At 18 he lost all his savings in an investment. Today he has a portfolio of hundreds of thousands of shekels

About the "New Investors" section

Every week we interview new investors in the capital market and trace their investment patterns and insights alongside their personal story. Interested in participating in the section? Write to us at Invest@Globes.co.il

Who am I

Ofek Geva, 23, lives in Ashkelon, student of economics and real estate appraisal and service and sales manager at the family bakery.

Portfolio structure: 30% in the S&P 500 index and 70% in shares of semiconductor, defense, banking, energy and infrastructure companies.

Ofek Geva is the eldest of four brothers, all of whom work with their parents in the family business — the Cinnamon factory and confectionery in Ashkelon. Geva serves there as a service and sales manager, and at the same time studies for a bachelor's degree in economics and real estate appraisal. Alongside this, he finds time to manage a private investment portfolio worth hundreds of thousands of shekels, with high risk. This is despite the fact that he was burned in his first attempt in the market, after losing all his savings at age 18. "My thesis about the market is that it is always stronger, and I must be careful," he says.

When I started to get interested in the capital market

"From age 14 to 18 I managed to save 70,000 shekels from work in the family business. I worked at every possible time and saved every shekel I earned. At age 17 I started to get interested in the capital market. I started reading online about investments and decided that as soon as I reached age 18, I would open an account on the stock exchange and start investing. During that year I learned about the market from all sorts of internet courses, and the day after I celebrated 18 I opened my first investment account. And then my biggest mistake happened - I started making money.

"Why is this a mistake? Because I was an 18-year-old kid and I started rolling short-term investments based on internet courses that sell dreams of getting rich quick, and when I saw that I was making money fast I got excessive confidence. In the first stock I bought, AMC, I made 600 dollars in a day (in the period known as the 'meme' stock with high hype during Corona). I thought I cracked the system and put all my savings into the market, bought and sold, engaged in day trading, but after a very short time I lost everything I saved from age 14, all the 70,000.

"In the end, it was the most painful but most important lesson I had in my life about money. The 'tuition' for the capital market, from which I learned what not to do. It happened in 2020 and I left the market then, but I promised myself that it wasn't over. During the three years of my military service I researched the market every day - every source of information and mentor - and finally I returned at the beginning of 2023. I started investing with monthly deposits and with a very defined risk plan and very clear rules, which I still adhere to today.

"My investment style is long-term, because I don't need the money in the next two-three years, but the level of risk I take is relatively high, because I am young and the time effect plays in my favor. In the end, time in the market beats market timing. In stocks, for example, I make regular monthly deposits into certain stocks, like Microsoft or the S&P 500 index. But there are certain situations where I deviate from this thesis and make short-term investments. It is limited only to stocks whose basic value I follow on a daily basis for years, and in order to take advantage of the arbitrage gap I enter a short deal. It works great for me. It's not fast money, it's something I've been investing in for years."

How I stay updated

"I've been starting the morning with coffee and the Globes newspaper for years, and I also read the Wall Street Journal because I really like to stay updated on what's happening in the global arena. In addition, I have the TradingView app through which I stay updated about the stocks.

"Besides that, I follow the opinions of senior CEOs, mostly on Twitter. These are the heads of the economic elite, who distribute their assessments of the market and the economy to the public in real time. It sometimes gives a direction for investments.

"In my opinion, you must constantly stay updated on what is happening in the markets in the world. It has proven itself in my life more than once. At the beginning of 2023, with morning coffee at the bakery, I read in the Wall Street Journal that there is an extreme climate crisis in Africa and hundreds of dunams of cocoa trees are burning. At that moment I entered the CME exchange in Chicago to check the prices of futures contracts on commodities, and I saw that the contract for cocoa beans is skyrocketing. That same day it rose by 30%-40% and a week later it climbed 1.5 times.

"One of the most important raw materials in our confectionery is raw chocolate, and the price increase of the futures contract is rolled over to suppliers and then to manufacturers and then to customers, and I decided to avoid this situation. I ordered a pallet of two tons of chocolate, about 5 times our regular order. A month later the suppliers announced a price increase, and I knew that the move I made saved us a lot of money.

"Part of the investment world is to stay updated all the time. Even for a passive 'set and forget' investor, to prevent a situation where his investment will be wrong and he won't know."

Quick questionnaire

Twitter (X) or Telegram?

"Twitter, because it's breaking news in real time. The CEOs and industry leaders publish the company's financial data, and also their opinions, and you can derive a good picture from this of where the company is going. Every such tweet can be critical regarding my money."

Bitcoin or Ethereum?

"Bitcoin, because it has proven itself to this day and is the basis for the entire crypto field. Many people today believe that the future lies in an alternative global financial infrastructure, which is not a government, and Bitcoin paved the way there, and it is correct to invest in it when entering this world."

TA 35 or S&P 500?

"S&P 500 because it is the index that represents the strongest economy in the world, the USA, and one should be part of that. TA 35 gave excess return over it in the last two years, and investments in Israel are excellent, so I also invest in the country. But today in my opinion the pricing here is expensive, and of course diversification in the investment portfolio is required."

Indices or stocks?

"Stocks, unequivocally. But it depends on the investment goals, your age, when you need the money and the level of risk you are willing to take. At my young age I feel I can take a higher risk, and achieve a higher return accordingly."

Bank account or investment house?

"Investment house because of lower service fees, trading systems, accessibility and convenience for mobile."

Lesson I learned

"I learned that the market is always stronger, and even when I make money it's not time to lower the level of caution, but the opposite. The loss at age 18 taught me on my own skin that you can never know more than the market - there is always more to learn in order to get a clearer picture of what is happening and make fewer mistakes. And in any case, it is required to maintain alertness and caution in the market."

I will never invest in...

"I won't invest in biotech companies, because these are companies that burn cash at a very high rate and they are always dependent on some clinical trial or FDA approval, which could explode in a second. These are investments that are too risky for me."

Something I still need to learn

"You always need to learn and expand knowledge in the capital market, because it is dynamic. What I marked for myself, and this is really the next field in the market, is how to integrate artificial intelligence into investments. There are already, of course, apps, tools and AI agents that beat the indices. With these, one can perform an analysis of a company at a very high level, almost like an accountant. That's where I need to improve."

Want to share how much money you made?

"My portfolio today is worth hundreds of thousands of shekels, after making around 64% return in the last three years, which is 20% a year. I make monthly deposits, and there is the compound interest effect here. This year specifically I made 20% profit, about what I lost at age 18."

Tracking recommendation

"My first recommendation is the semiconductor sector, which even with the declines in the markets in the last month this field was the core and growth engine of the global economy, and is expected to continue to lead.

"The second recommendation is the 'All-Weather Portfolio' investment strategy developed by Ray Dalio, owner of the Bridgewater hedge fund, with the goal of generating stable return and protecting capital in any economic situation - growth, recession, inflation or deflation. It is a portfolio that diversifies risk between assets, and in a large portfolio of several millions can generate a lot of money."