Are any of you trading on a regular basis? Are there any stocks that you find you can flip frequently and make a good profit?
Stock market trading
- Thread starter Wendy
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I just started a scottrade account, after reading "Stock Investing for Dummies". I watch Mad Money on CNBC, but you have to research some of the things Cramer recommends. I am holding Bank of America bought it last week at 13.25 its at 16.32, now. Hopefully it will go to 25 then I will sell it, that may take a few weeks. Do your research the internet is loaded with information, marketwatch.com, fool.com, madmoney. Marketwatch.com had a virtual stock exchange to play around in to see how you can do. Lots of analysts are predicting a large upswing in the market. Good luck.
I used to. One of the rules of investing is to not fall in love with any stock. In trading, some people choose a small number (maybe 20-100) of stocks to watch closely. Commodity and currency traders often follow a handful or fewer of things-I know one guy that only trades Euro-USD and Euro JPY--but the only times I've heard of anyone constanty flipping a particular stock is when it's weird for a while, and the fun doesn't last more than a few months. Your timeframe and the charts are what matters.
My recommendation is to follow good underlying economics. Research companies with good balance sheets and non cyclical stock prices (such as Mcdonalds, Pepsi, etc). Apple was a good example of this in mwhen it was trading around $86 at the beginning of the year, hammered by the recession. But, it was a good company, so the market corrected and set it at a fair value, which is now $165. Order annual reports and research companies before buying into them and you you can make a substantial sum of money. Warren Buffet teaches this investment principle of value investing. I wish you luck...
Without getting too commercial here... (I am in the biz) I would recommend NOT doing this at all. It is possible to make some $$ doing this (I suppose I could make my own soaps too!) but most people end up worse off. There IS a ton of information on the net, but most of it is there to drive people to make transactions. Transactions assure that the pros get paid.
If you are looking for a hobby, this might be fine. If you are looking to make some $$ I would recommend a disciplined approach that is either recommended by a pro for you to implement, or actually implemented by a pro.
If you are interested, check out fundadvice.com . Our firm recommends a well diversified mutual fund approach rather than individual stocks, There is a ton of info on the site for "do it yourself" investors.
Of course... we would love your business if you want professional management!
If you are looking for a hobby, this might be fine. If you are looking to make some $$ I would recommend a disciplined approach that is either recommended by a pro for you to implement, or actually implemented by a pro.
If you are interested, check out fundadvice.com . Our firm recommends a well diversified mutual fund approach rather than individual stocks, There is a ton of info on the site for "do it yourself" investors.
Of course... we would love your business if you want professional management!
Sounds like sage advice to me. I get the feeling that the popular pundits are not reliable. They recommend a stock on Monday. Based on that recomendation, on Tuesday thousands of people buy a few shares each of that stock and the price goes up, hey the pundit was right
I don't think shares are a wise idea unless you are aware of economies across the world, of politics, trade, weather etc etc. Don't invest unless you are able to accept the losses.
+1
I have traded stocks for 30 years and although it is possible to do well this way (flipping), if you research, research, research, and then do some more research and make intelligent choices, avoid hot tips, etc. you'll be way ahead of the game.
I would also trade on paper first. Find out what works for you and learn from your mistakes.
- Thread starter
- #9
I also have Scottrade. I have had a few times where I could not purchase a stock for some reason or another and had to call the local branch for help. I have learned that the National call center is better. The local branch here is quite rude. If I did not know any better I would swear they are run by the same people as my bike shop.
As far as my thoughts on Cramer not sure. He called many stocks that I own wrong. I had invested a ton in CAT and a few days later he was saying it was overpriced blah,blah,blah I paid $29 per share and it is over $45 now. Thankfully I stuck with it.
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- #10
I do have a great friend of the family who has been in the business his entire life he also advises against this type of investing (even though he does it himself). He also has suggested mutual funds. I switched to Scottrade recently because I had my entire 401k in limbo for so long I wanted to get the money back in my control. I will eventually get a little more "safe" with my money but for the time being I am enjoying the trading.
By the way I would love to try your soap
LOLI do have a great friend of the family who has been in the business his entire life he also advises against this type of investing (even though he does it himself). He also has suggested mutual funds. I switched to Scottrade recently because I had my entire 401k in limbo for so long I wanted to get the money back in my control. I will eventually get a little more "safe" with my money but for the time being I am enjoying the trading.
By the way I would love to try your soap
um... my soap would be made of bacon fat ('cause bacon fat rules!) and would probably be rancid and ineffective!
Just be careful out there. It is fine to get entertainment out of trading, but don't play with your retirement, it is just too important.
I really have a sense that by the time we mere mortals get "timely information", the big boys are already off to the races. I am not a conspiracy theorist or anything, I just think this is like Vegas. The house ALWAYS wins in the end.
My advice - Take a small part of your portfolio and trade it for fun if you wish - but put the bulk of it in a balanced group of mutual funds and let it be. We need you to make soap instead of trading stocks!!!!
Excellent advice.
We have in one of the australian newspapers (you probably have a similar thing in yours) a piece where professional traders, celebrities and a random number generator all make stock pics and trade throughout the year. The random number generator (or, 'dartboard') always does very well.
If you want to make money with stocks, buy some blue chips when the price is lowish (theyre expected to announce reduced profits or something) and hang on for the long term. You can make some short term gains with trading, but you can also make some short term losses.
If you want to make money with stocks, buy some blue chips when the price is lowish (theyre expected to announce reduced profits or something) and hang on for the long term. You can make some short term gains with trading, but you can also make some short term losses.
I dabble in trading stocks for entertainment only; I'm superbly novice at it, but It's fun. I bought 100 shares of a stock that was going for less than $1/share about a year ago. I check it everyday for fun. We'll see what happens!
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- #15
I guess my mom has a new partner now. You had to throw the bacon thing out there. She may just boot me out the door tomorrow. If soap could be made from bacon we would have it on the market already
As an average person you simply aren't going to make money day trading or "flipping" stocks. A lot of experts guess that probably 95% of people who day trade lose money and 5% come out positive over time.
I remember seeing an article in which they calculated the performance of Jim Cramer's reccomendations on Mad Money over a few years and on the whole he did worse than the indexes. I'm sorry, but he's an entertainer, not a stock expert. And he's one of the heroes who ran the hedge funds that created today's economic situation with their endless attempts to score it big in the short term.
If you want to get into the markets, make sure you INVEST. Investing is when you buy a stock based upon the strengths of the company and want to stay on board long-term to share in their growth and profits. The opposite of that is speculation, where you buy a stock hoping to make money on the guess that something is going to occur that will affect the stock price, ie. oil prices are going to go up, some earnings release is going to be bad etc. etc.
I think that for the average person, the best bet is to hold a pretty diversified portfolio of different things, pick stocks in companies which actually sell something and make money - not some startup biotech company which says it is going to cure AIDS in 10 years. Good dividend yields are a way to make money along the way instead of just hoping to sell the shares themselves at a profit someday.
A person who gives you a stock tip is either full of ____, or is giving you illegal insider information that they shouldn't be telling anyone.
I remember seeing an article in which they calculated the performance of Jim Cramer's reccomendations on Mad Money over a few years and on the whole he did worse than the indexes. I'm sorry, but he's an entertainer, not a stock expert. And he's one of the heroes who ran the hedge funds that created today's economic situation with their endless attempts to score it big in the short term.
If you want to get into the markets, make sure you INVEST. Investing is when you buy a stock based upon the strengths of the company and want to stay on board long-term to share in their growth and profits. The opposite of that is speculation, where you buy a stock hoping to make money on the guess that something is going to occur that will affect the stock price, ie. oil prices are going to go up, some earnings release is going to be bad etc. etc.
I think that for the average person, the best bet is to hold a pretty diversified portfolio of different things, pick stocks in companies which actually sell something and make money - not some startup biotech company which says it is going to cure AIDS in 10 years. Good dividend yields are a way to make money along the way instead of just hoping to sell the shares themselves at a profit someday.
A person who gives you a stock tip is either full of ____, or is giving you illegal insider information that they shouldn't be telling anyone.
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- #17
I actually get shocked at people when it comes to trading. I have run across so many people who seem offended if you do not want to run off and buy what they recommend. My husband just recently left a job in the business and the amount of crap he heard in a day was quite funny. I think they all watched Cramer. The other thing many people seem to think they know when the market will be up or down. I am surprised they are still around to tell me about it instead of out spending their millions
"flipping" is difficult for avg investor, takes a lot of time and energy. That said, I disagree that stock trading should be left to the experts. If you are willing to spend the time to educate yourself on the workings of the world markets and faithfully monitor current events and business news (i.e. read WSJ cover to cover, daily) you can learn what you need to do quite well.
Mid-term, I am looking at pipeline companies, companies involved in what I expect to be the coming Nuclear power boom [constructors, manufacturers, etc], and domestic non-gold raw metal producers.
Mid-term, I am looking at pipeline companies, companies involved in what I expect to be the coming Nuclear power boom [constructors, manufacturers, etc], and domestic non-gold raw metal producers.
- Thread starter
- #19
I am very cautious with my IRA but I do have a cash account that I play with. It is not large enough to make or break me though.
Exactly, that's where the fun is: using a cash account not large enough to do any damage
