Hi all, first of all great forum, this is my first post from Australia Mesoblast just released this announcement, should continue to fly high today.
Hi Everyone, I am new to trading... like opened a TD account and still haven’t bought a stock yet. I’ll be doing that soon though. My hope is to just learn and bounce questions off of the group. I promise some will be stupid but I’m trying to get a handle on this experience.
Hello everyone! My name is Nathan, I'm from São Paulo, Brazil, and I've been trading for the past 5yrs here in Brazil. Now I'm seeking for new horizons and I want to start my operations in US stock market. I'm here to learn, and of course, to share my experiences with you.
Hi, I've been trading stocks on and of since 2015, when I was 17! I've gone from losing money to not making any and not losing any!
Wow that was a really long time ago, that must've been pretty scary with all of that volatility and stuff. Kinda see the same sort of stuff going on with the weed stocks today.
Just joined today. I am from Southern Indiana in the US. I manage my own 401k or as much as they let me. I have 50% in a brokerage account and love doing this. So far really good. I usually just do swing trades so any good candidates throw my way and I can do the same.
Hey everyone, I hope this message finds you well during this tumultuous time. I'm new to trading and to the forum so please bare with me. My name is Alex and I'm a graduate student from Jersey. I became interested in stocks once my previous hobby (gambling) took a turn for the worst. I got into investing because it's a more productive way to invest your money. My goal is to pay off my crippling college tuition by the time I finish my PhD. I've made many poor financial decisions during my lifetime, but I'm hoping that this time I can gain more experience before jumping into something full throttle. I'm aware that there's risk associated with it. I'm also aware that it takes, precision, research, and luck to make things happen. But I'm hoping you guys can help answer questions for me! Since I've been dabbling in stocks, here has been my recent winnings/losses. I took the safe route during the winter with a mutual fund by purchasing FBMPX at $67.86 (which is now $57.68....not so safe after all). However, recently I purchased LNC at $22.18 (and sold it at $30.21). Also, I've purchased CURLF at $3.15 (and sold it at $4.310)....so I basically broke even. I use fidelity, and I do research but I'm not sure if I'm confident in what I'm doing. With the help of this community, I'm hoping that I can get a better understanding of market trends and options to consider when trading. -Alex
Welcome, Alex. It sounds like you want to substitute one compulsion for another. Trading is gambling. Investing is owning companies. Trading is watching the numbers and hoping for more. Have you considered paying your student loans aggressively? Perhaps you could put 75% of your spare cash toward the loans and 25% toward trades. The loans will pay something like 10% return, or whatever interest rate you are assessed, while the trades are unlikely to do as well. At least you could move forward a bit while you learn the lesson of trading futility. Full disclosure, I'm a long term investor and don't bother with trading. Everyone else here will champion your entry into trading. Whatever happens, good luck in the markets, with your education, and in life!
Hello Stockaholics, I've been investing for the better part of a decade. I worked for a mom and pop investment firm for a few years before transitioning to a tech company. Investing is a hobby (more like obsession) and I am hoping to find like-minded folks willing to share and discuss ideas and concepts. Despite my best efforts, I am a perma-bear. Stocks are wildly overvalued and the fed has ruined the concept of a free market...change my mind. I may be a bear, but I love making money, so I'm hoping to find a few bulls that I can run with. Looking forward to working with all of you, - JP
Thank you for your comment Tom and I completely agree. I was always told to aim for paying off the loans with the highest interest first. Also, yes my aim is to pay my college loans off aggressively within the next couple of years. I want the satisfaction of knowing I made a dent in my college tuition prior to finishing my PhD. If you don’t mind me asking what pitfalls or mistakes should I watch out for throughout my investment journey?
I disagree. For some reason, your post makes me want to take up an opposing position. lol! Welcome, JP. I suspect we are like minded, for the most part. I see an investment ocean of value traps but have found a few lifeboats that have been good to us. Please join us in the Investment forum for substantive discussion. I welcome a deep discussion and generally avoid threads of people looking for a "hot tip".
I envy your position. I'm sure you're going to do very well. Sorry for this long post. The people I know who have achieved financial success all started investing early. Not trading. Investing. I'm in a different age group than you sound to be so I know people who have used GIC ladders, mutual funds, bonds, etc. In other words, they have selected long and slow paths to success. I don't know anyone who has traded their way to retirement. I know plenty of traders, just none who have retired. In fact, I know several people who have returned to work, after a brief foray into trading. My wife's best friend had to come out of retirement because her husband discovered day trading and made a ton of money. He constantly regaled me with stories of trades that made so much money, he couldn't stop giggling. At this point, his wife isn't all that thrilled with his financial performance, though. I know several people in that situation but no one who has retired from trading. In other words, the fastest path to success is the slow path. At least, in the world I live in. ***** For my part, I planned to semi-retire at 38 and was on my way to that goal when life pulled me over and kicked me in the junk for the first time. It would have been a lean retirement but I had it figured that I would have been OK and I could hustle up a little extra money, here and there. I owned an apartment block so I knew I had risk but I was managing it. At the time, I had a small amount of mutual funds. Most of my money was in the apartment block. From there, I started a business that has done pretty well. The first few years were a period during which I could not retire because I was cash poor from the business startup. Eventually, I got back to a point of stability and thought I would retire by my later 40s. That's when I met my current wife. My current wife was not in a position to retire when I met her and I didn't want to tell her I was (keeping private with your financial position is always the best strategy) so together we hustled up various investments including quite a bit more real estate and several equity positions. These days, she is in a very good position because she worked hard and stayed the course. Now I'm in my mid 50s and I'm ready to retire again. This time, we are tired and ready for an easier path after several years of working like maniacs. There will be no more work bees, unless something bad happens. Also this time, it's going to be far more comfortable than the austere retirement I would have had in my late 30s. We have accomplished what we have by taking the slow path. When we started putting money into stable, well run, companies a decade ago, it seemed like it would take forever for good things to happen. It didn't. I seem to recall we started at $800 per month and it didn't go up all that much, over those years. The companies we own did the rest of the work. ***** 30 years is the blink of an eye. The idea of spending 5 or 10 years taking a road with damn few success stories is a big cost, in terms of extending your working life. I suggest ignoring the legions of people who have been making 50% per year for a decade, always make the right moves, and yet have been working jobs for 20 years they don't like and are still not in a position to retire. Think about that, while people are explaining how great they are. No one is going to tell you they haven't done that great. Self aggrandization is part of the human condition. Be careful to not fall into the trap of trying to keep up with the claims of others. Look at people who have retired with no pension and are living off their investments. There are plenty of these people around. They aren't doubling their money every year. They are living off modest but stable returns, pretty much to the last one. The thing that seems to be missing, from my perspective, in the average retail investor is an understanding of risk versus return. If an investment has the potential to double your money and has a 50% chance of success, it has the same risk/reward ratio as stuffing cash into a matress. You would do better with a business that returns 8~12% annually so you can double your money every 5 to 8 years. There is nothing wrong with taking risk. People like me tend to be too conservative so I try to push myself to risk more than I am comfortable with. People in your age group tend to not have that problem, so that works in your favor. Consider this: an honest, well run, business should double your money every 5 to 7 years. If a business provided the same return as bonds (decent corporates), which can double your money every 12 years, or so, you wouldn't want to own the business. Bonds are guaranteed. Businesses are regularly pulled over and kicked in the junk by situation such as the current pandemic, the global financial crisis, etc. A business that doubles your money every 10 years or longer either has a leak (executives soaking up too much of the earnings), is poorly run, or is simply not a good business. Most often, it's the first problem I cited. Trading is like going to the bar, standing up, and shouting you are the toughest guy there and will fight everyone who wishes to challenge. You might win. You might beat everyone. You might be spurred with confidence from conversation of others in the bar who talk about having kicked everyone's ass on countless occasions. But, here's the thing... these other guys didn't fight an entire bar and win. Your chances of winning are infinitesimal. Trading is a redistribution of wealth. The best path forward is to enjoy your salty chihuahua while keeping a low profile. If you are a doctoral student, I expect you had the patience to read all that. There are many other perspectives on this site so I wish you well with reading and following a lot of great retail investors who hang out here.
Thank you for that! I appreciate you sharing these experiences with me. Your insight tells me to look more at the much larger picture than striving for glory (or aiming to accumulate immense wealth from trading in a short period of time). I feel that long term investing is a great way to start. My past employers always told me that it was never too early to set retirement goals. It’s always a good idea to visualize these things earlier on.
Hello All! Brand new to this board and to investing too. So far, I've been reading a lot and just making a few small stock purchases on TD as a way of learning the ropes. I'm from Philly. Main area I'm hoping to improve on is fundamental analysis. I don't have a business or accounting background, so I can't figure out financial docs much at all yet. Welcome any recs on how a novice can learn more about that. Thanks!
Hello, I‘M Darrick from Saskatchewan, Canada. I took a run at stock trading about 10 years ago ( back when this was HSM ) and failed miserably. I like to think I’ve picked up a few tricks since then. Lesson#1 - don’t buy and hold crappy penny stocks Thanks for having me, I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!
