Stock market day trading thread

willow_girl · #**181** 03/14/11, 09:19 AM

Monday morning buys:

CRZO (200)

EGY (300)

Crossing fingers!

Halfway · #**182** 03/14/11, 12:14 PM

What are your stops? Did they hit? Target?

March is massive volatility month. Things are not always as they appear.

I tend to lower my number of contracts traded and loosen stops because they will get smacked hard and reverse if your not careful.

willow_girl · #**183** 03/14/11, 09:49 PM

Mixed results today for trader Willow!

Half, I generally set my stocks to sell when they make $100.

DH was watching my play at the opening (I had to go to work) and told me CRZO moved at 9:39. Yay! It then plunged by ~$1.40 before rallying to finish the day up by 64 cents. Whew! It reports tomorrow before the market opens ... I'm very curious to see how it performs (but glad I don't have any money riding on it, LOL!).

The sale brings my net total for the year to $1,208.

My other stock, EGY, dropped 20 cents to finish the day $49 in the hole. It wasn't scheduled to report until the 15th, but issued a day early, I guess, and missed analyst estimates. Oy! So I guess it's going to be hanging around for awhile in my portfolio ...

Win some, lose some!

Half, thanks for the tip about March being volatile! I didn't know that ... I wasn't doing this last March.

Halfway · #**184** 03/15/11, 07:24 AM

No worries Willow. Losers don't always rebound, don't hesitate to cut them.

Best of success!

willow_girl · #**185** 03/15/11, 08:30 AM

So far I haven't had to sell anything at a loss, and I've never held a stock longer than about 3 months.

We'll see!

I just checked and CRZO missed analyst estimates, too, and is down more than $5 a share in after-hours. GULP!!!

**clovis** · #**186** 03/16/11, 11:14 AM

Even though the market is down again for three days in a row, I do see mixed results on the stocks I am watching. Many stocks are up today.

I hope you all are making piles of cash!!!!

**clovis** · #**187** 03/16/11, 10:59 PM

I have a few questions for my fellow investors:

1. Most importantly, what do you think of REITs as a longer term, buy and hold investment for dividend income?

2. Does anyone watch the international or overnight markets to see what the US markets might do the next day? Where can I find an easy source for that information? Is there one good website that you use to follow how the markets did overnight?

willow_girl · #**188** 03/19/11, 12:53 PM

Clovis, my husband really likes REITs, but anything involving real estate just scares the debbil out of me!

I don't have an answer to your second question.

I had a really bad week in the market! Not only is my EGY still down, but I bought PPO just a day before company officials announced they were selling off 4.5 million shares at a discounted price!

Dropped like a rock, needless to say.

Oh well -- out of 30 or so trades, I was bound to pick a couple dogs eventually.

Holding both to see what they do over the next few weeks.

Halfway · #**189** 03/20/11, 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clovis

I have a few questions for my fellow investors:

1. Most importantly, what do you think of REITs as a longer term, buy and hold investment for dividend income?

2. Does anyone watch the international or overnight markets to see what the US markets might do the next day? Where can I find an easy source for that information? Is there one good website that you use to follow how the markets did overnight?

I trade all hours if the setup and conditions warrant it.

finviz "futures" are near real time and will show GLOBEX price levels.

InvalidID · #**190** 03/21/11, 02:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clovis

I have a few questions for my fellow investors:

1. Most importantly, what do you think of REITs as a longer term, buy and hold investment for dividend income?

2. Does anyone watch the international or overnight markets to see what the US markets might do the next day? Where can I find an easy source for that information? Is there one good website that you use to follow how the markets did overnight?

PCL (Plum Creek Timber) has been alright to me. I'm not sure if it's exactly what you're thinking as far as REITs but the dividend is fair and the beauty of timberland is if prices are down you just hold onto your trees.
If I was looking to buy in again I'd wait for a pull back though. @ 42.75 I'm thinking it's kinda high.

**clovis** · #**191** 03/24/11, 12:07 AM

Any recent trades, anyone?

willow_girl · #**192** 03/24/11, 12:20 AM

Seems a girl can't make a buck in the market this week! I'm still holding on to the same 3 stocks, and am $300 upside-down at the moment. GRRR!

My husband keeps reminding me how he lost 80 grand in the dot.com bust. Needless to say, I'm not getting any sympathy on the homefront!

The market giveth, and the market taketh away ... *sigh*

#**193** 03/24/11, 08:22 AM

The reason it's called daytrading is that you get in, you get out. Same day. Once you take a position and start holding, instead of accepting that sometimes you lose, you are what is known as an investor. In other words, you're no longer a trader, you're a "hold and hope"er. There is an old saying about "hope in one hand".....

willow_girl · #**194** 03/24/11, 08:39 AM

You may be right about that, Zong! I guess we'll see.

**clovis** · #**195** 03/24/11, 10:13 AM

A "hold and hoper"?

That defines my entire investment strategy!

willow_girl · #**196** 03/25/11, 12:44 AM

Yeah, sometimes it works out OK!

I have 2 stocks I bought last year in my IRA portfolio. Picked up one in April and the other in December ... they are up 16 and 18% respectively.

Clovis, I know you like precious metals, so you may want to take a look at the one ... it's a gold mining stock (CGC).

My hubby has been keeping an eye on it in my portfolio and now I see he has an order in to buy some tomorrow ... of course he'll have 1,000 shares to my 100, LOL!

Michael W. Smith · #**197** 03/25/11, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clovis

Most importantly, what do you think of REITs as a longer term, buy and hold investment for dividend income?

Clovis, I've been investing in Vanguard's REIT Index Fund for quite a few years.

Year to date return 01/01/11 - 03/24/11 2.94%
1 year return 38.73%
5 year return 3.11%
10 year return 11.58%
Since inception 05/13/96 10.91%

As you can see, this investment has served me well! (Well, for my wife actually, I initially invested her into a ROTH IRA back in 1998.)

I believe REITS have to give any profit for the year back to the shareholders - so that usually makes for a nice payout at the end of the year.

Minimum initial investment is $3000.00. Or I thing Vanguard will allow you to get in with less if you have monthly contributions from a savings or checking account.

willow_girl · #**198** 03/26/11, 08:41 AM

Friday was an interesting day in the market for me. For sure!

My PPO shot up (it actually gained $3.60 yesterday!) and I unloaded it for my usual $80 net profit ... this after the CEO and friends dumped 4.5 million shares, and some sort of FTC regulatory action was announced. I figured I'd be holding that stock a longgggg time in order to get my money back. Not so! Whew.

On the flip side, SNX beat analyst estimates by a penny, and was soundly spanked for it, losing nearly 8 percent of its value in Friday's session (ouch!). So I'm $300 upside-down on it at the moment. *sigh* Of course I've seen this before (it's one reason why I try to sell BEFORE the report comes out) but I'm a little surprised it happened in this case, as there was NO run-up in price in the days preceding the report.

My EGY has been picking up a few pennies every day. I'm still down about 3% from the starting point, but hopefully I'll be able to unload it, too, eventually.

Tomorrow I will make my picks for next week!

lonelyfarmgirl · #**199** 03/26/11, 11:26 PM

ok, I opened an account at Scottrade today. I didn't put any money in it yet, just looking around the site and I watched a tutorial. That brought up a question. Why would a person have more than one account?

Also, I didn't see futures anywhere. Are those traded somewhere totally different?

One other question I had. I wondered before what actually makes a stock go up or down. I would assume the value of the product, items, services, etc...
So does that mean when the price of something goes up, the stock goes down because less people can afford to buy, so less are buying?

Like for example, cotton is skyrocketing, so does this mean stocks in clothing companies will drop because they are having to raise prices, so less people are buying new clothing?

willow_girl · #**200** 03/27/11, 08:58 AM

Congrats LFG! You are on your way.

You are correct in that a lot of things can make stock prices go up or down. But within any sector, some companies will perform better than others, so it's tricky. That said, I usually stay out of retail, restaurants and entertainment, and stick to boring industrial stocks. LOL