Anybody Trade Stocks?

[Sugarphreak]

Just putting it out there, I have been doing moderate trading for about 6 or 7 years myself. Just wondering if anybody else is into it at all.



On a side note I have had an awesome week so far... I sold a ton of stock on Monday and took some nice gains... then this whole "technical glitch" happened on Thursday, so I bought it all back this morning and by the afternoon I made something like 6% across the board! I haven't been able to stop smiling all day, lol

[dwaxman1]

I have looked at stocks before and ran away crying.. these scare me...especially after this week..

[T.C.]

what a week...... <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... on_eek.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':shock:' /> <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... ey-013.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':wtf:' /> up down dammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... on_cry.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... >/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

[duncanpa]

Don't know enough about trading stocks and have never taken the time to learn....Do know that my dad lost nearly half of his porfolio during the last economic downturn because his financial advisor was trading stocks without my dad's permission....lets just say he is NOT my dad's financial advisor anymore!!

[Sugarphreak]

[quote name='dwaxman1' date='08 May 2010 - 07:22 AM' timestamp='1273317757' post='16625']

I have looked at stocks before and ran away crying.. these scare me...especially after this week..

[/quote]



lol, stocks have that affect sometimes! When I first started trading I was having a heart attack on a daily basis!



It seems so simple... buy low, sell high. Everybody says it, everybody knows it... but when you try to put it to good use you end up doing the opposite! You see a hot stock, immediately you want to buy it; if you see a failing stock your guy instinct is to stay away. Usually what ends up happening is you miss out on a stock that explodes up... then you see a hot stock and you buy into it only to realize what you thought was a hill is actually the tippy top of a landslide! Then you hold it praying for it to come back to where you bought it... which it never does.



After so many years I get excited when I see bad news and I start selling when things seem great <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... /smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> It works awesome.



My plan for next week is after a giant correction makes everybody start buying (probably Monday morning)... I will sell all the stock I bought when everybody was selling, lol.



I could hold it, speculators might continue to drive it up for the next couple of days, but really doing well in the stock market is all about not being greedy... just sell when you make the 4-5% you were looking for.

[JL]

So what do you use for trading?



I'd definitely be willing to put a few bucks on the line and start slow, see what happens. But where does a guy start??

[Sugarphreak]

I just use a Waterhouse account, there are cheaper brokers, but I like having it attached to my accounts on EasyWeb.



I sold off my stock I bought on Friday just this morning, I was heavily invested in Suncor over the weekend <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... rgreen.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':mrgreen:' />



Stocks are a funny thing, you can approach trading either has a long term investor.. short term investor or basically as a day trader; each also had a varying degree of risk depending on what kind of yields you are looking for.



I have tried most of them, I did ok on long term... but anytime a world event (Osama, OPEC, Hurricanes, Greece, new Trust legislation) comes along it wipes out your gains. I did terrible on basically day trading... after a few good guesses I missed one and lost, it is basically educated gamboling. Too much stress, too much risk for that kid of trading.



Now I stick to moderate trading over a couple weeks time to make reasonable 3-6% gains. It isn't as exciting, but it seems to work like clockwork and at the end of each year if you are making 3-6% every 6 weeks it adds up a lot. I basically buy into one of my favorite stocks that I know really well (Suncor, Connacher Oil, Aberdeen Pacific, TD Canadatrust, BMO, ect) when I feel they are going down a lot. Then wait... and eventually they correct and when things look great on the market I sell them off. The trick is not to get attached, don't hold out for more money if you make your target... the thing that kills people is that it is emotionally hard to sell if you still see the graph going up.



first thing is you need to have enough investment to offset your cost. With your bank broker it is about 30$ buying in and 30$ selling for fees... so for moderate gains on non-risky stocks you need a lot... if you are betting it all on a wild gold stock then you don't need that much, lol.



As an example with the low risk trading I do now my average investment is about 8,000$ to 20,000$ per stock.... keep in mind 3% of 8000$ is only like 240$... minus 60$ in fees is 180$. But... if you make 180$ every 6 weeks that is 1560$, which is 19.5% annual return on 8000$. This beats the hell out of GIC's or mutual funds and it is not that risky because this method is done with blue chip stocks and you are always on top of your stocks all the time... by investing when "world events" happen you negate the risk a lot as well... unless two world events happen back to back, which would suck.

[cbrandson]

Hey guys and gals let me know what stock you want to buy ,i will buy first, that should drive the price down like a rock. buy high sell low less tax to pay

[JL]

You've gotta be right about having a plan and sticking to it, once you hit your target be glad you did... and sell! But... for a newb like me I'd be crapping myself if I put up that much dough into stocks first go 'round!

[Sugarphreak]

Yeah it is something you want to ease into.... never put anything into the stock market you can't afford to lose <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... iggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />



My little brother is getting into it for his first time, he has been at it for about a year... trading small amounts on extremely risky gold stocks. He has done well so far, but I doubt he will tell me if he loses anything <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... tongue.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />