Its good to be rich

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
82,854
17,365
136


So like, how many of you are smart enough to make real money from investing? And would you teach me for free?
 
Nov 8, 2012
20,828
4,777
146
Meh. I think the 2 big determining factors are....


1. How much are you willing to risk in life?

Are you willing to risk investments with higher return but more risk? Are you willing to apply for new jobs and potentially switch industries, roles, employees etc? Are you willing to go to your boss and demand a pathway to getting promoted?

The simple answer is that roughly 90%+ of the general population aren't willing to take risks as small as switching jobs... Let alone the others I mentioned.



2. How smart are you?

This will go along with #1 to a certain extent. Anyone can do stuff like putting tons of money into penny stocks, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
82,854
17,365
136
Actually, scratch that.

A boathouse is probably a shit ton of work.
I THINK the idea there is to be wealthy enough you can hire a dude to take care of shit for you.
Actually I've reconsidered, my new goal is to have a small home and enough money to hire a guy for stuff.
I think I would start with a professional lawn service. So I can save 4 hours a week and enjoy life.
 

Dr. Detroit

Diamond Member
Sep 25, 2004
8,143
608
126
buy low priced Pharmas and hope they leak that they too are working on a COVID vaccine and there stock pops 30% in a day.

Small sums with big upside, buy options
 

EliteRetard

Diamond Member
Mar 6, 2006
6,490
1,021
136
Since its REALLY that simple, show me pics of your boathouse.

Along with a sign that says "Yes, Shorty, this really is my boathouse."

My friend is day trading now, averaging $300 a day an hour or two before his full time job.

He makes it look easy, I might try it myself at some point. Though you do need $25k to start.

He doesn't have a boat house, in fact a mediocre regular house is literally a million dollars here. Ex:

Plywood counters with nasty tile, over-mount sinks, disgusting lights, fiberglass tub, dollar store plate mirrors etc.

If you want a budget home, you can get a condemned unit for $600,000-700,000. Like this burned out home for $650k:

I make about $15k a year, $1,250/month...most people around here spend that much on coffee each month.
 

dasherHampton

Platinum Member
Jan 19, 2018
2,543
488
96
70+ grand a year is decent enough for a full time day trader, let alone someone who trades a few hours a day.

Your buddy needs to go full time.
 

EliteRetard

Diamond Member
Mar 6, 2006
6,490
1,021
136
70+ grand a year is decent enough for a full time day trader, let alone someone who trades a few hours a day.

Your buddy needs to go full time.


He makes over 6 figures at his regular job, and he's actually fairly new to day trading.
Even with just the entry $25k you must have plus a low margin of $50k, that $300 would only be a 0.4% profit.

The pros literally make $10s of thousands, aiming for 10% gains at 2/3 success, and 5% loss the rest of the time.
 

dasherHampton

Platinum Member
Jan 19, 2018
2,543
488
96
I guarantee you he's not making $300 a day on a $25000 account.

He'd have to be trading with probably a $500,000+ day trading allowance unless he's Rain Man.
 

EliteRetard

Diamond Member
Mar 6, 2006
6,490
1,021
136
I guarantee you he's not making $300 a day on a $25000 account.

He'd have to be trading with probably a $500,000+ day trading allowance unless he's Rain Man.

I don't know if you've tried, but many accounts offer "margin trades".

He's using one that offers 2x what you put in, and there's one for sure that offers 6x.

As mentioned even with $25k and $50k margin, you'd need less than half a percent gain to make $300.

I do know how much he has in the account, but I'm not going to share any actual numbers.

Needless to say, the more money in the account the less impressive $300 is.

That's why it seems so weird, like who couldn't make half a percent (or less) in a day?

Unless I'm just doing the math wrong and getting an incorrect percent ( 300 ÷ 75,000 = 0.004)
 

EliteRetard

Diamond Member
Mar 6, 2006
6,490
1,021
136
I'm in.

Where do I send my money?


He started at TDAmeritrade with their Thinkorswim software.
Seems like a good starting point if you want try your hand at it.
You do need $25k minimum for day trading, and you can't trade for anybody else.
The next step may be Lightspeed software, it's a paid subscription software.

It all sounds super easy when you boil it down "buy low sell high!" and "you only need half a percent!". From what I understand so far, you find companies with the trade volume needed then look at the stock data to determine it's direction. If it has a good chance of decent growth in the time span you need, then you buy. You may need to do a few trades to get the volume you need for the day, meaning you may need to look at more than one company/stock. Using the minimum $25k example and 2x margin, you could buy 750 shares of a $100 stock, and all you would need is a 43 cent gain in order to make a $300+ profit (after fees and/or margin interest, before tax).

I have not actually done any of this day trading myself, I'm just posting about what I've observed.
I do know he customized the software settings and setup emergency high/low sell orders etc. (he still manually controls most trades).
The margin you qualify for varies depending on investment, and I think day trades are more than overnight (which I think maxes at 4).

I do want to clarify, he is not averaging $300 a day on a $25k investment. It is more, but also not in the $100k+ range.
It's one reason he is not a professional trader (yet), and also why he is using only a 2x margin right now.
I am saying that with $25k and a 2x margin with a 0.4% profit you can make $300 a day.

Seems easy watching someone else do this, but I don't know how easy/hard it actually is.
There is an option to do fake "paper" trading, a no risk way to try it...I have not done this either (yet).
Currently it would take me a very long time to save up $25k, so I'll keep watching before I risk that kind of money.
 

skull

Platinum Member
Jun 5, 2000
2,209
327
126
My friend is day trading now, averaging $300 a day an hour or two before his full time job.

He makes it look easy, I might try it myself at some point. Though you do need $25k to start.

He doesn't have a boat house, in fact a mediocre regular house is literally a million dollars here. Ex:

Plywood counters with nasty tile, over-mount sinks, disgusting lights, fiberglass tub, dollar store plate mirrors etc.

If you want a budget home, you can get a condemned unit for $600,000-700,000. Like this burned out home for $650k:

I make about $15k a year, $1,250/month...most people around here spend that much on coffee each month.

https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...lr-16_Snohomish_WA_98296_M27770-97306?view=qv

Found that with a quick search. You should look a little harder.
 

skull

Platinum Member
Jun 5, 2000
2,209
327
126
I don't know if you've tried, but many accounts offer "margin trades".

He's using one that offers 2x what you put in, and there's one for sure that offers 6x.

As mentioned even with $25k and $50k margin, you'd need less than half a percent gain to make $300.

I do know how much he has in the account, but I'm not going to share any actual numbers.

Needless to say, the more money in the account the less impressive $300 is.

That's why it seems so weird, like who couldn't make half a percent (or less) in a day?

Unless I'm just doing the math wrong and getting an incorrect percent ( 300 ÷ 75,000 = 0.004)

.4% a day might not seem like much but thats over 100% gain for the year. Not many traders beat the indexes much less see that kind of a profit.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,201
12,029
126
www.anyf.ca
Honestly it's not THAT out of reach but the trick is to buy bare property in an area that does not require permits and has low property taxes (unorganized township). You save tons of money that way and you build whatever you want how you want. It's more work but way cheaper than buying already made in an expensive area like Muskoka. Those popular areas tend to be overcrowded anyway. Been saving up and been keeping an eye out for properties. Hoping to find something with road access AND lake front but it's proving hard. Might have to settle for road access only. Some of these properties are like 100 acres. I'll just dig my own lake! But having access to an actual large lake or river would be nicer of course.

There's a 150 acre one that showed up near me for around 50k with 4000 feet of river frontage, but there's no road to it. There's a skidoo trail that passes by though so I could in theory use that most of the year in order to bring supplies in. It's summer that would be harder. So yeah, probably keep waiting. The longer I wait the more I can afford. Basically going to use my company ESP for that. I probably should be using that towards retirement, but this property kinda would be for retirement.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
126
buy low priced Pharmas and hope they leak that they too are working on a COVID vaccine and there stock pops 30% in a day.

Small sums with big upside, buy options

With my luck, they would announce that the vaccine they were secretly working on didn't work, and the stock would drop 50% overnight.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,201
12,029
126
www.anyf.ca
I can only buy in groups of 100 with my broker so pretty much what I've been doing is buying low end stocks. It's not a HUGE loss if they don't work out, but it could be huge gains if they go big. My uncle ended up making 6 figures off a local mine he invested in a long time ago which is now pretty big. Hoping the same happens with a small mine I invested in, maybe in 10-20 years from now that mine will be bigger and stocks will be in the dollar range. I bought in at like 20 cents. Bought about a grand worth if I recall. Had like 24k stocks but they combined so I have like 2k now but they're worth more. Kinda high risk to do that though and right now I'm losing, but I'll just HODL for now.

Really not sure what people who make tons of money every day do I don't know enough about stocks to do such short term profits, but I'm guessing you need lot of money upfront so you can buy the big stocks like Tesla etc. A single Tesla stock would take me like a year to save up for lol.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
126
My friend is day trading now, averaging $300 a day an hour or two before his full time job.

He makes it look easy, I might try it myself at some point. Though you do need $25k to start.

He doesn't have a boat house, in fact a mediocre regular house is literally a million dollars here. Ex:

Plywood counters with nasty tile, over-mount sinks, disgusting lights, fiberglass tub, dollar store plate mirrors etc.

If you want a budget home, you can get a condemned unit for $600,000-700,000. Like this burned out home for $650k:

I make about $15k a year, $1,250/month...most people around here spend that much on coffee each month.

Damn... those mirrors are kind of tacky, but that house still looks a hell of a lot nicer than mine does.