If Belguy is hiding under his bed, maybe it's time to buy.
If Belguy is hiding under his bed, maybe it's time to buy.
Than why you don't short? TZA or FAZ?Originally Posted by ddkay
YRI: might regret it like I did the last time, but could not resist the $.57 cents profit from yesterday's purchase price, so sold 1/2 [$14.01/$14.58].
TLM: bought/sold all shares same day for $.13 cents profit [$13.87/$14]. Might buy again as shares are nearing my buying price from earlier today.
Homerhomer: no way I could pull this kind of trade with AAPL like you were saying the other day. $10K would buy me a mere 25 AAPL shares and unlikely I could exit same day, whereas I can make a couple of trades with same capital by exiting quick enough.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
I don't see why not? 1% gain is 1% gain, mind you AAPL may or may not be good candidate for day trading but it swings more than that on daily basis, if you buy it for $396 and sell it for $400 the result would be the same. Higher price may warrant more stability, but I look at percentage gain as my goal (and at the end I really think we are talking about the same thing, just slightly different approach).
I am not questioning the fact that some stocks are better for it than others, but as long as there is volume and the stocks move up or down the end result is the same whether you trade 25 shares ($400 each) or 250 shares ($40 each), price would only come to play in extremes like Berkshire which limits the volume due to it's price, and obviously penny stocks which experience even bigger daily or hourly swings.
Last edited by Homerhomer; 2011-10-21 at 04:51 PM.
I have never shorted anything in my life before this week except indirectly through puts. I started using TZA for my US non-reg account and HVU.TO for my CA reg accounts at TDW (afaik HUV/HVU/VXX are the only ways to go long volatility through the TSX). There's also some inverse VIX names I need to consider for crazy up days like today.
I noticed a lot of people like to start a "traders portfolio" and go long or short 50 names and hedge with call spreads and puts and all that.. that's too complicated for me especially with the market being this volatile. I don't usually like to get behind more than one or two names at a time.
Equity bulls are crazy, completely irrational and always take things to extremes. If you have a negative bias, you can never forget your opponents attributes because bulls will bulldoze you over. To be a bear takes a lot of patience and a lot of doing the opposite of what you believe in. Eventually things will crack, but when they do, it'll be easier to go short than long. It's the newest generation of investors that get hurt for following one sided advice, the newest generation of investors that run and never look back (pretty sure this is why Japan has yet to recover, along with flat population and declining birth rates since 1990).
I have learned a hundred times more about this trading in these last 3 months than I learned all of last year. I'm also up modestly since August. IMO observing/learning from others mistakes, being quick, staying light on exposure and having discipline means everything in this game. I'm not going to bet the farm and hope to get lucky, that's too dangerous and just not my style.
I'm surprised that you "never shorted anything in my life before this week"...
I know that a lot of guys playing a lot with TNA/TZA and FAZ/FAZ on this forum and on www.stockstobuy.org
If I had available money allocated to equities, I'd buy TZA today at $35.96 (now it's kinda paper trade - just want to see if i was correct)... Even though for me to go with short ETFs in real life is difficult psychologically... it's some kind of perversion, it's like I wish that bad thinks in economy will happen.
I hold all my equities only in registered accounts and I go long and just hope that in 10-15-20 years when I need this money, I'll get some gains on average.... and if in the world will be khaos and destruction - what to do with this money?
I did the math and yes, you're right of course.
But like I mentioned earlier, I don't pay attention to percentages. For example, I don't know what return I made on YRI/TLM today nor will I know until I update my records, I just know I made X amount.
You seem to be more of a swing-trader, so I understand that your goal is a specific % whereas I'm more of a day-trader, hence my goal is to exit the trade quickly & to get my capital back & I just feel more comfortable doing so with stable/high volume/cheaper stocks [you can't exit at .2 cents with AAPL, but you can if you have 5000 shares & in a blink of an eye].
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
I don't think we're going into a world of chaos and destruction, just a world with a lower rate of growth, and the majority of that growth is shifting to creditor nations (most likely the BRICs). Ever since Japan corrected, there are few new 'index investors', even the most bullish of the bullish Japan equity bulls say they never expect to see the Nikkei at 1990 highs again, it's a pure market timers/stock pickers market.
In the past couple of weeks I have bought:
MSFT
PM
Citi
WFC
BAC
AIG
BAM.A
AAPL
I almost bought PEP but it didn't drop to 60. I almost bought RY but it didn't drop to 45.
Bought ZJG yesterday at 17.80.
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