I became a stock market day trader today and lost about $6,000
By The Horse
@TheHorse (238399)
Walnut Creek, California
March 20, 2020 3:08pm CST
Have you known anyone who does day trading in the stock market? I consider it to be "gambling for rich people," but some people do it. I have well-heeled friends who do it. You buy a stock at let's say 10 AM, wait for it to go up a bit, and then sell at 11:23 AM for a slight gain.
You bank that gain and then repeat as necessary. I have never been a day trader, though I did dabble in penny stocks (really cheap stocks with high volatility) many years ago. I broke even during that phase.
Today, I became a day trader, late in the afternoon. The market was sinking overall, but there were little blips going on, where the market would rise. If you bought in to the DOJ today at exactly 3:20 PM, and sold at exactly 3:30 PM, you would have experienced a rather handsome gain, depending on how much you invested.
I did some day trading today, and was "right" almost half the time. I wound up losing about $6,000 of my net worth.
Fortunately I was only pretending, and chuckled when the market wound up down by more than 900 points. How low will it go? Nobody knows.
I heard some good news today out of Stanford University, but I won't write about that until I buy back in. Buwaahaahaa!
Your thoughts on the stock market?
7 people like this
8 responses
@thedevilinme (5215)
• Northampton, England
23 Mar 20
Now is the time to buy shares in airlines.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238399)
• Walnut Creek, California
24 Mar 20
@thedevilinme Could be. How is Airbus doing compared to Boeing? I cant believe Boeing designed an aircraft with a tendency to "nose up." And computer-controlled technology is supposed to "fix" this?
@thedevilinme (5215)
• Northampton, England
24 Mar 20
@TheHorse Trump will bail them out and shares will spike in July
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (502957)
• Italy
21 Mar 20
Do you remember your post where you said "if the stock market goes under 20,000 buy?" I commented "If this happens sell everything and run away..." Do you remember 1929 and the recession and the stock market crash? Sit on the side of the river and wait to see history repeat itself.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (502957)
• Italy
21 Mar 20
@TheHorse I think that most people have not yet understood that when the virus problem will be over the economy will be in such a bad shape that all countries will be in recession. Do not play with the stock market if you are not an expert, please, listen to me.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238399)
• Walnut Creek, California
21 Mar 20
When the DOW dropped below 20,000, I tried to call my money manager to discuss this philosophy. But he had gone home for the day. Feh. Right now I'm waiting and watching. I'm lucky (smart?) enough to have some cash on the side that COULD go into the market at any time. But I'm not in a rush.
2 people like this
@JudyEv (382693)
• Rockingham, Australia
21 Mar 20
We have a financial advisor (I think that's the term) and he manages our superannuation for us. We have lost thousands over the last few weeks but, in a way, it's all on paper. No point in selling any shares and hopefully they will rise in value eventually. We do have a decent amount put away that is not in shares.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (222986)
• United States
20 Mar 20
Now is a good time to buy and then hold on until the market recovers some time in the future; but you must have some extra money that you don't need for a while. Now that we're retired, we don't go in for day trading even though this might be a good time to try it. Good luck!
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (222986)
• United States
21 Mar 20
@TheHorse We will hang on to our money for now.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238399)
• Walnut Creek, California
22 Mar 20
@LindaOHio A wise decision, I think.
1 person likes this
