How are your investments doing?

[Snobdds]

I'll give a quick how-to.

I find a stock that has a lot of volatility. You make money on the ups and downs, you make no money on consistency.

Say I buy the stock at $100.
I put in a sell stop at $90.
I only have $10 per share at risk with this. If the stock crashes to $90, I'm out and have a $10 per share loss. But if the price goes up to $110, I raise my sell stop up to $100. Now I'm at a break even. If the stock keeps going up, I just keep raising my sell stop up higher and higher. Once you are above the price of transaction costs and taxes, you now have zero risk in the market. The only cost that keeps going up is the marginal cost of taxes. But if it keeps going up, I'm ok with the marginal tax burden.

Then say the stock gets up to 140 and I have a sell stop at 120 and the market crashes and it hits my sell stop at 120. The tool sells all my stuff automatically and I have a profit of $20 and all I had to do is move sell stops.

There is a bit more nuance, but that is the jist. The key is you have to sell and bank profits.

 

[MossRoad]

I could retire today but they don’t have my replacement…

Again, you owe them nothing. It's a business arrangement. You work. They pay. Fair deal for both parties. When it's over, it's over.

Now if you WANT to stay, that's different. But if you're wanting to retire, and can do it at your personal level of desired comfort, do it now.

We had a guy retire at 60 just this past June. We found out he died last week. Fell down some stairs and broke his neck, died 3 days later.

Wife and I both have 18 months left..... they've asked us both to stay if we want. We like them and all, but no way. We're out here.

 

[MossRoad]

My gains since Jan is 19.75%.

That would be 40# for me.

 

[ultrarunner]

Again, you owe them nothing. It's a business arrangement. You work. They pay. Fair deal for both parties. When it's over, it's over.

Now if you WANT to stay, that's different. But if you're wanting to retire, and can do it at your personal level of desired comfort, do it now.

We had a guy retire at 60 just this past June. We found out he died last week. Fell down some stairs and broke his neck, died 3 days later.

Wife and I both have 18 months left..... they've asked us both to stay if we want. We like them and all, but no way. We're out here.

Creature of habit plus I’m attached as part of the design/build for my location back when I started in 1991 for this very project.

Many things I like such as our patients and administrator.

Other things not so much since we were acquired and I’m now just one of 80,000 instead of one of 160+/-

The only time I booked profit was selling my Apple stock in the early 80’s… tuition was coming up and I cleared $800 on the sale.

I’m famous for staying the course all the way to the stock being delisted.

My God Sister started at Apple as a high school intern in the 70’s…

Her Apple stock options paid for 2 typical Santa Clara homes, vacations, daughters education, etc… and she retired in her late 40’s. She never went to college.

Her dad said put every penny you can in company stock… you are a teenager living at home and she did and they hired her full time when she graduated high school…

Lots of fortunes made in Silicon Valley back in the day…

 

[grsthegreat]

I'll give a quick how-to.

I find a stock that has a lot of volatility. You make money on the ups and downs, you make no money on consistency.

Say I buy the stock at $100.
I put in a sell stop at $90.
I only have $10 per share at risk with this. If the stock crashes to $90, I'm out and have a $10 per share loss. But if the price goes up to $110, I raise my sell stop up to $100. Now I'm at a break even. If the stock keeps going up, I just keep raising my sell stop up higher and higher. Once you are above the price of transaction costs and taxes, you now have zero risk in the market. The only cost that keeps going up is the marginal cost of taxes. But if it keeps going up, I'm ok with the marginal tax burden.

Then say the stock gets up to 140 and I have a sell stop at 120 and the market crashes and it hits my sell stop at 120. The tool sells all my stuff automatically and I have a profit of $20 and all I had to do is move sell stops.

There is a bit more nuance, but that is the jist. The key is you have to sell and bank profits.

Thats the jist of daytrading for me. I just left mine in managed funds for past 20 years. Its into the millions now. I rode the high and the lows, but overall its always increased. This was not ment to make a fortune, it was to carry me thru retirement. Im very happy how its turned out. But honestly, if this all went away, we would still be ok. I have lots of $$ tied up in cd’s, treasury notes, bonds, plus forced draws from inherited accounts.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I retired at 47.

I suppose there are better ways to do this personal finance thing, but I didn't need those.

 

[NorTracNY]

I have not because there was a freeze as 403b was moving to a new company and I was away and unable to log in because 2 factor identification to log in and one factor is my home phone…

It’s not simple when in the middle of no where far from home.

I’m 50% bonds and 50% equity in my employer target date 403b.

The CD option is way below my credit union offering.

Any recommendation for me when I return home Thursday?

Yes, if you don't need to use 50% of your 403b in the next 10 years, get it into equities. Target date funds are often a little more expensive than you just making your own allocation. It really depends on what your employer offers.

 

[DarkBlack]

Thats the jist of daytrading for me.

What he posted was just a generalization of setting up sell triggers.
Technically, “day trading” is when you enter and exit trades within the same market day. When the market closes, you’re exited of all positions, and back to all cash

 

[drssg]

I've been trading since I was 22, I'm now 44. I had a professor in college that was the head of the Chicago Mercantile exchange. He retired to Wyoming and got board. So he taught one investment class each semester and basically taught us how to momentum trade. It's not day trading.

He taught us how to use the tools available to pick entry and exit points. He taught us how to manage risk with simple tools. It was the best education of my life. I have taught about 5 people how to do it as well. I feel knowledge should be shared. They are now very successful at doing it to.

It's not my primary job though, I am a Actuary that manages risk for all the BCBS plans.

I've made tens of millions in the market, but guess what...you have to sell and buy to make money. Buy and hold is for security, more than anything else.

If you have a 33% gain...sell. That should not be a hard decision.

I'm surprised that you are only 44. You look older in your picture.

I'm always amazed by people that seem to already have more money than they could reasonably spend, and they continue working and striving for more. As soon as I thought that I could live comfortably without working, I was out of there! I hope that you just love your job and find it fulfilling. I have plenty of personal interests, but they don't make money.

Different people have different goals, interests, and risk tolerance. There is not a "one size fits all" approach for investing, even separated by age category. If you are happy working, buying, and selling, then rock on. Other people are more comfortable buying and holding, and many of them do quite well over the long haul.

Off topic: I interviewed at an insurance company once, and they told me an insurance joke.

What do you call an actuary?
It's an accountant without the personality.

(No offence. I just thought it was funny.)

 

[Snobdds]

I'm surprised that you are only 44. You look older in your picture.

I'm always amazed by people that seem to already have more money than they could reasonably spend, and they continue working and striving for more. As soon as I thought that I could live comfortably without working, I was out of there! I hope that you just love your job and find it fulfilling. I have plenty of personal interests, but they don't make money.

Different people have different goals, interests, and risk tolerance. There is not a "one size fits all" approach for investing, even separated by age category. If you are happy working, buying, and selling, then rock on. Other people are more comfortable buying and holding, and many of them do quite well over the long haul.

Off topic: I interviewed at an insurance company once, and they told me an insurance joke.

What do you call an actuary?
It's an accountant without the personality.

(No offence. I just thought it was funny.)

I always just traded on the side. It's my side hustle.

I got into my career at the age of 24. It weird how you start something and it's hard to leave. Plus it gives a person purpose. I don't think trading gives me much purpose. I like the people and the challenge of figuring out how to make healthcare work.

 

[NorTracNY]

I'll give a quick how-to.

I find a stock that has a lot of volatility. You make money on the ups and downs, you make no money on consistency.

Say I buy the stock at $100.
I put in a sell stop at $90.
I only have $10 per share at risk with this. If the stock crashes to $90, I'm out and have a $10 per share loss. But if the price goes up to $110, I raise my sell stop up to $100. Now I'm at a break even. If the stock keeps going up, I just keep raising my sell stop up higher and higher. Once you are above the price of transaction costs and taxes, you now have zero risk in the market. The only cost that keeps going up is the marginal cost of taxes. But if it keeps going up, I'm ok with the marginal tax burden.

Then say the stock gets up to 140 and I have a sell stop at 120 and the market crashes and it hits my sell stop at 120. The tool sells all my stuff automatically and I have a profit of $20 and all I had to do is move sell stops.

There is a bit more nuance, but that is the jist. The key is you have to sell and bank profits.

OK, explain when you buy. You're talking market timing.

 

[Snobdds]

This is the latest stock I'm in. Just last week the RSI hit 30 and the MACD went positive (meaning more money was flowing in vs outflows). It was time to act. I put in a buy order at $11.00 with a sell stop at 9.50. It rallied to $25. I now have a sell stop in at 23. I bought 30K shares. I have a locked in profit of 330K in over a week. If it goes higher, I will just move my sell stop higher. I will sell when the sell stops hit.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

So when you do sell, now you have a cash equivalent. What do you do with it? Presumably you would buy something else but how do you know what and when?

 

[jyoutz]

So when you do sell, now you have a cash equivalent. What do you do with it? Presumably you would buy something else but how do you know what and when?

If we knew the answer to your question, we would all be rich.

 

[Snobdds]

So when you do sell, now you have a cash equivalent. What do you do with it? Presumably you would buy something else but how do you know what and when?

It just goes back into my brockerage account and ready until I do the next transaction.

After awhile you start to get a set of stocks that have a lot of volatility. I just watch them and move when I need to. I will put in orders and if they fill, they fill and if they don't they don't.

I spend maybe a half hour a day doing this.

 

[ultrarunner]

The first thing I would need is reliable Internet… which seems to be elusive no matter where I call home…

When I worked swing I would pay my bills before going to bed… many times when the internet was ok my destination site would be down for maintenance… both local and national sites.

After last year paying property taxes and having one not go through… I went back to paying in person at the county window with time stamped receipt.

Maybe a post for Know Your Old thread?

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Setting an automated sell point is smart. Probably not something I would have though of on my own. But it would require the constant maintenance that you are doing.

The majority of mine and my wife's money are in company 401ks. They do not allow the frequency of trading that you are talking about there is also a very limited pool of investment options. I do have a little bit in a couple of self directed accounts, but I have not had any luck building wealth with them by buying and selling individual stocks.

 

[riptides]

Have you read all the posts here. They are all proud of their paper gains. Not one of them are brave enough to bank the profits, and wait for a better reentry point.

How do you know their price point? Or what they are actually doing?

You don't.

 

[Snobdds]

How do you know their price point? Or what they are actually doing?

You don't.

Well they are more than willing to tell me their % gain. Since I can do math...

I take current price and multiply by 1-their % gain.

Boom...instant price point.

Just for giggles. If current price is 100 and they have a 33% gain. 100*(1-.33)=67. They came in at 67 dollars.

Rip...have many times are you going to challenge me before you learn?

 

[riptides]

Well they are more than willing to tell me their % gain. Since I can do math...

I take current price and multiply by 1-their % gain.

Boom...instant price point.

Just for giggles. If current price is 100 and they have a 33% gain. 100*(1-.33)=67. They came in at 67 dollars.

Rip...have many times are you going to challenge me before you learn?

No challenge. Do not be so full of yourself. Their paper gain has nothing to do with money in hand on their stated goal. Which is an unknown.