Retirement....hehe

mikecweb said:
Because the time and dedication it takes to be successful at that type of investing leaves many people with nothing and not even a t-shirt. Well Think or Swim used to give out a monkey but you get the idea.
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I'm of average to slightly below average intelligence and I've done pretty decent at it. Granted 2013 was a great year for almost any trading... so maybe that helped. But I averaged about net $40-60/day... nothing crazy... but had an initial investment of about $500. And played uber-nerd with the virtual stock exchange for a year or two trying to make sense of charts, short interest, analyzing news, developing an entry and exit strategy, etc.

An actually I started because I had bad luck at BlackJack (and I was the type of degenerate that would go back and forth to the ATM).... figured maybe trading would be slightly better odds.
 
moxiepilot said:
I am thinking about it. You only need a certain minimum (for example Scott Trade is $5,000 or $10,000 I think.) for day trading to cover losses.
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I think if you're talking Margins.... but if you're just trading with your cash, you can start with $500 or so (depending on your broker)
 
ryan1234 said:
I'm of average to slightly below average intelligence and I've done pretty decent at it. Granted 2013 was a great year for almost any trading... so maybe that helped. But I averaged about net $40-60/day... nothing crazy... but had an initial investment of about $500. And played uber-nerd with the virtual stock exchange for a year or two trying to make sense of charts, short interest, analyzing news, developing an entry and exit strategy, etc.

An actually I started because I had bad luck at BlackJack (and I was the type of degenerate that would go back and forth to the ATM).... figured maybe trading would be slightly better odds.
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You turned $500 into over $12,000?
 
chrisreedrules said:
14% eh? ...not too shabby. Tech and energy stocks? If you don't already have one, I'd start a Roth. I'm all for paying down debt (mortgage) but with an interest rate that low why tie up the liquidity in a market that can still take a year + to get what you want out of your house? If you were to hypothetically sell it that is. If I were you I would go talk to a fee only investment advisor about a Roth. At your age I would definitely be putting some money in that. I averaged 8% gains this year so I'd say you are doing something right.
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Chris Reed, if your rate of return last year was 8%-14%, you got raped. All the major indexes were up 20%+
 
ryan1234 said:
I'm of average to slightly below average intelligence and I've done pretty decent at it. Granted 2013 was a great year for almost any trading... so maybe that helped. But I averaged about net $40-60/day... nothing crazy... but had an initial investment of about $500. And played uber-nerd with the virtual stock exchange for a year or two trying to make sense of charts, short interest, analyzing news, developing an entry and exit strategy, etc.

An actually I started because I had bad luck at BlackJack (and I was the type of degenerate that would go back and forth to the ATM).... figured maybe trading would be slightly better odds.
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What were you trading on $500? Assuming you're risking 2% a trade, it seems like a trading fee would eat up most of your trade.
 
mojo6911 said:
What were you trading on $500? Assuming you're risking 2% a trade, it seems like a trading fee would eat up most of your trade.
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At the time USAA offered 50 free trades on any brokerage account (not sure if they do any more). So if you're starting with relatively low money, it can really help out. Most of my first trades were about $400 in low hanging NASDAQ fruit of the $1-3 crowd, wait 3 days for the SEC settle and go at it again after some research. Taking a net gain of $30 and working up from there. Having the 50 free trades really helped create the money in the account for bigger plays. A large portion was just luck and the fact that if you were long you almost couldn't go wrong, especially if you took short ratios and interest to heart.
 
ryan1234 said:
At the time USAA offered 50 free trades on any brokerage account (not sure if they do any more). So if you're starting with relatively low money, it can really help out. Most of my first trades were about $400 in low hanging NASDAQ fruit of the $1-3 crowd, wait 3 days for the SEC settle and go at it again after some research. Taking a net gain of $30 and working up from there. Having the 50 free trades really helped create the money in the account for bigger plays. A large portion was just luck and the fact that if you were long you almost couldn't go wrong, especially if you took short ratios and interest to heart.
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So you traded options with $500 on $1-$3 NASDAQ equities on a USAA account with 50 free trades???
 
ryan1234 said:
It's been the past 6 months or so... and only around $4300 total. Not trading every day, but when I do, usually it's a net of around $40-60/day... if that puts it more in perspective.
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It's not unheard of for short periods of time, but if you're showing a 760% account gain without using leverage over the last 6 months, you'll be among the top 0.00001% of traders if you can do it consistently. :)

...and I'll be first in line for your book!
 
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mikecweb said:
So you traded options with $500 on $1-$3 NASDAQ equities on a USAA account with 50 free trades???
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No, not so much the options... really that would be only 1-2 contracts at best, and as you know most people beginning are limited to covered calls, etc. Day trading to build the account up was key. I'm not really big in options myself, although I've seen them work well for many people.

I'm assuming you simply don't believe what I'm telling you, which is understandable.
 
dasleben said:
It's not unheard of for short periods of time, but if you're showing a 760% account gain without using leverage over the last 6 months, you'll be among the top 0.00001% of traders if you can do it consistently. :)

...and I'll be first in line for your book!
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I'm definitely waiting to start taking the lumps. Most of it was probably luck to be honest, not matter what chart formulas were used. In the past two weeks, I traded WPCS, ERB, ARIA, INO and a few others at the right times, got lucky.
 
ryan1234 said:
No, not so much the options... really that would be only 1-2 contracts at best, and as you know most people beginning are limited to covered calls, etc. Day trading to build the account up was key. I'm not really big in options myself, although I've seen them work well for many people.

I'm assuming you simply don't believe what I'm telling you, which is understandable.
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I'm only asking because you came in here recommending options to people and then boasted about your results lately. I put two and two together.
 
mikecweb said:
I'm only asking because you came in here recommending options to people and then boasted about your results lately. I put two and two together.
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Well, I didn't mean to come across as boasting... just that it is possible to generate extra liquidity from day/swing trading and/or playing options. I'm sure I'll take some losses at some point soon. Obviously, they all have their risks associated with them.

I have other investments going less risky, but in different areas. A few months ago I was seeing good results from ETFs.
 
How can anyone retire in 40 yrs if they need 200k a year. Do you think wages will keep up? I'm 28 and have less than a 1000 dollars in a retirement account minus what's in my savings money market since I make so little. It's scary but I have to roll with it. Trying to find a job that affords me to live in San Diego is hard enough.
 
scoobs said:
How can anyone retire in 40 yrs if they need 200k a year. Do you think wages will keep up? I'm 28 and have less than a 1000 dollars in a retirement account minus what's in my savings money market since I make so little. It's scary but I have to roll with it. Trying to find a job that affords me to live in San Diego is hard enough.
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Compound interest and time is your greatest asset.

Keep socking away what you can and don't take it out, ever.

In the next decade you'll probably have paid most of your student loans off which you can put into retirement instead. Make wise choices instead of living on revolving debt. Before you know it you'll have $100,000 in that 401k. Now if you take that with a straight 10% interest annually over 20 years (that's not compounding it semi-,quarterly or monthly....) you'd end up with over $650,000 if you didn't even touch it.

That's how you'll be able to retire...
 
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