past, present future

T

tentenequals20

START :
I started investing about 7 years ago when I graduated with a Ph.D and $10K from summer jobs. A friend told me abt datek (discount brokers) and said to pick any hitech cmpany and but stocks. He promised excellent returns. Being a total newbie, I bought Cisco and sun. It did go up and later my $10K went to less than 1K

I got a good job and decided to trade never agaan( ok. that lasted 2 years)

Phase 2 :

I subscribed to briefing.com and bought whtever came in their inplay. lost a lot, but had many good ones too

Net for the year = negative 1K

Phase 3 :

I learnt abt options and bought calls and puts with information from yahoo finance, msn, briefing

Made some but lost too.
breakeven year, but I was not confident

Phase 4 :

I now subscribe to a couple of news letters and buy what they recommend.
I hold for 3 months or so.
Making a lot more, but fluctuates.

I dont know what shd be phase 5. I realize strategy trading is the ideal.
but have no clue. I use optionsxpress and ameritrade

Any advice on how to proceed. thanks
 
After the first 3 phases... you didn't learn, and now you are on phase 4.

I normally don't just say "You've got no chance" because you do.

But you just don't seem to want to put any effort in doing this for yourself, and that means, failure.

So I gotta agree with Cheese on this one.

But there is still time left to change, but.... not counting on it.

EDIT:

If you do decide to continue, which I'm sure you will do anyways.

Trade in 100 share lots, but trading with Ameritrade, that is counterproductive. Switch brokers immediately.

Options..... why the heck are you trading options if you can't even trade the stock itself?

Not smart....
 
The benefits are great if we can add more floors into this building. Unfortunately, the foundation of this building is not strong enough to support additional floors. Period!

There's no further phases. Your foundation for this business is not solid since you tempted to trade on recommendations, tips. You have to build the foundation. You got to study the Market, you got to seek the truth and you got to have passion for it.

I don't lie you I prefer to lose with my own decision rather than make some money based on tips. Do not misunderstood me, that doesn't mean I don't want to learn from other traders. I do want to learn from them, it's just I don't want to be told each time on live exposure because sooner or later they can't be with me all the time. It's the same thing that I went to school to learn from professors but I didn't want them to tell me on the exam. You got my point.
 
You like trading , so do I .
I'd like to help if i am able to. I think that you have to learn
Technical Analysis- but don't use any of it until you have a thorough grasp of it- then you should add economic data like the indicators that come out weekly and monthly- learn to sift through the data and figure out how it affects what you are trading.
Then you can compare your results to others more experienced than yourself to see how you've fared.
Next ...I.B has a Universal account that allows a a person trader type to trade plenty of from one account...currencies, futures,options(i think), stocks in various markets. The commissions are reasonable.
A few books on the subject of technical analysis and Balance sheet interpretation - valuation of securities will give you higher degrees of success.
I wish you well amigo.:)
 
you guys are great! and your inputs very valuable

when one trader suggested some of these tips to me abt 4 years ago, I thought he didn't want me to get help and loose to better traders like him (very immature of me)

will look into this carefully.

IB seems to only allow windows based systems with Internet explorer.

I use UNIX at work on firefox.

crazy to see IB not support firefox
that's why I stick with optionsxpress and ameritrade :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top