Your Average Gains Each Month?

caller006 said: "Just wondering how much your average gains are for each month. Are you a long term player or do you swing trade and scalps and how long you been in the stock market."

sax1 said: "[QUOTE=caller006]Just wondering how much your average gains are for each month. Are you a long term player or do you swing trade and scalps and how long you been in the stock market.[/QUOTE] My monthly gains are embarrassingly low. My portfolio is multi-pronged. The bulk of my capital is in long-term holdings. The rest I use for weekly incomes. A word about long-term holding: it is different for everybody. I don't hold anything for years. To see how well I am doing, I often compare my results to that of an accomplished trader such as Gary Smith. This dude turned $2,200 into $1M trading stocks. On a scale from 1 to 10, he is a 10 and I am a < 1."

Aligator said: "[QUOTE=sax1]My monthly gains are embarrassingly low. My portfolio is multi-pronged. The bulk of my capital is in long-term holdings. The rest I use for weekly incomes. A word about long-term holding: it is different for everybody. I don't hold anything for years. To see how well I am doing, I often compare my results to that of an accomplished trader such as Gary Smith. This dude turned $2,200 into $1M trading stocks. On a scale from 1 to 10, he is a 10 and I am a < 1.[/QUOTE] I think you are about average. Average for a trader, that is. Most people would never try such a thing as trading their own portfolio and those that do will usually fail. I do not believe you will fail. My own observation from reading this forum is that traders go in spurts; they make money when the market goes their way and lose when it does not. Cutting loses short is a topic found everywhere. I am a mutual fund trader. The market has gone my way big time this year so I am feeling pretty good. Monthly gains have been around 2% per month - even more just recently. The biggest test of my skill is yet to come, though, and will arrive after Dec, 2010 when I retire. Retiring means that I no longer will be able to replace money that I lose."

Pb3190 said: "Aligator, if you don't mind me asking, what funds are you in right now? I'm doing alright with my funds but am not getting 2% a month like you. I am still planning on getting out of my funds within 6-8 months, but that is still up in the air. I don't know if I will have the time needed to manage my own portfolio, and mutual/index funds seem like the easy answer to that problem."

JAP said: "I'm a day/swing trader. I shoot for $1000/wk. Recently, I've been doing a bit better than that. :th_coolio: I consider trading my second job... it provides a nice supplemental income stream. Someday, I hope to make it a full time job. :)"

JAP said: "[quote=Pb3190]Aligator, if you don't mind me asking, what funds are you in right now? I'm doing alright with my funds but am not getting 2% a month like you. I am still planning on getting out of my funds within 6-8 months, but that is still up in the air. I don't know if I will have the time needed to manage my own portfolio, and mutual/index funds seem like the easy answer to that problem.[/quote] Never chase a stock or mutual fund performance."

Pb3190 said: "I am not planning on getting into more funds right now, since I plan on getting out of them. I was just wondering what funds Aligator is in. Thanks for the warning though JAP!"

marbles said: "[QUOTE=caller006]Just wondering how much your average gains are for each month. Are you a long term player or do you swing trade and scalps and how long you been in the stock market.[/QUOTE] I've been in the market for 34 years. I have no idea what my average per month has been. Maybe 1.2 %. Why do I have a feeling you were expecting everyone to say 5 % a month or better :) I only keep track of my spending, and live below my means year after year after year after year.....:lala:"

Harry said: "Since pulling my IRA from Merrill Lynch and starting a new cash account I had good periods and bad periods that basically cancelled out the good. I've made most or all of the mistakes I can make. Most of the time I knew what to do but allowed emotion to overtake discilpine. Now I exercise a "no prisoners" attitude. I will not buy a stock and lose money (PERIOD). I look for bottoms, like my recent purchase of [B]CHK[/B]. I'm watching the big boys now, something I pooh-poohed perviously...making out with Carl Icahn's picks if [B]BEAS[/B] and [B]MOT[/B]. I have [B]CSCO[/B] and [B]FMD[/B] for some upside. Buying and selling [B]LVLT[/B] on peaks and valleys has been a good trade scenario for me. When I purchase a stocks I automatically set limit sells at 10%+ to cover trade fees. I watch the market "and" my individual stocks for reasons to sell. I don't want to take a hit with sudden bad news aka: NTRI. Since I work a 3 day work with occcasionally weekends I can often watch the day's market activity. If I'm near a PC when my 10% benchmark is near I may change that order to a trailing stop to optimize my gain. When I have ca$h stockpile I do not jump and buy. I wait and watch for a guartentees gainer. Now that the volitility indexes are stablizing "trading" is becoming less beneficial and "holds" seem most prudent. [B]With this refined philosophy and tactics I tend to guarentee a 5% gain per month, which doesn't sound like alot but is a compounding figure. [/B]"

Aligator said: "[QUOTE=Pb3190]Aligator, if you don't mind me asking, what funds are you in right now? I'm doing alright with my funds but am not getting 2% a month like you. I am still planning on getting out of my funds within 6-8 months, but that is still up in the air. I don't know if I will have the time needed to manage my own portfolio, and mutual/index funds seem like the easy answer to that problem.[/QUOTE] ALMRX...Alger Mid Cap...YTD 20.20% JAOSX......Janus Overseas.....YTD 29.81% JORNX.....Orion Fund.....YTD 32.45%"

caller006 said: "yes, definitely follow a trade strategy that you are comfortable with. Often the people that are making the huge % each month also in the long run at some point will lose a big % also because of unforeseen events. What you want is consistent gains over time."

TimberSeal said: "I had an awesome return last year of a little over 65% but this year hasn't been as good to me yet. I tend to play a few riskier plays and while the reward(s) have been high they have put me in place on a couple of occasions. Hope and some calming DD had me hold through the rough times after it was already to late to get out. It all came back and then some though :whacky011: I've been alot more diverse this year looking for undervalued stocks. Got my eye on NTRI actually now just waiting to see whats going to happen. I think it's RSI is like 18% right now :roll:"

bigmike said: "I am not as diversified as some of the other people in here, but I do make a nice percentage since i started investing when I was 13. I think I usually make 50%+ per year, but this year I have been sturggling a little, but since selling AAPL for a 110% gain and still sitting in BIDU for over a 100% I am feeling really well about have something above my 50% average return. I usually don't follow percents, but more of how much I make like JAP does."

caller006 said: "your only 16 bigmike? Props for being so young and investing, wish i had invested all my money earlier to instead of spending it on random stuff like a moped, lol"

Pb3190 said: "I'm still young, but I regret spending so much money on paintball and other stuff instead of investing it."

TheInkDon said: "[QUOTE=Pb3190]Aligator, if you don't mind me asking, what funds are you in right now? I'm doing alright with my funds but am not getting 2% a month like you. [/QUOTE] Pb3190, Aligator has already answered your specific question, but for a more general answer I'd offer this: CAF, MORGAN STANLEY C 77.0% GCH, GREATER CHINA F 57.7% FXI, ISHARES FT/XI CH 43.5% GXC, SPDR S&P CHINA E 40.8% PMPIX, PROFUNDS-P MTL-I 35.8% PMPSX, PROFUNDS-P MTL-S 35.5% CHN, CHINA FUND INC 34.1% JFC, JF CHINA REGION 32.5% ICHKX, GUINNESS-CH&HK 31.1% MCHFX, MATTHEWS-CHINA 31.1% Sorry it's hard to read, but I couldn't figure out how to do a table here. It's from Bloomberg.com's Fund Center, sorted by highest return over the last 3 months. I edited out the load funds, and stopped the list at the 30% mark, which is an average of 10% per month over the last 3 months. JAP and others say not to chase performance, and there's some validity to that, especially if all you're doing is piling your money (along with everyone else) into, say, Money magazine's All Time Best Mutual Funds Of Last Year, because then you bloat those fund managers' assets and maybe they can't invest the extra capital as efficiently as before and performance then suffers. But take a smaller time slice, like my three months example above, and there is real evidence that momentum does persist. Jot down the list above and check it in three months and see if they don't return at least the 2% per month you mentioned. And for those who'd say, "But they're too volatile and you could lose a lot", as always you have to have an appropriate stop loss point at which you get out, which is really easy to do with the closed-end funds listed above (the ones with only three letters) because they trade like stocks and you can put in an automatic trailing stop with your broker. My respectful two cents, Mike"

bigmike said: "[QUOTE=caller006]your only 16 bigmike? Props for being so young and investing, wish i had invested all my money earlier to instead of spending it on random stuff like a moped, lol[/QUOTE] I have never been big on spending. i always feel guilt when I spend my money on things that I know won't last two long and since I couldn't work until I was 16 I started to invest so I could afford bigger things faster. I have been able to afford a brand new desktop that I built myself and a fairly newly sent out laptop and I just bought an Xbox 360 in June after selling all my Apple (AAPL) shares before the iPhone came out. I only buy things that will last me for years to come or things that go with my long term hobbies like Computers, Golf, or Gaming/Electronics. I also try to limit the amount I spend on items and try to catch deals on the stuff I do buy. Now that I am working at my school I am able to invest a little bit more but I am also able to afford more in my life. I am hoping to be able to afford either a car or a motorcycle by the time I finish High School, but if not I will wait until after the 1st or 2nd year of college. I know this is a little of topic, but since Caller was suprised about me investing I thought I would just throw my mind set out to him so he could maybe follow it."

Harry said: "[QUOTE=Harry]Since pulling my IRA from Merrill Lynch and starting a new cash account I had good periods and bad periods that basically cancelled out the good. I've made most or all of the mistakes I can make. Most of the time I knew what to do but allowed emotion to overtake discilpine. Now I exercise a "no prisoners" attitude. I will not buy a stock and lose money (PERIOD). I look for bottoms, like my recent purchase of [B]CHK[/B]. I'm watching the big boys now, something I pooh-poohed perviously...making out with Carl Icahn's picks if [B]BEAS[/B] and [B]MOT[/B]. I have [B]CSCO[/B] and [B]FMD[/B] for some upside. Buying and selling [B]LVLT[/B] on peaks and valleys has been a good trade scenario for me. When I purchase a stocks I automatically set limit sells at 10%+ to cover trade fees. I watch the market "and" my individual stocks for reasons to sell. I don't want to take a hit with sudden bad news aka: NTRI. Since I work a 3 day work with occcasionally weekends I can often watch the day's market activity. If I'm near a PC when my 10% benchmark is near I may change that order to a trailing stop to optimize my gain. When I have ca$h stockpile I do not jump and buy. I wait and watch for a guartentees gainer. Now that the volitility indexes are stablizing "trading" is becoming less beneficial and "holds" seem most prudent. [B]With this refined philosophy and tactics I tend to guarentee a 5% gain per month, which doesn't sound like alot but is a compounding figure. [/B][/QUOTE] This month actually got better....[B]BEAS[/B] advanced 38%+ yesterday. [I]Thank you Carl Icahn. [/I] I also got back into [B]T[/B] as a long hold. My TEAM. [B]BEAS, MOT, T, CHK, FMD, AUY, LVLT[/B] I may have to revise my monthly avg higher. After the last 2 years I seem to be making decisions with a clearer head."

Aligator said: "[QUOTE=Harry]............After the last 2 years I seem to be making decisions with a clearer head.......[/QUOTE] That's a good thing, of course, and I have no doubt that what you say is true. You [I]are[/I] learning. Hopefully, we all are. But in two years the S&P is up 33% and the NASDAQ is up 37%, so if you had just bought the Q's or the Spyders you would have made those gains. No one should be required to answer publicly, I think, but we should all ask ourselves privately if our performance is really all that good given market conditions. I know in the past I have thought I was climbing a mountain when in reality I was just riding an elevator."

Harry said: "[QUOTE=Aligator]That's a good thing, of course, and I have no doubt that what you say is true. You [I]are[/I] learning. Hopefully, we all are. But in two years the S&P is up 33% and the NASDAQ is up 37%, so if you had just bought the Q's or the Spyders you would have made those gains. No one should be required to answer publicly, I think, but we should all ask ourselves privately if our performance is really all that good given market conditions. I know in the past I have thought I was climbing a mountain when in reality I was just riding an elevator.[/QUOTE] Personally I hate good market conditions because I always fear that the shoe will drop. And even when it doesn't drop people jump off that elevator from time to time. I see clear trails and one's shrouded in fog...I take the clear paths. I probably would do better on the executive elevator with BIDU, AAPL and GOOG but as a victom on the 90's stock depression (the tech bubble bursting), I don't categorize those paths as clear. There's always a BULL sector to wrap oneself in. My purchase of CHK has nothing to do with market conditions and everything to due with high inventories creating an interum low price...with a cold winter ahead expected. :) Also I play it safe with diversification/strategy. BEAS... take-over target MOT ...discount buy T...communications ...safe dividend stock CHK...natural gas FMD...Sound financial AUY..China, India gobbling up this commodiy, meanwhile our Treasury prints $$$ LVLT...easy short term trades"