Sage Newbie Advice...

[MyRightEye]

I am brand new to investing. I have a background in technology and know most of the tech stocks very well. 12 trading days ago I put in $1k to my brand new Scottrade account and bought 7 shares of APPL at $139. Obviously I am well pleased with that. I then added another $2k and bought RIMM and GRMN. I saw GRMN on the dip and bought at the lowest price knowing full well it would recover fast, and it is, again, very pleased with that. I put another $100 in Friday to play with some penny stocks. I bought $100 of CBPC on Tuesday at .028, and sold it today at .040. Thank you to this forum for bringing that one to my attention.

So in summary, I have deposited $3100.00 into my account less than 3 weeks ago, and now have an account value of $3,468.40. I am not too unhappy with that.

So I tell you this just to seek advice. I think I have done well on some good choices. IS this good? Should I not expect to continue making such gains. Could I have done better with such a small amount invested? How?

I would also like to play Penny Stocks more. Just how dangerous is it?

Any and all advice will be well received.

MyRightEye

[MyRightEye]

And one more thing. I have all day to play stocks. So if I can reap better gains by doing something full-time, I am able.

[Albert0373]

That's a ~10%+ gain in 3 weeks, how much does a savings account pay in one year? You're doing great, keep it up!
And you're only able to trade full-time actively, a.k.a day-trading if you have 25k+ in your account and you'll need margin.
Penny stocks are risky, very risky. You can lose your hind on it before you can say anything. Most I ever put in a penny stock was 1500.
But usually its just $500.

[rkahn]

Yes - your return is a very good one, but keep in mind that these are unrealized gains and you could potentially lose it all tomorrow. I just say this to remind you that investing in the stock market involves a risk - I am not trying to be pessimistic at all.

That said, you seem to have invested in some great companies. Taking AAPL for example, it's a blue chip that will perform well for a while imho. They constantly innovate and put out great products.

Could you have done better with your initial investment? - yea, but the luck and/or risk involved would have been greater. You also could have done a lot worse and lost money.

I do not have enough experience with Penny Stocks to give an opinion - sorry. I will actually monitor the thread myself in order to learn more about them.

In conclusion, you seem to be off to a phenomenal start. Keep it up.

[MyRightEye]

Actually, as long as I don't exceed the number of trades per week that classifies you as a day trader, I won't be classified as one and will not require 25k. I plan to just use cash, no margin either. Slower, but safer imo.

And irtt, how come the 25k starting point for day traders? Is it just to stop naive investors from losing all their money?