Just curious, how many of you are in the stock market? Do you do it for a living?..on the side? Does anyone Day-Trade?

The reason I ask...

I have recently been given the opportunity to join a company that is involved in short term trading. Now, I know its a risky business and not everyone is cut out for it ...BUT, I have explored every angle of it and I think that I would be decent at it. Is anyone involved in it...or have any opinions of the profession??

Just some side notes... the company requires about a 5,000(usd) minimum to open a prop account. The company will give around 15X your minumum in buying power. It is commision based - in the beginning, I would keep about 90% of my profits. That will improve with time. They sponser all certifications (series 7, etc). They provide all training, hardware, and software. There are offices in NYC, FLA, and Cali that I will have access to at all times..I will also have the option to work from home. No dress code and no set hours. :cool:

Opinions?????


PS: Did anyone jump into the GOOGLE frenzy this morning???

I've done alot of day trading... I bought my house when I was 22, and the money all came for playing the stock market. If I had to sum up my experinces with the stock market, It would be "Stressful" :spaz: . Be prepared to have an addiction to checking your stocks every hour or so, have updates constantly sent to your sell phone, and have your homepage a near realtime ticker status. In addition I spent probably 1-3hrs every morning doing research on current and future investments.

I would also advise aginst jumping on google at the moment unless you Really want to raise the risk for the chance of a marginal reward.... wait till it starts to fall, which WILL happen. Then you'll have a feel for how the stock is, and minimize your chance for loss. Thats completly my opinion though ;)

I've done alot of day trading... I bought my house when I was 22, and the money all came for playing the stock market. If I had to sum up my experinces with the stock market, It would be "Stressful" :spaz:

I agree...the typical learning period is about 6 months. That means I have to get through 6 months with NO INCOME..that alone will be stressful!!!

Though I have no experience in it, I'm very close with one of the vice presidents of Merrill Lynch. He's told me numerous stories of how he "laid his balls on the road in front of semis - and luckily they missed". He got lucky a few times and now he's worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

I wouldn't dump all of your money into it, but if you have extra, go for it. If you get lucky, you might hit big.

Yes, I have an opinion.

RUN!, don't walk, but run ....away.

I've day traded, both full time, and currently part time for the past 6-7 years.

Understand one thing...it's a total crap shoot. There is no correlation between the statistics, profitablility, future growth potential...anything....and whether the stock is going to go up or down.

I'd be retire today if I hadn't gotten into it. Margin (buying power) got me into alot of trouble, and I almost lost my home.

It's one thing to lose seed money, it's quite a different thing to lose money that's not yours.

I consider myself at least of normal intellignece, degreed, and I could never figure it out.

You get the point. It's intriquing, tempting, but don't do it.

If you're still not convinced, play a game with yourself:

Pick some stocks and follow them on paper, sell them, buy them....and see how you do. And give it some time....like at least 6 months...if you're still successful, you're a better man than me. :D

It's one thing to lose seed money, it's quite a different thing to lose money that's not yours.



I should have explained better in my post...the "buying power" is not on margin. If I lose the money, I dont owe the money. The only money I can lose is my initial investment. Its hard to believe, in fact, I didnt believe it at first...but I made sure. I do not owe what I lose. They require the 5,000 in your account at all times. Anything above the 5,000, I can take out. Granted, they have saftey nets built into the software, but im sure I can lose quite a bit over time. The only money I could possibly lose (of mine) is the 5,000.

I should have explained better in my post...the "buying power" is not on margin. If I lose the money, I dont owe the money. The only money I can lose is my initial investment. Its hard to believe, in fact, I didnt believe it at first...but I made sure. I do not owe what I lose. They require the 5,000 in your account at all times. Anything above the 5,000, I can take out. Granted, they have saftey nets built into the software, but im sure I can lose quite a bit over time. The only money I could possibly lose (of mine) is the 5,000.


OK, but just keep in mind, you can't make a decent living working $5K.

If you made 1% per day, you'd be a day trading god...ya can't live on 50 bucks a day.

The thing is, you'll need to put more money at risk to make a decent return.

Think about it....why would they give you, a perfect stranger, their money to "play" with.

Folks told me the same thing, but I had to learn that lesson for myself.

If you do decide to go through with it, check out RMLtrading.com

Rob is a straight up guy, and actually makes trades himself. You can talk with him during the trading day (via live cam), and do what he does, if you like, or go your own way. He has a trade basket of historical going back years... he's a proven winner, but for some reason, I chose to go my own way.

Good luck, Oh, and yeah,....you've been warned :D

This is definitely requisite reading before you dive in....

http://massmurder.zyns.com/mark_barton.html

I def respect your warning...and thanks for that last site :lol:

I think the particular job I am being offered is a bit different from what you did. I am not just opening a day trade acount on the internet. What I am being offered is from a company, who will fully train me in person, in which I will go to an office everyday, and have TONs of resources and other people to discuss things with who use the strategys they teach. I sat one day in the office this week, mind you that August is prob the worst month for volume in the stock market, and the 10 or so people in my friends division made profits ranging from 100 - 3,000 in one day. Not to mention that the person who was there the longest was 2 years, and most others under a year!! Maybe im being a bit nieve, but my buddy has been there about 8 months now...he plugged his way through, not making much money for about 4 months...but has sinced turned it all around and is avg'ing about 1500 per week. They must be doing something right??!?!!? I def dont plan to put all my eggs in one basket....but its gotta be worth a shot??, NO?

It's your call.

I found that even on the good days, I was so mentally drained, I couldn't deal with any family / social situations....I just wanted to sleep.

If it's calling you, I guess you've got to go...just be careful.

It's your call.

I found that even on the good days, I was so mentally drained, I couldn't deal with any family / social situations....I just wanted to sleep.

If it's calling you, I guess you've got to go...just be careful.

I hear ya man...ill let u know how it goes. I wont be starting for about a month or so. I just picked up my study guide for the Series 7 exam.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Its about 1500 pages of CRAP!! So ill be busy for the next month or so!

The key points to making money in the market for me are:

1)

DD

Due Dilligence. You must research every company you consider. You must also research everything that has EVER been said about the company. You must know the CEO's families names... literally. You want to be "inside" these people's personnal and company lives. There is not enough that can be said about DD.

2)

Know when to get out, up or down, and DO it. Getting in is easy, getting out is the problem. Limits MUST be set, and NEVER broken. Losing over 12.5 percent of your total investment is NOT an option. Play the swings. You buy low, and you sell high. DON'T become a bagholder. A stock that goes up ALWAYS goes down. Make your money in the cracks.

3)

Diversify? Yes. A diversified portfolio can remove a diversity of stressfull issues regarding day-trading/home investing. Everyone needs to diversify... money in the market at close or not.

4)

Don't EVER listen to ANYONE else about ANYTHING. Find your own companies on your own market choice. Do your own work, and read your own indicators. Read everything you can at all times no matter intellect or experience. Don't bash and don't pump.

These concepts work at my current level of experience with market trends and picking profitable stocks. I have made bad picks, but I get out before doom.... never to lose more than 12.5 percent.

Oh yea

5)

If you build an emotional attachment to ANY company, you WILL lose money. Never become emotionally attached... never. Set the limits, and burn the bridge.

:gl:

four

Just curious, how many of you are in the stock market? Do you do it for a living?..on the side? Does anyone Day-Trade?

Well, not very actively. I've bought and sold some stocks in the past. I usually keep one position for perhaps a year or so; I'm not into very quick trading, let alone day-trading.

From the first lot that I ever bought, I got a nice down payment into our previous apartment.

Nah, don't do it for a living.

My long term dream is to be able to build such a stock portfolio that I could retire at 55 or so and live off the dividends... :D My inspiration for this was a guy (metal worker) who was featured in a local newspaper article a couple of years ago. He was 45 and he was living nicely off his dividends (dividends are tax free at least in Finland and for a comfortable middle-class living you would need about $35000 net per year, that would require about $60000 gross per year if you'd earn it as salary). He achieved this by putting aside all available cash from his salary during about 20-25 years or so. And during that time he got enough stock so that he could retire at the age of 45. I don't think that I would like to retire as in doing nothing, but at least I could choose what kind of work I would like to do and with what intensity. Perhaps I would start a small one-person software consulting / development company or somesuch thing.

Currently I'm the master earner in our family and my salary pretty much goes into mortgage and car payments + other everyday living expenses but after 3-4 years my wife should be finished with her studies and hopefully she'll start then bringing in an additional $2-2,5k a month which will be completely extra assuming my work situation stays at least the same. Then we'd be able to invest about $2k per month on stocks... That would be a good start for a retirement portfolio, I'd say.

Maybe I don't understand, and I've not read more than your first post, but this seems to me to rank up there with the worst ideas of all time.

You want to drop $5k of your own money into a venture like this, and you don't even know what returns you can get?

FACT: The average investor - professional investor (not just amateurs playing around on e-trade) can't even MATCH the stock market, let alone beat it.

Let's say that you do match the market. You get your 10% return on the 15X your buying power. That's 10% of $7500. You keep 90% of profits. Now, ignoring charges related to buying and selling, you've just made $6750 in the first year. Not much is it?.

Listen to abguy, BTW. The smartest most experienced innvestors in the world can't even get much more than market return. DEFINITELY play some fake stocks yourself (without buying them, just tracking them), and see how you come out. Back in 2000 I knew a guy who made a lot off penny stocks and he didn't know what he was really doing. The market was hot and he just followed the advice of a website or two. I was about to get into it, but wanted to play for fake to see what would happen. Well, then the market went down, and boy I'm glad I didn't dick around with it.

Maybe I don't understand, and I've not read more than your first post, but this seems to me to rank up there with the worst ideas of all time.

You want to drop $5k of your own money into a venture like this, and you don't even know what returns you can get?

Let's say that you do match the market. You get your 10% return on the 15X your buying power. That's 10% of $7500. You keep 90% of profits. Now, ignoring charges related to buying and selling, you've just made $6750 in the first year. Not much is it?.


Well, I do not know exactly what return I will make....nobody knows for sure...but i do know that the company has a great success rate. As I stated before, I went in to check out the office this week. August is the worst month of the year for what they do bc there is low volume...and people were still pulling in money (100 - 3,000).

And about the 5,000...that will always remain my money as long as I stay above that amount...example..if I go in and do well...say I make 50,000 in my first year, and I decide I dont wanna do it anymore. I can leave with my 50,000 and the original 5,000. Now, say I go in and bomb...and I lose 20,000. I am only responsible for my original 5,000. Given what I have seen when I went in the office and given the profits that my buddy has been bringing home...I would be an idiot if I didnt do it.

I should have said this in my first post... :lol:

I graduated college with a major in Finance and minor in Economics so im not just doing this on the fly. Granted, they dont teach short term trading in college, but im sure having a background in finance will help some.

Hey, I noticed that some of you guys mentioned playing around with fake portfolios before you make the dive into real live trading...check this site out:

www.virtualstockexchange.com