Sonko Life

Picking stocks is a four-step funnel. Region first. Sector second. The individual company third. Time horizon last. Skip any step and you end up owning something you don't understand, which is the only real sin in this game. Pick the region In a globalised economy, limiting yourself to the NSE alone is leaving money on the table. The catch: trading overseas from Kenya means more paperwork, currency risk, and often a broker relationship that's harder to manage from a distance. For most beginners, the NSE and maybe one or two East African Community exchanges is plenty to start with. As your pot grows and your confidence with it, the world opens up. Money moves where it grows best. That was true in 2011 when this post was first written, and it's true now. What's changed is which regions are growing. Back then the BRICS grouping — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa — was the emerging-markets story. Today, for Kenyan readers, the East African Community is the...

The Nairobi Securities Exchange can be heaven. Financial heaven that shares a picket fence with hell; today you're racking gains, tomorrow your fingers are burning. I wouldn't call it gambling, though. Unlike the casino, here the player can also be the house, and the house never loses. This article is the first in a series Trading in Stocks 101  for Kenyans starting out on the NSE . Same material works as a refresher if you've been trading shares a while and slipped into bad habits. Three tips in this one. The next articles build on them. Mind your money, even when the going is smooth A lot of people find stocks complicated and either stay away entirely or hand their money to a stranger and hope. Handing it to a professional has real upsides but Madoff is what "hope" looks like when it goes wrong, and he's not the only fox out there looking to get your money. Even with an honest broker, your input matters as much as a patient's symp...