Teen Turns £200 Into £200,000 Trading On The Stock Market

A teenager claims he's managed to turn £200 ($280) into more than £200,000 ($280,000) trading on the stock market.

Adam Mlamali learnt the ropes by watching YouTube videos, and in under a year, he says he's transformed his £200 investment into a portfolio worth more than £215,000 ($300,000).

The 19-year-old hasn't simply hopped on the recent Reddit-inspired stock market hype; his entrepreneurialism goes back to his days at college in Milton Keynes, when he set up an online jewellery business.

Realising he had the knack for trading, Adam immersed himself in the stock market.

Adam Mlamali

Speaking to The Mirror, he said: "What drove me towards the markets was hearing that, although I wouldn't do it if there wasn't the financial gain, it's more about being able to invest in causes that you like.

"For me I was heavily interested in space really early on, only because I wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger. I was an early investor into Virgin Galactic, and Virgin Galactic was probably my best performing stock. I made over 100 percent at the end of it."

Looking forward, Adam projects he could reach the million quid mark in a decade, and he hopes to use the money to support his family - with his mum once going into debt to buy Christmas presents.

That said, Adam didn't initially tell his mum just how much he was investing in stocks.

He said: "My mum at the start was like 'Only risk what you can afford', so I didn't tell her about how much I was investing. She hadn't got a clue because she would have just been like 'Why are you investing so much?'

"But I guess she's at the point now, after seeing me start my businesses, she has that trust."

Adam Mlamali

At this point, you're probably keen to know how he's done it.

Well, like with pretty much everything, success comes with hard work - but Adam reckons that makes the profits all the more rewarding.

He said: "If you don't know what you're investing in, I would not invest. If you make money and it's calculated, you can do it again.

"Investing in something because everyone else is doing it, that's just a complete gamble. Do you want to make money gambling or whereby you've got a skill and you can apply that skill? You don't have to rely on somebody else sending a tweet that gets popular."

He continued: "A lot of my friends message me like 'Should I buy this, should I buy that?', and I say 'You're going about it completely the wrong way'.

"You should be telling me why you are investing in this specific company.

"If it's a new company, what are the future projections like? If it's an existing company, what are their financials looking like? How's it performing in the current market?

"Know the company you're investing in and do the research before making the investment and that will make the investment 10 times worth it, because you know you can reapply the same kind of analysis, and you know you didn't rely on someone else. It was all you."

Topics: Interesting, Community

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey