InvesTools anyone?
- Thread starter peekaboo2yoo
- Start date
You know what I also found out?
IBD is also garbage. It does not work.
I was a real fan of IBD until I saw the proof. Fortunately, I didn't invest any real money, it was in Investopedia, which is a great stock simulator site. Anyways, I was very curious to see how IBD's picks would fare. I made one portfolio which consisted of what I felt were the best of 100 of IBD's top picks (they have a weekly list of their 100 top picks). The results? Absolutely horrendous.
This IBD portfolio was one of the worst performing (I have about 20 portfolios) out of all my portfolios.
There is a mutual fund based on the CANSLIM ideas, and guess what? Its returns are pathetic. That alone should be all the proof you need about IBD's value to the average investor.
These returns are not only abysmal, they're comical. How does this fund stay in business? 1 year return of -1.59% while the S&P was 22.79%? LOL. This is hilarious. I don't know how anyone could put one dime into this fund. If professional can't make IBD and CANSLIM work, how is the average investor? I will say this however, I commend IBD for allowing these figures to be made public. It shows its true value.
http://www.dhcm.com/Performance/36
IBD is also garbage. It does not work.
I was a real fan of IBD until I saw the proof. Fortunately, I didn't invest any real money, it was in Investopedia, which is a great stock simulator site. Anyways, I was very curious to see how IBD's picks would fare. I made one portfolio which consisted of what I felt were the best of 100 of IBD's top picks (they have a weekly list of their 100 top picks). The results? Absolutely horrendous.
This IBD portfolio was one of the worst performing (I have about 20 portfolios) out of all my portfolios.
There is a mutual fund based on the CANSLIM ideas, and guess what? Its returns are pathetic. That alone should be all the proof you need about IBD's value to the average investor.
These returns are not only abysmal, they're comical. How does this fund stay in business? 1 year return of -1.59% while the S&P was 22.79%? LOL. This is hilarious. I don't know how anyone could put one dime into this fund. If professional can't make IBD and CANSLIM work, how is the average investor? I will say this however, I commend IBD for allowing these figures to be made public. It shows its true value.
http://www.dhcm.com/Performance/36
After 7 years in the stock market, I realized that I'm an INVESTOR, NOT A TRADER. I hope people can realize which one they are before they lose tons of money.
I've also learned to BE CONSERVATIVE. The investing game is about longevity. Not hitting runs. Trying to hit home runs will wipe you out.
I also realized that mutual funds with the best managers are a great way to invest a good portion of one's money. The fact is, most of the time, I'm simply not gonna outperform a top manager. I will outperform most managers by simply using ETFs, but not the best managers. Mutual funds complement my investing plan.
Also, I used to place a huge emphasis on TA over fundamentals. Now, I emphasize neither. They both can fool you. How many times have you seen false breakouts, support or resistance? Too many times.
I've also learned to BE CONSERVATIVE. The investing game is about longevity. Not hitting runs. Trying to hit home runs will wipe you out.
I also realized that mutual funds with the best managers are a great way to invest a good portion of one's money. The fact is, most of the time, I'm simply not gonna outperform a top manager. I will outperform most managers by simply using ETFs, but not the best managers. Mutual funds complement my investing plan.
Also, I used to place a huge emphasis on TA over fundamentals. Now, I emphasize neither. They both can fool you. How many times have you seen false breakouts, support or resistance? Too many times.
Quote from jlewisnc:
They do give you a real nice pen and free lunch if you sign up for the 2 day deal!!
As for the friend, you can bring someone along for no additional charge so your friend could also attend for the same price and they would also get the pen / free lunch deal.
A real two-fer
I finished the second day of their two-day basic stocks course today (June 29) and I must say that the pen was a bit disappointing ;-) It was a plastic Hyatt hotel pen, albeit a silver-colored plastic.
I did not buy any of their additional workshops (I'm waiting to see whether their Basic Stocks stuff works for me before I buy more classes) so the free lunch only cost me $1K.
I'm only trading in my self-directed IRA, so my portfolio is very small. I started trading on June 27 and bought EXP and MSM, and then MEA. I don't know anything about options, so I'm trading stocks only.
After counting the 6 etrade ($12.99) commissions that I'll be charged for buying and selling these 3 stocks, to date I've earned back about 20% of my $1K investment (on paper anyway). So I need to do 5 times that much just to break even on the tuition. After that, I'll start thinking that I'm ahead.
Now that you've spent $1K on a nice pen
do you have any money left to buy stocks this week? Which ones are you buying?Actually, the good thing about spending the $2k for the class was that the class got me interested in trading and I have been active for about 4 months and after some initial losses am now returning about 4% per month on my investments.
I did make some mistakes starting out but did a great deal of reading from all the various newsletters (mostly free ones) and books I have purchased such as Fire Your Stock Broker by Harry Domash, Real Money by James Cramer, etc.
Before I really had a clue what I was doing, I lost out on the really big gains (i.e. Decker) because I bought call options that were called out while the stock kept going. But still made good money on my investment just could have made much more.
My early-on biggest problem was knowing when to buy-in and subsequently get-out.
Buy and hold I found is not for me and I just closed out some big gains in Apple. Took the earnings and re-bought a few more shares on a dip.
Even with my 'catastrophic just in case' current stop losses I am now playing with the markets money.
I think Investools is OK but just using their 3 green system can keep you from some of the more speculative trades that can bring the big returns.
Personally, I like to trade in just a few promising penny stocks such as RXHN (Rexahn) that don't cost a lot but have potential.
But be careful and one thing to look out for is the 'Pump and Dump" scheme that is very prevalent. Someone sends you an e-mail or flyer that outlines a company that is bound to take-off and return ~1000% on your investment. The old saying "if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is" is good to remember in these cases.
As for trades you should look at Investools sister company Thinkorswim as they are only $5 per trade and if you trade more that 35 trades a month (I think that is the number) they send you a $35 rebate check.
They also have free charting software and real time information. My son uses Ameritrade but is thinking of switching as TOS is cheaper. Their technical help desk is just great in my opinion and they have walked me through placing bracket orders, call options, etc. and were always very pleasant and helpful.
Good luck!!
I did make some mistakes starting out but did a great deal of reading from all the various newsletters (mostly free ones) and books I have purchased such as Fire Your Stock Broker by Harry Domash, Real Money by James Cramer, etc.
Before I really had a clue what I was doing, I lost out on the really big gains (i.e. Decker) because I bought call options that were called out while the stock kept going. But still made good money on my investment just could have made much more.
My early-on biggest problem was knowing when to buy-in and subsequently get-out.
Buy and hold I found is not for me and I just closed out some big gains in Apple. Took the earnings and re-bought a few more shares on a dip.
Even with my 'catastrophic just in case' current stop losses I am now playing with the markets money.
I think Investools is OK but just using their 3 green system can keep you from some of the more speculative trades that can bring the big returns.
Personally, I like to trade in just a few promising penny stocks such as RXHN (Rexahn) that don't cost a lot but have potential.
But be careful and one thing to look out for is the 'Pump and Dump" scheme that is very prevalent. Someone sends you an e-mail or flyer that outlines a company that is bound to take-off and return ~1000% on your investment. The old saying "if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is" is good to remember in these cases.
As for trades you should look at Investools sister company Thinkorswim as they are only $5 per trade and if you trade more that 35 trades a month (I think that is the number) they send you a $35 rebate check.
They also have free charting software and real time information. My son uses Ameritrade but is thinking of switching as TOS is cheaper. Their technical help desk is just great in my opinion and they have walked me through placing bracket orders, call options, etc. and were always very pleasant and helpful.
Good luck!!
After I lost a bundle in the dot bomb, I learned that buy-and-hold is not for me either, but it was the only thing I knew until two weeks ago. I wish I'd had the Big Chart back then.
This Options Techniques web site URL was forwarded to me by the OC County CA Investools Club. Most of the members that I met are into options (I'm too new for that yet). You might be interested in this site, if you haven't already seen it: www.xsprofits.com
Wow, thanks for the tip on ThinkOrSwim. Low rates and a help desk that is always very pleasant and helpful - that's rare! Newton's First Law has kept me at etrade. You've just given me an incentive to overcome inertia and make a change - thanks!
After about a dozen years of research and a few months of full time research and trading I've discovered that I am a trader, not an investor. I spent all the investment money anyhow. I have leaned to not be conservative, I am leveraged to the hilt. I would be a bank robber if the reward/risk ratio was not godawful.
Seriously, it is good to find out what we are. I love trading, I'm extremely conservative in the sense that I insist on automation with no discretionary element at all. That FORCES ME to FULLY DEFINE what I am doing and thoroughly test it. There is as much or more education involved in learning to do that as learning to invest IMO.
I am so glad you said that. After reading it, I realized that I hadn't a clue about when to sell the four stocks I'd bought: EXP, MSM, MEA, PKD.
I wanted to shoot for 10% gain and then sell. By buying only stocks with sound financials in strong and rising industry groups and using the three technicals of avg price, macd and stochastic, I'd hoped to be able to hold a position for only 2 or 3 weeks.
Problem: I didn't write down my target sell prices! OK, I didn't even calculate them. (I guess that's why I am a computer geek and not a stockmarket geek).
So today I sat down and calculated the "bounces" on the four stocks I own. I used the bounces to calcuate my best "get out" price and realized that I'd already missed my target selling price on EXP and MSM! And if I sell EXP now, it'll yield 2% instead of the 10% I'd have gotten on July 6 ... crud. So now I have to decide whether to sell it at a 2% gain (all the technicals say sell) or to hold on through another bounce cycle (and risk an actual loss and having my trailing % stop loss kick in).
Thanks for motivating me to set my get-out prices!