Markets may be scary but here’s why investing can still be fun and make you rich

With markets at new highs, all we at 5i Research Inc. hear from investors these days is that now they are likely to decline. Or valuations are too high. Or tariffs are going to cause inflation. Or there are too many wars in the world (which is true). Or, the U.S. Federal Reserve is going to lose its independence. Or artificial intelligence is going to cause job losses and social disruption. Or there is going to be a big crash.

Look, we get it. There’s lots to worry about. There always is. In our long investing careers, we have never seen a time, ever, when there was nothing to worry about.

But our job today is not to discuss risks and worries. Though it is also not to tell you everything is going to be fine. Our goal today is to MIFA — Make Investing Fun Again. While everyone worries, frets and panics, we’re here to discuss five reasons that make investing interesting, if not lucrative.

Take a look at those lists of the world’s richest people. Sure, there are always some real estate moguls listed. But the majority of the world’s super rich got that way by owning equities, typically in extreme concentrations of their own company. But lesser, normal people can still get wealthy in the market by consistent investing and compounding over many years or decades. Investors can also do very well in shorter time periods. While some investors might look to “lottery ticket” type of stocks for “get rich quick” hopes, such as risky junior mining stocks, this is a dangerous gamble. You can still achieve gains of 1,000 per cent or more with less gambling, good timing and a little luck. One case in point is Celestica Inc., a company manufacturing products for other tech companies. It has a long history, much of which was not exciting. Its stock hit a low of $4.09 in the COVID-19 panic, and at this week’s price, where it hit an all-time high, it is up about 8,400 per cent in just over five years.

There is always something interesting going on in the market if you pay attention. Daily, companies can discover a gold deposit, or hit oil, or merge, or acquire another company. Companies pay special dividends, or announce new products or expansions. Companies buy back stock or issue new stock. Monday this week, for example, was a pretty quiet day around noon. Then, Nvidia Corp., the largest company in the world, dropped a bombshell: It was going to invest US$100 billion (with a “B”) into OpenAI Inc., the owner of ChatGPT. Suddenly, the artificial intelligence trade sprang to life instantly. Nvidia itself hit an all-time high. Competitors faded and some stocks surged as investors realized the AI trade may not be dead yet. The afternoon on Monday was filled with new highs on dozens of stocks, and was far more exciting than a typical dull Monday might have been.