Day traders: How much do you have in the stock market?

[jmg]

NOT counting 401k, IRA, mutual funds, etc... I'm talking about for day trading in a self-managed account that you trade day-to-day in. How much do you have in the market? I know there are some serious players out there, and I am definitely not one of them. Just curious as it seems to be a sensitive subject for most of my friends and family. Poll is anonymous!

[chassis]

You mean taxable brokerage accounts, correct?

[jmg]

Originally Posted by chassis

You mean taxable brokerage accounts, correct?

Yes.

[m630]

This is a wild one, I cant undertstand who u consder friends and family that would not share this info as they appear to be little of either in this instance. Day trading is serious, its speculating not investing and I hope you understand it, unless you have a different definiton or understanding of what its all about. First unleas you have a network of market intelligence and financial services contacts, I would not recommend, this is not a novice game, and fortutnes are lost daily even for the most successful - and you have to accept that, have the stomach for that, and most importantly, have the liquidity to do so.
There are so many factors to trading like this that I hope you are aware- again if you are truly speaking of day trading.
I cant give you a number that will make it work for you, but I can say that you have to go in being able to lose 100% of your investment and be able to live with that and heaven forbid you decide to trade on margin, then you need serious capital.
Those close to me that do so for themselves as a game have atleast 250K-500K in play daily as you need scale to make cash in this arena.

Be careful and dont do it as a game unless you can lose it all, because it does happen that fast.

Good luck

[JP10]

I'm just starting out. Threw $1,000 in last month. Up 150%, so I can't complain. Plan to just let it ride this year and see what I can turn that $1,000 into. Then just keep that amount in and keep reinvesting it. Such a small chunk of money that the risk is pretty minimalistic, have been having a solid time haha.

[m630]

That is investing, not day trading.

But you are right, buy value and hold long term, you’ll be very successful.

[MightyMouseTech]

Originally Posted by m630

That is investing, not day trading.

But you are right, buy value and hold long term, you’ll be very successful.

Build wealth, don't try and "make money".

[Littlebear]

If you stay away from margins, options, & just buy good stocks, the market can be fairly safe.
If you expect to pick your own stocks & beat the market, either long term or day trading, it will consume pretty much, to a lot of your time.

Murf

[David70]

Originally Posted by Littlebear

If you stay away from margins, options, & just buy good stocks, the market can be fairly safe.
If you expect to pick your own stocks & beat the market, either long term or day trading, it will consume pretty much, to a lot of your time.

Murf

That's my reason for staying away from anything close to day trading, I think the only way I have a chance to beat the market doing this is to spend a lot of time figuring out what to do (I need to do better than the market which is the average) . I think highly unlikely I spend little time and do well. Then figure my time being worth something I skip it.

Not sure I agree on picking individual stocks (with a small part of my total money) taking up a huge amount of time. If I think company "X" is underpriced for some good reason I can buy it and see what happens without it consuming my time.

The market as a whole is always fairly safe, for individual stocks it depends on what they do.

[Littlebear]

Originally Posted by David70

.... Not sure I agree on picking individual stocks (with a small part of my total money) taking up a huge amount of time. If I think company "X" is underpriced for some good reason I can buy it and see what happens without it consuming my time.

The market as a whole is always fairly safe, for individual stocks it depends on what they do.

Well that's why I said "pretty much" rather than "huge amount" of time (both terms being nebulous, of course)!
Unless you have good 'friends' to advise on where you should put your money, you will need to put some time in.
If you can't beat the market, might as well buy index funds, & get a real job!

Murf

[m630]

Re-individual stocks, one view I pose for your consideration is to remove the though/concern around valuation if you like the company as you’ll not often find these in an expanding market.

What i mean is, if for ex you like a company, say aapl or amzn, and you believe say 10years from now(depending on your time horizon ofcourse) that the company will be successful over that time period, dont worry about the relative price on any particular day. You dont need to time it exact for a long term play, it’ll go up and down in the short term, so you space out your purchases vs a single buy to get a cost avaerge over time that makes up for short bursts in most situations.

I see too many friends that wait and wait and never buy cause they always believe they need to find that stock that is on the down tick vs the up tick and they do nothing and lose out. Many peps lost out on last years historic opportunity due to this view where you could have set yourself up with simply buying companies that almost anyone could predict will still be around 10years from now.
Gotta be in to hope to win even just alittle bit

Id also suggest looking at funds, they can give you multiples of indi stock returns if you research just a bit

[Littlebear]

Originally Posted by m630

Re-individual stocks, one view I pose for your consideration is to remove the though/concern around valuation if you like the company as you’ll not often find these in an expanding market.

What i mean is, if for ex you like a company, say aapl or amzn, and you believe say 10years from now(depending on your time horizon ofcourse) that the company will be successful over that time period, dont worry about the relative price on any particular day. You dont need to time it exact for a long term play, it’ll go up and down in the short term, so you space out your purchases vs a single buy to get a cost avaerge over time that makes up for short bursts in most situations.

I see too many friends that wait and wait and never buy cause they always believe they need to find that stock that is on the down tick vs the up tick and they do nothing and lose out. Many peps lost out on last years historic opportunity due to this view where you could have set yourself up with simply buying companies that almost anyone could predict will still be around 10years from now.
Gotta be in to hope to win even just alittle bit

Id also suggest looking at funds, they can give you multiples of indi stock returns if you research just a bit

In other words, "You gotta spin it to win it."

I consider a weekly adjustment (or so) to be day trading. To do it well you have to pay attention most days.

[jmg]

Originally Posted by m630

This is a wild one, I cant undertstand who u consder friends and family that would not share this info as they appear to be little of either in this instance. Day trading is serious, its speculating not investing and I hope you understand it, unless you have a different definiton or understanding of what its all about. First unleas you have a network of market intelligence and financial services contacts, I would not recommend, this is not a novice game, and fortutnes are lost daily even for the most successful - and you have to accept that, have the stomach for that, and most importantly, have the liquidity to do so.
There are so many factors to trading like this that I hope you are aware- again if you are truly speaking of day trading.
I cant give you a number that will make it work for you, but I can say that you have to go in being able to lose 100% of your investment and be able to live with that and heaven forbid you decide to trade on margin, then you need serious capital.
Those close to me that do so for themselves as a game have atleast 250K-500K in play daily as you need scale to make cash in this arena.

Be careful and dont do it as a game unless you can lose it all, because it does happen that fast.

Good luck

Thanks! I've been investing since the early 2000's but never day trading, opening and closing positions on the same day, until last year when I started working from home. Idle hands syndrome I guess. Plus it was a great time to see gains.

I have enough equity to avoid the restrictions of a PDT and I only trade with what I can lose. I'm still learning a lot so I don't buy on margin. I use a rolling nonmarginalized balance to avoid good faith violations. Overall I have a 15% return. I started small and have built it up slowly.

Maybe I've been more hesitant to ask rather than my friends and family volunteering the extent of their trading. Our discussions are limited to what was bought and sold and % loss/gain rather than actual amounts for the most part. I can use fragments of info to get a general idea but not the whole picture.

[m630]

Totally get it and you sound like you have a solid understanding, as long as the risk is acceptable and the tax implications still provide you with appreciable value that you believe you otherwise could not make with longer term value plays, I say play away. I do assume though that you have a solid portfolio outside of this for the long term as this should be gravy/play money due to risk factors you know well enuff....

...and yeah many of us got ansy over the past year with lockdowns and playing the market is fun!!!!

Ok its NOT sometimes to those not experienced, seriously its a risk and I know nothing!

Continued success!

[amus3d]

Originally Posted by m630

That is investing, not day trading.

But you are right, buy value and hold long term, you’ll be very successful.

I agree. This is investing. Day trading is buying and holding for a few hours before selling. Unless you have a minimal of $25k in your brokerage account, most brokerages won't allow you to day trade.

Anyone investing in Bitcoin? I'm too scared to invest in it.

[jmg]

Originally Posted by m630

Totally get it and you sound like you have a solid understanding, as long as the risk is acceptable and the tax implications still provide you with appreciable value that you believe you otherwise could not make with longer term value plays, I say play away. I do assume though that you have a solid portfolio outside of this for the long term as this should be gravy/play money due to risk factors you know well enuff....

...and yeah many of us got ansy over the past year with lockdowns and playing the market is fun!!!!

Ok its NOT sometimes to those not experienced, seriously its a risk and I know nothing!

Continued success!

Yes, my long term positions are untouched and above the minimum to avoid PDT restrictions. IRA is maxed, I have a pension plan and a Bitcoin account.

One thing I quickly learned is that if you want to trade $X amount a day and don't want to buy on margin, then you actually need $X*3 to play unless you want to lower your expectations. So far I'm up 15% overall with my day trades but I realize this past year was an exception rather than the rule.

[JP10]

Originally Posted by m630

That is investing, not day trading.

But you are right, buy value and hold long term, you’ll be very successful.

I should have specified, 75% (roughly) of my gain was through opening and closing positions in the same day. Wish I opened and closed AMC on the same day, would have more to show for it, went from a 300% gain to a 50% loss lol. Have two positions that I have held for two weeks now as I think they will grow. Obviously this is much easier on my end as the amount of money is quite minimal. Still enjoying it though.

[m630]

@jmg Excellent strategy overall.

On the DTs- thats what i meant earlier with scale, you need to be able to buy 1MM or more fractionals to make any small scale cash daily, thats why u need 250-500 min, and then if u really want to play, you need 1MM+ cash on hand to day trade value stocks, but then you start taking massive risks to match.

[Littlebear]

Originally Posted by jmg

Yes, my long term positions are untouched and above the minimum to avoid PDT restrictions. IRA is maxed, I have a pension plan and a Bitcoin account.

One thing I quickly learned is that if you want to trade $X amount a day and don't want to buy on margin, then you actually need $X*3 to play unless you want to lower your expectations. So far I'm up 15% overall with my day trades but I realize this past year was an exception rather than the rule.

I'm just buying stocks. My 1yr & 2yr gains are too good to mention in polite company.

[jmg]

Originally Posted by amu3ed

I agree. This is investing. Day trading is buying and holding for a few hours before selling. Unless you have a minimal of $25k in your brokerage account, most brokerages won't allow you to day trade.

Anyone investing in Bitcoin? I'm too scared to invest in it.

I started last month in Bitcoin after being skeptical for years. Again, started small and threw in what I could afford to lose then tripled my investment after seeing a 10% return in a week. Tesla invested in Bitcoin then it jumped to $50k and now it's at $55k. Up 22% overall. I try and include one security a day that is somehow tied to Bitcoin or crypto. For example MYT announced an expansion into crypto mining and saw a jump this week. My timing was really bad on that one and I sold before the second spike so I'm really kicking myself. AABB was another one that spiked 300% after they announced gold backed Bitcoin. I was late to that one! The ones you miss are the ones you remember the most I guess.

[m630]

Originally Posted by JP10

I should have specified, 75% (roughly) of my gain was through opening and closing positions in the same day. Wish I opened and closed AMC on the same day, would have more to show for it, went from a 300% gain to a 50% loss lol. Have two positions that I have held for two weeks now as I think they will grow. Obviously this is much easier on my end as the amount of money is quite minimal. Still enjoying it though.

Its been a crazy run this year already and Its def fun!!

And as noted overall, invest long term!

[Tommy-G]

Originally Posted by JP10

I'm just starting out. Threw $1,000 in last month. Up 150%, so I can't complain. Plan to just let it ride this year and see what I can turn that $1,000 into. Then just keep that amount in and keep reinvesting it. Such a small chunk of money that the risk is pretty minimalistic, have been having a solid time haha.

So where did you learn/research etc to get started? I would love to give this a try and your mindset is exactly how I wanted to do it.