Day traders' bring-on-the-weekend lounge September 10-12

Originally posted by BlueF: ↑

I broke all of my rules with RNO on the 27th and FOMOed in with more $ than has been my go-to (while I'm learning, I stick to small trades and have been trying to finetune my personal strategy - and my entry with RNO was against everything that has been working for me). Anyway, I totally made a bad call and have been stuck holding since with not a single spare cent to do anything else with. Got out yesterday with a small profit that didn't make up for the stress of the past couple of weeks.

This week was rough! I tend to only post about my failures in here. Partially as a warning to other newbies learning the ropes, but also because when I do have some wins it's nothing to write home about seeing as my portfolio is low-dollar value compared to what it sounds like everyone else is throwing around in here. Rest assured, it's not all doom and gloom! But Thursday saw everything in my portfolio down and me holding a huge (for me) parcel in RNO. It was an interesting experience.

Over the past couple of months I've been playing around with DTs vs STs and trying to find what would be most profitable for my personal risk/trading strategies. I had thought maybe trying to find long term holds that were steadily growing would be better for me and so was trying to build a portfolio that suited that... and maybe with a year or two of holding that would still be the case. But when I compare the $ value of stocks over the past few months there were sooooo many times when I could have sold for a nice profit but decided to hold. Even the stocks I have that are nicely up have had dips where I could easily have sold and bought again. Especially as I have come to know those stocks better and see how they move in real time.

Does anyone else have a handful of favourite stocks that you've come to know that you regularly buy and sell for small/regular profits? I've previously been put off with added brokerage and then the knowledge that I have to hand over 50% in CGT so had a preference for holding for 12 months for my bigger investments. But now I see there's quite a few on my watchlist or portfolio that might not have the big runs that fuel the DT forum but still offer regular opportunities for 6-10%. Lots to learn.

Anyway, I'm out of lockdown! So am taking the kids to the beach with friends. There will be time to ponder and stare with confusion at charts tomorrow...

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Can I suggest you approach trading like it is a career, by this I mean that one does not become an Accountant, for example,without quite a few years of undergraduate and professional training and you should approach trading similarly.

You are new to trading (or at least newish to HC) and so may I suggest in the nicest way that you focus on working out what you want out of trading and how much time you can allocate to it. I also assume that you have many years ahead of you so be patient and explore what suits your lifestyle and financial objectives.

Also, develop a trading plan - rather than me prattle on more here is one link that explains the process.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/04/042104.asp

Many come to trading and quite a reasonable percentage loss money and disappear into the nether. Trading can be both vindictive and alluring at the same time.

It is encouraging that you have started the exploration of whether DT/ST or LT opportunities are best so keep working on that and I would continue to take time to enjoy the wins with your family and also discuss with them when you have a bad loss..it can be cathartic for you.

All the best and sorry about my ramblings.

V