Online Stock Trading

[Kruelgor]

It's an up and rising cultural phenomenon. There are more "common folk" investing in the stock market than ever before because of the ease of the Internet.

Many people are making far more money investing themselves than they could have with a traditional stock broker.

I have recently becomed possessed by it. It's educated gambling with far better odds than any casino. I'm loving it.

You? Any online traders here?

 

[Lillefix]

Can you or anyone else explain to us ignorants what this actually is? And what the difference between that and ordinary stock trading is, other than it's on the internet.

 

[Kruelgor]

Can you or anyone else explain to us ignorants what this actually is? And what the difference between that and ordinary stock trading is, other than it's on the internet.

You've seen the TV commercials: Etrade, ScottTrade, and TD Ameritrade, etc..

For a small fee, you're basically doing all the stock trading yourself. There are a lot of options and capability with it all. Very powerful tools are available. The Internet is what makes it all possible.

What's really cool is the "margin account" which basically they give you money to trade with. ETrade, for example, if you have at least $2000 then they will match your "real dollars" and give that to you at a very small interest rate. So, if you start with $2000, you essentially have $4,000 to invest with but I wouldnt recommend that for long term investments, only for short term because there is daily interest.

 

[Theige]

Been doing it on and off since my sophomore year of college. (Since the fall of 2006)

Any large bank has offered very cheap online trading since then. I use Bank of America, as I can link my investment account directly to my other accounts (debit, savings, credit) that I have with them.

 

[Zelig]

You've seen the TV commercials: Etrade, ScottTrade, and TD Ameritrade, etc..

I've never seen commercials for any of these.

I use Questrade. Trading with regular banks online tends to be needlessly expensive.

 

[Theige]

I've never seen commercials for any of these.

I use Questrade. Trading with regular banks online tends to be needlessly expensive.

$9 a trade is expensive?

Also give you 30 free trades per month if you have $25k in savings

 

[FriendlyFire]

How much time have you invested ?
And how much money have you made/lost on your trades ?

 

[amadeus]

It's an up and rising cultural phenomenon. There are more "common folk" investing in the stock market than ever before because of the ease of the Internet.

Many people are making far more money investing themselves than they could have with a traditional stock broker.

Signed, 1996.

 

[Zelig]

$9 a trade is expensive?

Also give you 30 free trades per month if you have $25k in savings

Well, that's on par with Questrade, but that price is cheaper than Canadian banks - I assumed dedicated online US brokers would undercut bank fees in the US as well.

 

[Kruelgor]

How much time have you invested ?
And how much money have you made/lost on your trades ?

I invest maybe 8 hours per week analyzing stocks. When I purchase a stock, I hold on to it for less than 7 trading hours. I may even buy or sell it in premarket or aftermarket hours. There are triggers which you set that will buy/sell the stock when it hits a certain price. I've been doing it since November and I'm averaging about a 50% gain per month.

 

[Tani Coyote]

I'm a big online trader, managing both my own humble 1700 dollar account and my father's 35 K account(he had to withdraw 10 K recently for my brother's wedding).

My personal gains, YTD, are:

I've deposited 1488, current account value is 1650(one stock dipped a bit after I bought it recently). So since May of 2010, I've made profits of 162. Not too shabby.

The gains I've overseen in my father's account amount to 1661, AFTER taxes and fees, this was done by short-term trading(usually ranging from a few hours to two weeks tops) with around 10-20 K. I also convinced him to sell off many of his long-term stocks while he was ahead, netting him 6K or so this fiscal year.

Overall, we've done good so far.

 

[amadeus]

So what sources of information do you use to make decisions about whether to buy or sell a company's stock?

 

[JerichoHill]

As a very well versed stock trader, I must say, that if you think you're getting better odds than vegas, you might be a bit too confident. It's very tough to have consistently good returns for a long period of time. I never let myself get over confident, its very deadly to do so.

Note: so far, 8 years, lowest return year was 8%, highest 16%, all net after taxes. Which implies that this is not something that just happened.

EDIT1: I do not encourage anyone attempt Kruelgor's day trading unless you really want alot of stress. Day traders pay hefty short-term capital gains taxes, and technical analysis is anything but perfect. Further, since November the market has been a very good for anyone going long on stocks. I am assuming Kruelgor has no short positions , and that really leaves one exposed when the downturn comes. And day-trading is notoriously short on long-term winners. Most people lose money.

This is a pretty easy market to be making money by longing stock.

(Reminder: I have been with GetRichSlowly.Org for 4 years and run my own (free!) personal finance program for college students).

EDIT2: Buying on Margin also increases risk, and the interest rate ain't that cheap, it is always normally about a point above the prime. So if you are using Margin, keep in mind you must earn back the interest rate you are paying before you are earning $$$.

 

[Yared]

I've just recently opened a so called "depå" at a bank. Granted, I'm just 17 and a week and I don't work so I don't have a steady income to save beyond youth welfare, but I'll use my savings to at least get some experience with trading.

Right now I'm just reading through different blogs (I'm subscribed to like 15 of them).

 

[JerichoHill]

Yared,

Just read Warren Buffett's annual report to get an idea. Don't let ANYONE manage your money for you, and don't take anyone's "well intentioned" advice on a stock. I lost quite a bit of money in my younger days being foolish. I'd rather make mistakes myself.

 

[Yared]

Thanks The advice is appreciated.

 

[Cheetah]

$9 a trade is expensive?

Also give you 30 free trades per month if you have $25k in savings

$9 USD??!?!?

I pay roughly $1.8 USD per trade, unless it's more than a $20,000 USD trade, for which they charge a tiny percentage instead.

 

[JerichoHill]

Sharebuilder is cheap

 

[Takhisis]

It's just yet another form of gambling. We don't get much of that down here.

 

[Theige]

It's just yet another form of gambling. We don't get much of that down here.

No, it's not.