Hello. i am 25 years old and just recently started investing in the market. So far i have learned a lot and i having a lot of fun wish i did this many years ago but i had some questions that hopefully some experienced traders can help answer. I am investing around ($100-200) every week, this is a comfortable amount based on my current income for me to invest i wish i could invest a lot more but that is not option for me at the moment. I am investing through the Robin Hood app because of the free trading. Since i don't have a lot of capital going with e-trade or fidelity seemed like a bad option for me since they charge a trading fee of ($6-7) dollars. The Robin Hood app only allows 3 day trades a week which basically only leaves me the option to buy and hold my stocks during the day. This is a limitation i do not like. My First question would be should i stick with the robin hood app , or upgrade to robin hood gold which lifts a lot of the restrictions and gives you loans "buying power" to use. I aware that with gold you have to make a certain percentage from your stocks like 6% over a few quarters or whatever it is if you lose you are in debt to them basically.. Or should i look into using e-trade ?? or what would be the best option for my situation. Second question would be what stocks are best for me to buy. Currently i am buying stocks with-in the $10 dollar range. I figured buying expensive stocks would limit my ability to buy shares since i am only investing $100-200 a week. I have seen a lot of growth with the way the market has been going with these stocks i am buying. Basically buying low and selling high before fall offs. But it is hard to sell high when i am limited to only 3 day trades and the app states i need a $25k portfolio to become a pattern day trade which obviously i am not even close to that. So if anyone has any advice for me to help answer those two questions that would be great !!! and glad to be apart of the community So to sum it up.. should i just keep investing my own money?
I'm in the same boat as you I've been saving a little here, little there... I started with $30, just to get my toes wet.... Robinhood was perfect, when I made a dime, I could keep the dime, and when I lost a dime, a dime was all I lost My little savings is up to about $500 now, and I'm thinking of moving it into a TD Ameritrade account.... For these reasons: 1) "Day trading"... I'm not a day trader either.. But when I want out, I want out.. I got marked as a "pattern day trader" after having my 3rd stop loss triggered in one week 2) Short selling... I've never done this, because Robinhood won't let me... But I've watched several opportunities come and go.... I'm not a bear by any means, but I think it's a handicap only being able to play on one side of the field 3) Order features and speed... I don't know if Robinhood is slow, cause I have nothing to compare it to, but I've issues with a few orders (including stop losses) not filling, that makes me nervous.... Plus, if you want to trail a stop, you have to do it manually.. A lot can happen in the time it takes to cancel one order and place a new one 4) No commission... I know that's the main (or only) attraction to Robinhood... But I've found it to be a curse at times... I think it promotes recklessness... You don't have to think before you buy, cause you can change your mind and sell 5 seconds later......... I've burned myself many times by second guessing.... Paying $7.00 a trade sucks when you're use to $0.00.... But I think that will force you to trade like you mean it!
I agree to all of this.. Robin Hood is not designed for day trading and in that same situation you mentioned i also got burned doing the same thing you did buying and selling rapidly without worrying about the fee and ended up taking some losses. But its also a good thing in the same way because its not all the time you want to buy and sell buy and sell over and over. You want to buy and hold sell when high buy when low and hope for growth. Thats basically what Buffet and the wall street big guns do let their shares sit for a few years and sell when its appropriate just like with what happened with IBM today. I don't have the time to efficiently day trade anyways you have to sitting monitoring stocks all day long to make day trading work and i have a job and other priority's. I will open a AMER trade account because i don't think robin-hood is a long-term option. But dont you think opening with $500 is a little low?? since ur getting hit with the fees. I would say 2k-5k would be better? But i guess if your not doing many day trades it wont matter much.
Yea, in the scheme of things, $500 is just pocket change..... But I'll be adding to it continuously TD Ameritrade is my choice because they have no minimum deposit, or minimum balance... Plus, they have the "Paper Trading" platform, where you can trade with fake money, for practice, which I would strongly suggest, since it's a COMPLETELY different world than Robinhood! There is a middle ground between day trading and long term investing... "Swing trading" is the term.... With limited capital, I feel it's the best path... You don't want the heavy commission associated with day trading, but you also don't want what little money you have tied up for years and years....... You mention Warren Buffet, who no one can argue is as successful as they come, but he has billions to play with, we don't, so we have to make every penny count I'm glad Robinhood was there... It's a good stepping stone.... I've found what works for me, and what doesn't.. My "style" if you will, and $7.00 won't cramp that style..... If you haven't found you're style yet, then I'd say stick with the Hood for a little longer until you do
Right. thanks for the advice. thinking im going to stick to robin-hood for at at-least a few more months and then make the switch to TD Ameritrade or something similar. Another thing i like about Robinhood is its on my phone... so i can buy and sell on the move if i have to. Does Ameritrade or the other ones have that as well? or is it strictly on the pc?
TDA has an amazing mobile platform!!! I don't even own a computer, I do everything from my phone... And even though I've been trading on Robinhood, I've been watching everything on TDA.... Watching charts on Robinhood is like trading blind compared to TDA!!! Here's a few pics of the app
Btw... I wrote this little article a few days ago, Im still a newbie myself, so I can relate to how overwhelming this game can be at first... I've finally got a handle on it (even though I have a long way to go) thanks in large part to this site, so I wanted to give a little back Have a read if you're interested https://stockaholics.net/threads/ho...et-in-5-steps-from-beginner-to-beginner.4514/
Thanks a million man. Yes il take a look at it im very interested glad i joined this site as well. I'm learning as i go !!!
You guys can have a look here and read their pricing structure closely. It is not free but minimum 1.00 per trade but I'm pretty sure you have to do a minimum number of trades or get charged a monthly fee which looks to be $20 per month. But it would let you "day trade" to your hearts content. https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=1590
Hmm... That's enticing... But according to this article, they require $10,000 minimum deposit.. And have some sort of inactivity fee https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/investing/interactive-brokers-review/
Is it possible to get 2 robin hood accounts? Then you can trade twice as much. Not that I'm recommending trading so much.
That's thinking outside the box!... I like it What I don't like is the idea of my broker telling me how to trade Psychology is a big part of this game... Having a trade maximum in your head can influence you to make bad decisions.. Like hold when you shouldn't...... Or even worse, being flagged and banned from "day trading" for 90 days can FORCE you to hold positions you would otherwise abandon
uh i would not recommend trying to get 2 robin hood accounts lol. Because they have your SSN number and i dont think thats allowed could get you in some trouble xD. But i like the thinking
