day trading or investing from home, what's your suggestion?

P

phrenzy

In Memoriam - July 2017
Silver Stacker
So I've come into a little money, not a lot (really, not a lot) but after paying off my debts I can either buy a used Honda s2000 and holiday to bali or I can try and invest it. I've already got some silver and at these prices I'll probably buy more but I'm close to where I want to be ounce wise and I don't want all my eggs in one basket so I'm looking into other ways to use it.

Thing is it's uni holidays and I have time to learn (and for the time being I'm only part time anyway so I will have time through the middle of next year) so I have been thinking about picking up some sort of day trading or other investment where extra time invested could pay off.

Obviously I would start small but I was hoping to field opinions on the popular day trading options like e-minis, forex or small caps. I've actually had a little success buying and selling camera gear but that's more of a hobby and I've always been interested in learning to trade some instrument or other.

So if you had lots of time and a little money where would you put your efforts?

Before anyone points it out, I plan to use this information to decide what to learn about, not to jump in and start trading, so if anyone has a suggestion for good introductory investment courses I'm all ears.

THANKS!
 
phrenzy said:
Obviously I would start small but I was hoping to field opinions on the popular day trading options like e-minis, forex or small caps.
So if you had lots of time and a little money where would you put your efforts?
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Put it into proven quality large caps that consistently pay franked dividends and find some more productive use of your time. As a student you'll get all your franking credits repaid by the tax office.

I predict you'll lose a big chunk of it trading, only to find you have no talent for it, or much less likely you do have some talent for it. Either way you'll lose a big chunk first probably.

Also a lot of the small caps are just gambling tokens, they are not true businesses. They are cynically invented to make the managements and brokers rich.

I know it's probably futile telling you this, but thought I would anyway. Losing money is the only way to learn.
 
Yup. Screw the small caps. It's all about shying away from the majority of them, as they hype and dive. As long as the directors can siphon their bits off, all good... for them. None of them give a damn about shareholders.
 
there's a few small caps I like that are actually companies, genetic technologies is one I've followed for a while, they've mostly become a patent holding company rather than an R&D company but their share price reflects that and a lucky break on how genetic patents are upheld could effect their value in a big way.

I assumed I would lose a good portion of what I start with learning the ropes but I would start as small as possible.

I thought this might be the general opinion though, there more level headed people I asked basically said not to bother with this sort of trading. Maybe they/you guys are right.


After my surgery when my health is a bit more reliable I thought I would take a gemology/opal course and see if I can find someone to basically apprentice under and take up buying and selling opals and gemstones. Being in SA I'm well placed geographically, maybe that's a better option.

I would devote my efforts to uni but I'm really just trwading water until I can move to Canberra and study at ANU.
 
Hi Phrenzy
I am probably not qualified to offer advice, so take this with a pinch of salt if you like.
Before you take the plunge and put ANY cash into the market, please DYOR.
Read, read, read, study, study, study, Analise, Analise, Analise, and when you have finished, sit down and do it all again.
I have been there back in 2008, put the earnings of fifteen years of running my own company into the share market believing I could set myself up for retirement.
I played the day trades, I played the short term trades, I played the silver and oil futures, by 2011 I was flat broke. I hit the bottle to try and cope with the stress, I had lost my homes and my family. I arrived in a country town with one suitcase and nowhere to live.
Early this year I started to get on top of things, I started buying physical silver, and set myself a goal that was realistic on my meager income to be reached by the end of 2014.
I achieved my goal by the beginning of this month, and made my first small foray back into the share market. I look at it now after ten months and I can still hold and feel the tangible assets, albeit it small compared with what I had back in 2008.
Over the last 6 years, I have studied, read, and paper traded constantly, having plenty of time as am still single, and only now do I feel confident enough to reenter the market on a very small basis.
I cannot stress enough how dangerous the market/futures can be, just from my limited experience, and I now many will try, but I would hate to see one of my fellow stackers make the same mistakes I have. As I said, the Ag price may have dropped, but after losing 15% of my outlay over 12 months, it is not 100% of a much larger outlay over 2 years, and I hold it physically, every day if I want.
I hope you take this little story into account when making your decisions, for your own sake. There are many more smarter people out there than you and I, and the market has no mercy and provides no refunds.
Good Luck
Cheers Rick
 
Bullion Baron said:
What's the area of study? Could you use the funds to start a small business in that area?

Any HECS/HELP debt that can be paid off in bulk for a discount?
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not really, I'm in the humanities and there isn't much call for my speciality in Adelaide.

At the moment with interest rates the way they are I just feel like it's a waste sitting in a saving account even if it's a term deposit.

Maybe I should buy some equity in a promising local start up/small business. I'll hang out in front of the engineering building "pssst...pssst, yeah you, got an idea for a start up? want some first round capital?".

Not much uni debt, I paid for a little outright and a little I could pay off but it's almost not worthwhile.
 
finicky said:
I predict you'll lose a big chunk of it trading, only to find you have no talent for it, or much less likely you do have some talent for it. Either way you'll lose a big chunk first probably.
....
I know it's probably futile telling you this, but thought I would anyway. Losing money is the only way to learn.
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THIS^^^^!!!!

The 4 most important things for successful trading:

1. Know your psychology.
2. Have a risk management plan.
3. Learn your expectancy.
4. Prepare for tuition fees (more commonly known as losing a big chunk).

You can paper trade all you want.... but everything changes when your hard-earned is on the line.

If it were me, I'd be trading FX via CFD's - cheap and easy.
However, stick to just a few pairs, and get to know you markets..... every individual market has it's own characteristics, and every market needs to have it's own plan.
Also, make sure you understand how your trading system works.... why your signals work with respect to market participants and dynamics. If you don't understand this, then you won't understand why or what you are doing.
Lastly, don't read financial news until you are competently making consistent profits - it will skew your judgement, and wreak havoc with your emotions. Remember, T/A does not consider fundamental news, it only looks at market dynamics - it is a system of probability, and not one of being an economics guru.

However, successful trading is one of the most rewarding endeavours there is.... who doesn't love money-for-nothing? :P
 
phrenzy said:
Obviously I would start small but I was hoping to field opinions on the popular day trading options like e-minis, forex or small caps. I've actually had a little success buying and selling camera gear but that's more of a hobby and I've always been interested in learning to trade some instrument or other.
Click to expand...
Before you start day trading you should know that you'll be trading against computers that rarely lose. So unless you have some really clever system you'll almost always lose. Longer term investing will increase your chances of coming out ahead.
 
Barrye said:
phrenzy said:
Obviously I would start small but I was hoping to field opinions on the popular day trading options like e-minis, forex or small caps. I've actually had a little success buying and selling camera gear but that's more of a hobby and I've always been interested in learning to trade some instrument or other.
Click to expand...
Before you start day trading you should know that you'll be trading against computers that rarely lose. So unless you have some really clever system you'll almost always lose. Longer term investing will increase your chances of coming out ahead.
Click to expand...
Disagree.
Don't trade against the computers..... trade with them!
Good T/A involves trading with the market, not betting against it. :)
 
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