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Tapiwa Bepe

In this week’s section of profiling the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) retail investors, we feature Desire Muchipisi

ZSE Retail Investor

Age: 24 years

Qualification: Financial Engineering

Hobbies: Tottenham Hotspur supporter, Family guy and financial modelling

Aspirations: To be a better financial analyst

The Investment Journey

Desire fell in love with the ZSE when he visited the bourse for the first time on the 17 November in 2017. This day will forever be engraved in his heart for life because of the historical national event associated with it. Since then he has visited the bourse on three different occasions either as part of the NUST investors association or part of a focus group.

Desire  began his  investment journey in 2018. In 2019 that’s when he was able to buy a lot of shares because he was on attachment and he would use the better part of his salary to invest on the ZSE. It became a hobby because investing on the ZSE comes with a lot of opportunities. Having a matching order was worth celebrating back then because it was hard since there were a few retail investors within the space. At times he would place a bid price lower than the market due to a lack of knowledge and failure to understand the price dynamics within the stock market.

The Investment Strategy

Desire uses both technical and fundamental analysis as his strategy.

He makes use of  Microsoft Excel to perform business valuations and determine the intrinsic value of a particular security and to see if it matches the current market share price. Desire reads a lot of equity research reports from different brokerage firms and seeks advice on some hot pickings on the ZSE.

He invests more in growth stocks than value stocks because growth stocks have the potential to outperform the overall market over time because of their future potential.

He is not a trader, but an investor so he patiently waits before he liquidates any security. Desire lives for the future, not for the moment.

Desire has a well-diversified portfolio consisting of counters in the financial, industrial,  consumer staples and materials sector.

Highs and lows

• The stock market does not guarantee 100 per cent returns. It is a roller coaster of emotions and it is all about finding a balance of having more wins to outshine the losses.
• Desire’s biggest win was when he bought shares in a counter in September 2019 at 11 cents  and sold them at $3.40 exactly a year after, realizing such  huge returns in real terms.
• One of the low highlights for Desire  was the failure to interpret one of the  cautionary statement issued by an issuer, which ended up having a negative impact on his portfolio.

Advice to Prospective Investors

• In an inflationary environment, stocks tend to be a good hedge against currency depreciation.
• If you are looking to protect yourself from the long-term effects of inflation, a well-diversified portfolio of stocks should get the job done
• It’s always wise to seek investment advice from professionals.
• There will never be a perfect time to invest on the ZSE than today so get started. The introduction of the ZSE Direct trading platform makes the whole process easy and very convenient.

Information provided in this article is for educational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.

You should obtain independent advice from a registered stockbroker or financial advisor before making any financial decisions.

For more information about how to invest on the ZSE, visit the ZSE training portal www.zsetraining.co.zw, email [email protected], Tel: +263 24 2886830-5