Anyone here play on the stock market? What investment places do you use ie etrade etc.

my money is with me.... I use TradePMR as the custodian as well as BrokersXpress.

 

If you want a cheap account to trade with http://www.brokersxpress.com/

 

hit open account, select Maks Financial Services as advisor.

 

$9.95 trades, Options even cheaper. Free real time trading, tools, research. etc.

Scottrade, $7 per trade regardless of size for equities, and you can trade options if you wish to. No futures trading with their basic platform though.

There's an old saying "the stock market separates the middle class from there money".

There's an old saying "the stock market separates the middle class from there money".

 

 

eh, so is the lottery....

 

biggest issue i see facing most people is they are trying to be too active....

 

They try to daytrade on fundamentals, or buying long term on short term technicals. I know a guy who started trading options. Started with a $300 account. turned it into $90k within 3 weeks on the way the market was down. then turned the $90k into $120 dollars in 2 weeks after.

 

70% of retail traders lose 100% of their money within a year, and 95% lose it all within 3 years.

 

Same thing with gambling. 70% of the people going to casinos are up at some point during their trip. Of those 70%, 90% end up giving back their gains, and losing most if not all of their own money.

 

In the 6 years I have been an advisor, and in the 12+ years I have been investing, and trading at some points, I have encountered probly 200+ people who traded/invested by themselves. I only know of 2 who do it consistently, and profitably. One of those people is on the board and has written a few tiny books about it on amazon.

 

it is not to say no one can do it, but if you are trading, by the time you hear about it on the news/cnbc/bloomberg/fox business, it is wayyyyy too late. Besides, who do you think a channel like CNBC is watched by? the vast majority of people watching CNBC are patients waiting to see their doctor, people waiting on line at Wachovia to deposit their checks, or stay at home moms waiting for Suze Orman to come on. Besides, firms like UBS, Bank of America/ML, Morgan Stanley/Smith Barney would not be advertising on there if the target audience was financial professionals.

 

If you want news.... you either have to be the one making the news, or at the very least, have a Bloomberg Terminal with all of the live streams.

 

There is a whole industry geared towards do it yourselfers. Their whole focus is for you to buy a system. Then they give you ultra low commissions to encourage you to be hyperactive with your trades, with the person trying to day trade to get $.25 cents move, and get dinged with $10 per trade, meanwhile the people really geared towards this type of trading are paying no more than a penny or two per share.

 

People go to doctor's, lawyers, and others to get unbiased advice. Why shouldnt it be the same for money? It is the same reason I dont day trade my own money, and my "gambling" (what i call my trading/speculative account) is only 10% of the total picture.

 

Lets put it another way.... think of all the affluent people you know of, then think of all the wealthy people you know of. How many of them day traded their way there.... and how many ammased their wealth by building a business, being a professional, or simply putting away 10% of their pay into something as simple as a mutual fund?

 

One of my wealthiest clients, worth over 5mil, half of which is liquid, never made alot of money, most he ever made while working was $50k. But what he did do was put away between 10% and 20% of his income away into savings, into an emergency fund, into insurance policies, mutual funds, and a few select stocks.

 

It is always good to know where you money is, but if you want to day trade.... please just open up a demo account at a place like options house.... or many of the cyber/fantasy stock exchange sites. After you have at least a year worth of results, beating the respectable index... then consider investing/trading your own money. Or honestly, contact tiny..... he works with newbies all the time, and out of the hundreds of "professional" traders that I know, he is the only one that truly gets it and can teach folks.

I know a guy who started trading options. Started with a $300 account. turned it into $90k within 3 weeks on the way the market was down. then turned the $90k into $120 dollars in 2 weeks after.

 

And the stock spinners will say he only lost $180 in the market... :roll: :roll: :roll:

Once I ask a friend an economist if he could give some advised as to what stock to buy. His answer was, hung the World Street Journal stock page aand throw a dart, trade the stock that you hit, you probably have more luck.

Thanks a lot for the input guys.

very well said, Maks. I wish people will really listen to your advice. Go for the long haul... Not the quick fix.

very well said, Maks. I wish people will really listen to your advice. Go for the long haul... Not the quick fix.

 

thanks.

 

It really is much like riding a motorcycle.... Its not a question of if you will drop it, it is a question of when will you drop it. And when it happens, you hope it isnt too bad.

 

On my wall, next to the computer monitor, and on my phone as a daily reminder, I have a list of all of my "lessons learned" from day trading, and how much that lesson cost me.

 

hell, even if you listen to cramer or read his books, he recommends only gambling/trading 20% of your account at the most.