# From a different angle:



## GreenAvenue (Dec 28, 2011)

All right, I've read through most of the messages in this section and I'm afraid I have to throw my story over a different angle.

My spouse and I were trapped in the rat race for long until we realized we had to change something. Long story short: we start paying off our debts. 
Now we have only 1 left which is a line of credit, we rent out part of our house and all the rent goes towards the line of credit. We are paying into RRSP and RESP, refinanced mortgage and saved over $400/month, redid the insurances, etc.

Our bank account started to look healthy again in September of last year and we have set money apart for most of the big amounts that are going to come up next year like the sewer payment to town hall and that small stuff. 

Now - and I like some good fundamental and honest feedback - I have $1,000 left. I know, don't laugh, but I want to try to invest this into stock through Questrade. I know. I know: you're probably thinking: a thousand bucks? But I have kept track of a few stocks on a trial account, I read up on the literature and in the trial account I did very well. I elaborated on this idea on a different forum and they declared me crazy and said I was gambling more than investing. The reason for these comments probably where because I explained that I bought and sold stock based on Stochastics. It worked fine for me, it was only small stuff, but I'm wondering why this is such a crazy idea. I don't want to be a day trader but I wouldn't mind making some money. So, if you are reading this, please shoot at me, I'm not a pro but I think I have some knowlegde. Let me know what you think.


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## Saniokca (Sep 5, 2009)

welcome to the forum.

It would be helpful to know what your income is and how much can you save now (is it still $400/m)?

Also, what do you have in terms of savings? Do you have emergency money? For some people $1,000 is not much at all. For others it takes a long time to save that much (whether it's because of income or lifestyle).


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## financialnoob (Feb 26, 2011)

Firstly, congrats on making a big change in your life. You and your spouse deserve a lot of credit for making that change and climbing out of debt and starting to save. You've come quite a long way already.

With regards to the $1,000, is that the amount leftover after your RRSP/RESP and everything else? Or is that the sum of the savings at this point? The rest of the picture would help develop the type of risk you're taking on. Also, what are your goals for this besides making money? There are a lot of different ways to invest. Are there specific goals or timelines associated with this money?


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## jamesbe (May 8, 2010)

More info is needed for sure. It sounds like you are saying is that after all expenses and foreseeable taxes etc you have $1000 left. If so don't invest it you need some type of emergency fund and $1000 doesn't o very far these days.

Back to the savings tiers, you should have IMO 6 months of cash in reserve, I doubt $1000 is enough.


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## slacker (Mar 8, 2010)

Allow me to rephrase your question...

Is $1000 enough for active trading base on technical analysis?

Am I experienced enough to make a profit on stock trading base on something I've read about called "stochastic oscillator" ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_oscillator

If you have to ask, you probably are not ready.

If active momentum trading is truly what you want to do, I'd suggest amassing much more capital first.

PS: A recent post on trading vs investing.

http://wheredoesallmymoneygo.com/trading-investing-or-both/


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

GreenAvenue said:


> We are paying into RRSP and RESP, *refinanced mortgage and saved over $400/month*, redid the insurances, etc.


What?

So you refinanced your mortgage and you want to spend $1,000 on trading?

If this is the case, the answer is: No.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

KaeJS said:


> What?
> 
> So you refinanced your mortgage and you want to spend $1,000 on trading?
> 
> If this is the case, the answer is: No.


What?

What does the fact that they refinanced have to do with anything?


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## GreenAvenue (Dec 28, 2011)

All right, I guess I have to apologize for not being very clear.
We paid off all our debts. On top of that we refinanced and we got new contracts with a different insurance company. All of this gave us more financial room. We are saving, we are paying into RRSP and RESP. So, this is one part. I didn't want to go into much detail. 

If we talk about 'investing', than no, that's not what I'm doing. I opened up a trial account with Questrade and started trading there. I wanted to see if I could make some more money with the little bit that I had. It had worked on the trial account. But... I read up on a lot of literature, I know it can be different in real life. I was succesful on the trial account because I checked a number of details before I bought stock. 
The second part of my post is in regards to the selling point. If based on the history of the price the stock has reached it's highest point (Stochastics) is that the moment to sell? And what is your opinion on that. 

I know I'm not ready, I am learning and I'm hoping to pick the brains of the more seasoned and experienced to learn what you do.


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## Saniokca (Sep 5, 2009)

Didn't you say that you have a mortgage and a line of credit? Mortgage is still debt... same with LOC.

Based on what you provided so far and the fact that you do have debt I would say hold off on that until you get them paid off (your eagerness to invest might motivate you to pay off the mortgage and line of credit even faster).

On a side note, how much rent are you getting from your tenants? what happens to your savings if they leave? or if you get tired of them?


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

For some reason I'm having a bit of trouble following what is being asked, but if I'm understanding right the OP is looking for a little guidance. In that case, I can echo what was written above, and that is that $1000 isn't a lot of money and that rainy day savings should come first. Build up cash reserves first (I'm in the middle of this process and am finding it's taking me several years!) and worry about investing second.

If you follow this advice, you will have time. $1000 isn't going to make or break anything important in your life. It's enough to last you maybe 2 weeks? So, if you wanted to learn how to research, invest etc with this $1000 (treat it as disposable) while you save, that might work. Is that what you're getting at?


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## slacker (Mar 8, 2010)

She's asking for people to help her with this:

http://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school:technical_indicators:stochastic_oscillator


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## cannadian (Dec 30, 2011)

Hey, sorry if this gets a little too personal or detailed, if it does ignore the questions – I’m just trying to get a better picture of your situation/where you want to be etc.

How old are you and your spouse?

When do you guys want to retire?

What kind of lifestyle do you guys want to live when you retire? By this I mean, would $50,000 a year support the lifestyle you guys want to live? 

Can you put a rough number to it?

What are your incomes like?

From this point forward, how much do you guys think you’ll be able to save/invest per year?

It sounds like you’re more interested in trading than investing, is that correct? Investing being a more long-term strategy of buying solid companies and holding them versus trading stocks short-term based on technical/charts/other indicators..

I’m just starting to dabble a little bit into trading myself, so I can’t offer any advice there, but from what I hear it’s very hard to get to the point where you can be consistently profitable. 

Regardless though of whether you want to be a trader or investor, a good amount of saving/investing is required in any retirement plan anyways – unless you want to risk your retirement on trading....

That being said, my brother switched from playing poker to trading stocks last year, and he just bought a text-like book called “the laymens guide to trading stocks” and he can’t stop raving about how good it is, if you check it out on Amazon it has close to 100 reviews and a 5 star average – pretty damn good, I’m considering buying it myself for reading this summer.

There’s probably a ton more to ask to get a good picture of your situation but I’ll leave it here for now..

I'm kind of new to this all myself though so I probably won't be of much help even when you provide answers to the above, but I'm sure there will be people here who can help you more when they have more information


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