I have always been interested in the market and have had the mindset that letting my money work for me is much more efficient vs. by the hour shift work.
One thing about me is that I am not a gambler by any means, but I am intrigued by the stock market as I feel that this is a method of educated gambling, I like my odds with trading stocks vs. playing cards.
For the last three years I have been reading books, studying charts, and for the most part checking up on the market every day.
I recently made some nice gains and I have found that I have quite a passion for this stuff, but unfortunately nobody that I know is into it like I am.
I do mainly short position, momentum swing trading and am quite satisfied with the 15% I have gained in the last three weeks or so.
Anyone here into trading stocks? What do you do? Seems to be a lot of intelligent people here so any insight is much appreciated.
I had a mutual fund for a while I cashed it out when the market hit 17,000 I didn't have much in it. I'm expecting a pretty big correction in the near future, just way to much up for me lately. If it drops back down to sub 8,000 I'll get back in. Other then that I'm more interested in buying land as much land as I can own.
I am. Sort of. I have a bunch of technology stocks. I'm up close to 30% from when I started like 3 years ago. I haven't been paying much attention to it lately, but I may get back into it. I don't do too much analysis or anything fancy, I just invest in companies I think will be successful.
I guess by some people's estimation I'd be an experienced stock market investor. LOL Both my wife and I have played the game for many years. In general, I find I'm a little more conservative than she has been but my portfolio has tended to outperform hers over the years and as I like to tell her, I think that says a lot.
Ask specific questions, and I will try to answer.
Have been researching for the past few months and jumped in a month ago. Still pretty young so my strategy is to own proven winners that I think will have continued success over the next 5-10 years. So far I own shares of Apple and Disney. Debating on Amazon.
Stage two are what I deem more capable of growth and still a bit risky. UA is looking like it should be bottoming out soon after lower than projected earnings, hoping to move in on it soon. Twitter intrigues me also but still have to research more.
I work for a Warren Buffet owned company, and I let him handle all my stocks.
Quote:Have been researching for the past few months and jumped in a month ago. Still pretty young so my strategy is to own proven winners that I think will have continued success over the next 5-10 years. So far I own shares of Apple and Disney. Debating on Amazon.
Stage two are what I deem more capable of growth and still a bit risky. UA is looking like it should be bottoming out soon after lower than projected earnings, hoping to move in on it soon. Twitter intrigues me also but still have to research more.
Same here. I currently own shares in Coca Cola and Walmart. My stage 2 has me considering purchasing shares in one of the many medical marijuana companies. Right now you can purchase shares for as little as 10¢. As it becomes more and more legal across the states I'm expecting that to change.
I do compliance for a pretty large financial company. I've done a lot of FX research and found a place that simulates trading with real time quotes. They give you $50k in play money.
It's up and down, but since January I've made about 35k in profit. Now I just wish it was real money.
I will probably venture in other trading, but when you work for a firm they severely restrict how you can trade. What, when, and where. It basically pushes you out from doing it.
One small tip.
When looking for a "risk" investment - consider an up& coming Pharmaceutical company.
I read about one a year ago and got in. It went up 120% when the military funded their research.
(I sold half of it immediately)
The research went badly and it's now down from my initial investment - but I'm still 'up' from selling the half at such a profit.
When the market is going up, everyone's a genius and no one is fearful of risk. But when the market goes down, it hurts. And then you find out what kind of "investor" you are.
It's good to try it when you're young. That way, when the market finally punches you in the nose, real hard, and you decide you made a mistake to try and beat the market, you have plenty of time to become a real investor, and not a speculator.
Just remember, if it was easy, we'd all be rich. There are a lot of people a lot smarter than you are trying to beat the market, and they are moving around huge amounts of money, and when they roll over, you get squashed.
I'm writing about my personal experience here. A long time ago, I thought, hey, I'm a smart guy, I have an accounting degree, I can read a financial statement, why can't I beat the market. And then I can get rich. But if you do that math, you don't have to beat the market to get rich. What you have to do is work and save as much as you can and invest it systematically over a long period of time. That is a for-sure way to get rich that doesn't involve much risk at all. I don't know why anyone would screw around trying to beat the market when they can get rich without taking that kind of excessive risk.
Quote:Same here. I currently own shares in Coca Cola and Walmart. My stage 2 has me considering purchasing shares in one of the many medical marijuana companies. Right now you can purchase shares for as little as 10¢. As it becomes more and more legal across the states I'm expecting that to change.
Really interested in the medical Mary movement, been fishing for something to latch onto with a small percentage of my portfolio and hopefully watch it explode in a few years.
Quote:When the market is going up, everyone's a genius and no one is fearful of risk. But when the market goes down, it hurts. And then you find out what kind of "investor" you are.
It's good to try it when you're young. That way, when the market finally punches you in the nose, real hard, and you decide you made a mistake to try and beat the market, you have plenty of time to become a real investor, and not a speculator.
Just remember, if it was easy, we'd all be rich. There are a lot of people a lot smarter than you are trying to beat the market, and they are moving around huge amounts of money, and when they roll over, you get squashed.
I'm writing about my personal experience here. A long time ago, I thought, hey, I'm a smart guy, I have an accounting degree, I can read a financial statement, why can't I beat the market. And then I can get rich. But if you do that math, you don't have to beat the market to get rich. What you have to do is work and save as much as you can and invest it systematically over a long period of time. That is a for-sure way to get rich that doesn't involve much risk at all. I don't know why anyone would screw around trying to beat the market when they can get rich without taking that kind of excessive risk.
But when it corrects you lose all that money you've slowly and responsibly made. I have zero faith in the stock market, I saw to many people who had been responsible and did as they where told lose just about everything in the last recession. Then I watch our politicians and banks doing the same thing all over again and I say well history says it's going to correct itself again one day. So all those people making safe investments are going to get screwed again at some point.
The real goal is to get out before the screw job comes, to me that's just insane. Give me land, land is never worth zero.
Quote:But when it corrects you lose all that money you've slowly and responsibly made. I have zero faith in the stock market, I saw to many people who had been responsible and did as they where told lose just about everything in the last recession. Then I watch our politicians and banks doing the same thing all over again and I say well history says it's going to correct itself again one day. So all those people making safe investments are going to get screwed again at some point.
The real goal is to get out before the screw job comes, to me that's just insane. Give me land, land is never worth zero.
Not that I'm an expert. But you are only screwed if you sell low. If you have enough stocks, it "corrects" both ways.
Quote:Not that I'm an expert. But you are only screwed if you sell low. If you have enough stocks, it "corrects" both ways.
hmmmm so if I have $10,000 in a mutual fund and the market goes from 18,000 back down to 8,000 you're saying I'd still own the same amount of stock and once it hits 18,000 again I'd be back at square one?
Quote:hmmmm so if I have $10,000 in a mutual fund and the market goes from 18,000 back down to 8,000 you're saying I'd still own the same amount of stock and once it hits 18,000 again I'd be back at square one?
Pretty much. And if you put another $10,000 in while the market was at 8,000, it would be worth $32,500 (or 12,500 more than your investment). Just like in 2009 when the stock market tanked. Anyone who sold in 2009 got screwed. People who kept their stocks just a couple more years or so are either even or ahead. Anyone who actually bought in 2009 made a ton of money.
Quote:But when it corrects you lose all that money you've slowly and responsibly made. I have zero faith in the stock market, I saw to many people who had been responsible and did as they where told lose just about everything in the last recession. Then I watch our politicians and banks doing the same thing all over again and I say well history says it's going to correct itself again one day. So all those people making safe investments are going to get screwed again at some point.
The real goal is to get out before the screw job comes, to me that's just insane. Give me land, land is never worth zero.
Like they say, the only certainty is uncertainty.
I respect what you are saying but I still feel like that attitude is just an excuse by most people who may be afraid of the risk or for other reasons. There are many people who make money in the market and probably even more who lose money. If you think about it you basically have to be better than 50% of other investors to even make a profit. I see the whole market as a big roller coaster but somewhere between all those waves there is an equilibrium, it's just up to you to find it and to be on the right side of it.
Not saying that I am not going to lose money or get screwed but I feel most comfortable investing when something is as close to "certain" as possible. It's all about managing risk, that can be achieved by studying charts & through technical analysis in general and also by using things such as stop market and stop limit orders to ensure that if your investment starts going down you will get out before you lose the majority of your profits.
For those of you wanting to get into technical analysis, check out this website:
http://www.stockcharts.com
Read through the chart school section, there is a wealth of information regarding technical analysis.
In my experience price to volume analysis tells me more about what is going to happen tomorrow compared to popular indicators like stochastics, and lagging indicators like the MACD.
I also understand that the big guys manipulate the market in order to put the money into their pockets, price to volume helps predict these type of things.
Quote:Pretty much. And if you put another $10,000 in while the market was at 8,000, it would be worth $32,500 (or 12,500 more than your investment). Just like in 2009 when the stock market tanked. Anyone who sold in 2009 got screwed. People who kept their stocks just a couple more years or so are either even or ahead. Anyone who actually bought in 2009 made a ton of money.
Furthermore, those lucky most likely educated investors who sold prior to 2009 then bought in 2009 made a killing.
Quote:Furthermore, those lucky most likely educated investors who sold prior to 2009 then bought in 2009 made a killing.
Those lucky number of investors pale in comparison to those that lost.
The financial market is not what it was in 2008/2009. Many rules and policies have changed.
You also don't want to be as "smart" as this guy.....
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/2...LM20150421
I do compliance, you will get caught eventually.
Quote:But when it corrects you lose all that money you've slowly and responsibly made. I have zero faith in the stock market, I saw to many people who had been responsible and did as they where told lose just about everything in the last recession. Then I watch our politicians and banks doing the same thing all over again and I say well history says it's going to correct itself again one day. So all those people making safe investments are going to get screwed again at some point.
The real goal is to get out before the screw job comes, to me that's just insane. Give me land, land is never worth zero.
Like someone else said, when it corrects downward, you only lose if you lose your nerve and sell. That's the only way someone would have lost in the last recession. And even then, they couldn't possibly have lost everything, unless they were doing something extremely risky and foolish.
People seem to think stocks are just little pieces of paper that have no inherent value. But when you buy a stock, you buy a piece of a business. It's the same as buying ownership of a tire store on Normandy Blvd. Or owning a Chik-Fil-A. If the business is making money, you're making money. If GE is making 10 cents for every dollar that their stock costs, then you are making 10 cents on the dollar investing in GE. The price of the stock may go up or down on a temporary basis, and that scares a lot of people, but if the company you invest in is making money, then in the long run the stock will go up and/or they will send you some of that profit.
Where people lose is when they try to beat the market. That's the average neophyte investor, who thinks he can use charts or technical analysis or some other shortcut. If that stuff worked, we'd all be rich. It doesn't work. The only way to beat the market with individual stocks is to understand businesses. That's how Warren Buffett made his fortune- by gaining a great understanding of the businesses he was investing in. But I'm not Warren Buffett, and I'm too lazy to put in that kind of hard work. So I just buy index funds. In the long run, it's the best investment there is. Why try to beat the market when you can get rich just getting the long term market average? That requires no work at all. If you try to beat the market, you will probably lose, because then you are competing with very large blocks of money being run by some very smart people with incredible resources.
I'm thrown by your sentence about seeing people lose everything when the market does down. They had to be doing something incredibly stupid to lose everything like that.
Warren Buffett's rules of investing:
1) Don't lose your money.
2) Don't forget rule #1.
You want to know a sure fire way to lose money? Try to beat the market.
Quote:Like someone else said, when it corrects downward, you only lose if you lose your nerve and sell. That's the only way someone would have lost in the last recession. And even then, they couldn't possibly have lost everything, unless they were doing something extremely risky and foolish.
People seem to thing stocks are just little pieces of paper that have no inherent value. But when you buy a stock, you buy a piece of a business. It's the same as buying ownership of a tire store on Normandy Blvd. Or owning a Chik-Fil-A. If the business is making money, you're making money. If GE is making 10 cents for every dollar that their stock costs, then you are making 10 cents on the dollar investing in GE. The price of the stock may go up or down on a temporary basis, and that scares a lot of people, but if the company you invest in is making money, then in the long run the stock will go up and/or they will send you some of that profit.
Where people lose is when they try to beat the market. That's the average neophyte investor, who thinks he can use charts or technical analysis or some other shortcut. If that stuff worked, we'd all be rich. It doesn't work. The only way to beat the market with individual stocks is to understand businesses. That's how Warren Buffett made his fortune- fundamental financial analysis.
stocks are a long term investment. one must be patient and disciplined enough to not panic when stocks slide backwards. I like index funds personally. The vast majority of pink sheet (OTC) stocks are scams, you can make money with them, but there is also the chance that one morning you wake up to find that a pink sheet company you invested in was suspended by the SEC or is no longer in business. Pink sheets are notorious for pump and dumps meaning the companies pay promotion companies (with company stocks) to heavily promote their stock so investors buy in heavily (the company makes a good bit of money) and the price per share rises, and then the promoters dump their shares for cash and the stock plummets and the company got investors money.
REITS have been doing well...The market is pretty volatile right now in a bearish state