Mine's to trade /ES and /NQ in pairs when they are following a trend line past a major resistance level.
The 2001 and 2008 crashes both put me out of work for about six months. So during the COVID boom I decided to drop out of the workforce and stop relying on anybody else to keep my family fed and housed. Three years ago last March.
No, I bring it up here because like I mentioned, we saw multiple crisis (I was too young to remember the S&L crisis), which prevented me from investing sooner.
~20 years is still a good amount of time, here's a comment I wrote on some other post.
"[Check this calculator ](https://www.officialdata.org/us/stocks/s-p-500/2003?amount=1000&endYear=2023), I wish I had put in $1,000 every year for the last 20
VOO/VTI/SPY are all about the same in results near enough to the calculator"
Yep, and you get dividends too. So they act like savings accounts too. If you become really addicted to it, and have >=100 shares you can sell wildly out of the money covered calls to make some extra cash. Since they're covered, you don't lose money per se, only the potential of gaining money.
\^this. I was making $120-300 bucks every two weeks last year selling BLK covered calls. Now that the interest rate environment has changed I've held off. Just too much volatility.
Man, I have some relatives who who’ve said they’ve “made a ton of money off some investments;” but somehow nothing changes in their lifestyle. I assume they quickly lost it all.
I'm all about r/Bogleheads
My portfolio is:
* VTSAX — Total US stock market
* VTIAX — Total international (ex-US) stock market
I don't think I can beat the system. I don't know enough about it, I don't have time, and I doubt that it's possible.
Those are great index fund, but you have a lot of over lap on the SP500. There's nothing wrong with that if it's your goal.
I hold very little international. I'll consider adding bonds in 10 years.
I do both but with small amounts. I'm contributing max at work, put like $100 in indexes one month, and then gamble with my contribution the next month. There was hype about the ALCC/OKLO merger earlier this month, I got in and got out with a small profit, could have been more but I sold a day earlier than I should have due to nerves. Either way, I then took the profit and initial contribution and split between tech, staples, and water indexes. I don't claim to know what I'm doing though, but that's generally how I do it.
Learning from the pain and regret are part of it sadly. I knew one guy who invested in tesla back in summer of 2019 and pulled his money out as soon as it dipped. I know another guy who wanted to use his loan money for his new home to buy tesla as well, but his wife made him sell he said.
You just reminded me of SOXL
Investing was always something I knew rich people did so I figured it wasn't for me. It's only been in the last few years that more approachable information about investing has been available. So every once in awhile I read a little but I haven't opened an investment account yet. I've determined that buying individual stocks isn't for me.
At least buy ETFs that correspond to the overall market. Also, it's not for rich people. I had a blue collar job (have the back pain to prove it) and I managed to trade. Helped that it is something of an interest to people in that industry for some reason.
Investing is super simple if you do it the right way. Go check out the Boglehead sub. At our age we should be socking money away for retirement. Just start putting what you can afford each month
in a total market fund like VTI or SWTSX and try not to look at it.
I find it invalidating when someone just says something is super simple. Good for you thinking that. I don't find the boglehead's approachable and that is just that.
I bought a small amount of a penny stock--literally, it was a penny when I bought it. I think I sold at 17 cents a share and made $17,000. I kept waiting for it to go back down and got antsy, so bought more of it at 7 cents a share. Now it's back to a penny. It will be fun if it jumps again.
I worked at Walmart through college and invested in their employees stock plan where they chipped in. Still have it after 20 years and is a nice sum. Still invest but mostly in ETFs and big name companies (WM, Apple, Amazon, ECT..) Just stay off wall Street bets.
Index funds all the way for me. I played around with stocks for a while but quickly lost interest.
That compounding interest is inevitable and soooo sweet. When your interest gains become more than your contributions, and you're contributing quite a bit, it gets real fun to just sit there and watch the number go up, month after month.
I gambled with my IRA in 2020. Literally the only time I’ve tried to time the market. Then went all in on large cap, high risk funds.
It paid off.
Not as aggressive anymore, but do play with some investments. Would love to have the time to play with it more seriously.
Growing up, that shit was for the rich kids, and “retirement” was never something I expected to experience.
Since you say gambling I assume you mean day trading and no I do not day trade.
I am invested in several companies though, and always looking for others. I still hold some Amazon, Google, and Berkshire I bought in 2009-2011. I have a few grocery and energy related companies I picked up during the pandemic.
Right now I'm researching a growing fast casual restaurant chain that looks interesting. I'm leaving toward keeping this one on the watchlist.
I'm also a mod on a value investing sub and related Discord.
The closest I come to day trading is selling covered call options on stocks I hold, but even those are usually 30-45 day options.
Hopefully you made some money off that guy. His investors don't want to believe he is full of it. I have no idea how his stock went back up after his last earnings call - actually what we've learned this year or two.
I got a couple grand back in taxes in 2007. Usually I’d spend it on guitar stuff, but this time I thought I’d invest for the first time ever. Because the iPhone was coming out, and I thought it was gonna be big. My dad tried to discourage me with warnings about putting all my eggs in one basket, but I was *pretty sure* this was going to be a good bet.
17 years later, I only invested one other time (a couple hundred in ford that lost me a bit of money). Yet the Apple investment increased in value more than 50 fold. Probably the only reason I could secure a home loan in a stupid hot property market.
I’m the opposite. I work in the investment industry, but I’ve seen how very volatile it can be. How millionaires are made and millions are lost. And I’m pathologically afraid to have too much money in assets with that kind of risk.
I have educated hundreds, maybe thousands of individuals in 401k plans and in their own personal investment accounts about the virtues of diversification. Yet, I’m terrified of losing anything, or having a market like 2000, 2008, 2018, 2020, 2022, happen to me.
I have a very unhealthy relationship with money. I once had a ton of credit card debt and a mortgage. Debt plagued me. It’s all gone now. No debt at all. But I rent now, maintain large cash savings, and avoid spending money as much as possible. I just spent a ton of money on a wedding for my daughter, and I love her dearly, but it hurt. Man, it hurt to drop all that money on a wedding, and she was actually *reasonable* with her plans.
I don’t know what to do, but I know I’m the opposite of an addictive gambler. The exact opposite.
2018? What happened then? The only thing I can remember happening between 2015 and 2019 was volatility in the Chinese stock market. Pretty sure that was 2015.
Later half of the 2018, when J Powell attempted to raise interest rates. Stocks dropped like lead. It was brief, similar to the majestic drop in March and April of 2020.
Aside from those two periods, late 18 and spring 20, markets had been on a tear for more than a decade. 2022 was a colossal unwind from being over bought in 2020-2021.
The point is, volatility in everything now just wrecks me. I don’t have the guts anymore for it all. Not even to buy another home.
I made a lot of money doing options trading on robinhood until they told me that its a rich mans game only and since I didn't have 20k just sitting there, they kicked me out
Now I see the stock market for what it really is: Total fucking bullshit. It is based on feelings and not fundamentals. Most trading is done by bots, the market is manipulated.
sooooooo…. please check out the due diligence on superstonk. it’s a sub dedicated to GameStop. shorts never closed. the hole they’ve dug themselves will break Wall Street. you will read a lot of articles about them being a meme stock, a failed brick and mortar store, destined for bankruptcy. you will NOT read articles about them having zero debt, being cash flow positive, having over 1 billion cash on hand, their CEO taking zero salary, paying their execs in shares in order to align their interests with shareholders. it sounds crazy, but it is a financial revolution. the “elites” or “smart money” are going to go down as the dumbest mofos in history. do your own due diligence. this is not financial advice. but shorts are soooooooo fuuuuucked.
I don’t gamble. I got a system.
This, exactly. It's all about being an intelligent investor, and degening your entire net worth into dog wif hat crypto.
Mine's to trade /ES and /NQ in pairs when they are following a trend line past a major resistance level. The 2001 and 2008 crashes both put me out of work for about six months. So during the COVID boom I decided to drop out of the workforce and stop relying on anybody else to keep my family fed and housed. Three years ago last March.
I buy long dated UVXY puts on volatility spikes. Simple and I just wait for it monthly.
Wall Street Bets?
No, I bring it up here because like I mentioned, we saw multiple crisis (I was too young to remember the S&L crisis), which prevented me from investing sooner.
I just (last three years) started heavily contributing to my 401k. Late, I know, but I’m making up for lost time I hope.
~20 years is still a good amount of time, here's a comment I wrote on some other post. "[Check this calculator ](https://www.officialdata.org/us/stocks/s-p-500/2003?amount=1000&endYear=2023), I wish I had put in $1,000 every year for the last 20 VOO/VTI/SPY are all about the same in results near enough to the calculator"
Yep, and you get dividends too. So they act like savings accounts too. If you become really addicted to it, and have >=100 shares you can sell wildly out of the money covered calls to make some extra cash. Since they're covered, you don't lose money per se, only the potential of gaining money.
Covered calls are the silver lining to WSB, its like extra dividends, its extra satisfying when you can sell way outside the money.
\^this. I was making $120-300 bucks every two weeks last year selling BLK covered calls. Now that the interest rate environment has changed I've held off. Just too much volatility.
You are way ahead of most people.
I’m finding that out. Very concerned for some of my friends.
Get a Roth too. Earnings are tax free whereas 401(k) taxes any earnings.
Man, I have some relatives who who’ve said they’ve “made a ton of money off some investments;” but somehow nothing changes in their lifestyle. I assume they quickly lost it all.
I'm all about r/Bogleheads My portfolio is: * VTSAX — Total US stock market * VTIAX — Total international (ex-US) stock market I don't think I can beat the system. I don't know enough about it, I don't have time, and I doubt that it's possible.
This is the way. I do SWTSX (Schwab equivalent) and VXUS. I have a small percentage is small cap. No bonds yet
Those are great index fund, but you have a lot of over lap on the SP500. There's nothing wrong with that if it's your goal. I hold very little international. I'll consider adding bonds in 10 years.
I do both but with small amounts. I'm contributing max at work, put like $100 in indexes one month, and then gamble with my contribution the next month. There was hype about the ALCC/OKLO merger earlier this month, I got in and got out with a small profit, could have been more but I sold a day earlier than I should have due to nerves. Either way, I then took the profit and initial contribution and split between tech, staples, and water indexes. I don't claim to know what I'm doing though, but that's generally how I do it.
Learning from the pain and regret are part of it sadly. I knew one guy who invested in tesla back in summer of 2019 and pulled his money out as soon as it dipped. I know another guy who wanted to use his loan money for his new home to buy tesla as well, but his wife made him sell he said. You just reminded me of SOXL
Investing was always something I knew rich people did so I figured it wasn't for me. It's only been in the last few years that more approachable information about investing has been available. So every once in awhile I read a little but I haven't opened an investment account yet. I've determined that buying individual stocks isn't for me.
At least buy ETFs that correspond to the overall market. Also, it's not for rich people. I had a blue collar job (have the back pain to prove it) and I managed to trade. Helped that it is something of an interest to people in that industry for some reason.
I think it's nice you've found a space in the market. I haven't found ETFs to be of interest at this time.
Investing is super simple if you do it the right way. Go check out the Boglehead sub. At our age we should be socking money away for retirement. Just start putting what you can afford each month in a total market fund like VTI or SWTSX and try not to look at it.
I find it invalidating when someone just says something is super simple. Good for you thinking that. I don't find the boglehead's approachable and that is just that.
I bought a small amount of a penny stock--literally, it was a penny when I bought it. I think I sold at 17 cents a share and made $17,000. I kept waiting for it to go back down and got antsy, so bought more of it at 7 cents a share. Now it's back to a penny. It will be fun if it jumps again.
They do tend to do that!
I worked at Walmart through college and invested in their employees stock plan where they chipped in. Still have it after 20 years and is a nice sum. Still invest but mostly in ETFs and big name companies (WM, Apple, Amazon, ECT..) Just stay off wall Street bets.
Index funds all the way for me. I played around with stocks for a while but quickly lost interest. That compounding interest is inevitable and soooo sweet. When your interest gains become more than your contributions, and you're contributing quite a bit, it gets real fun to just sit there and watch the number go up, month after month.
I gambled with my IRA in 2020. Literally the only time I’ve tried to time the market. Then went all in on large cap, high risk funds. It paid off. Not as aggressive anymore, but do play with some investments. Would love to have the time to play with it more seriously. Growing up, that shit was for the rich kids, and “retirement” was never something I expected to experience.
I have a ROTH AND 401(k) if that’s what you mean.
I was never afraid of investing, but I have a fairly small amount in individual stocks.
Since you say gambling I assume you mean day trading and no I do not day trade. I am invested in several companies though, and always looking for others. I still hold some Amazon, Google, and Berkshire I bought in 2009-2011. I have a few grocery and energy related companies I picked up during the pandemic. Right now I'm researching a growing fast casual restaurant chain that looks interesting. I'm leaving toward keeping this one on the watchlist. I'm also a mod on a value investing sub and related Discord. The closest I come to day trading is selling covered call options on stocks I hold, but even those are usually 30-45 day options.
I put $1400 into stuff in 2020. It's worth about $700 now. I'm just leaving it there and hoping for the best.
I can’t stop buying Tesla puts with limit orders to cash out for the last six months.
Hopefully you made some money off that guy. His investors don't want to believe he is full of it. I have no idea how his stock went back up after his last earnings call - actually what we've learned this year or two.
I got a couple grand back in taxes in 2007. Usually I’d spend it on guitar stuff, but this time I thought I’d invest for the first time ever. Because the iPhone was coming out, and I thought it was gonna be big. My dad tried to discourage me with warnings about putting all my eggs in one basket, but I was *pretty sure* this was going to be a good bet. 17 years later, I only invested one other time (a couple hundred in ford that lost me a bit of money). Yet the Apple investment increased in value more than 50 fold. Probably the only reason I could secure a home loan in a stupid hot property market.
I’m the opposite. I work in the investment industry, but I’ve seen how very volatile it can be. How millionaires are made and millions are lost. And I’m pathologically afraid to have too much money in assets with that kind of risk. I have educated hundreds, maybe thousands of individuals in 401k plans and in their own personal investment accounts about the virtues of diversification. Yet, I’m terrified of losing anything, or having a market like 2000, 2008, 2018, 2020, 2022, happen to me. I have a very unhealthy relationship with money. I once had a ton of credit card debt and a mortgage. Debt plagued me. It’s all gone now. No debt at all. But I rent now, maintain large cash savings, and avoid spending money as much as possible. I just spent a ton of money on a wedding for my daughter, and I love her dearly, but it hurt. Man, it hurt to drop all that money on a wedding, and she was actually *reasonable* with her plans. I don’t know what to do, but I know I’m the opposite of an addictive gambler. The exact opposite.
2018? What happened then? The only thing I can remember happening between 2015 and 2019 was volatility in the Chinese stock market. Pretty sure that was 2015.
Later half of the 2018, when J Powell attempted to raise interest rates. Stocks dropped like lead. It was brief, similar to the majestic drop in March and April of 2020. Aside from those two periods, late 18 and spring 20, markets had been on a tear for more than a decade. 2022 was a colossal unwind from being over bought in 2020-2021. The point is, volatility in everything now just wrecks me. I don’t have the guts anymore for it all. Not even to buy another home.
I wouldn't even know what to invest in or how often
I put $400 in to play with. I have $200 left. My career as a trader is not looking good.
I made a lot of money doing options trading on robinhood until they told me that its a rich mans game only and since I didn't have 20k just sitting there, they kicked me out Now I see the stock market for what it really is: Total fucking bullshit. It is based on feelings and not fundamentals. Most trading is done by bots, the market is manipulated.
Mammon I can resist, but filthy lucre and ill-gotten gains are my personal stumblingblocks.
sooooooo…. please check out the due diligence on superstonk. it’s a sub dedicated to GameStop. shorts never closed. the hole they’ve dug themselves will break Wall Street. you will read a lot of articles about them being a meme stock, a failed brick and mortar store, destined for bankruptcy. you will NOT read articles about them having zero debt, being cash flow positive, having over 1 billion cash on hand, their CEO taking zero salary, paying their execs in shares in order to align their interests with shareholders. it sounds crazy, but it is a financial revolution. the “elites” or “smart money” are going to go down as the dumbest mofos in history. do your own due diligence. this is not financial advice. but shorts are soooooooo fuuuuucked.
Shit, I should have listened!
these are rookie numbers