OT: Stock Market Information

[TheStateUofMS]

Good luck next week. I enjoyed the interaction as well. Hopefully the China-US technology dust up isn't too serious while we're in the pandemic.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

Good stuff. Look at Schwab's "Schwab Bundles." You can buy fractional shares of companies and $0 commissions pretty sure.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

This week has not been that bad,

WMT and MSFT and cash.

Waiting it out.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

That was a great explanation of how the big boys build and sell positions.

What do you think of SRNE?

You had a chance to double your money from what I saw, but I would not have thought that to be the case. If it's a legit cure, Pfizer will kill everyone at SRNE and steal the IP.***

Honestly I don't want to weigh in... I used to try to trade the news and I always got hammered. Never got it right....

 

[Shamoan]

Took a shot on SRNE this morning at $4.03. They claim to have a Covid anti body.

https://www.foxnews.com/science/cov...rmaceutical-coronavirus-antibody-breakthrough

View attachment 16188

ETA: sorry if the red is blurry. Article might be better for most.

I was thinking about going in on this as well. 7 doesn’t seem that high, still think there is enough room up?

 

[Shamoan]

Good info. Thanks for breaking that down.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

what apps do y’all use and what’s a good “analytics for dummies” starting point?

Lot's of books in general about investing. I believe you should understand fundamental and technical analysis. The bible of fundamental analysis would probably be Ben Graham's "The Intelligent Investor." I just listened to it again on audible a few months ago. Graham was Buffet's mentor. It's an old book, but a lot of principles are still applicable. Lots of other stock selection advice books out there.

Next you have to decide what kind of active investing/trading you want to do. There are three major types in my book.

Buy and hold.
Just as the name implies, you are looking to buy stocks and hold them for the long term appreciation and add to positions when there's a pullback. (IE StateU's rec on HD) When they run their course or something changes, then you move on... For example. Southwest Airlines was a great buy and hold stock, but it will be a long time before you get that thing going again. It's better to just sell it and buy something else at this point.

Day Trading
You buy positions and close them out in the same day. A day trader is all cash at the close of the market. Then some stay up at night trading forex and other international markets.

Swing Trading
You are buying securities that give a technical indicator that a breakout is coming. Swing Traders look to hold a position for a few days to a few weeks.

I best identify as a swing trader, because that's what I spend most of my day doing, but 80% of my money is actually in buy and hold investments. I have a few accounts. If you are going to swing or day trade, it's optimal to use margin so you don't have to wait on settlements after you sell a position. You would not want to buy and hold on margin as the interest may be more than your profits or at least eat into it.

(I'm only talking about brokerage account money. All of my retirement accounts are in mutual funds.... Some active, mostly index.)


Now to begin. I'm no help on day trading. I only day trade because I get forced out of a position I intend to hold for a few days or longer.. (Like an overnight news release on shutting down semiconductor sales to China.) Other times I pick a stock that takes a big run in a single day and I hit my profit goals before it starts to pull back in the afternoon.

If this hybrid strategy is what interests you, I can give some recs on books and resources. It depends on how you learn, but here's a good starter kit for technical analysis and active trading.

Books
'Getting Started in Technical Analysis" by Jack Schwager
"How to Make Money in Stocks" by Bill O'neil
"Japanese Candlestick Charting" by Steve Nisson

Online Learning
I love Udemey. You can get a 10 hour self paced webinar style course on there for $15. They have thousands of investing courses I bet. A lot of Asians are instructors so make sure you listen to a sample before you buy so you can understand the lecturer. I used it for years learning about specific civil engineering projects for my job. They tease you in with goofy 48 hr 72 hr sales of 80-90% off. A few days after joining, the price will go up to $159 or something stupid. So if you see a couple of courses you want to take, buy them up front. After about a month of not buying anything, they will give you another sale price and you can get another course. Once bought, they are in your library forever so you can take your time after purchase to actually watch.

Websites
Stockcharts.com has an in-depth chart school.

Tradingview.com is where I make all of my own charts. It's free unless you want to get really complicated. I still use the free version. I use the stock screener.

Investopedia is always useful.

Investors Business Daily gives good lists of stocks to watch to understand what swing trading as all about. In fact they have a good learning platform as well. It's the paper/website/service created by Bill O'neil.'m a big Bill O'neil fan. He is to growth stock picking as Buffet is to value stocks.

MarketWatch and Fool are okay for news, but they tend to have too many freelancers write articles and I don't trust them... They might be short or long a stock a write a very biased article.

Ultimately you should find your own style.
I don't swing trade a stock I wouldn't want to own long term. I use stock screeners to identify stocks with good revenue growth and a decent market cap so I know they are somewhat legit.. $1bn mkt cap is my minimum. Pay attention to volume. You want something that trades at least 200-300 times the daily volume you intend to buy. Otherwise you may not be able to sell quickly.

One last tip... Learn how to use the different order types. This is critical. Stop, Limit, and Market.

Stop. Aka a stop loss. After you buy a trading position, if you are not going to watch it like a hawk, set a stop order below where you bought it to have it automatically sell if the market tanks. You have to give it room to work though. I usually shoot for 1-2 points below the support level closest to my entry. If there is not one, I give it 3%. These are critical. The market makers can see them, so don't leave it to close or they will come down and get you.

Limit. The maximum you will buy at or minimum you will sell at... You may not ever get your price though, so keep an eye on it. When I first started I had a stock up 11% in 2 days and set a limit order for 15%.... I came back to find the sucker went back to my stop loss and instead of making a potential 11% profit, I lost 2%.

Market. Sell or buy as fast as possible at the best available price.

Also... It seems goofy, but write out your trading plan and stick to it. Every bonehead headed trade I make is off plan.

My plan is simple.

Only swing at stocks that are in the zone. I don't chase wild pitches. I'm okay taking a walk or grounding out. I will not strike out swinging on a pitch in the dirt. I would rather strike out looking. Every once in a while, I will get the pitch I am looking for in the location I like... I'm going to try to take it deep on those... This week I caught AMD on a pullback and I am going to try to take it deep.


Best of luck.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

Final check in in this thread. A little positive info on a potential vaccine was all it took to completely breakout of the head and shoulders pattern. I think we are headed back up to the range we have been in for the last few weeks. If we break through the 2970ish level, which has been resistance since the rally began in late March, 3100 could be the next target.

If I see anything new pop-up that points to a potential major decline or jump, I will start a new thread.

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[theepicone]

I started investing in the market about 3 months ago. I only put $1500 in my Robinhood account but I’ve had 15.91% returns over that period. I know a lot of it has been luck. I’ve tried to buy 5-10 different stocks at their lowest and sell them at recent highs. Then I buy more when the prices dip again. It’s probably a bad strategy but my 401k has had -14.9% returns over the same period. I contribute $150/wk including my employer match and have been for the past 5 years. Would it make any sense for me to lower my contribution and invest more on my own? I’m smart enough to know that I know nothing about this long term. I’m 34 if that helps.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

I'd keep contributing. Hard to beat the tax deferral you get in a 401k compared to a taxable brokerage.

What I tell folks is to at least contribute to your company sponsored plan to get the maximum match. That's free money right there. Beyond that you can contribute to an IRA if you want. If you get 0 match at your company, I wouldn't invest anything in there until you've maxed out your IRA. If you have a spouse, you should both contribute until you max it, then put the rest in your company's plan since you can contribute a lot more than an IRA.

After you max out tax deferred accounts, then contribute to a regular brokerage.

 

[theepicone]

Thank you, sir. I figured that it made sense to keep contributing. I knows it’s a small sample size to compare but It’s tough to see that type of loss when I’m not losing money on my own. I’ll probably just invest an extra $100-$150 per week on my own while I can and keep my 401k contributions the same. Hopefully my luck continues.