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Full disclosure... down 15K$ on AFFY YTD, including my 30K loss when it gapped down to 1's but also including my trades the day it gapped down 80%+ and I bought at 2.30's early premarket...
+79K$ on TTNP
g
p.s. after trading pretty much full-time for 12 years, pretty much exclusively biotechs, I have realized that trading is all about minimizing risk exposure while taking calculated risks. I wouldn't expect new traders to be able to trade with a positive expectancy until at least 5 years of full-time trading, and after blowing up (losing all their money) at least several times. Heck, even now I don't know if I will ever fully overcome my trading weaknesses, which is why I took out 1/4M$ to pay off my med school debt, which is money that the stock market can never take back.
That being said, I would highly, highly advise against anyone trying to trade individual stocks unless they are willing to devote at least 5 years, full-time (trading or researching stocks at least 60-80hrs per week, as I did). The odds are so stacked against the individual retail trader that it is at least initially hopeless. I would also say that you would have to be willing to lose all your money time and time again, for those first 5 years. Fortunately for me, I got through that phase of losing all my money back when 10K$ was alot of money to me... and now that I play with larger amounts, I am a bit more conservative.
Also, as people say, time and time again, do not trade with money you cannot afford to lose. If you are trading with 300K$ and you are 65 and hoping to use that money for retirement, if you lose, you are destroyed. As I am in my 30's and trading those amounts, if I lose my money I still have a fairly well paying job to fall back on, and could financially recover from that. I know too many people who were beginning traders in their 50's-60's who lost it all... their retirement, and even some who owed money as they were in on margin when a biopharma got crushed.
Anyway, enough rambling. One last thing that always gets my goat is the supposed adage that "nobody can beat the markets... nobody can trade profitably". I know many traders much better than me who have been trading as their sole source of income for 15-20 years+. I suppose that saying is propagated in order to keep new traders from losing money? I agree that I do not know any new traders (less than 5 years of full-time experience) that can trade profitably and consistently. And I also know that most people cannot afford to devote as much time to trading as successful traders have (at least 10,000 hours over the past 12 years, probably closer to 20K hrs) but as a blanket statement it always bothered me.
Anyway... back to your regularly scheduled talk about index funds.
g
+79K$ on TTNP
g
p.s. after trading pretty much full-time for 12 years, pretty much exclusively biotechs, I have realized that trading is all about minimizing risk exposure while taking calculated risks. I wouldn't expect new traders to be able to trade with a positive expectancy until at least 5 years of full-time trading, and after blowing up (losing all their money) at least several times. Heck, even now I don't know if I will ever fully overcome my trading weaknesses, which is why I took out 1/4M$ to pay off my med school debt, which is money that the stock market can never take back.
That being said, I would highly, highly advise against anyone trying to trade individual stocks unless they are willing to devote at least 5 years, full-time (trading or researching stocks at least 60-80hrs per week, as I did). The odds are so stacked against the individual retail trader that it is at least initially hopeless. I would also say that you would have to be willing to lose all your money time and time again, for those first 5 years. Fortunately for me, I got through that phase of losing all my money back when 10K$ was alot of money to me... and now that I play with larger amounts, I am a bit more conservative.
Also, as people say, time and time again, do not trade with money you cannot afford to lose. If you are trading with 300K$ and you are 65 and hoping to use that money for retirement, if you lose, you are destroyed. As I am in my 30's and trading those amounts, if I lose my money I still have a fairly well paying job to fall back on, and could financially recover from that. I know too many people who were beginning traders in their 50's-60's who lost it all... their retirement, and even some who owed money as they were in on margin when a biopharma got crushed.
Anyway, enough rambling. One last thing that always gets my goat is the supposed adage that "nobody can beat the markets... nobody can trade profitably". I know many traders much better than me who have been trading as their sole source of income for 15-20 years+. I suppose that saying is propagated in order to keep new traders from losing money? I agree that I do not know any new traders (less than 5 years of full-time experience) that can trade profitably and consistently. And I also know that most people cannot afford to devote as much time to trading as successful traders have (at least 10,000 hours over the past 12 years, probably closer to 20K hrs) but as a blanket statement it always bothered me.
Anyway... back to your regularly scheduled talk about index funds.
g
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