I got off early from work today and got to play with the market for the first time in months. I did some short selling on Google calling up Fidelity at 2:58 covering it. I made a nice easy $2,200 today + additional work salary. I also saw your other post about investing for the long run. What exactly are you waiting for? Obviously you know your stuff. My dad is a day trader and has a pretty nice return for the year already. He made over 12k last week alone (you said you have 40 years before retirement, how many assets can you possibly own at such a young age?). If you have the knowledge, time to research, and discipline to not become so greedy, it's real easy to make money in the market at any point. Bottom line: I strongly advise not taking advice from this wakkoman. The guy truly is nutty.
I beg to strongly disagree with you on this one redefined. Everything that wakkoman said in his post is pretty much on point. Notice how he said he would advise against short-selling to "someone who is new to the market". I don't think he said anything relating how you can't make money with short-selling. You can definitely do this, but there's a lot more speculation involved than when picking stocks with strong fundamentals. Anyway, he also mentioned buying options instead of just direct short selling of stocks. Options will basically reward you the same way if you're correct on a stock, but you need much less money and lowers your risk substantially.
What exactly am I waiting for? I am less risk tolerant you are. So what? I already said I completely understand people that can afford and make short term trades and short selling, but it is not my cup of tea. History has shown long term to be more successful than day trading, but there are always exceptions. Your dad made 12k in the last week. Great for him. I just don't believe you can consistently turn out that kind of profit and win in the long run. Transaction costs also diminish your returns as well as the higher tax rate on a short term capital gain. I was simply giving my advice to a guy who does not market experience. I believe it would be incredibly hard for someone to succeed at shorting before they even learn the basics of the stock market and have some experience. And for my assets level, I will not disclose that kind of personal information on here but since you have Fidelity, I can tell you I am in the Private Access program. That should give you enough information.
I'm not in here discussing what people new to the market should be doing. I couldn't care less about them. Like I said, wakkoman knows his stuff (like me, he's a finance major). Right now my job doesn't allow me to sit and research (working anywhere from 14-24 hours a day), we do have CNBC on at the office, but I promise you nobody has a clue what's going on. But my thing is this, wakkoman is posting at 3 in the morning and pretty much all afternoon. I don't know where he works, but if you have that much time to spend in this thread, you can easily be successful making money on a day-to-day basis, especially with his type of knowledge base. What's wrong with keeping a diversified portfolio and then on top of that making some extra daily trades here and there? I am and have always been successful short-selling, therefore try and promote it. Thanks, but I'm now going to flamboyantly waive that 2200 bucks I made in a few minutes time frame.
I want to become as proficient as you. Can you recommend some books or classes that helped you the most?
If I had to recommend a book, it would be "Technical Analysis of Financial Markets" by John J. Murphy. Very, very educative and well worth the price. You'll learn a lot more from studying it than you'll get from these dime-a-dozen seminars being announced on radio and TV.
Dude, just because you've been successful at something doesn't mean that the next person will. Your risk tolerance and assets to play with would also differ from the next person. What I was saying was that a few members on this board have pointed out investing concepts, that are widely accepted by most economists and investing gurus. The bottom line is that if you're a beginner, don't mess with short-selling; and that put options have less risk than direct short-selling.
nononono he talked about making 2200 in a few minutes. biiiiiiiiiig difference senor brightside...how many trades do you think redefined has lost on? my guess is zero. what do you think?
I'm pretty sure he is Stevie Cohen of SAC Capital. He graces us with his presence here on Clutchfans. You can always tell a rookie to the market, b/c he will be talking in dollar terms instead of percent terms in regards to profit and loss. But I do agree somewhat, with redefined in his theory on short selling. I don't find it any different from going long. I actually find going short easier. I guess the only theoretical difference is that in going long your maximum loss is if a stock goes to zero as opposed to going short having unlimited risk.
The most you can make being short is 100% not including puts. You can make a lot more then that being long. I love the short etfs. They are great inventions.
So housing starts are at an all time low, which sent the market down this morning despite Warren Buffett trying his best to tell everybody now is the time to buy for the long term. Seems like low housing starts is actually a good thing for the long term. Should help with the current crop of existing homes sitting on the market to not have a lot more come online. The realtors that my Dad deals with have pointed out that despite the slowing real estate market in Houston (not quite as bad as the rest of the country), that they foresee a better market in the next 6-9 months as the housing starts slowing down will bring supply back into line with demand.
This is exactly right....believe it or not, unless you're a homebuilder, this is good news...because the need to pump up the value of existing homes is so high and is affecting so much else. The housing market, even in really hot areas of Houston, has been stale for about 6 months now.
