OT: Stock trading

[Jay-Bone]

There is 8 trillion in white powder. Many have either missed this move or inaccurately bet on a retesting of the lows. With algos being over 80% of daily volume, this could simply be an exaggerated mean reversion. Computer programs are focused on how many standard deviations a stock is from its mean. These programs will always rush in to to names 7 standard deviations away than one. Be careful and take profits. This market can still run but I am not sure how sustainable any of this is. Good luck.

It seems to me no one has hit the "check out profits" button on their algos yet. I guess nothing to spend money on yet. If you can't literally go away, then no need to take out profits in May.

 

[60'sfan]

We started discussing this in another thread so I decided to start a new thread. Would love to know what sectors and stocks people are in, with successes and if you want to share, bad trades or holds. My brief story below:

Traded a lot from 99-01 but volatility of Dot Com Market collapse forced me out with a decent profit. Fast forward19 years, I dove back in at the bottom in March. Had some success trading Comcast the first week, got caught in a bad trade with Citrix. Had an initial wishlist of NFLX, DOCU, Roku and Comcast. Didn’t pull the trigger quickly enough and watched most run away. Roku and Gartner I’ve been in and out of but just can’t seem to win on them. Two big winners have been DocuSign and Five Nine Inc (FIVN). I’m out now except for a small position in DocuSign, as I expect tech stocks to sell off soon and want to be ready to buy on dip.

Stocks Im looking at adding:
MSFT
AMZN
FB
ROKU
TWLO
FIVN
BX (Blackstone)
Tesla
OKTA
PENN
Walmart
CCL (Carnival)
IT (Gartner)

I am a buy and hold guy. I never buy stocks. They are too risky. All of my investments are in mutual funds. The first thing I look at are fees. They are the only thing that you can control. I look for funds that match my needs. i.e. Long term growth. I prefer passive funds to active funds because 85% of the time passive funds out-perform active funds. Vanguard is my favorite fund with Fidelity second. This philosophy had rewarded me over the years. I am retired now and live off of RMD's. My net worth continues to grow.

 

[uconndogs]

I am a buy and hold guy. I never buy stocks. They are too risky. All of my investments are in mutual funds. The first thing I look at are fees. They are the only thing that you can control. I look for funds that match my needs. i.e. Long term growth. I prefer passive funds to active funds because 85% of the time passive funds out-perform active funds. Vanguard is my favorite fund with Fidelity second. This philosophy had rewarded me over the years. I am retired now and live off of RMD's. My net worth continues to grow.

wisdom.....

 

[Jaker]

It rained paper gains today unless you hit the sell button. Big difference.

Captain Obvious, is that you??

 

[uconndogs]

Captain Obvious, is that you??

There is a lot that is subtle in what appears to be the obvious when it comes to investing.

 

[Jaker]

There is a lot that is subtle in what appears to be the obvious when it comes to investing.

I am a trader, not an investor.

 

[the Q]

I am a trader, not an investor.

I too like to set money on fire...




















(Jk, I’m sure you do fine, but I know most don’t)

 

[Chin Diesel]

I am a buy and hold guy. I never buy stocks. They are too risky. All of my investments are in mutual funds. The first thing I look at are fees. They are the only thing that you can control. I look for funds that match my needs. i.e. Long term growth. I prefer passive funds to active funds because 85% of the time passive funds out-perform active funds. Vanguard is my favorite fund with Fidelity second. This philosophy had rewarded me over the years. I am retired now and live off of RMD's. My net worth continues to grow.

I am a trader, not an investor.

And, it's possible to be both an investor and a trader. Keep most of your money in safer investments and have a little bit of play money to trade and try to score.

Nothing wrong with doing both.

 

[uconndogs]

I am a trader, not an investor.

lol, touché

 

[Jaker]

And, it's possible to be both an investor and a trader. Keep most of your money in safer investments and have a little bit of play money to trade and try to score.

Nothing wrong with doing both.

exactly

 

[HuskyHawk]

And, it's possible to be both an investor and a trader. Keep most of your money in safer investments and have a little bit of play money to trade and try to score.

Nothing wrong with doing both.

This is why I don’t buy funds in my Roth. I want the high reward stuff to be tax free. Except for bond funds I prefer ETFs to traditional mutual funds. I don’t really want equities in a fund I can’t sell until the market closes that day.

Overall my best investments have been individual stocks. I even had the right idea but was impatient when I bought Netflix early on and Marvel comics before Iron Man came out. I try to be more patient now.

 

[Jaker]

yea - i'm new to this. i was wondering when to cash in the profits. i saw an article saying that once you hit 20-30% you should take the profits. i hate doing that when everything keeps going up but will bite the bullet and do it

Set tight stops "GTC" and let the stock ride. But there is no correct answer, depends on your strategy and goals.

 

[BrysonDeMan]

Set tight stops "GTC" and let the stock ride. But there is no correct answer, depends on your strategy and goals.

thanks - it's mostly play money. started with 5.5k and now up to about 7.5k. my wife allowed me to play telling me she never expected to see the money again so really no risk involved. it is nice to see some profit no matter what the amount is. i'll definitely research your advice more.

 

[Jaker]

thanks - it's mostly play money. started with 5.5k and now up to about 7.5k. my wife allowed me to play telling me she never expected to see the money again so really no risk involved. it is nice to see some profit no matter what the amount is. i'll definitely research your advice more.

If the stock continues to climb, remember to adjust your stops accordingly or use a "trailing" stop.

 

[BrysonDeMan]

If the stock continues to climb, remember to adjust your stops accordingly or use a "trailing" stop.

i've got:
Carnival up 31%
DraftKings up 73%
Marriott up 19%
Norwegian up 73%
Penn up 113%
Spirit up 175%
United up 70%

i want to keep as many shares as possible as most of these are still far away from their Highs and I believe have a great future. Americans love their sports betting, cruises and air travel. I'm calling Fidelity this week and hope to get some novice-friendly advice.

my crap that i am still holding on to:
Walmart down 10%
TTWO down 11%
Mark down 20%

 

[Jaker]

i've got:
Carnival up 31%
DraftKings up 73%
Marriott up 19%
Norwegian up 73%
Penn up 113%
Spirit up 175%
United up 70%

i want to keep as many shares as possible as most of these are still far away from their Highs and I believe have a great future. Americans love their sports betting, cruises and air travel. I'm calling Fidelity this week and hope to get some novice-friendly advice.

my crap that i am still holding on to:
Walmart down 10%
TTWO down 11%
Mark down 20%

If it was ME, I would dump MARK and take profit on SAVE which Is approaching it's 52 week high. Do your research on the oil sector, I have been buying and selling MRO for nice money and will take a longer position on it next week. But do your research and look at the charts.

 

[Jaker]

Take a look at the 5day - 5min chart of MARK and make your own decision.

 

[Jaker]

 

[BrysonDeMan]

If it was ME, I would dump MARK and take profit on SAVE which Is approaching it's 52 week high. Do your research on the oil sector, I have been buying and selling MRO for nice money and will take a longer position on it next week. But do your research and look at the charts.

i had one good run with MARK but otherwise it has been crap. another question, what is the difference between a trailing stop loss vs a trailing stop limit? and it can be set at $ or % ....
an example:
i bought $50 shares of Carnival at $16.50 - it is now at $21.50
i want to keep long term but protect myself.
so if i set a trailing stop, would i set up based on a % fall or $ fall.
and if it hit these stops, i wouldn't want to get rid of all my shares - i'm pretty sure i can set how many i do want sold ..... but, again how many do i ditch?
i apologize if these are dumb questions, i just want to do the right thing.

i've done all this just using common sense. what can't people do now but will do in excess once this virus tames. i did start thinking about gun stocks but talked myself out of it

 

[BrysonDeMan]

i had one good run with MARK but otherwise it has been crap. another question, what is the difference between a trailing stop loss vs a trailing stop limit? and it can be set at $ or % ....
an example:
i bought $50 shares of Carnival at $16.50 - it is now at $21.50
i want to keep long term but protect myself.
so if i set a trailing stop, would i set up based on a % fall or $ fall.
and if it hit these stops, i wouldn't want to get rid of all my shares - i'm pretty sure i can set how many i do want sold ..... but, again how many do i ditch?
i apologize if these are dumb questions, i just want to do the right thing.

i've done all this just using common sense. what can't people do now but will do in excess once this virus tames. i did start thinking about gun stocks but talked myself out of it

i'll keep asking .... how long did it take you to get a solid grasp on your market knowledge? i am currently a stay at home dad so i have some time on my hands. any resources you recommend that i could use to get better? like realizing oil was a good sector to look at ... is that common knowledge that a boob like me should know ... or is that you researching your ass off? i think i want to be an involved trader (maybe i can get some more cash from my wife - sole bread winner _ for father's day) but not sure if i want to be the guy checking every uptick/downtick and making a million trades a day
thanks

 

[Jaker]

i had one good run with MARK but otherwise it has been crap. another question, what is the difference between a trailing stop loss vs a trailing stop limit? and it can be set at $ or % ....
an example:
i bought $50 shares of Carnival at $16.50 - it is now at $21.50
i want to keep long term but protect myself.
so if i set a trailing stop, would i set up based on a % fall or $ fall.
and if it hit these stops, i wouldn't want to get rid of all my shares - i'm pretty sure i can set how many i do want sold ..... but, again how many do i ditch?
i apologize if these are dumb questions, i just want to do the right thing.

i've done all this just using common sense. what can't people do now but will do in excess once this virus tames. i did start thinking about gun stocks but talked myself out of it

Understanding volume and volatility of the stock is important when setting stops. If you set the trailing stop too close to the current price you can get stopped out on a dip and miss a big run. Best thing to do is look at the charts and see what the pattern has been in terms of pull back.

Example: Say Stock "X" has been climbing steadily but with 25 cent pull backs before climbing higher. I would set a trailing stop roughly 30 cents below current price or and equivalent %.

Again, understanding Volume is huge.

 

[Jaker]

i'll keep asking .... how long did it take you to get a solid grasp on your market knowledge? i am currently a stay at home dad so i have some time on my hands. any resources you recommend that i could use to get better? like realizing oil was a good sector to look at ... is that common knowledge that a boob like me should know ... or is that you researching your ass off? i think i want to be an involved trader (maybe i can get some more cash from my wife - sole bread winner _ for father's day) but not sure if i want to be the guy checking every uptick/downtick and making a million trades a day
thanks

I have been in the market since about 2004, but when day trading platforms became commonly available with easy access to charting that's when I really started to understand "trading" .
I continue to do research and learn.

 

[Jaker]

My hedge is the VIX 75 and cryptoblockchain

 

[McLovin]

I’m at 40% cash right now

 

[the Q]

I’m at 40% cash right now

I’d be a lot higher cash % if not for The arbitrary contribution limits.