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can see how addiction develops


shootingstar

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I probably did the less than great thing....I placed a small stock order...priced it less than market price....by 50 cents...BAM.  I had bought shares right on the second I pressed the order button. :wacko: :facepalm: A bit shocking to experience it.

I probably regret that price guess.  Easy to see how some folks fall into addiction, day trading, etc.  

Am going to check out to go shopping and play for the day. 

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35 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

Day trading, where you are transacting several times per day is a lot of work.  I do a little but it takes a lot of reading, research and time.   Unless @jsharr sells you some fancy software! 

Dummy me, had not been reporting online trading commissions I paid ...for tax filing.  After all these years...

But then I looked back what I paid for past 12 months.... only $130.00 across my accounts.  Peanuts.  I'm highly conservative.  I plot my way, do it and then watch the market movie screen.  I'm part of the audience, not performer in a play at all.

Can't imagine the psychology of trading several times per day.  The value of cycling for several hrs. per day when I retire...is to look after my physical and mental health.  

Wilbur, one thing I haven't done and don't plan to:  invest in traditional oil and gas.  I never have outright...it appeared on index ETF.  Got 2 Canadian alternative energy firms...and they are ok for me. They are plodding upward nicely. 

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Just now, Prophet Zacharia said:

I understand @jsharr has hooked his computer into to the psychology lab at Richland College so that it gives him a bump of cocaine every time he hits the button. He’s a busy trader now, both day and night.

I do not do drugs and I do not day trade.

https://yarn.co/yarn-clip/fd8f7e74-5be4-43bc-964b-1fe42d87bb85

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8 minutes ago, donkpow said:

With the advent of free trading for all through electronic brokerage houses, there are discussions about people who might put $10,000 on the line only to lose 50% in a day. 

You still have the pattern day trading rules to contend with and account balances that have to be maintained.  Many of our traders are trading options now.  Regardless, trading of this nature is risky but can be very rewarding.  I do not have the personality type to day trade.  I do not like the risk.  

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Just now, jsharr said:

You still have the pattern day trading rules to contend with and account balances that have to be maintained.  Many of our traders are trading options now.  Regardless, trading of this nature is risky but can be very rewarding.  I do not have the personality type to day trade.  I do not like the risk.  

Margin trading is also available.

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2 hours ago, shootingstar said:

I probably did the less than great thing....I placed a small stock order...priced it less than market price....by 50 cents...BAM.  I had bought shares right on the second I pressed the order button. :wacko: :facepalm: A bit shocking to experience it.

I probably regret that price guess.  Easy to see how some folks fall into addiction, day trading, etc.  

Am going to check out to go shopping and play for the day. 

I got to the point where I decided to invest mainly by small regularly-scheduled monthly investments through DRIP plans or funds - otherwise I get caught up in that wait-for-the-right-price mentality. I rotate among the 12 stocks/funds I own and have 2-4 regular investments going at any time. Monday, $50 goes into each of General Mills and Emerson Electric.

My addiction that way is that I check my stocks often.  I have a Google Sheets spreadsheet that updates my stocks, their worth, gains, losses, etc. every several minutes of the day.  Right now, Friday's S&P 500 is down 0.68% but my stocks are up 0.43% because my 2nd largest holding, AbbVie, is up 6.37% after an excellent end-of-2019 report this morning.  I put a tiny $25/month (no fees) in the AbbVie DRIP at shareowneronline.com on the 15th of each month.  That's not going to make me rich, but it and doing the same thing with other stocks adds up nicely!

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1 minute ago, Mr. Silly said:

When I rebalanced my account back at the end of December, I was impressed with how easy it was to sell then buy $60,000'ish worth of stuff.  $120,000 transaction with just a few clicks.  

I use Monopoly money for all my trades. Safer that way.

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10 minutes ago, jsharr said:

You still have the pattern day trading rules to contend with and account balances that have to be maintained.  Many of our traders are trading options now.  Regardless, trading of this nature is risky but can be very rewarding.  I do not have the personality type to day trade.  I do not like the risk.  

I have almost all my stocks in no-purchase-fee DRIP's, but I set up a free account with TD Ameritrade a few years ago, where there are NO minimum balance requirements and no account fees, to get the free CFRA, Ford Equity, etc. reports when I'm researching stocks. I have never traded with it (I used to invest with E*Trade). TD Ameritrade recently went to no-fee trading.

I'll probably stick with DRIPs until fractional shares can be purchased through TD Ameritrade or Schwab, E*Trade, Fidelity, etc. - they don't do that now.  But, depending on the stock, I can buy fractional shares to the nearest thousandth or millionth of a share with the DRIP or DSPPs (DRIPS through which you can buy your first shares.  That way, I can make small purchases of $200 or more/share stocks.  I made a $25 of purchase (no fees) of Abbott Labs ($87.00/share) on Jan. 25th and got 0.287016 shares.  At one of the brokerages I'd have to have bought at least 1 full share and spent $87.  With my retirement income, I tend to only be able to do several simultaneous, diversified $25 to $50/month investments and only 1 of my 11 stocks is less than $50/share - 9 are $71 to $312/share.

If you're curious about DRIPs and DSPPs, I suggest checking out computershare.com and shareowneronline.com - they administer hundreds of DRIPs/DSPPs of major companies - some with setup fees, purchase fees, some without, all with about $15 sales fees. Pros and cons on specific DRIP stocks can be at dripadvice.com. If you're planning on holding shares for a long time, the setup and sales fees are negligible and for DSPP's with $1 purchase fees, making occasional $100 or larger purchases minimizes them to 1% and makes small purchases work since all your money goes into the fractional shares.

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1 hour ago, donkpow said:

With the advent of free trading for all through electronic brokerage houses, there are discussions about people who might put $10,000 on the line only to lose 50% in a day. 

That's nothing.  I used to work for a guy that would blow 2 million at the blackjack tables in a night.   My job was to keep him company, keep him from blowing more than 2 mill and get him to the next town for his meetings he next day.  It was a destructive lifestyle for both of us.  :) 

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28 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

That's nothing.  I used to work for a guy that would blow 2 million at the blackjack tables in a night.   My job was to keep him company, keep him from blowing more than 2 mill and get him to the next town for his meetings he next day.  It was a destructive lifestyle for both of us.  :) 

It would take me a while to loose $2 million at the $5 table. ;)

Discipline is key in this arena. The stock market is not a "gambling" game. One should not treat it as such. Risk is an element that you control. In a gambling game, the house controls the amount of risk you have to play with.

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1 hour ago, donkpow said:

The stock market is not a "gambling" game.

Sure it is.  Most investors never have a complete picture because they aren't insiders.  There is a lot that can kill an investment.  There can be a lot of hype around upstarts.  You can control it to a degree by purchasing solid, proven companies and management.  If you want big reward though, you expose yourself to big risk.   I don't get excited about a 10% annual return.  I get excited at a 300% annual return so I accept the risk after doing the homework I can. 

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1 hour ago, Wilbur said:

Sure it is.  Most investors never have a complete picture because they aren't insiders.  There is a lot that can kill an investment.  There can be a lot of hype around upstarts.  You can control it to a degree by purchasing solid, proven companies and management.  If you want big reward though, you expose yourself to big risk.   I don't get excited about a 10% annual return.  I get excited at a 300% annual return so I accept the risk after doing the homework I can. 

It does mean understanding a new/innovation near beginning of its life and the nature of the firm and the industry area.

I did try a high tech firm with a global customer base, but decided to sell my tiny set of its shares, after making under $100.00 because our organization uses its product...and other firms worldwide ..private firms as well as govn't.  What I don't like was firm's strategy over past 15 years buying out other tech niche product firms and its competitors.  I just couldn't see how such software acquisitions contributed in a beneficial way to its core enterprise platform to help corporate clients over the years, I've come to realize at its core, some 1-2 key weaknesses in its software architecture that will never change.  I'm not a computer programmer.  I've been a super user of such enterprise products or the person who takes software and customizes its features for corporate use that can transform business processes if done properly, after systems people lay the technical groundwork for an organization.  

So I sold. Then stock climbed up in a sleepy way. But not buying...the firm will stagnate in about 5-10 years.  

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21 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

It does mean understanding a new/innovation near beginning of its life and the nature of the firm and the industry area.

I did try a high tech firm with a global customer base, but decided to sell my tiny set of its shares, after making under $100.00 because our organization uses its product...and other firms worldwide ..private firms as well as govn't.  What I don't like was firm's strategy over past 15 years buying out other tech niche product firms and its competitors.  I just couldn't see how such software acquisitions contributed in a beneficial way to its core enterprise platform to help corporate clients over the years, I've come to realize at its core, some 1-2 key weaknesses in its software architecture that will never change.  I'm not a computer programmer.  I've been a super user of such enterprise products or the person who takes software and customizes its feature for corporate use that can transform business processes if done properly, after systems people lay the technical groundwork for an organization.  

So I sold. Then stock climbed up in a sleepy way. But not buying...the firm will stagnate in about 5-10 years.  

They say ("they" being people who know) that action based on emotion is the downfall of retail investors. There are quite a few investments I pass on just because I don't "like" them. However, I don't invest in a company just because I "like" them.:)

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1 hour ago, Wilbur said:

Sure it is.  Most investors never have a complete picture because they aren't insiders.  There is a lot that can kill an investment.  There can be a lot of hype around upstarts.  You can control it to a degree by purchasing solid, proven companies and management.  If you want big reward though, you expose yourself to big risk.   I don't get excited about a 10% annual return.  I get excited at a 300% annual return so I accept the risk after doing the homework I can. 

I have invested in firms in specific industry sectors, where I've also worked for large firms in those same industries.  1 single primary criteria for me, in selecting a firm (which 90%  I choose are Canadian):  the firm must have global operations:  both office presence in foreign countries plus corporate customers (with some individual customers) worldwide, with Canadian headquarters in Canada.  I am a bit of nationalist.. investing for the country where I want economic health, jobs and home national growth to be there …..selfishly for me and all the people who I care most (who are Canadians).  

I've never invested in any firm younger than 5-10 years old at least.  Oldest firm is over 100+ yrs., a freight Canadian railway firm with lines they bought in the U.S. about 2 decades ago.  We will always need a transcontinental freight rail company. Unless there is a new technology to ship tonnes of chemicals, lumber, port containers of stuff from ships....  tell me, differently. Not even artificial intelligence will make it much easier nor safer. So far, firm is doing fine, even when it had a recent worker strike.  Then it bounced back.

 

 

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21 hours ago, Mr. Silly said:

When I rebalanced my account back at the end of December, I was impressed with how easy it was to sell then buy $60,000'ish worth of stuff.  $120,000 transaction with just a few clicks.  

Yea, when one really thinks about...it's mind-boggling.  I've never bought that amount of stuff ...except figuring out how to put a down payment on a home.

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