We believed that the process of selecting participants will not be very complicated. We have received dozens of applications of young people who wished to participate in the investment decision experiment, so we tried to identify the subjects with no experience in the finance field, but with a huge desire to test themselves in this area. Naturally, the first question which comes to the mind: is it enough just to have glowing eyes and a great desire to be able to participate successfully in the investing process? Perhaps.
What can achieve “appropriate” and “inappropriate” candidate? Most likely, the difference between “appropriate” and “inappropriate” candidates is very small. When candidates are chosen to participate in a similar alternative investment management , there is a possibility that results will differ severely every time the experiment is performed. Investment experiment is going to last only for three months, so first of all it is necessary to set goals which each candidate has to achieve. During the process of the experiment it is very important to supervise the selected candidates, give some advises, answer their questions, and etc. If we throw them in the open sea and watch how they sail, the experiment might go wrong immediately, because it is likely that participants will exercise only random trades, and have only losses. If only we succeed at finding “gold nuggets”. After three months, we will provide an overview of mistakes done during the experiment, psychological aspects, which decisions led to profitable trades, and etc.
In the selection process undergraduate and postgraduate students and some still studying youngsters participated. As long as, the purpose of the experiment is to determine whether candidates can successfully invest without any financial background, so we rejected candidates who had finished financial studies. And another thing, how important participants grades are? Good grades show that in a short period person can successfully master the information provided to him. However, financial markets are very dynamic, so it is extremely important to think strategically and always trust your decisions. Therefore, it is necessary to find people who are active, open to study new subjects, and at the same time are very patient. We did not have much time, so after long discussions we decided to choose two students (architecture and web design). From now on, one of the participants is named as X, meanwhile another is named as Y. It is very interesting to find out if a low levels of financial knowledge can lead to successful investing?
To Be Continued…
