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If you're good, yes, you can make some money doing this.
Recommend starting part time, don't quit your day job.
You must think outside the box. Don't get greedy. Lock in profits when you see them.
Read, Read, and Read some more.
If you're on facebook....get off it! Waste of time - you could be researching companies instead.
Get busy!
Start paper trading first - find a trading company or broker/dealer that would let you trade initially with monopoly money on a real trading system (might not be 100% real-time but real enough). Use this system exactly as you would treat your own money. It won't be the same emotional setting but at least you'll get the hang of it and realize after some time whether you could do this in the long run and how you have performed.
source: I work in capital markets with a CFA, I do not work as a trader though. I started day/swing trading about 9 years ago. Average ROI until today - didn't beat SPY, more or less the same result but with more work/time/effort.
As a precursor I do not know the slightest about the physcial acts of "daytrading" so please excuse any ignorant comments on my end.
Like most on here, looking to supplement my income, and have always had a interest in investing practices. Willing to put in the time and effort to learn , However, is it realistic to attempt this as a secondary income?
I don't think daytrading is realistic with a full time job in most cases but I don't know what you do. Swing trading might be realistic.
i signed up for a similiar (similiar to paper trading but not quite) and I have beat the market for 6 months, but I'm not comfortable betting real money yet. When I start I will start with 1 or 2k.
As mentioned before you shoudl read up and papertrade for a while before you consider this.
As a precursor I do not know the slightest about the physcial acts of "daytrading" so please excuse any ignorant comments on my end.
Like most on here, looking to supplement my income, and have always had a interest in investing practices. Willing to put in the time and effort to learn , However, is it realistic to attempt this as a secondary income?
If you plan to daytrade, you need an core investment portfolio that's usually profitable. Some of the traders I know just park it in an index fund since you can't watch both.
If you don't have other investments, the losses from daytrading can only be deducted up to $3,000 in any given year and have to be carried over.
It's very hard to trade with interest rates and bond yields low, you don't have the income to buffer losses.
I was studying Forex a couple months ago thinking I was going to be a day trader/swing trader. When I told my friends (one was getting his PhD in Information Systems and the other one has his PhD in Finance from Boston University) they told me not to do it. They told me to do ETF funds instead. I didn't listen and ended up wasting time but I never used any real money.
in the hedge fund business you are only ahead and your trading systems only work until they don't . my daughter in-law works for one of the most famous hedge fund managers in history with one of the best records . that is until the last few years when nothing went as their trading systems predicted .
the bleeding was so bad that they terminated some of the funds and just sent investors back what was left of their money .
my step brother was a pro trader . he was responsible for trading only 2 stocks all day long with the company's proprietary software . amgen and trident energy were his babies .
needless to say that system only worked until it didn't .
I don't know if I would day trade.. I would just find companies with high growth potential and buy and hold them... examples might be TARO, BWLD, ZG, YELP, or others.
I'm heavily invested in TWTR as a takeover play. Name recognition alone makes this a good takeover candidate.. Twitter is pretty much as household a name as Facebook with lackluster management and thus the stock is relatively low priced yet it would be a cheap takeover candidate for a big media company like Google, Apple, etc. if they bought it for 20-30 billion that would be more than double the current price. Seems like a pretty no-brainer purchase to me.
With different management they could definitely monetize their user-base more efficiently just like facebook has.
Ignore Bill.... You cannot do this. I know many people who have tried it and they all come up short.
There are MANY people all trying to do the same thing but have gone through significant training and have access to capital/technology that we can only dream about. We are talking about trading mostly done by computer programs buying and selling in fractions of a second.
Read the book Flash Boys to see what you are up against.
FYI.... I work in finance and have an MBA. I still don't day trade or swing trade.
What does a masters in business administration have to do with intraday trading? Nothing.
You "work in finance". Unless you are a trader on a trade desk it is not relevant.
You know "many people who have tried it and come up short". Yup. 90% of the people attempting to trade do not make money. It is a high failure rate business. 90% of the people attempting to trade have no idea what they are doing. They have limited capital. They fall victim to the internet "trading guru's" that claim trading is some sort of binary "system". They jump into live trading without an edge. They have bias when they trade. They get greedy. They get scared. They attempt to trade the wrong products.
What methods did your acquaintances use to trade? My guess is they tried to use "technical analysis".
HFT? Pffft.... These guys are going for a couple of ticks. As a matter of fact their behavior in the order book is a very useful tool for intraday traders. They will stack orders when the market conditions are favorable and pull orders when they are not. If you spend a few months watching them it will sink in.
Access to technology? Why do people think they can solve the market "problem" with math? It is a simple two way auction market. Smaller traders are better off understanding the nature of auction markets and where price will likely reverse due to other people's pain. Look for the trapped traders.
In summary all you have to offer is anecdotal evidence and unrelated education. I wouldn't have been so blunt with you if you hadn't posted "Ignore Bill". Perhaps we should also ignore "BizrulesSD"
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