What are the odds that a novice stock trader will lose his initial investment? Does trading make sense?

Similar questions: odds novice stock trader lose initial investment trading make sense.

Unless your portfolio is big enough, no stockbroker is interested in maintaining your account. And there are various categories. If you're under 10 mil you'll literally get a less qualified broker than if you are above 10 mil etc etc.If you're a novice, you get a novice.

By the Way: This info comes from a high end broker. We get less than stellar service so we typically lose and lose again and lose again. We'd have been better off if we'd invested in a savings account or hid our money in the mattress.

I would imagine if you're in the 100 mil plus category, they come to you.

10 mil was a generalization but try getting a broker's interest with a small 40lK depleted by Wall Streets crashes.

InterestingCharles schabb might be the broker GoldenLion 6 months ago .

Some time you lose more by holding the stock to long. GoldenLion 6 months ago .

You got to know when to hold and when to sell.

No. But I heard the song when I was at Holiday Inn Express.

Very good. I started about 7 years ago and learned all of the hard lessons that you really only learn with some skin in the game. Then about two years later I doubled that initial investment and tried again.

I did much better but still had to go for a third round. I would say that it took about 5 years to become competent enough to have a chance. The last few years have been pretty good.

If you are thinking of starting- expect to lose initially. The practice sites don't work because it has to be real money at risk before you will pay attention properly. Read books about the parts and pieces- how the stuff works and what the stuff is.

Don't follow anyone's advice- you have to figure out how the game works for yourself. There are many paths to get to the top of a mountain. What works for me may very well not work as well for you.

If you are starting out from the other side of the mountain from me it would not make sense to try to follow my path. If you have to follow someone's lead start out by buying the stuff Warren Buffet buys. He is not going to pick any rockets, but he also doesn't buy junk.

Don't expect to double your money. You don't get rich picking one great stock- you get rich picking a thousand pretty good stocks. Look to get smaller (3%-5%) gains.It is pretty easy to pick out stuff that will make you 5% in a week, or a day.

Get good at reading the news and playing it. It seems, at least in my case, that success is proportional to time invested.It takes a lot of research time to know what you need to know. You will make plenty of mistakes.

You might make 7 out of 10 bad picks. But if you learn to play your three good picks right and abandon your bad picks quickly you can make solid gains. As soon as you recognize a wrong move, get out and move along.

Don't wait for something to rebound. You are better off selling at a loss and buying back in lower if you still like the stock. Trading makes sense for me.

This past year, Ben Bernanke has been tossing money out of a helicopter. Trading is the only way I have found to put my net out and catch a little of this free cash. I think he is about to try to cut us off from the feed trough and make us earn it the old fashioned way.

But we shouldn't become dependent on the government's largess anyway, now, should we?

During bears markets did you trade short, after good news on a stockDuring bull markets did you trade long, after bad newDid you trade on 10% margins negative and positive. GoldenLion 6 months ago .

Shorts are somewhat tricky. If I am going to play the short side I generally use an ETF that does it for me. If the whole market is going down you can trade with something like SDS that shorts the S&P 500 and take advantage of the move with less effort.

I never trade on margin. I may buy an ETF that does, but I never use margin on my accounts. It is a dangerous and I am philosophically opposed to the practice.

Margin causes trouble. Leverage works both ways. I probably leave some money on the table that I could be making by not maximizing my use of shorts and margin, but as they say- pigs get slaughtered.

But, again, it is personal preference. Others may love the short and the leverage game. I can find plenty of opportunities for me without using those.

Efts have increased from $8 billion to $260 billionAre more people using EFTs to bet GoldenLion 6 months ago .

You should probably not trade. I don't know if your a winner or loser but the odds are not in your favor. GoldenLion 6 months ago .

Novices are by definition, at the bottom. There are whole buildings in NYC chock-full of stock analysts and mathematicians, who have access to the latest info, info you can't get, and they have years and years of training and experience in the markets. And even they often lose billions.By comparison, a novice has no chance at all at getting a good deal.

The big money is made by the big investors, that get in at the early underwriting level, and scoop off the big bucks right up front and off the top. By the time you see the stock price it's been totally dredged out of any value.

Stocks don't sound like a safe place to invest money. How can an expert lose billions? Are you referring to leveraging?

GoldenLion 6 months ago .

You should probably not trade. I don't know if your a winner or loser but the odds are not in your favor. Davepamn 52 months ago.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.