Stock Market

[GFED]

Does anyone here trade stocks? Where did you start and what websites could you recommend?


Thanks!

[420]

I read a thread here about day trading maybe 11-12 years ago. Seriously, had never considered buying stocks before that. I lost money at first. So, I read a lot and played one of those virtual stock market games. Took about 2 or 3 years until I figured everything out. I had to learn how to plan and set goals that I would stick to.


I don't remember what site the game was on but they're probably all the same. Investopedia is the only site I use now - good reference if I forget something.

[jimmycooper]

I like TradeKing. Investor Village also has a decent forum and Seeking Alpha is a good site.

[hadden]

Buy mutual funds, life's short

[DBS.US]

I have been using Tradeking for a long time but I'm moving my money to Etrade because there is an office down the street from me.

[Alex21]

Don't trade with TK but they had good webinars, forums, etc from what I remember

[lezinterracial]

I like Scottrade.

[GFED]

Where else did you learn to trade?

I started with a papermoney account with Thinkorswim. I really like the platform. I searched the colleges websites and couldn't find any courses on stock trading. I found some places near here in Tampa that offer seminars. Has anyone ever attended one?



Thanks for the input.

[GFED]

I just signed up for a place called Investools. Anyone have any experience with them?

[jaYMan]

I used sharebuider ;)


done well with yahoo & apple

[iamBoogieman]

Tradeking is nice.

[DBS.US]

Etrade has price types that TradeKing doesn't.

[Alex21]

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

All you need to know

[polster]

It depends on your goals and time horizon on the types of trades you want to do.

For high risk/ hi reward (IE day trading) you should read and learn on trading OPTIONS and E Mini Futures. Both have a lot of risk especially if you dont know what your doing you will lose your money very quickly. The advantage though if you know or can handle risk the return you can get is very high compared to investing in stocks or mutual funds. This type of investment requires little starting capital as options/futures are leveraged vehicles.

For low risk and having a long term time horizon you can invest in quality dividend paying companies which every year grow/increase the dividend and reinvest the dividend. Long term because of growth of dividend(income) and reinvestment your cost basis becomes close to 0 and your income increases exponentially. The issue with this type of investment is you have to have a long term horizon and understand asset allocation (which investments to pick as part of a diversified portfolio). Also this type investment requires at 10K+ starting capital to understand what your doing.

A book a recommend to read for those who are just starting out on investing is
The Single Best Investment: Creating Wealth with Dividend Growth

[johnny_d]

Originally Posted by GFED

Does anyone here trade stocks? Where did you start and what websites could you recommend?
Thanks!

I know what is needed (except for the money) in order to start trading USA stocks. I can exchange that info for info on how to work on xxx sites, and make it profitable. I've been working on the sites for 5+ years myself. Please PM me if interested, and we can discuss things through Skype or email. I've been working on USA stock investing for 2+ years.

Google Finance S&P 500

I seriously know how to do it, and I would probably invest instead of doing this, if I would have a lot of cash... Serious offer with this, and very good info, in exchange for very good info on xxx sites (high traffic).

Thanks.

(PM me with your email and / or Skype)

[johnny_d]

Originally Posted by GFED

Does anyone here trade stocks? Where did you start and what websites could you recommend?


Thanks!

Please PM me your email or / and Skype.

[johnny_d]

Originally Posted by hadden

Buy mutual funds, life's short

According to the knowledge that I have, buying mutual funds is not a good advice. It is because it is better to sell and buy quickly (trade), instead of investing long-term, at least according to the method / system, that I've used. On the other hand, people like Warren Buffet, seem to invest long term too... With what I am talking about, you select the best / stronger stocks, buy them, and get out, in case you start losing money, so you never lose more than 5 or 10% of the price paid. It is very likely to happen with mutual funds.

[johnny_d]

Originally Posted by GFED

I just signed up for a place called Investools. Anyone have any experience with them?

I know exactly what you are looking for, and I have something that you could use / try. I am willing to give out the info, but only in exchange for good info on how to work on xxx sites.

[aka123]

The thing that I have learned is to have a plan with exit rules (even if it is just "no exit"), and to stick with the plan.

[johnny_d]

Originally Posted by aka123

The thing that I have learned is to have a plan with exit rules (even if it is just "no exit"), and to stick with the plan.

Find the best stock, based on certain characteristics, buy them at a right time, and get out, in case price goes down below a certain level (lets say 10% under of what you've paid). There will be loses, with the method that I know, but in general you should be making money, as you buy only the best stocks, and at the right time.

[edgeprod]

Sure, lots of us do. We frequently make picks, also. We made some pretty damn good ones, as a group: catching FB very early, warning against BABA, and also big gains on GOOG and AAPL.

[polster]

Originally Posted by johnny_d

According to the knowledge that I have, buying mutual funds is not a good advice. It is because it is better to sell and buy quickly (trade), instead of investing long-term, at least according to the method / system, that I've used. On the other hand, people like Warren Buffet, seem to invest long term too... With what I am talking about, you select the best / stronger stocks, buy them, and get out, in case you start losing money, so you never lose more than 5 or 10% of the price paid. It is very likely to happen with mutual funds.

Your answer is a very simpleton answer about mutual funds... First there are 3 types of mutual funds on the market (OPEN Ended, Close Ended Funds, and Exchange-Traded Funds {ETFs}). Open End funds are usually for long term investors who have a 401k or another retirement account. Open End funds are not liquid (and so there not used for day trading). On the other hand closed end funds are leveraged mutual funds that are liquid and trade at a premium or discount to net asset value. Also ETFs are also liquid and can be day traded.

The advantage of mutual funds over stocks is there diversified and so there is 0% chance that a mutual fund goes out of business since its made of of 20+ underlying assets. An individual stock can go to $0 if there is some bad news (IE radio shack filing for bankruptcy as an example).

[DBS.US]

Originally Posted by johnny_d

According to the knowledge that I have, buying mutual funds is not a good advice. It is because it is better to sell and buy quickly (trade), instead of investing long-term, at least according to the method / system, that I've used. On the other hand, people like Warren Buffet, seem to invest long term too... With what I am talking about, you select the best / stronger stocks, buy them, and get out, in case you start losing money, so you never lose more than 5 or 10% of the price paid. It is very likely to happen with mutual funds.

I day trade to build money to fund buying long term mutual funds

[campimp]

I was a professional stock trader for 10 years, and then switched to managing some options based portfolios...

the answers to your question are not easy, because there is no easy way to enter into the markets. As someone already mentioned, you should expect to lose money more often than not while getting your feet wet, unless you have access to a group of close friends that you can bounce ideas off of on a regular basis. If you have friends or family that invest try to discuss setting up a club of some sort that you can discuss ideas, strategies, etc. with.

when people ask me now about getting into the market, i often suggest reading as much as possible on any of the news sites. seekingalpha is good resource. here are a couple others i use on a pretty regular basis:

247wallst
nytimes business section
cnbc
forbes
yahoo finance (not as good as it used to be, but still some useful stuff in there)

also the more you start to read the more you will uncover sites you like that discuss topics you are interested in

basically you have to read as much as absolutely possible about anything and everything stock market / financial topics

for actual investing, if you really are ready to jump into buying some actual securities, i would suggest looking into ETFs to start with. something like SPY that tracks the S&P or DIA that tracks the Dow Jones. You accomplish two things here... first you are easily and cheaply diversified, and secondly you can start to track the stocks inside the ETFs and try to learn why they are doing what they are doing.


as for trading, there are a lot of places out there to trade. I like OptionsXpress. not exactly sure what their commissions are because i have a negotiated rate, but i think about $9 on stocks, with great support and some handy resources for both stocks and options.


good luck, and always remember....... buy high, and sell higher ;)

[SekobA]

Europe stock market pretty sucks

[johnny_d]

If somebody read my previous answers, we can add to it xxx websites / webmaster info exchange. With this serious offers are needed, preferably from people with 5+ years of full time experience working on Internet sites (stock info + xxx webmaster info that I have is a good offer, exchange is good).

If interested, please contact me at dstin44 [at] gmail [dot] com

[GFED]

Originally Posted by campimp

I was a professional stock trader for 10 years, and then switched to managing some options based portfolios...

the answers to your question are not easy, because there is no easy way to enter into the markets. As someone already mentioned, you should expect to lose money more often than not while getting your feet wet, unless you have access to a group of close friends that you can bounce ideas off of on a regular basis. If you have friends or family that invest try to discuss setting up a club of some sort that you can discuss ideas, strategies, etc. with.

when people ask me now about getting into the market, i often suggest reading as much as possible on any of the news sites. seekingalpha is good resource. here are a couple others i use on a pretty regular basis:

247wallst
nytimes business section
cnbc
forbes
yahoo finance (not as good as it used to be, but still some useful stuff in there)

also the more you start to read the more you will uncover sites you like that discuss topics you are interested in

basically you have to read as much as absolutely possible about anything and everything stock market / financial topics

for actual investing, if you really are ready to jump into buying some actual securities, i would suggest looking into ETFs to start with. something like SPY that tracks the S&P or DIA that tracks the Dow Jones. You accomplish two things here... first you are easily and cheaply diversified, and secondly you can start to track the stocks inside the ETFs and try to learn why they are doing what they are doing.


as for trading, there are a lot of places out there to trade. I like OptionsXpress. not exactly sure what their commissions are because i have a negotiated rate, but i think about $9 on stocks, with great support and some handy resources for both stocks and options.


good luck, and always remember....... buy high, and sell higher ;)

Thanks for the resources.

[$5 submissions]

Look into MOMENTUM TRADING.

[slapass]

I used to day trade. The washout rate is very high. Then add in that it is a super stressful job. I know very few people who stuck with it more then ten years. So 2-3 years to learn it. 5 years to do ok and few years to realize it is not for you. And that is if you are amazingly good.

[Shadexpwn]

Watch CNBC if you really want to learn from the ground up.

Otherwise, forums don't really do much so test out virtual trading attempts.

[GFED]

Thanks for all the tips. I've been with TD Ameritrade now for a few months. Building a portfolio of low beta trend trades and swing trading higher beta stocks in biotech and information technology.

Learning a lot from making mistakes. Patience and risk management are really crucial. Just now learning how to hedge my positions with covered calls and short selling indexes on pullbacks.