Hey guys, I am new to the stocks, put in my first $1000 onto RobinHood yesterday. Went up to 1100 within 2 hours, didnt sell in time and now sitting at 952. I bought LEDS, AXU, MGT, and VRX. Even though MGT/AXU is doing great, I got screwed on LEDS. Sitting at 8.20 now, bought for 9.45 Any suggestions? Should I keep LEDS or sell it off and cut my loses? I am a medical student, tons of debt, hoping to make a little extra income to pay off some loans with this 1k ( I know its not a lot, but its a start) I always wanted to trade on the side and would appreciate any suggestions. I was hoping to make a few hundred a week, but not sure where to start. I was recommended penny stocks but its a total crap shoot. Thank you all!
Welcome! Unfortunately its more than likely you will lose a lot of money before you make any. If you are racking in a lot of debt, now is not the best time to try daytrading your way to riches. Are you just buying blindly and hoping for the best? That will be the quickest way to make your money evaporate! Somebody hates you. Penny stocks are the most volatile and only the most experienced players can make money from that. Others that are lucky may score a win early on, but will end up giving all back soon enough. If you are trying to trade short term, you need to know something about the charts: http://stockaholics.net/threads/teach-me-technical-analysis.125/
Welcome aboard Sasha and welcome to the wide world of stock trading. Regarding LEDS you might get advice from Ciao that plays that a lot.Good luck on your trading Ciao's thread http://stockaholics.net/threads/scalping-my-way.1465/#post-15847
Thank you for your encouragement. I have done some homework, looked up that VRX got approved for Phase 3 by the FDA and put money into that. Also went on a couple of penny stock blogs and saw that everyone recommended LEDS. I bought it, it went up, then plummeted. Not sure if I should keep it and just watch it or sell and cut my loses. My debt from med school is in the 350k range, so 1k of investment won't do much in the grand scheme of things. I just don't know if I should be buying short term, watching it go up .25/.50/1 and then selling it off or putting in for long haul. Any recommendations on short term stocks to watch? Long term? Thank you!
Hi Sasha firstly welcome aboard this forum "where money is made" isn't only a stockaholics but more likely dollarholics Gil and TTT give you good advice and I add mine for what is worth learn the difference between recommending and P&D ...... those stocks like LEDS without a good experience, strategy-plan-psychology one tend to lose and/or get stuck in .... otherwise yes you can make quite a lot $$$$ ...IMO not good for newbie . if you haven't sold them yet... it close 6.98!!! that hurt . I need to know at what time you bought them.. at that price (you bot) you had 4 waves (exit with good profit 10.30 - 11 - 10.30 - 10.40 there was even a 5th one ( last) one at 9.90.... why didn't you sell? greedy? (greedy tend to bring you more red then green) round those prices (even higher but lets stop there for now) so as you can see there was many $$$ ready to be taken.. IMO with a $1k I certainly advice to stay clear of scalping isn't has easy as it look (emotion come into it) then how can you day trade? it needs $25K and above to day trade.scalp as many as one like ... with $1k you want to get $200 a week I understand why you say you are new to trade read my first post on the link that TTT posted ... plus do some virtual trading to find your strategy etc.... and look at TTT threads he give a lot swing winners as well good luck BTW I wrote a long answer but for various reasons I now decided not to post it here .. if you let me know (PM) the time you bot LEDS I can tell you where you went wrong.. (I traded 3 times so I remember the trend) remember that a stock that go from few $ to $11+ (without solid news) it won't stay there very long and will come down faster... JMO
Hi Sasha, I don't mean to Candy Crush your Game of making a few extra bucks but this strategy will possibly turn you off investing for a long time or for life which is too bad. Even with a principal of $10,000 or $20,000 skilled traders and commissions will slowly eat you alive with day/short term trading if you have little experience. You probably will be better off financially if you were to pay down your loans and save some interest expense. You have probably heard this many times before but what you want to do is start slow with a few quality diversified stocks which pay a secure dividend. Be very patient and keep adding to your portfolio on market pull backs. If the quality stocks pull back in a general market down turn just go to a holding position and add to them if you have cash. On negative news of one stock is a real difficult test for even seasoned investors so read and study lots about the company before you act. Sounds like you have your s**t together with the Medical career so be patient and you should do very well financially. After you have a million or two then you can gamble with some penny stock trades only for fun like I do. DvAbCanEh!
Welcome to the forum, Sasha. If you don't have any trading experience before, you could lose $1000 pretty quickly by trying to daytrade small cap stocks. Maybe you should put portion of your money for long term investing and another portion for short term trading. There will be some growing pain when you learn about trading, so I would suggest you to try to learn the market by playing big cap names rather than small cap names at first. Anyway, good luck!
Hi Sasha, Trade small and don't over trade for my two cents. Don't risk more than 2% of your acct and know your entry and stop loss before you enter the trade. So lets say you are eyeing XYZ stock at $30 and you have a $28.80 stop you will want to buy 100 shares. $1000 (acct size) * .02 (2%) = $20. You have a .20 risk so you will buy $20 (max risk) / .20 (risk per share = 100 shares. Make one trade per day until you have been profitable consistently 4/5 days a week for a month. then up it to two. Never change your stop loss... ever! Review every trade and try to learn from it Each weekend make yourself a list of goals (areas you want to improve in your trading) You can build your acct this way. It will be slow and painful at times but if you learn from your trades and stick to a plan (trading system) you will probably eventually get there. It is all about not blowing up your acct, discipline and improving your skills imo. Hope this helps.
Let me add a few things to what Steven said: As a new trader it is important to practice patience in making a trade and I suggest waiting for a decent market pullback or two to get a better price versus the market being up. See how a said stock reacts to the market swings. Always be aware of when earnings is as there is risk involved if you buy pre-earnings. In other words: Does this stock move as the market moves.? When it drops with the market is it on low volume? When it goes up is it on higher volume? If you answered yes to these 3 questions and buy during a market pullback you will be a step or two ahead of the game. It is very important to learn TA (technical analysis) to know where to buy and sell at. TTT
As I understand it, Robinhood has ZERO commissions....good choice for a small account. Buy small quantities of quality stocks ($25 per share or more) that are very liquid...nothing speculative to start. A LONG position is a bullish position as in when you bought the stock and make a profit when you sell it higher or you have a bullish option position e.g., bought a call, or sold a put. A SHORT position is a bearish position as in when you short-sell the stock first and buy it back later at a lower price to make a profit or you hold a bearish option position e.g., bought a put, or sold a call. Note: When you short-sell stock you are actually borrowing the stock from your broker and immediately selling it on the open market.
nice to read all the posts and how we all have the same base but then we trade differently we all drive differently although we got the same driving licence ..... so it is trading IMO everyone give you a good info-advice ... now up to you.... pick the strategy that will work for you and good luck my post-answer was merely to your question and not what should-could-would do I don't trade I gamble... simple strategy I jump in what goes up... take my cents-ticks and get out even if it keep on going up ... IMO you tried to do that, with LEDS, you had $$$$ in your hand and you blow them off (turned a winner into a loser + got tuck) that is to say that any strategy isn't as easy as a newbie see it... the important part is to improve the mistakes (don't repeat them ) need a lot experiences-study-DD-psychology-plan etc...etc..etc.. IMO above in all those answer-posts you could have a strategy that could work for you but you and only you have to work on it to find out which is the most profitable according to your finance situation and psychology (the mind play an important role) good luck