A Silly Little Wager (Stock Trading)

[ABM]

OK, first of all, I'm a stock-trading dummy. A better description might be that I'm a complete newbie.

That said, my GF and I will be engaging in a little wager. We're each depositing $100 (I know, I know...not much) into separate trading accounts through ING ShareBuilder (ING will then match $50 for the effort.). We'll then buy and (perhaps) sell stocks over the next months. On December 31st we'll see who has the most money. The one with the least amount will take the other out to dinner of choice.


Wish me luck?

 

[Shooter]

Good luck! You're going to need it in this economy.

 

[ABM]

Good luck! You're going to need it in this economy.

Buy low?

 

[illmatic99]

Buy low?

Sure, but you won't be able to sell high before Dec. 31.

 

[ABM]

Sure, but you won't be able to sell high before Dec. 31.

Good point. *sigh*

FWIW, I signed up for a 4-week free trial with Investors Daily. http://www.investors.com/

Signed up for another Best Stocks Under $10 free trial with them, as well.

We shall see.................................

 

[BrianFromWA]

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but it costs me 8.95 a trade. You can't trade very much before the $100 is gone

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

+1.

You need at least $10k each for this to work out correctly.

 

[ABM]

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but it costs me 8.95 a trade. You can't trade very much before the $100 is gone

Yeah, I heard dat. Thinking of finding one or two stocks then sticking with those. Who knows, we may increase the stakes to $500. At any rate, we'll be goofing around with it this weekend. I'll see what she says.....

Thanks.

 

[MrSelfDestruct]

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but it costs me 8.95 a trade. You can't trade very much before the $100 is gone

Mine is $9.95 through Sharebuilder. I think it's going to be very hard for either of you to end up with any money at the end when any transaction is going to cost you roughly 20% of your bankroll to trade ($9.95 to buy, $9.95 to sell). Your best strategy may be to buy one stock that is fairly cheap/stable and sit on it in hopes she is active with her stocks (thus hemorrhaging money to commissions).

EDIT: Missed your response in the previous post.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

use a simulator for trading. spend the $200 on sex toys. you'll probably come out ahead in the long run.

 

[blazerboy30]

OK, first of all, I'm a stock-trading dummy. A better description might be that I'm a complete newbie.

That said, my GF and I will be engaging in a little wager. We're each depositing $100 (I know, I know...not much) into separate trading accounts through ING ShareBuilder (ING will then match $50 for the effort.). We'll then buy and (perhaps) sell stocks over the next months. On December 31st we'll see who has the most money. The one with the least amount will take the other out to dinner of choice.


Wish me luck?

Go for the victory right off the bat...

Buy 1 contract (100 shares) of the December $81 PUT options on SPY (an S&P 500 ETF). They are selling for $0.98 right now. You'll either win by a long shot, or lose your $100.

 

[ABM]

Go for the victory right off the bat...

Buy 1 contract (100 shares) of the December $81 PUT options on SPY (an S&P 500 ETF). They are selling for $0.98 right now. You'll either win by a long shot, or lose your $100.

I had to apply for options trading on ING ShareBuilder and will have to wait to be approved. Interesting, though.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

Sure, but you won't be able to sell high before Dec. 31.

Well if he bought the right stock at the end of the day Monday, he could of turned it around and sold at end day Tuesday for a profit.

Dow is down big today, pick the right stock this afternoon and hope for a bounce.

Problem with starting with $100 is he is retricted to penny stocks to make any kind of money.

 

[ABM]

Well if he bought the right stock at the end of the day Monday, he could of turned it around and sold at end day Tuesday for a profit.

Dow is down big today, pick the right stock this afternoon and hope for a bounce.

Problem with starting with $100 is he is retricted to penny stocks to make any kind of money.

I'm not looking to make much money so much as I'm looking for the gf and me to have some fun with a new hobby. We're both new to this so it will be fun watching to see how it all pans out.

 

[blazerboy30]

I had to apply for options trading on ING ShareBuilder and will have to wait to be approved. Interesting, though.

Did you take my reccommendation? You'd be up about 20% right now.

 

[ABM]

Did you take my reccommendation? You'd be up about 20% right now.

Still waiting on (options trading) approval from ING.

 

[jlprk]

You sure picked the time. Maybe you should speculate in gold instead.

 

[ABM]

You sure picked the time. Maybe you should speculate in gold instead.

...as in wedding bands?! :MARIS61:

 

[jlprk]

Everyone's getting out, and you're getting in. Would you like to buy stock from me? Don't listen to these other guys, I got good cheap prices. You may pay more, but you're getting better quality.

 

[maxiep]

Who here thinks ABM and this girl will still be going out at the end of the year?

 

[The_Lillard_King]

Dow up over 450 today.

You picked a hell of a time to play the stock market. Money to be made for good day traders.

Us long term buyer just have to ride out the roller coaster and buy during the down times . . . will the Dow drop below 10,000?

 

[Draco]

For only having $100 I would order all of it in pennies from the bank. The copper ones are worth nearly 3x face and could go up if copper price increases. Your investment will never be worth less than $100.

 

[BrianFromWA]

I'm just hoping that the swings help out the Dollar Cost Averaging of my 401k deductions.

My 16 month-old daughter's stock portfolio is riding this out better than mine, so far.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

Ugh . . . I 100% agree with Cuban. I sink 60-80% of my money in wallstreet not really knowing how it works. And I've always thought along the lines of Cuban, hurts to hear someone who is in the know echo what I have feared:

But Cuban is also proving somewhat prophetic in a much more unsettling way. In the spring of last year, only three days after the harrowing May 6 "Flash Crash" that temporarily plunged the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 1,000 points within minutes, he wrote a blog post that seems chilling today. He titled it, "What Business is Wall Street In?" And toward the end, he wrote in bold, "There will be another crash."

Granted, there are a lot of doomsayers out there. But Cuban is not that. He's a successful businessman -- he sold his Internet start-up in 1999 for $5.9 billion in Yahoo! stock -- and he says he's been involved in the stock market for the better part of a decade. But what makes his post stand out even more is that he named a specific reason for the predicted "crash" -- professional traders.

"The only people who know what business Wall Street is in are the traders," Cuban wrote on May 9, 2010. "They know what business Wall Street is in better than everyone else. To traders, whether day traders or high frequency or somewhere in between, Wall Street has nothing to do with creating capital for businesses, its original goal. Wall Street is a platform. It's a platform to be exploited by every technological and intellectual means possible."

 

[blazerboy30]

Ugh . . . I 100% agree with Cuban. I sink 60-80% of my money in wallstreet not really knowing how it works. And I've always thought along the lines of Cuban, hurts to hear someone who is in the know echo what I have feared:

But Cuban is also proving somewhat prophetic in a much more unsettling way. In the spring of last year, only three days after the harrowing May 6 "Flash Crash" that temporarily plunged the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 1,000 points within minutes, he wrote a blog post that seems chilling today. He titled it, "What Business is Wall Street In?" And toward the end, he wrote in bold, "There will be another crash."

Granted, there are a lot of doomsayers out there. But Cuban is not that. He's a successful businessman -- he sold his Internet start-up in 1999 for $5.9 billion in Yahoo! stock -- and he says he's been involved in the stock market for the better part of a decade. But what makes his post stand out even more is that he named a specific reason for the predicted "crash" -- professional traders.

"The only people who know what business Wall Street is in are the traders," Cuban wrote on May 9, 2010. "They know what business Wall Street is in better than everyone else. To traders, whether day traders or high frequency or somewhere in between, Wall Street has nothing to do with creating capital for businesses, its original goal. Wall Street is a platform. It's a platform to be exploited by every technological and intellectual means possible."

Well, duh.

You don't actually think that, for example, Apple's value as a company has fluctuated by over $10 billion each of the last few days, right?

 

[The_Lillard_King]

Well, duh.

You don't actually think that, for example, Apple's value as a company has fluctuated by over $10 billion each of the last few days, right?

Oh BB, your people skills continue to amaze me.

The point I was refering to is that when we throw all our retirement savings and other money into wallstreet, we really aren't investing in America but more investing in traders who will do anything (legal) to manipulate and exploit the market to make money.

Now I know this is a duh point to you because you are very smart. But to some of us who blindly throw our money into wallstreet fearing that we have no idea where our money is going and what the traders are doing with it, it is enlightening to hear someone like Cuban, who has billions in the market, say what many suspected . . . wallstreet is nothing more than a platform to be exploited, it's not about investing in America.

 

[blazerboy30]

Oh BB, your people skills continue to amaze me.

The point I was refering to is that when we throw all our retirement savings and other money into wallstreet, we really aren't investing in America but more investing in traders who will do anything (legal) to manipulate and exploit the market to make money.

Now I know this is a duh point to you because you are very smart. But to some of us who blindly throw our money into wallstreet fearing that we have no idea where our money is going and what the traders are doing with it, it is enlightening to hear someone like Cuban, who has billions in the market, say what many suspected . . . wallstreet is nothing more than a platform to be exploited, it's not about investing in America.

Sorry, the "well duh" comment was directed at Cuban, not you.

Anyway, the point is that the stock market has little to do with investing in a company, and valuing companies. This becomes especially evident when you start to see all of these ridiculous ETFs and Indices you can "invest" in. For example, buying/ selling shares of VIX? Options on VIX? You don't really own anything real, just some mathematical formula somebody came up with.