I entered the house quietly, had my lunch and under the pretext of not feeling well, went straight to my room..How to deal with this trauma..I didn't know..I wanted to escape the feeling..the feeling of sore loser..however, the more I tried it, the stronger it became..Surrendering to sleep seemed best option,just to forget about it..alas, the sleep also became my enemy that day and my mind couldn't stop thinking..I closed my eyes and started to fool myself that I am sleeping. Inside though, it was a storm of multiple random thoughts..It was time for revenge on markets ..I was planning and plotting to snatch back my 6,500 from market..How, When ..Whether I will get it or lose more money..Hope, Fear, Revenge..every thought was coming thick and fast like waves of Tsunami ..Finally, at some point not known to me, the storm passed away and sleep took over.

Next morning, it was back to work at "TATA MOTORS". I will remember the name.

How was your first trade?