Author Topic: Been day/swing trading my retirement account  (Read 25701 times)

Blueberries

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 238
Re: Been day/swing trading my retirement account
« Reply #200 on: June 27, 2019, 12:19:12 PM »
Have you considered creating a thread where you track your day trading against the S&P 500?

Jennifer is trading individual stocks so a public exercise, while perhaps serving other's curiosity, will not serve her and in fact, it is likely to hinder her.  She would do better to keep a private trading journal and analyze her own results. That will benefit her greatly.

But, she's stated she's only trading stocks with a high volume. You think that her posts on the MMM forum would drive enough traffic to/from those stocks to impact her results? People like Warren Buffett have to be careful of things like that - I doubt Jennifer does.

Haha, no.  I didn't suggest that and I did not realize anyone would come to that conclusion.  I should have been more clear - it has nothing to do with her influence (of which she has none yet) and everything to do with psychology.  Hearing every single opinion on her trading will impede her progress whether she's doing well or not.

ILikeDividends

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 459
Re: Been day/swing trading my retirement account
« Reply #201 on: July 02, 2019, 04:25:27 PM »
And I didn't do a single trade in the market since then until October of last year, just before the this last correction.
Sigh.  Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer, I think the salient point you seem to be missing is that choosing NOT to invest in equities for 19-1/2 years IS AN INVESTMENT DECISION.  It's just a matter of what you chose to invest in, instead of an index fund, that makes it a horrible 20 year track record: restaruants, cars, toys and gadgets and whatnot.

The fact that you didn't know about index funds twenty years ago doesn't mitigate the amount of real returns you have missed out on since then.  While challenging to quantify, those "opportunity losses" should be considered real, actual, losses, in terms of achieving your retirement goals.  You can't get that time back.  And despite all the glittering distractions, time is really the only thing any of us have to invest.

Only your investment style has changed; i.e., for the last 20 years your style took no thought or active management to implement.  The style you are adopting now does require thought and active management.  I sincerely hope you get better returns.  I think you're bucking the odds with your current approach, but one can only hope I'm wrong.  Your current approach is certainly no worse than just spending all of your money as it comes in.

Day-trading in a rising market can easily fool you into thinking you're a genius.  I'm not saying you're not a genius; only that a few successes over an extremely short period of time while times are good doesn't prove it.  Please don't make the mistake of thinking it does prove you are a genius.  Humility, above all else, will serve you better than anything else with respect to investing.  Without humility, you can rapidly become your own worst enemy.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2019, 11:00:13 PM by ILikeDividends »

jnw

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2019
Re: Been day/swing trading my retirement account
« Reply #202 on: July 04, 2019, 06:22:57 PM »
I'm tired of the stock market and its daily news. And all the nonsense that comes with it.. politics, etc..
It drains me.  I'm just going to put like 60% in bonds now and the rest in VTI.. wait for the crash then go all VTI for a while.  I don't want to waste another minute of my life thinking about investments.. can't stand it.  I tried it and while I am doing better than VTI index, it takes too much of my time.  I have better things to think about than investing, namely my health.  I need to focus on it more.  It's way more important.

So yeah Bogle, JL Collins and you guys win! I'm convinced.  Lessoned learned.

I probably won't reply to this thread anymore; also probably won't read it anymore after a day or two, after I read all the "I told you so" comments etc. :). Thanks for all the help.. really appreciate it.

BicycleB

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5263
  • Location: Coolest Neighborhood on Earth, They Say
  • Older than the internet, but not wiser... yet
Re: Been day/swing trading my retirement account
« Reply #203 on: July 04, 2019, 08:01:45 PM »
Thanks for posting! I think that takes some social courage at this point, because yes you'll probably hear some of the comments you anticipated. I hope your new approach does bring a lower energy drain.

In any case, your persistance to date is praiseworthy in my opinion, as is your willingness to change paths based on your own learning.

ChpBstrd

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 6656
  • Location: A poor and backward Southern state known as minimum wage country
Re: Been day/swing trading my retirement account
« Reply #204 on: July 05, 2019, 01:30:00 PM »
I agree the tone was condescending in some of these comments. I’m glad you tired of the game before luck came around as it sometimes does with stock-picking/market-timing/day-trading. It’s too bad we can’t figure out a better way to inoculate new investors from the temptations of the “strategies” promoted on places like Seeking Alpha and other clickbait blogs without also coming across as rude.

However, you mentioned you beat the market, so be aware that you may not be fully immunized. Some day when you have six or seven figures to swing around, you will be tempted to see if the old magic is still there, because at that point the ROI on time would be higher if you could make bigger trades.

stashing_it

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 150
Re: Been day/swing trading my retirement account
« Reply #205 on: July 05, 2019, 01:55:48 PM »
I'm tired of the stock market and its daily news. And all the nonsense that comes with it.. politics, etc..
It drains me.  I'm just going to put like 60% in bonds now and the rest in VTI.. wait for the crash then go all VTI for a while.  I don't want to waste another minute of my life thinking about investments.. can't stand it.  I tried it and while I am doing better than VTI index, it takes too much of my time.  I have better things to think about than investing, namely my health.  I need to focus on it more.  It's way more important.

So yeah Bogle, JL Collins and you guys win! I'm convinced.  Lessoned learned.

I probably won't reply to this thread anymore; also probably won't read it anymore after a day or two, after I read all the "I told you so" comments etc. :). Thanks for all the help.. really appreciate it.

I, for one, appreciate it when people post their results good or bad, rather than simply disappearing when things take a downturn.   So I applaud you JenniferW for posting an update where you have changed your mind rather than simply ignoring the thread without a conclusion