Welcome to the new Traders Laboratory! Please bear with us as we finish the migration over the next few days. If you find any issues, want to leave feedback, get in touch with us, or offer suggestions please post to the Support forum here.
BBBBrian_1
-
Content Count
10 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Spoiler Alert! Long term Buy/ Hold Rebalancing today at Month end, as per Ric Edelman https://www.edelmanfinancial.com/ I am selling winners and buying losers. Selling CVS and VNQ, an REIT, for a gain of $ 300.96 and $ 420, respectively. I am only selling enough to "rebalance" the portfolio. I am buying KFYP and SASR. KF has the misfortune right now to be a basically chinese Intl etf, suffering now with the " Dumpy One" flinging his ill thought out tariffs at. My feeling is that won't last forever, and there are other places for these companies to do business than the US. I am also buying SASR, which had the misfortune of missing eps expectations last quarter, although they still posted an increase in YoY earnings per share. My advice to day traders is " Stop chomping at the bit". You are likely losing money jumping in and out of the market all the time. I suppose one critical caveat has to be: the loser you buy, has to be a decent security, we are not talking about stinking piles of dead fish here. Those get shoveled out wholesale.
-
Introduce Yourself Here - Don't Be Shy!!
BBBBrian_1 replied to trading4life's topic in Beginners Forum
Having just finished reading Ric Edelman The Truth About Money, I am figuring it is best to keep trying the old fashioned way and " get rich slowly". I have set up my trading accounts with a 20% profit point, and an +/- 8% stop loss point. Over a period of 5 -1 5 years, the stock market reliably returns about 10% per year, on average. So I am looking at doing less trading, except programmatically, to rebalance, and when I get near to a sell target. I am also managing for volatility, by splitting my account between equities and fixed income, real estate, and cash. The cash I suppose to be used in event of market melt down, to go pick up some bargains! -
Day 5 simulated trading, I have realized gain of $ 2,569.51, with 2 more stocks still in play. At my broker, Ally, that would cost about $9 per buy/sell trade, so about $63 in brokers fees, and less 20% for taxes, that works out to about $ 1,992.61. Not so bad for 5 days of trading, but I really don't know how that compares to anyone else. That is a gain of 0.9 %, net of costs. I have two stocks left, AXP and ATR, and I have my stops placed aggressively up at the days low point. I expect to sell them both tomorrow. Next one I do will be with a realistic amount of money to play with, not this fantastic $ 220,000.
-
2 stocks hit the sell stop today, so I have realized gains now of $ 604.47 just today, and a total portfolio theoretical return of $ 4,175.07. 4 straight days of S&P 500 rising, I expect less tomorrow. In any case, I am quite happy with such a gain after only 4 days. I put all my stops up at todays lows, just about, expecting to get at least three more realized gains. These gain estimates exclude taxes and broker fees. Gee, I kind of wish I was really trading this, in which case I would have about $ 2,116 on a 112K cost basis.
-
Using the Investopedia Simulator starting on July 5, with a playful $ 220, 722.40 invested, which includes $ 29.95 brokers fees, I think. I bought into 9 stocks, 8 of which were winners, only AMAT dissappointed me, likely my fault for setting the sell stop too high. I took a $ 149 loss there, no biggy, and I also made the mistake of putting a trailing stop on FOXF, which is kind of soaring last 2-3 days, not so much today, but I did get out of that with a $ 510 gain. With all that in mind, I now have a realized and paper gain, excluding broker fees, and taxes, of course, of about $ 4,064.92. ( 1.84%) Now the market has been on a huge upswing the last few days, which certainly makes this easy. With my stops in place, my theoretical worst case scenario, with exclusions as above, is a paltry $ 1897.21, ( 0.86% ) if all my stops get hit tomorrow. That is 3 days trading, with a fantastic starting level ( cost basis). In real world terms right now, my worst case gain would be about $ 963 , from a $ 112K cost basis, much of which is not even taxable. I set my stops with an analysis of low points from last months' most recent low ( the start of the current trend), reactions and retractions, as per Wyckoff and DB. I did the same to set my entry points as well, although Investopedia threw me into the market, as all my initial purchases were more than I had bargained for. So I need to study that and work on making better entry points. As for Brokers, right now I use Ally, they seem to be pretty good, I have no issues with them, except they seem to have Short Sales allowed as only Day Only, no good till canceled short sales. I need to investigate this more,and see what other brokers offer for short sales. With Investopedia Simulator, my short sales are good till canceled, and neither of them has come in yet.
-
-
3 samples from record: AXP First acquired 1 or 2 years ago, for about $ 77.74. A Warren Buffet favorite, with good financials. Sold June 29 2018 after putting a sellstop order on it, an idea from day trading, and Wyckoff, which I learned about on this forum. Profit $ 1822.97, cost of $ 6770.5 or 26.92% CNK- a questionable acquisition, made after selling WFM, just prior to the Amazon announcement ( doink!), which announcement jacked the price to $ 42. Profits were to be had, but, riding the escalator, as it were, I simply watched it go up and down. " But theatre attendance is increasing!" Good luck with that one. https://www.the-numbers.com/market/ XHE healthcare etf, health equipment, I don't know when I originally purchased this, but mI just sold it, again after hitting a sells top, for a $ 3,149.45 profit, or 50.32% All non taxable since this is an IRA account. I am now siting in 90% cash waiting out d.t. Rump hysterics and phony trade wars; using simulators to see how it might go with " active " trading", where I wake up enough to smell the roses when a stock gets to a high point. While I feel fortunate to have a gain, it took a long time and a lot of heartache, watching values tumble and dip, especially UNP and AXP. I left a lot of profit on the table. I am reading Wyckoff now, and dB, trying to learn and follow these ideas. Brian
-
Yes,l did this with Abengoa. I lost thousands of dollars. " Catch a falling knife". I have since forgot, and I don't want to think about it.
-
Introduce Yourself Here - Don't Be Shy!!
BBBBrian_1 replied to trading4life's topic in Beginners Forum
Thank you and hello. On this site I am just learning about Wyckoff and reading DB's book intro. I have a lot to learn. -
BlueHorseshoe, Congrats on the win streak. What is your broker cost on a $ 128 trade? Does that not cut into your profits?
-
Introduce Yourself Here - Don't Be Shy!!
BBBBrian_1 replied to trading4life's topic in Beginners Forum
Hello, my name is Brian. I have been a small time buy and hold investor for about 20 years or so. I began with a mutual fund. I watched the price go up or down again quarterly, and never knew what I should do about that. Live and learn. I have been trading in stocks and ETF's for the last 7 years or so, with some success, in that " Hall of Mirrors" known as the stock market. I have recently become interested in the idea of actively trading, which for me means weekly/biweekly short term positions, using fundamental analysis, market/economic information and advisors ratings as guides as to what to purchase and when. I want to use short timing to increase my current income, and I am hatching an idea to do this and not to give up my day job. With some skepticism, I would say am a devotee of Warren Buffet, as I have read several of his books.
