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I'm not a stock guy, but I have some play money of about $5,000. Not concerned if I lose this money as it's not part of my retirement. When you pick a stock what is your general strategy for selling it in the short term? Do you sell when it is up 10-20% I.E. take your profits and run. On the flip side when the stock tanks what is your exit strategy? Do you cut your losses or hold on. What are your triggers?
Just like some one saying "if you wanna know when it'll sin check for days I leave me umbrella in the front closet" mathjak's experience is that when he buys a stock it seems to go down. So if you "short" the stocks he buys you are taking out an options contract that will be "in the money" when the stock declines. Get it?
The difficultly with many many stocks is that they move in ways that seem tom defy logic. The firms and individuals that swarm to Apple on their good results are not using the same logic as firms and individuals that shun IBM on it's good results...
Many famous and sometimes successful stock pickets / fund mangers have written books that detail this problem. Even when you go to extraordinary lengths to root out the details of what makes a firm successful the investor sentiment can go against you.
If you want to have fun with your $5k go to Vegas.
If you want to truly invest it and learn what works there is no substitute for experience. If you thing it is all just luck then explain why folks that do some research and understand when to take profits or cut losses seem to luckier for longer than those that do not learn about these fundamentalsmon their own but instead get fleeced by their "expert advisor"...
First thing I like to do is get a good baked beans recipe and let them cook for about five hours with some bacon. While the beans are cooking, I will drink about 18 or so Miller High Life beers while watching some high quality entertainment on the television like the hunting channel. Once the beans are done, I will let them cool and then eat them in their entirety.
The next day I like to put random stocks that I have preselected based on watching MadMoney with Jim Cramer. Whatever he picks as a buy, I short. Whatever he says to sell, I buy. I then randomly place the stocks on a dartboard. The last step is to then propel the darts out of my anus via a blowgun. Sometimes things go wrong but I'll let you figure that part out for yourself. Have fun!
Do any of you traders out their have any real advice. I'm looking for general strategies. Whether it's going against the flock, looking at a certain PE ratio, seaonal investment choices, trends etc. I get that no one can predict the market, but that wasn't my question.........As a short term trader what is YOUR strategy and why?
i learned along time ago im just not smart enough to pick just the right stocks,at just the right time, in just the right sector,in just the right investor sentiment and even if i got the above correct i still have to worry about what the competitors are doing.
thats not to say i dont speculate in individual stocks from time to time but i do all my serious investing via funds . i dont want to take on the investment risk of individual companies ,i have enough trouble just worry about the markets.
Pure value investing here. As a general rule, I look for mid-cap and large-cap companies in solid industries that generate lots of free cash flow, have strong balance sheets, and are selling at substantial discounts to their historical highs. I'm currently long on BAC (I know, I know), BRK-B and XOM, and am looking to start positions in CVS, MT, FRO, STD and LLY.
I'll also dabble in high dividend yield stocks that are more speculative, like MREITS and energy MLPs when I think they're cheap enough. Right now I am only holding AGNC, got in cheap after they anounced their latest new share offering.
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huh?
