Starting a Stock Portfolio as a High School Student — Week 1.

Sameer Daga2 min read·Just now

I have recently started a simulated stock investment portfolio. I’m documenting my decisions and tracking my current and future trades. This is my first week.

My goal is to test a strategy focused on trading lesser-known, smaller-cap stocks. I will concentrate on stocks that may have been affected by current events or global trends. This means I will try to avoid stocks over $50B in market cap, aiming to see if reacting to real-world events can lead to a stronger portfolio performance compared to more traditional long-term investing. Over time, I will compare my portfolio to the S&P 500 to assess whether this strategy outperforms the broader market. Each investment I make will be based on current events, trends, or a piece of news that I believe will change the stock’s trajectory.

This week, I will choose Nlight as my first investment. Nlight is a defense company that creates high-powered lasers used in military systems, aerospace, and manufactoring industries. They build advanced laser technology for precision cutting and military targeting weapons. A large part of their revenue comes from government contracts, and they make profits from wars.

As global conflicts are increasing and the US makes up 67% of Nlights' revenue, military spending goes up, and there is more demand for Nlights lasers. Nlights’ revenue had a 32% increase for the year and 71% increase over the last 3 months compared to the same time last year, proving their growth is reliable, steady, and increasing, and with the US — Iran war, estimates for Q2 are over 15% growth. (Nlight Financial Results)

Now there are also some risk factors — firstly, Nlight is an extremely volatile stock as it is a small — mid cap stock and heavily dependent on government contracts. So if a government decides to back out of its contract, Nlight can be in serious trouble. Secondly, the stock already had strong growth, and it can continue on that path, but there is a slight chance it has already reached its peak.

I bought Nlight at $60.32 and sold it at $74.20 after holding it for 16 days, gaining 15.36% profit on my first trade on this journey. However, I kept 20% of my original investment, which to this date is down 6.46%. I held a fraction of the investment because I thought Nlight could still surge as it had before; however, my prediction was wrong because the current global situation was too volatile to allow a breakthrough in Nlight’s stock.

This trade taught me how timing is very important and how I should build a better exit strategy, especially after my stock has already performed.

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