How would you rate my day trading earnings from Jan 1 through Feb 4 (YTD)?
Considering the economy has been in decline throughout all of the beginning of 2010 so far would you still say that my numbers are extremely bad? Any advice?
My total loss (YTD) has been -41.06% of my average cost basis and that is after taxes have been figured into them.
My total loss (YTD) as a percentage of my entire brokerage account has been -8.86%.
My total loss (YTD) as a percentage of my entire investment porfolio has been -5.91%.
These losses generally reflect me trying to dollar cost average down risky stocks such as precious metals and then ultimately sell then for a loss when I feel I have lost too much. I have done this several times and I feel that I have enough money that if I did in fact put all of my money into precious metal stocks right now that any rebound could easily get back all of my losses and perhaps even a profit.
Precious metals have decreased in value about 25% since hitting a high on Jan 11th. If I put all my money into precious metals right now and it rebounded to that level I would have made alot of money. Is this a recklesss way to think? What is your honest take? What is your experience in precious metal trading?
I’d rate it an F for Failure
the S&P , DJIA and Nasdaq are only down 1.6% – 3.5% YTD thru yesterday
my 401k is up slightly YTD
I’m down a few % in some out-of-401k investments
so I would say you are doing pretty bad so far this year
metals are not supposed to go up much short term
gold is only down 3% since Jan 11th, not 25% – where are you getting your data from??
what are you investing in that has you down 40% in only 5 weeks? the market as a whole has not been doing that bad
if you are buying stocks when they are going down, you have to hold them long term to make any money on them – selling when they go lower guarantees a loss – you would be much better just putting your money in a bank cd before you lose all your money since you don;t seem to know what you are doing
February 6th, 2010 at 5:22 am
I think that you’ve answered your own question. You’ve lost 41% in a month! I don’t think you could do much worse if you tried. Daytrading is nothing more than gambling or guessing at best. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no consistent way to judge the daily fluctuations of the market. Also, trading on an extremely short term is even tougher due to the tax penalties and trading fees eating-up more of your profits. It’s next to impossible to make any money on it. I believe the statistics show that a huge percentage of day traders lose money…plain and simple.
There’s nothing wrong with investing in precious metals. However, I would strongly recommend that you extend your event horizon out longer than daily or even weekly no matter what sectors you’re invested in. Everything you invest doesn’t have to be long term buy and hold but you need to consider looking at 3-6 month windows if you’re looking to churn a portion of your portfolio . As long as you’ve done your homework, even if a stock drops a little after you’ve bought it, you should have the confidence that it will go up in the long term. If not or if continues to drop, you’ve obviously missed something in evaluating the stock whether your research was on the fundamentals or you picked the stock purely for momentum. Good luck.
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February 6th, 2010 at 5:49 am
I would say that’s pretty bad. You seem to want to day trade but seem to not be willing to short sell. You cannot be successful as a day trader if you cannot short. Had you shorted all of those longs you took then you would be in the positive. One more thing, dollar cost averaging down, is just throwing good money after bad. If a position moves against you get out….get out now. It is much better to take a small loss than to try and average down and end up with a huge loss.
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February 6th, 2010 at 6:25 am
I’d rate it an F for Failure
the S&P , DJIA and Nasdaq are only down 1.6% – 3.5% YTD thru yesterday
my 401k is up slightly YTD
I’m down a few % in some out-of-401k investments
so I would say you are doing pretty bad so far this year
metals are not supposed to go up much short term
gold is only down 3% since Jan 11th, not 25% – where are you getting your data from??
what are you investing in that has you down 40% in only 5 weeks? the market as a whole has not been doing that bad
if you are buying stocks when they are going down, you have to hold them long term to make any money on them – selling when they go lower guarantees a loss – you would be much better just putting your money in a bank cd before you lose all your money since you don;t seem to know what you are doing
References :