posted July 06, 2015 12:35 PM
Hi!I'll share my experiences as I learned a lot from them.
Basically I quit my full time job (around my Saturn Return) and decided I needed to do something else. My interests were moving towards finance, economics and business and away from computers for a while. I created a chart around April 2008 where I projected a stock market crash calling for a low in the market and a drop in Gold to about $650. I left my job around May of that year and had about $25,000 saved up. Taking out a line of credit for $80,000, I now had $100k to play with.
Unfortunately, between May-July, I can't say I did really good as a day trader and nothing really happened as Gold was grinding sideways for the majority of that period. I had a planned trip in July and I as I was on that vacation it just so happened that's when the market started heading self. Since I was already in the red, I didn't listen to my first instincts and decided to ride it out. If I had listened to my intuition and the chart I created in April, I'd be a millionaire by now but I know it happened the way it did for a reason.
After the market recovered, I decided it wasn't the path for me and left the market, having lost about $10,000 of my investment. Learned a lot about debt, usury and how money actually works, the business cycle, and about myself in general. I did play in the Gold, USD, Index and Oil ETF's, usually the 2x inverse ones but I really felt like day trading was almost like playing in a casino. I know other do very well in it, but it just wasn't for me.
Last thing I'll say is just think of this. If you buy a stock for $10 and it goes up 20%, you now have $12 of stock but if it goes down %20, you now have $9.6. If it goes down %20 originally from $10, it's worth $8 and then goes up %20, you have a $9.6 stock. Now even if you say that well, I'm just a long-term holder and I don't trade in and out, inherently based on the percentages, the fluctuations are eating away at what you 'should' be making, which is why I view it like a casino.
Anyways, let me know if there was anything else you wanted to know. Commissions are pretty cheap nowadays, probably $8 per trade, maybe even $5 now, not sure.
Disclaimer: I'm not a professional and I hold no positions in the market or other investment instruments at this time. I'm just sharing my own experience between the years of 2008-2011.
Lindaland
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posted July 06, 2015 12:35 PM
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