My Advice to anyone that is involved in the Stock Market or want to be...
 

I've been really involved in the last year and having fun, Day Trading since I get up super early now that I have Twins. :)

BUT, what I have learned doing my Accounting for the last year.

If I didn't day trade and I just sat on 90% of the stocks I bought, I would have been up 25-35% on my investments instead of 7%

Day Trading is fun, don't get me wrong. But looking at what I could have made by just letting it sit, is Depressing. :Oh crap

That's my tip of the Day! :2 cents:

Moral of my story, I'm not day trading anymore.

Well, that's always true in a bull market. However, in a sideways or bear market, traders usually outperform investors.

That could be possible, but didn't work for me.

Penny stocks have been good.
I buy and hold 1 to 6 months.
Day trading is a losing game.

Penny Stocks are a losing game. We're in a Bear Market that might last 15-20 years. I would invest in foreign/non dollar denominated stocks that shell out dividends. I'm mainly invested in precious metals, and the BRIC countries.

Not to mention - taxes. Profits made from any stock held over a year are only taxed 15%, vs day trading, you're paying the regular tax rate, which can be as high 38% if you're in the highest tax bracket.

Try GICs and bonds for guaranted rates that will not change.

Instead of penny stocks, you should gamble your money in Vegas. You'd have more fun.

This has to be a flame lol. Bonds? Yes, I definitely want to give my cash finance government debt and hope they don't default, and pay me my huge %. Don't be ridiculous. I'm shorting bonds in a few days.

you do know that you can short stocks as well right? you can play both sides

Okay, but even my 401(k) got good returns. The last year was a unique year. A lot of bouncing back probably along with some growth here and there. You aren't going to make 25% every year LOL.

Four periods of my life I've actively daytraded, as a profession, meaning sitting by the computer from Asia mid day till New York closing. It get enormously boring after some time and all you can enjoy is the little profits here and there, read, read, read and follow the tickers, then short trade, and more wait, wait, wait, read, read, and read. I have been quite successful and been able to live off it, buying apartments and cars that way but I wouldn't recommend it. I become almost obsessed and numbers and percentages and profits are the only things I care to talk about when in that state. Not a very nice or fun guy to be around.

Part of my philosophy was to always keep a few shares from each trade. Say that I bought 1000 of stock A at 5.00 each, during the day it might go up to 5.15 or hit even 5.25 and then I'd sell them. But not all of them. I might keep 10-20 shares from each trade. Those were later transferred into a more long time portfolio, collecting dividends and so on. And I was always very fast at cutting my losses more than 3% down, and everything was sold at once, as a general rule of thumb. Part of that portfolio is still sitting in a structured product, locked away and paying out some dividends today.

If youre going to daytrade, get an office and be around people. It's too boring to just sit at home, waiting, reading and so on. Then you start to trade just to activate yourself, and then you loose money and rack up high transaction costs. But I wouldn't recommend daytrading to anyone, unless you have a huge financial interest, knowledge and some spare cash laying around that you can use as working capital. It can be done, but it's very hard to outperform the market in the long run.

Very true, I am in an office with lots of employees around. But being in the Internet Business and looking at your computer day in and day out doesn't help. The day trading is fun but as you said, all you do is watch tickers, I watch my traffic on our sites, our sales and everything else that goes on in an office with a staff over 50. So adding day trading to the morning start was fun but seeing the returns on them if I would have just kept them for the long run, thats sad.

And for some reason, the day I sell my stocks, within a few days, they skyrocket. crap
I can understand once, twice but this has happened around 10 times already so I am just going to buy and hold.

Great philosophy you had, Are you still involved in the Market?

Futures baby, futures :)

Actually, I hate gambling. To see a casino take your money right in front of you is straight out robbery.

I rather day trade with penny stocks and go to Vegas to Party.

bet it all on BLACK!!!!!

I am in Canada. Trade on venture and tsx exchange. mining and minerals. Penny stocks bro ;) dont be such a smart ass. I doubled a few times now in the last 60 days.
Canada is a resource country...

And by penny I mean under $5.

Why would I have more fun? My family works in the industry? I do my research too and have friends that work in the industry as well.

BC and Alberta are resource rich as well as most of south America, Africa and Asia.

There is info out there just have to know how to get it.

Sorry, I've always been a Red 23 number guy. (When I do gamble)

Bought at $2.20 sold at $5.55

http://chart.finance.yahoo.com/c/6m/t/tko.to

Here's a good one I am buying:

My dad bought at .06 cents and sold half at .14 cents in 60 days.
Should rip up to the .25 to .30 cent range in the next 90 days.
http://chart.finance.yahoo.com/c/3m/o/oce.v

I don't daytrade anymore, don't have the time to sit and follow tickers and don't have neither the patience or the knowledge anymore. been away from it for too long. It's always very hard to try to "time the market", if someone developed a secure or very accurate formula to time the market, that would be a money machine. But much of that has been proven not to work, read on Wikipedia on Econometrics for example, proven not to work already back in the 50's-60's but the dream lives on today. It's all about the dream of easy money.

Today I buy/sell stocks maybe once per week and do major portfolio changes a couple of times per year, I'm out after stable, life long returns, not a quick buck anymore.

Nice, how many shares do you guys buy, under 100 or in the thousands at that price?

Not bad at all. :thumbsup

Thanks for the investment lesson Mr. Icahn.

yea, under 100 shares.... :error:helpme:winkwink:

I play around $3500 a stock. sometimes less sometimes more. The penny stocks are super risky so you have to use sound judgement and do your reasearch, true research like find out who is behind the company and try to see if anybody on the boards has info.

These are the type of stocks that if you sell on the open market you might drop the price 10 or 15% so there is a lot of volatility. and same with buying a stock. You can literally sell a thousand on the open market if you can read the level 2 quotes jack up the price create a little buzz and then make a few posts on the boards and make 30%.

I buy some large caps too. I have some BAC and C that are just going slowly but10% and 15% are better then anything.

In Canada we have an excellent tv station http://www.bnn.ca/ they have excellent advice and guests on there. I also peruse stockhouse.com

I don't play short term unless there is something I can short. I go long with most non dollar denominated stocks and gold as a fight against inevitable inflation or hyperinflation. I have some money in Canadian mining stocks.

Sock it away in mutual funds through a retirement plan, and don't worry about the ups and downs. Just let it go. And let it grew tax deferred, or tax free if you can do a roth.

Mutual funds and bonds are the worst investment you can make right now.

enlighten us. I've always loved the people who said something is bad and doesn't explain why and also fails to share what they think is good. :2 cents:

I've never been a fan of daytrading. I just waste too much time on it, compared to the profits.

Inflation adjusted, Mutual funds have been pure shit the past few years. Actually, don't even adjust it for inflation.
http://www.tradersnarrative.com/wp-c...0to%202009.png
Now I'm shorting bonds for the main reason that the % has nowhere to go but up. Bernanke wants to borrow money without printing anymore and causing high inflation or hyperinflation. The only way he's going to do that at this point is by raising the rates on bonds, especially T-Bonds, and hoping people buy that shit. Americans are starting to realize the huge risk in financing government debt, and are slowly moving away from bonds. It's that simple.

I didnt read entire thread so i will just comment first post:i got same advice from one old broker,he said how he doesn't watch at all daily reports,he just reads business reports and based on that he decide what he will sell and what he will buy.

I will never get the stock market...

Why not? What don't you like about it? Too Risky?

I wont "play" the stockmarket for the same reason I rarely go to the horse racing track. Unless I get a real good tip from someone who has valuable information, I am not going to bet my money.

That and the same reasons you are getting out of it. I wouldn't have the time to follow the ticker 24/7 and stay up to date with everything and even if I did I still would probably lose money like the majority of people who play the market. For long term, in a retirement vehicle where my gains can grow tax deferred or tax free, over long periods of time, diversified in mutual funds and not single stocks, I am fine with doing that.

Unless you have mountains of software and computing power or maybe a friend that is a math genius day trading is not a good idea. Stocks are like gambling anyway but at least when you buy and hold quality companies you have a better chance. Anyway just my 2 cents.

you are better off buying and holding, but if you really do want to day trade you would be better off trading options... assuming you can take on the extra risk and still sleep at night :)

I never really understood stock market well. Always sounds scary

:error

The FED does not control the long end of the curve. The market does. :2 cents:

Hell, they don't really control the short end.

If you look closely, the market on the short end moves rates first and then the FED adjusts the FED rate to match.

The only way to make real money in stocks is to trade options close to expiry date. It's not 2% or 10% a day. It's like 2000% in a matter of hours or days and you limit your losses to a couple of bucks.

I used to trade stocks, but if you cannot watch the market most of the day you are better off keeping your money out of the market. I've lost enough money trying to trade while working a 9-5 job. :(

My advice is to wait for a long bull market and use candlestick charts for good buying opportunities, charts will work in normal markets.

I just have some penny stocks now that are involved in bomb detection, hoping it is a good play since the airlines must comply with new TSA rules regarding screening of passengers and baggage in August.

Good observation, yet that's very debatable.

the key is to just buy good companies and sit on them
over time they will always rise
if they pay dividends even better

Does anyone like Delta Neutral trading?
 

I made 11% from it in 2007 and 24% on C in early 2009 but I think that was a one time deal. I love the concept, but the kicker is the bid/ask spread and the uncertainty of being able to unwind a position. If the option market were slightly more liquid this might be a good strategy.

Nice, so it's already paid for itself and anything else is pure profit...

Is that $0.06 (6 cents) or 0.06 cents?