[ale] OT: Stock Traders?

[Douglas Bridges]

No offense, but $150 is not really enough to do any investing with if you 
expect to make any money.  Assume that you put it all in one stock, and you 
pay a commission of $15 to purchase that stock.  Then you will need to get a 
12% gain on the stock to get back to even.  That is a type of gain that would 
take about two years on a lower risk stock, and probably one year on a high 
risk stock.  But, then you still also have to cover the commission to sell 
your stock. Thus (assuming a $15 commission to sell stock) you would need to 
take your stock from $135 to $165 to be able to break even when you liquidate 
your stock.  

I would also like to suggest that you stay away from day trading.  First, you 
have to invest enormous amounts of money in it to minimize the above 
mentioned commission problems. Second, day trading is really just gambling.  
You are putting money into a stock hoping that it will do better quickly.  If 
there were a way to determine that a stock is going to do well quickly, 
everyone else would have already invested in the stock.  If you just want to 
have fun, take the $150 dollars to the Silver Star Casino in Philidelphia, 
MS, and have fun at the poker table.

However, I do not want it to sound like investing in stock in a bad thing.  I 
highly recommend it.  But, you should investigate stocks for long term 
potential gains, and then invest your money and keep it in them.  If you need 
general advice in how to manage money, including investing, insurance, and 
all of those other things, I highly recommend getting the book, Personal 
Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson.  The author does not promote any crazy 
schemes or wierd strategies.  He just shows how to minimize transactions 
costs, and make your money grow faster than inflation.

Sorry for the rant,

Doug Bridges

On Thursday 24 April 2003 02:52 pm, Robert L. Harris wrote:
> Anyone here do any day trading as a hoby/investment?  I've got a little
> ($150) I can play with in stock and thinking of just messing with it.
> Looking for some tips, good news sites, etc.
>
> Robert
>
> :wq!
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Robert L. Harris                     | PGP Key ID: E344DA3B
>                                          @ x-hkp://pgp.mit.edu
> DISCLAIMER:
>       These are MY OPINIONS ALONE.  I speak for no-one else.
>
> Diagnosis: witzelsucht
>
> IPv6 = robert at ipv6.rdlg.net	http://ipv6.rdlg.net
> IPv4 = robert at mail.rdlg.net	http://www.rdlg.net

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