Stock trading stories

[Arkitech]

Does anyone in this forum trade stock? If so I'm interested in hearing how some of your trades turned out. In a few weeks I'll be trying to do a little trading so I'm curious to find out what other people's experiences were like.

 

[RossGr]

I have never had the money to play those games, but I do remember in '83-'84 when Apple was like $14. telling my then inlaws who had the $$$ that it would be a good investment, of course they ignored me!

 

[Arkitech]

I've been really interested in penny stocks. My thinking is that if I can buy into a particular stock that I'm familiar with then maybe I can grab onto something that will get big.

Probably easier said than done tho

 

[Zach]

Oooh! I got one! I lost a $2000 account on a bad margin call! Don't do margin... I learned the hard way for you.

 

[Zach]

<< I've been really interested in penny stocks. My thinking is that if I can buy into a particular stock that I'm familiar with then maybe I can grab onto something that will get big.

Probably easier said than done tho >>



Mutch. Penny stocks usually suck, because they are worth so little. They aint pennies for nothing. Will a sucky company magically grow? Go with something you know. My fiance knows about bilogy and is a mico major, so found DGX. Made a fortune (relatively). I used to be worth like 6x what she is, but between my bad trading, the slumping market, and here one good stock, she's on par with me now. Look it up, she bought at like $20. It has split too. Damn, she does one stock, doesn't diversify, and got lucky (I like to think, but she does know her stuff about those companies).

My best trade was buying Redhat during it's IPO. I got it at $45 or $50, sold at $80+. It peaked above $100 or $120 in the next month, only to fall quickly down. I also did well with Adaptec, good company. My pains were listening to a stock tip, I bought TRAC. Ick.. never listed to stock tips, and stick with what you know.

I have mutual funds now, they where doing much much better then my stocks before the economy slowed. I'm down like 40% now, I had med. risk tech stocks. A high risk account is down 50%-60%.. my low-risk mid-cap and internation account is actually flat with it's value a year ago. B) I didn't pick those though, account for college money, Fidelity, picked by Dad. Whatever you do, if you don't already have some mutual funds, get some to buffer your stocks in case something goes terribly terribly wrong.

 

[Ausm]

So far so good with E-trade..great research tools and quick E-mail responses to questions.

Ausm

 

[Shmorq]

Penny stocks? Here's a funny story... at least to me.

I purchased this stock at around 50 cents share and it went all the way up to $3 in about 2 months. However, now it's down to 0.3 cents!!! The thing is, the total worth of all the shares is now around $7. Since my commisions are $12 a trade, I need to deposit more cash to sell it! Even a bigger problem is that this is in my Roth IRA account and I've maxed out the contributions for the year so there is no way for me to get rid of this stuff...

 

[Arkitech]

Has anyone ever purchased software sotck? If so how did it turn out for you?

 

[Arkitech]

Where can I get a listing of penny stocks?

 

[Linflas]

This is the way not to do it. I bought Novell at $7.00 a share. Right before the big sell off in March 2000 it was up to $43.00 per share. I had a sell order in for $45.00 per share. When it dropped to $40.00 I figured what the heck I will just wait it out. Today as I post $4.42 per share. :|:|:|:| Oh well I am in for the long term I guess lol.

 

[Zach]

<< Where can I get a listing of penny stocks? >>



If you want to play with fire, ETrade has a lot of search options... try it out.

 

[MrMarley22]

I think you were asking about pennies a couple weeks ago. I guess you just have to make your own mistakes sometimes, but please do yourself a favor, and just play w/ a few hundred dollars to start with. Here's a site that used to have a complete listing of all the otc stocks (pennies mostly):


edit to fix link: otcbb

-Marley

 

[Arkitech]

Thanks for the links. I plan on trying to do some paper trades just to get a feel for the market.

Personally I plan on sticking with things I know computer hardware, software, video game developers, etc.. I figure since I'm always reading about the latest and greatest in those areas I stand a better chance of knowing what might be good stock to trade or invest.



Do any of you guys day trade or know someone who does?

 

[jjm]

Penny stocks are a losing game. In fact, without adequate resources to buy enough different issues to properly diversify, buying single stocks can be pretty risky too. Buy low-cost, no commission mutual funds. It's not sexy, but every study on this subject shows that going with funds is a lot smarter. Good luck.

 

[Zach]

Day trading, almost as bad as penny stocks. Only works in wacky ass on the run bull markets I think. I made a few trades once to see what it was like (day trades), and it was unfufilling. Better off, less risky to play it low and slow.

 

[MrMarley22]

<< Thanks for the links. I plan on trying to do some paper trades just to get a feel for the market. >>



Paper trading is a good idea, but just make sure you take into account buying at the ask, and selling at the bid. Sometimes pennies have such a huge spread on them, and you don't notice that until you actually start to trade w/ a real account.

Also, don't forget to include trade fees, and remember that you're going to buy a stock, and you might end up watching it the entire day just to see how it's moving (I know I was always anxious to see what was happening)...it's hard to reproduce those emotions you get when your actual money is on the line, and pennies have a tendency to move 20-40% either direction in one day, so it can be a rough rollercoaster ride.

It's good to go with stocks you actually know about, but all pennies are such a gamble...good luck!

 

[NakaNaka]

I invest in the market what do you want to hear?

The fact that I bought AOL stock 3 years ago and sold most of it at its peak?
or
The fact that I sold AMD one day before it started a 2 week climb of 20 points??

 

[Arkitech]

Does anyone research the stocks they're interested or watch the news feeds? I've been doing some reading up on trading and it stresses the need to keep up to date on stock information. I guess depending on how early you recieve that information it might make a difference in knowing when to buy and sell.


I'm thinking of taking 200 bucks and seeing what I can do with it. I figure if go with penny stocks I'm familiar with and had a chance to research maybe I'll be fortunate. If I do lose out at least it won't be a lot of dough.

 

[MrMarley22]

Here's a good one to watch for example...take a look at what happens to it in the next few days:

Realtime Quote

AMCG:AMER GROUP INC
Last Trade 0.68
Change +0.58 (+580.00%)
Bid 0.45
Ask 0.70
Volume 63,400
Open 0.21
Day High 0.68
Day Low 0.21
Prev Close 0.1 (14 JUN 2001)
Last Quote Time 1:19 PM EDT


-Marley
Last Quote Date 15 JUN 2001

 

[Linflas]

If you have not seen it you may want to watch Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser. It is on PBS every Friday evening and you can learn a lot about stocks and investing from it.

 

[jjm]

I'm not sure if anyone would let you open a trading account with less than $1,000.

 

[MrMarley22]

<< Does anyone research the stocks they're interested or watch the news feeds? I've been doing some reading up on trading and it stresses the need to keep up to date on stock information. I guess depending on how early you recieve that information it might make a difference in knowing when to buy and sell. >>



If you want to get the news first...here's a link for a page that refreshes every 90 seconds with OTCBB news:

News


If you'd like to try momentum plays, i.e., buying early on news, and selling sometime later in the day for a decent profit, this used to be a good chat room awhile back...lots of knowledgable ppl there and all of them are looking at each new Press Release that comes out, so you can ask them questions too:

IP Chat


Here's the complete list of stocks you asked about:

Allstocks.com

 

[WolverineGator]

I'm interested in hearing how some of your trades turned out

Been trading for last 7.5 months. Only up 50% in that time period. I'm mostly out of the market now as I've met my goal (my goal: up 50% per year for next 7 years, then buy dream home!). I'm looking for value.

As for software stock, bought MSFT at 51ish. It's now at 67.4 and falling. Ah well, such is life!

 

[NakaNaka]

oh ya I picked up EBAY 14 weeks ago at 30. Now its at 60

 

[The Stigenator]

Penny stocks are known for fraud.. keep off them, the reason is they dont have to submit audited financials which means they can make up stories. Most penny stocks are pump and dump, that means hype it for a few weeks the stock goes up the inside people sell and the people who didnt sell lose out on it.

I have been dealing with this one Pump and dump scamster over 2 years now.. he is finally going to jail. He managed to push it upto 20/peice and then he sold close to 500K of shares from an off shore account.

Just stay with main stream stocks.. you will fare better, you should have bought in when the market was down, its slowly coming back up, but still not too late to get in.

Plan wisely and you will get your rewards.

Follow these rules and you will have your head.

Dont buy on margin calls
Dont do day trading (you will lose a lot, day traders normally buy and sell for even a half point increase or loss)
Dont buy penny stocks
Do research - all the way if necessary.