How to be a day trader?...or not.

[slycat]

Say i have $20G to throw around...i have been toying with the idea of taking a less full time job and doing some day trading...any advice for a novice? If u do day trading, any pointers or tips?

or..maybe not day trading at all but more shorter term trading..opening and closing within 1day to a week or so. At this point in my life i'm not into holding for the long haul and can take some risk. Can all stocks, mutual funds and indexes be traded this way?

I currently have an ameritrade acct...where should i open another?...i have heard ameritrade is not the
best/cheapest?...maybe scottrade?

 

[notfred]

I have no idea, but if you could tell me how one goes about getting $20k to throw around, that's be really helpful.

 

[slycat]

Originally posted by: notfred
I have no idea, but if you could tell me how one goes about getting $20k to throw around, that's be really helpful.

being parsimonious, work, and save

 

[Zenmervolt]

Play the lottery. Seriously. First of all, $20,000 is nowhere near enough to make the arbitrage opportunitys worth pursuing (we're talking hundredths and thousandths of a percent here, you need billions in assets to pull it off). Active trading, after the costs of trading are factored in, does not consistantly beat a buy and hold strategy.

ZV

 

[blahbling]

Originally posted by: slycat
Say i have $20G to throw around...i have been toying with the idea of taking a less full time job and doing some day trading...any advice for a novice? If u do day trading, any pointers or tips? or..maybe not day trading at all but more shorter term trading..opening and closing within 1day to a week or so. At this point in my life i'm not into holding for the long haul and can take some risk. Can all stocks, mutual funds and indexes be traded this way? I currently have an ameritrade acct...where should i open another?...i have heard ameritrade is not the best/cheapest?...maybe scottrade?

get 19900 and put it into a deposit account and play with the 100. when that is used up on your inevitable losses, take another 100 from your pay and do this till you make money and tap the 20k, then when you make moreout of trading than your job, cut your hours.

 

[blahbling]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Play the lottery. Seriously. First of all, $20,000 is nowhere near enough to make the arbitrage opportunitys worth pursuing (we're talking hundredths and thousandths of a percent here, you need billions in assets to pull it off). Active trading, after the costs of trading are factored in, does not consistantly beat a buy and hold strategy. ZV

ZV is an inv advisor, obviously he only taks about what he understands here.

 

[Shockwave]

Text

Dont believe ZV, I dont think he's at all qualified to discuss financials....

 

[slycat]

get 19900 and put it into a deposit account and play with the 100. when that is used up on your inevitable losses, take another 100 from your pay and do this till you make money and tap the 20k, then when you make moreout of trading than your job, cut your hours.

play with $100?...what can you do with 100beans on the market?...buy 20 shares? pls explain the above scenario is greater detail coz i don't get it. thanks.

 

[The Stigenator]

i would stay against day trading.. day trading requires a lot of variables and if you dont know how to read teh stock market.. you will end up loosing your shirt.

Day trading does only provide modest gains, sometimes as low as 1/2%. Day trading is risky.. why dont you put your money in an orange CD acct for 5 years and you will make so much more..

If you want to control your trades, i suggest smart investing, diversify your portfolio, buy small #'s but diversify and monitor them.. also put price level selling points (if your doing online trading) to it. Meaning if the price reaches a certain level, to sell automatically..

Best of luck..

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: blahbling

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Play the lottery. Seriously. First of all, $20,000 is nowhere near enough to make the arbitrage opportunitys worth pursuing (we're talking hundredths and thousandths of a percent here, you need billions in assets to pull it off). Active trading, after the costs of trading are factored in, does not consistantly beat a buy and hold strategy. ZV

ZV is an inv advisor, obviously he only taks about what he understands here.

Yeah, what on earth would a person in the field of Investment Finance actually know about investing anyway. :roll:

Look, it's no skin off my back if you want to make sub-average returns. If I were a shill for investment companies I would be recommending an actively managed portfolio. I'm not. Too many costs. You're much better off investing in index funds or sector funds or something like spiders.

ZV

 

[DaveSimmons]

Become a decade trader instead, and put most of it into Vanguard VFINX.

But that's me, I'd rather just put more money into funds a couple times a year and spend the other 500 hours reading books, watching movies, and playing UT2K4 Onslaught.

Speaking of UT2K4, I wonder if anyone's on the AT server now . . . .

 

[blahbling]

Originally posted by: slycat

get 19900 and put it into a deposit account and play with the 100. when that is used up on your inevitable losses, take another 100 from your pay and do this till you make money and tap the 20k, then when you make moreout of trading than your job, cut your hours.

play with $100?...what can you do with 100beans on the market?...buy 20 shares? pls explain the above scenario is greater detail coz i don't get it. thanks.

just get an only financial spread bet account, or CFD account, tell them you will put a couple of k into the account, and do a reasonable volume, then in reality just do very small trades, until you know what you are doing, which will take time.

 

[Dissipate]

Day trading is gambling, plain and simple. Just like practiacally all other forms of gambling the odds are stacked against you, if for no other reason you will be making a lot of trades which racks up trading fees fast.

Many in the financial world claim that it is impossible to predict the stock market in the long run, let alone in the short term. I highly suggest you read this book. Don't quit your day job, just take your $20K and buy index funds and watch them grow. Index funds allow you to mitigate risk through extreme diversification and achieve long term growth.

 

[MillionaireNextDoor]

i advise virtual stock trading for a year to get the hang of it

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: blahbling

Originally posted by: slycat

get 19900 and put it into a deposit account and play with the 100. when that is used up on your inevitable losses, take another 100 from your pay and do this till you make money and tap the 20k, then when you make moreout of trading than your job, cut your hours.

play with $100?...what can you do with 100beans on the market?...buy 20 shares? pls explain the above scenario is greater detail coz i don't get it. thanks.

just get an only financial spread bet account, or CFD account, tell them you will put a couple of k into the account, and do a reasonable volume, then in reality just do very small trades, until you know what you are doing, which will take time.

a CFD??? which counterparty is going to give these to small investors?

in any case, as others have said, stay away from day trading. It is a losing proposotion.

You are better off sticking with index/mutual funds.

 

[iwearnosox]

I daytraded in the late 90's, and caught the allmightly Iomega short squeeze. Let's just say a certain Porsche came my way. DT can be rewarding but it can also be your worst nightmare, be careful.

 

[thebsd]

Originally posted by: Hector13

Originally posted by: blahbling

Originally posted by: slycat

get 19900 and put it into a deposit account and play with the 100. when that is used up on your inevitable losses, take another 100 from your pay and do this till you make money and tap the 20k, then when you make moreout of trading than your job, cut your hours.

play with $100?...what can you do with 100beans on the market?...buy 20 shares? pls explain the above scenario is greater detail coz i don't get it. thanks.

just get an only financial spread bet account, or CFD account, tell them you will put a couple of k into the account, and do a reasonable volume, then in reality just do very small trades, until you know what you are doing, which will take time.

a CFD??? which counterparty is going to give these to small investors?

in any case, as others have said, stay away from day trading. It is a losing proposotion.

You are better off sticking with index/mutual funds.

deal4free.com
cantorindex.com
i dont know about american sites, but there must be some spread bet sites.

 

[StageLeft]

Say i have $20G to throw around...i have been toying with the idea of taking a less full time job and doing some day trading...any advice for a novice? If u do day trading, any pointers or tips?

AHAHAHA. Seriously we had a thread like this a while ago.

You want to a) quit a job, b) go into trading as a part-time job though you have no experience and c) choose the riskiest sector of trading to do it in?

Save yourself some trouble now and flush that money down the toilet.

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: thebsd

Originally posted by: Hector13

Originally posted by: blahbling

Originally posted by: slycat

get 19900 and put it into a deposit account and play with the 100. when that is used up on your inevitable losses, take another 100 from your pay and do this till you make money and tap the 20k, then when you make moreout of trading than your job, cut your hours.

play with $100?...what can you do with 100beans on the market?...buy 20 shares? pls explain the above scenario is greater detail coz i don't get it. thanks.

just get an only financial spread bet account, or CFD account, tell them you will put a couple of k into the account, and do a reasonable volume, then in reality just do very small trades, until you know what you are doing, which will take time.

a CFD??? which counterparty is going to give these to small investors?

in any case, as others have said, stay away from day trading. It is a losing proposotion.

You are better off sticking with index/mutual funds.

deal4free.com
cantorindex.com
i dont know about american sites, but there must be some spread bet sites.

that is pretty sweet; thanks for this links! I didn't think most retail investors could get access to swaps like this -- though the financing did seem pretty high (deal4free was libor +3%). In any case, CFDs are great ways to go "short" or to avoid the stamp tax in the UK (as are ADRs if you are buying/selling "big" names).

 

[CTrain]

Day trading, I heard, has the highest suicide rate.

 

[richardycc]

I have one word for you:

discipline


tape that to your monitor!