Markets were volatile left and right, driven by three main reasons -- Oil prices tanked, China's economic slowdown got worse and the U. Federal Reserve kept everyone on their toes over whether it was going to increase interest rates for the first time in a decade.

Many investors were hit hard, especially newer ones. One problem among young investors was that their investments were not diversified enough, according to Openfolio , a platform that allows users to compare their stock portfolios and performance with each other. That means they were more vulnerable to a dramatic single stock decline without others to cushion the fall. Worst stocks of Young investors benefited, got burned and wized up a little.

Here are 3 young investor tales -- and lessons learned -- from the market trail. At 23, Brosseau is about to finish his most volatile year since he started picking stocks during his teenage years six years ago.

He took steep losses from his investments in an oil ETF. Best stocks of But Brosseau is finishing with a profit. It's a good thing that he was more diversified than some of his peers. Unlike traders his age, Brosseau owns 14 stocks. His big buys this year were Disney DIS , Apple AAPL , Tech30 and Netflix NFLX , Tech He jumped in and bought more of those companies' stock when the Dow plunged 1, points on August He saw the market volatility as a buying opportunity.

But Brosseau also learned to be patient and invest for the long term. He was making trades a month in May and June. Anderson Cooper's story on Lumber Liquidators LL laminate flooring with high levels of cancer-causing chemical formaldehyde sent the company's stock into a tailspin in March.

He blocked out the noise and looked at Lumber Liquidators' fundamentals -- same store sales, valuation -- and thought the company would bounce back. However, that hasn't happened yet.

Fleischer still believes the company has strong business fundamentals, but he realizes he acted too impulsively. Why the bull market in stocks isn't dead yet.

Still, Fleischer's other big bets this year, penny stocks like Inuvo, a digital publishing company, paid off big time. Fleischer says his portfolio has doubled this year. Ryan Cutter invested thousands of dollars in Kinder Morgan, an energy infrastructure company. With oil prices tanking for much of the year, you can imagine how that went. So Cutter, an MBA student a the University of Indiana, hit the books.

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He learned to look for the right stuff in a company's balance sheet. He pays more attention now to key yardsticks like price to earnings ratios.

He says researching companies has been the key to success in the latter part of the year. Like Brosseau, Cutter jumped in during the August 24th market plunge to buy more stock. He has since made big gains on his purchases in Chevron CVX and Disney DIS. He's also shifted some of his portfolio overseas as U.

Those wins have made up for his losses from Kinder Morgan. Start your day right with the latest news driving global markets, from major stock movers and key economic headlines to important events on the calendar. Daily newsletter, Sunday through Friday. Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. FactSet Research Systems Inc. Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.

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Justin Brosseau, 23, is ending the year with a profit.

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