Low maintenance trading strategy?

[tradewind]

Hi,
I am another newbie hoping to get some input from the more experienced guys. I am looking at getting more active in the markets but don't want to spend too much time on it. I am not lazy but my consulting business needs my daytime devotion - daytrading and my day job do not mix well. Also I have tried some day trading and even though I did OK the returns per hour spent did not really pencil compared to just doing my regular job.
I need a strategy that doesnt involve the angst of monitoring the market throughout the day. Make my decisions, get on to other things, and check back tommorow or at the end of the day.
Is this a reasonable goal or is the only real money in working at it full time? Is it more risky?
I also hear a lot of "day trading is bound to fail, buy and hold is the only sound investment". However I have been holding stock for several years and the returns have been dead flat.
Any input would be welcome!

[zyzzyva57]

The best strategy is Homework + Buy/Sell + More Homework

One easy piece of Homework is setting a Google Alert and with your Broker to monitor a price range you want

A Google Reader RSS feed on a stock is a quick way to do Homework

I like Master Cramer's Rules (http://www.thestreet.com/_tscnav/tsc/cramerbook)

[tradewind]

Thanks for answering zyzzyva57. I was wondering if my question was too gauche to deserve a response. I have Scottrade Elite and was intending to set my alerts and do my research off that platform. I think I have found some of my answers from reading other threads.

[zyzzyva57]

I can assure you no question is off-base if asked sincerely

Fortunately, at this forum the usual nastiness of forums does not avail, so ask away

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I know the Scottrade in Atlanta has an all day Oct Sat seminar on using Scottrade Elite, so you might check if the co has one planned for your area

I know if I wanted to do what you want, I would sure avail myself of this seminar

[aiki14]

Hi,
I am another newbie hoping to get some input from the more experienced guys. I am looking at getting more active in the markets but don't want to spend too much time on it. I am not lazy but my consulting business needs my daytime devotion - daytrading and my day job do not mix well. Also I have tried some day trading and even though I did OK the returns per hour spent did not really pencil compared to just doing my regular job.
I need a strategy that doesnt involve the angst of monitoring the market throughout the day. Make my decisions, get on to other things, and check back tommorow or at the end of the day.
Is this a reasonable goal or is the only real money in working at it full time? Is it more risky?
I also hear a lot of "day trading is bound to fail, buy and hold is the only sound investment". However I have been holding stock for several years and the returns have been dead flat.
Any input would be welcome!

I don't think there is a trading strategy that doesn't involve a lot of time in the endeavor, but there are investment strategies that fit. The problem is they require more time to see results. You have to make a choice between the two.
I trade full time and wouldn't go back to a "real job" under any circumstances. I do put more time into it than any real job I ever had. I guess loving it helps, and the money is nice, and the flexibility, and being home with my kids (kid now that the older is in college), and the dress code.

[zyzzyva57]

I have found Basic Investing has a steep learning curve, so I can only imagine what even Basic Trading must be like

I played with Sirus and got burned royally, but what really PO'd me was what Mel K legally did after the merger...My Take Away is I cannot afford speculation--even homework did not save my behind with Sirus...None of my homework, nor Cramer, hinted what Mel K could do

This combined with Master Cramer's "Confessions..." book cooled me down

Major Good Luck to all Traders here and may ye be so $ucce$$ful one day you can be a CNBC Talking Head, the ultimate $ucce$$

[tradewind]

I don't think there is a trading strategy that doesn't involve a lot of time in the endeavor, but there are investment strategies that fit. The problem is they require more time to see results. You have to make a choice between the two.
I trade full time and wouldn't go back to a "real job" under any circumstances. I do put more time into it than any real job I ever had. I guess loving it helps, and the money is nice, and the flexibility, and being home with my kids (kid now that the older is in college), and the dress code.

Gotcha. I don't really classify my job as a "real job" either. I have an engineering business of which I am the only employee and work out of the basement of my house. Hence the freedom to rove forums such as this on occasion.

My brief foray into day-tading taught me that to substitute my income I would need to be playing with significant capital. By day-trading I mean buying and selling intra-day for small percentage changes. Not to mention the stress. I have therefore generally tossed the idea of full-time intra-day trading and would prefer to trade within a longer time structure to supplement my income. I don't mind devoting time scrutinizing company and technical data.

When you say "choice between the two" are you refering to intra-day trading and buy-and-hold forever, with no in between?

I can get plenty of misinformation from swing trade method vendors but am more interested in the opinion of the authentic traders. I am interested to see if there is anyone successfully applying a system that shares my goals.

Thanks for your thoughts!

[tradewind]

I know the Scottrade in Atlanta has an all day Oct Sat seminar on using Scottrade Elite, so you might check if the co has one planned for your area

I know if I wanted to do what you want, I would sure avail myself of this seminar


That's good to know and a good idea. I'll check through the many emails I get from Scottrade and see if there is a schedule.

[zyzzyva57]

I subscribe to Master Cramer's point: Buy/Sell + Homework, NOT Buy and just hold forever, because things change

I also like Buffett's style of buying low PEGs with solid financials(which you have to be alert to changing via Homework)

Trading by the nanosecond strikes me as maddening regardless of $ucce$$

You want a real hell: imagine nanosecond trading with CNBC playing in the background!

[aiki14]

When you say "choice between the two" are you refering to intra-day trading and buy-and-hold forever, with no in between?



No, it's a sliding scale, the shorter the duration of your trades the more time in front of your screen. So you have to trade on a timescale that fits your ability to dedicate time to the due diligence required.

[zyzzyva57]

Sorry, absolutely there is a sliding scale between the nanosecond trader to the Buffett type

I guess early on one of the first things you learn is your Comfort Zone, which will be dictated by your early loses from ignorance, for you soon find the stock market is not as easy as Master Cramer makes it seem--WHICH IS NOT A CRITICISM OF HIM

[tradewind]

Do you believe that an experienced, dilligent nanosecond trader is generally more successfull than an experienced, dilligent buffet-style trader?

[zyzzyva57]

If a 21 would ask me how to become a billionaire by 40, I would say study Buffett through the lens of Cramer--NOT THE NOISY CRAMER, BUT THE "WALL STREET COFIDENTIAL" CRAMER

I honestly do believe after a steep, costly Learning Curve of actually putting money in the game, a 21 by 26 would be well on the way to becoming a billionaire...S/he would be a SOLID millionaire by 30, a SOLID billionaire by 40 WHO COULD SLEEP AT NIGHT BY NOT WORRYING ABOUT 24/7 NANOSECOND TRADING, OR COMING UP WITH SOME DAMN ESOTERIC FINANCIAL TOM FOOLERY AS SO MANY HAVE THAT HAS MESSED UP TODAY'S WALL STREET

I would hate living in a card castle mansion held together with the crap so many have apparently been doing

I may be a minority in this, but give me a Buffett World anytime of not worrying about being a part of the next, latest, greatest gee-whiz market shenanigans



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