let's talk stocks!

[Epimanes]

Ok, I'm sure several of you guys are into stocks and swing trading. I myself am fairly good at reading charts using the following indicators MACD, RSI, and MOVING AVERAGES.

What stocks are you in? What strategies do you use?

I am currently in FMCC @ 2.75 per share not a ton but enough I can swing and make a few bucks on 30 cent movements.

Epi

 

[Bible_Belt]

I used to trade other peoples' money a long time ago. It was almost all intraday; that was how they got the crazy mad leverage to give million dollar accounts to people like me. My million dollar account probably had about a thousand actual dollars in it.

I haven't done anything in a while with the markets. Computer programs really took the fun out of it for me. I can hold my own against actual people, but computers kill me. They took out a lot of the intraday movement anyway; the glory days of day trading are never coming back.

A friend was trading a doctor's account and told me his simple system. He just buys cheap stocks that were once higher-priced and have started to go up on spiking volume. My gf's college class had a paper-trading contest over about a one-month time span, and I picked out her fake trades for her. She made 10% that month; second place was a 1% return. I think I scanned 52-wk highs, $2-5, volume spike, and looked for a previous price in the past few years of over $20.

And fwiw, your indicators are all based on price and volume. There's nothing wrong with using them, but a simple price and volume bar/candlestick chart will tell you the same thing. Fibonacci retracements and Eliot Waves are the only two forward-looking indicators I know of, but they are very subjective and can be kind of wacky. If you get into them a lot, you will start trying to see patterns in the universe everywhere.

 

[Epimanes]

What I look for is the waves in the indicators. For instance if you use www.freestockcharts.com (which I do) you can almost see when a stock will upturn and down turn just by seeing farther back

Fmcc for instance is sitting low on the RSI indicator which means it should upswing soon. Now that may or may not be a large price jump when it swings but the waves are forseeable. Fmcc is a buy and hold right now. Of course voltility is a risk too it can drop off the face of the earth on bad news... Or jump up for no reason. But the wave indicators are better than just guessing.

Buy on the fear and sell on the good news! What goes up one day is down the next.

As you say computers now have algorithims for trading. You look on level 2 tradeing and a majority of buyers and sellers that are real people happen in the first few hours. After that you see manipulation going on in low volume. 10 shares or 100 shares trading in one direction or another to drive the price the direction the market manipulators want. Putting fear into the people or hope to catch ppl in at the top to only sweep it out from under the bag holders.

Its tricky.. I already got burned by YRCW and a few others and I would have done well but I was in over my head and on margin money. All those stocks are at a much higher price now and if I didn't get fvckin margin called on my losing stocks I would likely be rich right now.

Greed caused me to break my rules. Never trade with money you don't have. Can't hold stocks your loosing on for long term when your being margin called. Of course I learned all those bad mistakes when I first got into stock trading. Was a good tax write off tho!

However.. Trading stocks is like gambling but you have better odds if your trading and following some rules and learn to chart read.

Epi

 

[Fatal Jay]

You have to be a novice, to invest in stocks right now. All the big dogs are pulling out there money, the market bubble is about to burst like in 08

 

[synergy1]

You have to be a novice, to invest in stocks right now. All the big dogs are pulling out there money, the market bubble is about to burst like in 08

While I agree that we are due for a correction before long, it has to be proceeded by an event causing more panic than a few companies reporting bad earnings during the Xmas shopping seasons. There is plenty of value out there and plenty of value investors still in the game ( granted khlarman is out). Don't let the jitters of a few days influence your thinking.

 

[Fatal Jay]

^
give me some examples and I will show you facts that whatever you think have value won't be worth a damn in a few months.

There are too many signs that point to a market crash ie. interest rates, inflation, no **** value American dollar, poor job rate....need I go on?

 

[Epimanes]

Best buy took a good hit a while back. Could be a good oppertunity.

 

[synergy1]

^
give me some examples and I will show you facts that whatever you think have value won't be worth a damn in a few months.

There are too many signs that point to a market crash ie. interest rates, inflation, no **** value American dollar, poor job rate....need I go on?

You are making broad generalizations about what is going on - all of which are true but not causation of a potential stock market crash. And I promise you that our definitions of value couldn't be further from one another. A vast majority of companies aren't value buys - expensive or cheap. But there are a few special situations coming up that I am excited for...stock market crash or not. Actually a stock market crash would help make the valued companies even cheaper and that can only be a home run.

 

[Epimanes]

You are making broad generalizations about what is going on - all of which are true but not causation of a potential stock market crash. And I promise you that our definitions of value couldn't be further from one another. A vast majority of companies aren't value buys - expensive or cheap. But there are a few special situations coming up that I am excited for...stock market crash or not. Actually a stock market crash would help make the valued companies even cheaper and that can only be a home run.

*gives shifty eyes*

Noooooooow we are talking.....

I PRAY the canadian housing market dives like USA did.

 

[synergy1]

*gives shifty eyes*

Noooooooow we are talking.....

I PRAY the canadian housing market dives like USA did.

The US housing market crashed for different reasons than a Canadian Market would crash. No two bubbles are the same, but the results are always the same ; excellent buying opportunities. What a contrarian/ value investor will do is look at strong companies than determine a margin of safety for the price with which to purchase. Key words here are good companies at a GOOD price. What does a recession do? Two words - fire sale!

So fight now much of my equity is in stock. I am also anticipating a big pullback eventually here, and might shift upto 70% of my holdings to cash, and keep the remaining 30% in stock. The sentiment is to keep cash around to buy certain stock which will be a bargain when things get cheaper.

 

[AAAgent]

NUGT - 3x bull gold miners, i've been in this for a while. I may be looking at getting out for a short gain/loss next week and sitting on some cash to get in lower. I think later in the year there will be more economic (potentially global) issues and war that might drive up gold. I made over 100%+ gains on this a few months ago.
AAPL- will get in in the next few weeks for a short 1-2 month hold. Icahn has been driving the stock price up screaming for more buybacks (which would drive share price up) and Icahn mentioning he will be increasing his position (which should drive prices up as well) along with Apples fundamentals. expansion in china, tons of cash for acquisitions, etc.
NFLX- I was just about to hop in this one a week ago but did not have the cash…..it just jumped about 20% on earnings….
DDD- 3D printing…… I might jump in this if it comes down to about $50's.
TSLA- I still might jump into this. I have been skeptical about this company for a while.
WMT- I might grab a few of these. I believe we're going to go into a recession and this should draw the general public who was not previously as cost conscious, back to looking to save every penny and dime. If they shopped at ShopRite before, they'll switch back to Walmart. The people that currently shop there, will continue to as there isn't anywhere cheaper that Walmart.

I don't really trade off of technicals anymore as it's too time consuming. I mainly trade off fundamentals and news and global/economic factors.

 

[Fatal Jay]

^
buy tangible gold and silver, that's the only thing I invest.

 

[Vice]

Pretty excited for this year. I have a few hundred ounces of silver and it's going to be a fun correction. And to see the sheep wail when reality comes crashing back down.

 

[synergy1]

Pretty excited for this year. I have a few hundred ounces of silver and it's going to be a fun correction. And to see the sheep wail when reality comes crashing back down.

I am thinking about moving much of my portfolio to cash and waiting for the correction - if it happens. It seems the holidays poor earnings pushed the market down, but another arbitrary number could just as easily get mr Market back to his happy old self.

There are a few spinoffs that look interesting this year so I am valuing them and am going to teach myself how to use long term option plays to try and leverage returns ( obviously with capital to back it up). These special situations are new to me , but I like the ideas and want to see if a home run could be had. A correction would help even more by mispricing going rate of said options. Throw in the confusion a spinoff incurs, and you have some seriously mispriced stock out there to gobble up.

All aboard!

 

[Fatal Jay]

For all these guys who believe in the stock market watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bA_NbYSaGM

 

[speed dawg]

I PRAY the canadian housing market dives like USA did.

You still must use your brain when this happens. Don't just go out buying up cheap land. Buy up the RIGHT cheap land. Your best bet is to go out, ante up, and buy land that's still somewhat valuable, but at a discount due to the crash. I did this and came out like a bandit, while others are still sitting on cheap land that they bought, well, cheap.

Remember, you can change a house, but you can't change the location.

 

[Epimanes]

There's no cheap land in the vancouver/lowermainland. A 3bdrm townhouse is 450,000 average. Housing is ridiculas. There is new rules in British columbia about purchasing homes too. Can't amortize for more than 25 years now and no more zero down. On top of the you have to have a minimum of 25% down now. At the current rate of property value increasing the average person can't keep up with the rising costs of housing. The home I currently live in (renting) I get a screaming deal and won't give it up til I have to. (900 per month for a 5bdrm that should be over 2k rent a month) my landlord told me her last appraisal and its 725k. Property values go up like 50k a year which means you gotta save 25k a year just to keep up with inflation. Sucks.

I doubt the canadian housing will take a hit like usa did. I just can't see it. They have set it up in such a way to protect it and I can't save my money fast enough to afford to stop renting here. If I moved farther north I could afford but work is hard to come by for my field.

Epi

 

[speed dawg]

Property values go up like 50k a year

If this is true, then yes, the market WILL crash. It's simply un-maintainable for values to increase like that. No way I would buy anything right now if I were you.

 

[Epimanes]

Oh I'm not buying squat right now. Trying to save like mad to get ready for when my cheap rent ends. All sorts of new developments going up around me and they keep offering my landlord a price for her property because they want to develop it. She refused their offer 2X but dunno how long til she descides to sell. Her home is in a prime area and the house is over 60 years old. You could build 2 houses on this lot.

Also China has been buying up property and leaving it empty all over vancouver. Almost like some sort of realestate hostile takeover. *shrugs*

 

[Fatal Jay]

If this is true, then yes, the market WILL crash. It's simply un-maintainable for values to increase like that. No way I would buy anything right now if I were you.

UM, HAVENT I BEEN SAYING THIS THE WHOLE TIME, IT IS NO POINT IN INVESTING IN THE STOCK MARKET, IT IS FINISH AND WILL BE FINISH THIS YEAR.

IF YOU JUST HAVE TO SPEND YOUR MONEY,SPEND IT ON TANGIBLE GOLD,SILVER, GUNS, FOOD, AND WATER

THOSE WILL BE THE ONLY THINGS WORTH SOMETHING ONCE THE MARKET CRASHES