Who here is in to the stock market?

[PeasantPlayer]

Anybody here have any experience in the stock market? If so how were your experiences? Was it what it was cracked up to be? Did you make a decent pay?
And one last thing....any tips, and or books to recommend for one trying to learn the stock market? Thanks

 

[Albatross953]

I help run a 1.3 billion dollar pension plan. Open a discount broker account, buy vanguard and ishare indexes and contribute every month. Never look at them until you're old and need the money.

Spend the time I just saved you working out and chasing women.

You're welcome

 

[wishyo]

^ very smart advice actually. very very very fvcking smart, dont daytrade or swing trade if you are not planning to dedicate everything in your life for a stock market. dont chase sick 1000% profits. Day or swing trading will also fvck you mentally big time, you will take A LOT, FVCKING a lot of pain doing it for living. Girls breaking up with you after LTR is a joke comparing to how much pain you can take from the market.
Seriously, listen to him and pull all your money into $spy or similar etfs. forget about books and trading for yourself unless as i said, you want to dedicate everything in your life to it.

My favorite books are: 1) Stan Weinstein's Secrets of profiting in bull and bear markets 2) Covel's trend following books including turtles 3) check out market wizard series, i guess you can start with market wizards, fun and easy read.

Best advice really is just to go for index efts.

 

[jurry]

Stock market is basically an insider scam, agree with the advise above. Short term i wouldnt expect much though as major indices are all way overvalued, having almost no bearing on economic reality.. Not that that matters all that much. Check out moslereconomics.com for a good understanding of our economy and financial trends.

 

[wishyo]

Having been into investing an dthe market for about 20 years now, I have to disagree with the above.

If you study and study well, you can learn a lot and make a lot. BUying at the wrong time can leave your money flat for years and years.

Start with Zeal. He has great weekly essays.

Here is one of my favorites on Century of the Dow. Very prophetic for written over ten years ago.

Key words are study and study well. very few people can do that, besides that, even those who put effort into this one lack often discipline to execute their strategy.

trade price, not fvcking opinions, bullsh1t p/e ratios, fundamentals, macroeconomics. fvcking nonsense sh1t. hate on me for this one
to be serious, all approaches work, i found technical/trend following one, it makes the most sense to me. just like in dating, there are guys who aim for one nights stand, quick dates and so on, i am looking for ltrs

 

[The Duke]

I did some day trading while working at an old job not related to stocks. Lets just say I had plenty of time on my hands to participate in this activity.
I made a little money but if you wanted to make serious cash it would probably need to consume your life.

 

[wishyo]

I did some day trading while working at an old job not related to stocks. Lets just say I had plenty of time on my hands to participate in this activity.
I made a little money but if you wanted to make serious cash it would probably need to consume your life.

^ amen

 

[Albatross953]

I was asked on PM to expand on my advice, but I'd rather point to a couple of resources.

Google "couch potato portfolio" and one book I recommend is " the wealthy barber" both are good, basic layperson resources that will make you rich(er).

Danger, yes stocks have had a good run. But most of the 25 year olds here should just concentrate on contributing regularly, letting time work for them, and keep their fees as low as they can.

If they do all that, any correction this year or next won't matter. As for learning how to trade, I firmly believe all managers return to the mean. If most pros can't beat the index long term, neither can you.

 

[Bible_Belt]

I used to day trade for a living with other peoples' money. I had over a million bucks to play with at one point. I always had an account in the green, because I knew it was my dream job and I simply refused to get fired like the 90% who washed out. So that made me extremely conservative as far as day traders went. I never had $5-10k days like some guys, but those same guys could lose $20k on a bad day. I was more about grinding out a few hundred dollars a day - which usually all went back to the company in commissions and fees. But that was fine with me, because I knew they wouldn't fire me. Unfortunately, what happened is that I just outlasted the company...three times. After my third straight employer went out of business while I had a green account, I finally gave up.

I traded on my own a little after law school, but it wasn't the frat house environment that my day trading firms used to be. One place had a foozeball table and a fridge stocked with beer. It's incredibly isolating to sit by yourself and obsess over numbers on a screen, compared to the fun I used to have.

A friend of mine has traded a doctor's account and uses a simple system of buying $2-8 stocks that used to be much higher and were starting to go back up after a long sideways consolidation. There were a few other nuances to it, but they did well. My gf took a stock trading class in college and let me pick her fake trades. We made 10% in a month. Everyone else was +/- 1%. But the market keeps hitting all-time highs. Everyone taking long positions looks like a genius in a bull market.