Who Day Trades?

[Mike K]

When the whole Chinese meltdown thing happened I through $10,000 at Netflix. It didn't make sense that the company fell that far ($130 - $96) on no news at all. They tell you to buy what you know/ use and buy when their's blood in the streets. Keeping that in mind, I was pretty certain it was going to be a solid buy.

I bought in at $102.65 with the intention of selling at $115. Obviously there's not a lot of certainty that it will get back there but it was substantially higher than that and dropped for no reason and I knew at a $102.65 buy-in I wasn't going to lose money.

The stock has since rebounded somewhat and I sold at $112.00 I believe and locked it in a tidy $800ish profit for a few weeks of having the money tied up. But more importantly I noticed that throughout the day the stock was going up and down somewhat predictably.

So I thought to myself, why not throw 20k at it for a moment and sell it on a fluctuation? And so I did. And then I did it again. And then I did it again. All told, I added about $300 to my "winnings" by doing nothing more than paying attention.

Does anyone else do this? More importantly, does anyone else do this successfully? I have a 100% success rate so far though notably on a very limited number of transactions.

Click to read more...

 

[SHARKBITEATTACK]

I have all my money invested in stocks and right now I'm losing. In the beginning though, I just dabbled around with a couple hundred bucks and made 10% in 1 month. My strategy was just to buy on the markets "bad days" when everything was down 1% or so and then sell when it regained. I'd also (and still do to some extent) buy when the price drops because of bad news. Most recently I bought VW after their emissions scandal.

Haven't really been able to predict any cyclical patterns just yet though, but I was chatting with a portfolio manager recently who was telling me alot of stocks do this "cup and handle" thing?

 

[EmersonHart13]

Bravo Mike. Sounds like you are in the wrong business. Obviously that luck can't last forever but that was a sound plan and you executed it well.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

I need to get some money back on the market to play around with again. I know very very very little. I had $1000 I moved around a lot just to try and learn. Over 3 years or so I turned that $1000 into about $3000. had a couple of really good trades. doubled my money when Facebook took a dive and made almost 200% on a pink sheet pot stock too. various other gains and losses. Trading with such a small amount of money though, trade fees and taxes eat up those percentages really quickly.

to answer the OP, no I don't day trade

 

[jason05gt]

Day trading is too volatile and risky for me. You can't predict the market, so I play long term. The only way it works in my opinion is if you have a ton of money or are an activist investor.

Mike, also remember you're going to pay short term capital gains, so that will eat away at your profits a little bit.

 

[nos4blood70]

So is this at all like binary options?

Forgive me, but I know next to nothing about day trading, although everyone seems to be talking about it.

 

[radioguy6]

I seem to have better luck going to the casino than playing in the stock market.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

So is this at all like binary options?

Forgive me, but I know next to nothing about day trading, although everyone seems to be talking about it.

day trading is buying and selling stocks or other securities on a short term basis. not necessarily daily, but you aren't hanging onto things for a long time. you're chasing selling on small percentage gains repeatedly and buying on small percentage drops repeatedly. versus buying a security and holding onto it longer term to average out the gains and losses with the growth

 

[Turk]

Day trading is too volatile and risky for me. You can't predict the market, so I play long term. The only way it works in my opinion is if you have a ton of money or are an activist investor.

Mike, also remember you're going to pay short term capital gains, so that will eat away at your profits a little bit.

Bingo. I invest for the long term future, day trading is too risky for me.

 

[willizm]

I want to get into some day trading here and there. I have a bit of cash that I can play with but at the same time I'd rather not lose my money either. No risk, no reward kind of thing. I'd rather save up and buy rental properties honestly. Trying to pay off my house and buy another. use the cash from the rental to pay the new mortgage. Put extra toward principal of the loan. Rince and repeat.

 

[Mook]

Stop posting for a second.

 

[willizm]

ok

 

[Mook]

http://www.thechicagogarage.com/forum/off-topic/150333-real-estate-investing-slumlords.html

 

[Kaeghl]

I had heard the Elon Musk was building his Gigga factory for making batteries, saw that current lithium production was a fraction of what he needed so I found some lithium prospecting companies and invested, one was basically a penny stock, shot up over a few dollars when they found a new lithium mine. Sold and paid off a lot of debt.

 

[Diavolo]

My day trading mostly revolves around options (mostly VIX and SPY) and I trade on volatility. I usually do a straddle of some sort (especially around earnings) since I don't care which way the stock moves. I've been up double digit percentage the last 3 years I've been doing this.

 

[Kaeghl]

My day trading mostly revolves around options (mostly VIX and SPY) and I trade on volatility. I usually do a straddle of some sort (especially around earnings) since I don't care which way the stock moves. I've been up double digit percentage the last 3 years I've been doing this.

I would love to learn all about this.

 

[Diavolo]

I would love to learn all about this.

Option Straddle (Long Straddle) Explained | Online Option Trading Guide

I only do this with my play money (It's real money, just don't mind if I lose some of it. Started with 2000, around 4 now). I don't have the balls to do this with more money. I always feel like I'm just getting lucky.

 

[Mike K]

Mike, also remember you're going to pay short term capital gains, so that will eat away at your profits a little bit.

You need to hold on to the stock for over a year to avoid short term capital gains taxes though don't you? I mean I wouldn't do that either way and I'm only taxed on my gains anyhow and I'm taxed at my tax bracket. I'm fine with that. The only way you're going to pay taxes is if you're making money. :-D

I want to get into some day trading here and there. I have a bit of cash that I can play with but at the same time I'd rather not lose my money either.

Day trading is too volatile and risky for me. You can't predict the market, so I play long term. The only way it works in my opinion is if you have a ton of money or are an activist investor.

I don't have a ton of money but I can see how for someone with a couple thousand dollars the juice might not seem worth the squeeze. Too much risk for too little reward. I've been religiously watching Netflix though and was reasonably confident in it's movement and so far I've been right. I'm up another $150 today.

Now today's decision is do I sit and hold or do I leave the money in there in hopes of a good 3rd quarter announcement after the market closes today. I'm in the air on that one but I think I'm going to hold.

 

[TCG Member 5219]

A guy I work with wrote software and put it on an appliance that will buy and sell at certain limits Bitcoin. Hes been making some good money with it. So far its a prototype and hes only using it. But hes making a second one and Im going to test it for him and keep the profits. Its all automated to watch the day markets and make the purchases and sales in milliseconds so he says. He just bought $10k in bitcoin a few days ago and is going to put them into play in this system. Pretty smart.

 

[b00sted]

My one buddy trades a commodity downtown for a market maker. He was on the floor for a while and recently moved upstairs on to a computer. He does well, but he has a fuck ton of money to work with and tons of algorithmic r&d to work with.

I know another guy that owns a seat and does it on his own, and he does very well too. He uses a few algorithms as well.

All the old timers who were on the floor their entire careers are now hating life for the most part. That type of trading is dead...It's all about crazy algorithms and chasing small moves in the market. Back in the day, any mouth-breather could walk out on to the floor, trade the open, and make $10-15k profit...every day like clock work.

 

[Bruce Jibboo]

the wall street casino

 

[b00sted]

I'd love to get in to it but, for me, there's far easier ways to make money with much less risk. When you're trading anything that has leverage(e-mini for example), it's easy to make good money, but it's just as easy to bust your account.

It would be sweet to sit at home(or travel), trade for a few hours, and earn a decent living.

 

[Diavolo]

NFLX down 12% AH. The Straddle works again!

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

I've got a buddy who trades for a fund downtown as well. the tools he has to work with are crazy. he's moving around hundreds of millions of dollars at once too

 

[cacicgtp7]

A guy I work with wrote software and put it on an appliance that will buy and sell at certain limits Bitcoin. Hes been making some good money with it. So far its a prototype and hes only using it. But hes making a second one and Im going to test it for him and keep the profits. Its all automated to watch the day markets and make the purchases and sales in milliseconds so he says. He just bought $10k in bitcoin a few days ago and is going to put them into play in this system. Pretty smart.

I had a buddy who invested in bitcoin when it was the talk of the next coming of christ. Basically got in for like 10 grand when it was at 800.... now it's at 250 looool.

He got suckered in by another guy who probably invested somewhere around 30 grand into it. What a learning lesson. Bitcoin could still take off I'm sure but currently looks bleak.