Daytraders/ stocks?

[BigRed91]

Hey guys, I've just started trying to learn about stocks and trading. I'm wondering if any of yall are profitable traders who could give me some advice or point me toward some good sources to learn from.

Would love to hear your stories on how you became profitable trading or just general financial advice. Thanks

 

[QueenBee]

In 2020 I put 7k in various stocks and today it is up to 84k. So happy about that!

 

[thejumpingsheep]

Sure. 1st get a paper trading account. This is a fake account that you can use to experiment with. Play with that for a few months then decide how to proceed. In the meantime, put all your money into a high yield saving or just buy SGOV (short term US treasuries, fed tax exempt) on the stock market. This will keep it safe while you learn.

I recommend Interactive Brokers. Old ass UI and not the most user friendly but they have the best margin rates, absolute best international stock access (no one even close afaik), and a competitive day trading platform (though i dont recommend day trading). Start with their free account.

Then its up to you. A book on finance is important to speak the same language as them. I strongly recommend a book on macro economics. If you dont have math... god help you because you will basically be shooting from the hip. Some win but most lose. You will have trouble projecting forward and noticing patterns. People without math skill should stick to low fee, broad market etfs (like VOO or VTI). If you do have solid math, look up some stuff on stock risk mitigation and sky is the limit from then on.

If you have specific questions ill be happy to answer them. Otherwise your question is broad.

 

[BigRed91]

Sure. 1st get a paper trading account. This is a fake account that you can use to experiment with. Play with that for a few months then decide how to proceed. In the meantime, put all your money into a high yield saving or just buy SGOV (short term US treasuries, fed tax exempt) on the stock market. This will keep it safe while you learn.

I recommend Interactive Brokers. Old ass UI and not the most user friendly but they have the best margin rates, absolute best international stock access (no one even close afaik), and a competitive day trading platform (though i dont recommend day trading). Start with their free account.

Then its up to you. A book on finance is important to speak the same language as them. I strongly recommend a book on macro economics. If you dont have math... god help you because you will basically be shooting from the hip. Some win but most lose. You will have trouble projecting forward and noticing patterns. People without math skill should stick to low fee, broad market etfs (like VOO or VTI). If you do have solid math, look up some stuff on stock risk mitigation and sky is the limit from then on.

If you have specific questions ill be happy to answer them. Otherwise your question is broad.

Thanks I really appreciate this, I know I asked a broad question as I'm just now learning but this will give me some direction. I'll do alot more research and keep you in mind if I have any questions.

 

[rxzed]

Thanks I really appreciate this, I know I asked a broad question as I'm just now learning but this will give me some direction. I'll do alot more research and keep you in mind if I have any questions.

Pretty basic advice, but you're super unlikely to out perform the S&P500, even more so if you can't capitalize on the bear markets. I'm not a day trader so I'll leave it to the experts on that.

 

[steveboomer]

Watch some vids of Martin Shkreli doing discounted cash flow analysis. He doesn't use any fancy software he just starts with a blank excel sheet. Discounted cash flow analysis is not hard it just takes practice to learn all the steps. When you do a discounted cash flow you can determine if the stock is fairly priced or possibly undervalued. Underwriters and appraisers use this tool to determine the fair market value of companies and real estate.

Pick up a book on business valuation...there's literally a book called "business valuation for dummies" that is pretty decent.

Pick a few industries that you have personal interest in. For me, it has always been tech. One of my best performing stocks was AMD which I began investing in starting 2017 and held. When they released their Ryzen processors, they undercut Intel's prices while offering a product that performed just as good or better. That was an easy call.

There are a lot of opportunities in pharma and bio-tech, but I've found those often come out of nowhere and you have to read hundreds of clinical trials like martin shkreli did to find a good opportunity. I stay away from pharma and bio-tech myself. The industry is full of scam artists.

Some other plays that have done well are of course Carvana, which did very well after their debt restructuring, although they recently took a beating and I think there will be a major repricing before it goes up again. Palantir of course has done well now that Trump is in. I invested in Rumble bc I believe it is good to have a viable alternative to YouTube, but YouTube actually seems to have turned the dial down on censorship recently.

If you really wanna do some heavy research, do a deep dive into what's happening in Argentina. They are coming off a massive recession and Milei has been doing basically the exact same thing DOGE has been doing in the US. Elon pretty much copied his playbook. There is tremendous opportunity in Argentina as they are coming off the heels of a deep recession. If I were a real estate speculator I would be buying apartments in Buenos Aires. You can buy a sick pad in downtown for less than $150K rn. Stock wise MELI (Mercado Libre) has done very well. It is the equivalent to Latin America's Amazon.

 

[BigRed91]

Watch some vids of Martin Shkreli doing discounted cash flow analysis. He doesn't use any fancy software he just starts with a blank excel sheet. Discounted cash flow analysis is not hard it just takes practice to learn all the steps. When you do a discounted cash flow you can determine if the stock is fairly priced or possibly undervalued. Underwriters and appraisers use this tool to determine the fair market value of companies and real estate.

Pick up a book on business valuation...there's literally a book called "business valuation for dummies" that is pretty decent.

Pick a few industries that you have personal interest in. For me, it has always been tech. One of my best performing stocks was AMD which I began investing in starting 2017 and held. When they released their Ryzen processors, they undercut Intel's prices while offering a product that performed just as good or better. That was an easy call.

There are a lot of opportunities in pharma and bio-tech, but I've found those often come out of nowhere and you have to read hundreds of clinical trials like martin shkreli did to find a good opportunity. I stay away from pharma and bio-tech myself. The industry is full of scam artists.

Some other plays that have done well are of course Carvana, which did very well after their debt restructuring, although they recently took a beating and I think there will be a major repricing before it goes up again. Palantir of course has done well now that Trump is in. I invested in Rumble bc I believe it is good to have a viable alternative to YouTube, but YouTube actually seems to have turned the dial down on censorship recently.

If you really wanna do some heavy research, do a deep dive into what's happening in Argentina. They are coming off a massive recession and Milei has been doing basically the exact same thing DOGE has been doing in the US. Elon pretty much copied his playbook. There is tremendous opportunity in Argentina as they are coming off the heels of a deep recession. If I were a real estate speculator I would be buying apartments in Buenos Aires. You can buy a sick pad in downtown for less than $150K rn. Stock wise MELI (Mercado Libre) has done very well. It is the equivalent to Latin America's Amazon.

Thanks alot for your insight this is all very interesting to me, this gives me some direction I appreciate it.

 

[thejumpingsheep]

Thanks alot for your insight this is all very interesting to me, this gives me some direction I appreciate it.

Be warned, Shkreli is a notoriously terrible investor... he actually failed at it and only got another shot because of a friend. Then he yolo'ed during the great recession and won the lotto. Thats his claim to fame. Nothing else.

Also note that with anything investing, there is no single process for valuation that works for every stock, sector or investment device. DCF, for example, is only as good as your ability to predict the future... its near useless for someone who A) doesnt understand the sector they are valuating B) sucks at macroevonomics and C) sucks at math.

DCF is a good thing to learn, but people the last decade have been using it wrong because they are short sited and have never seen a bear market. So right now, everyone thinks they are a genius because pretty much every valuation process has yielded success due to easy money... We havent seen a real bear market since 2009.

I know the bandwagon right now is to jump in and its exciting to see how people made money so easily... dont be a sheep at the slaughter. I found that the key to stock success is actually patience and risk mitigation... which is incidently, what many great investors will say and also what many veteran Meso board members tell you about roids/peptides... Patience and risk mitigation.

 

[IronJohnDoe]

One of the most useful things that I found to make me better at trading was knowing the commodities/stock prices on the daily and for a long time.

Basically pick a number of commodities and stocks that attract you, and start looking their performance couple of times daily (ideally open and closing prices) keep track of it and in a year or two you will start noticing that many tend to have a trend and you will he able to identify when I a good price to buy and when is time to sell.

Get 1 or 2 demo accounts (fake money) and practice, practice, practice. Treat those as if they were your real hard earned cash or it won't work.

Lastly never be greedy. Is not worth to lose your wallet just because you want to make it with a couple of threads, little by little does it.