A few questions from a newbie.

Justin said: "Hi there, I just found out about this website today and it seems like an excellent resource and an overall good place to bounce around ideas. My situation is as follows: I worked at a video game company for about 4 years and I was in the stock purchase program there. Over that period of buying and over the last few years of growth (and a split) I have 250 shares at almost 60 dollars each. This is roughly 15,000 dollars. My initial plan with this money was to just let it sit there and gain value and use it for a down payment on a property or something (although that will be somewhat far down the line). Recently I have come to the conclusion that one of the most successful ways to make money is to spend it, and this chunk of money seems perfect to do that with. I do not make a lot of money, as I am going to school (many years after HS graduation, I am 25 now), however my wife does make a decent amount and she is basically able to support the both of us. After thinking about the idea of trying to play the market for a few days I decided to purchase a few books. I got one of those big yellow "Trading for Dummies" mostly for its ability to explain a lot of the simpler concepts that are foreign to me. I also purchased "One up on Wall Street (I think thats the name, by Lynch?)". I plan on reading this second book after the first as it seems I would probably understand more of what he is talking about. My two questions are: Is it possible to make a CAREER out of being an independant invester/trader? And, are there any other books that people recommend to allow me to be more equipped before I officially start? Please note that I have no illusions about making a ton of money fast, and I do not expect the whole "get rich quick" thing. I expect it to be difficult and to not succeed, if at all, for quite some time. I am of the mind, however, that being your own boss is preferable to all other things, and this seems like it might be a viable way to do that. Any advice is appreciated, thanks!"

chahinemm said: "[QUOTE=Justin]Hi there, I just found out about this website today and it seems like an excellent resource and an overall good place to bounce around ideas. My situation is as follows: I worked at a video game company for about 4 years and I was in the stock purchase program there. Over that period of buying and over the last few years of growth (and a split) I have 250 shares at almost 60 dollars each. This is roughly 15,000 dollars. My initial plan with this money was to just let it sit there and gain value and use it for a down payment on a property or something (although that will be somewhat far down the line). Recently I have come to the conclusion that one of the most successful ways to make money is to spend it, and this chunk of money seems perfect to do that with. I do not make a lot of money, as I am going to school (many years after HS graduation, I am 25 now), however my wife does make a decent amount and she is basically able to support the both of us. After thinking about the idea of trying to play the market for a few days I decided to purchase a few books. I got one of those big yellow "Trading for Dummies" mostly for its ability to explain a lot of the simpler concepts that are foreign to me. I also purchased "One up on Wall Street (I think thats the name, by Lynch?)". I plan on reading this second book after the first as it seems I would probably understand more of what he is talking about. My two questions are: Is it possible to make a CAREER out of being an independant invester/trader? And, are there any other books that people recommend to allow me to be more equipped before I officially start? Please note that I have no illusions about making a ton of money fast, and I do not expect the whole "get rich quick" thing. I expect it to be difficult and to not succeed, if at all, for quite some time. I am of the mind, however, that being your own boss is preferable to all other things, and this seems like it might be a viable way to do that. Any advice is appreciated, thanks![/QUOTE] first of all welcome aboard and i think your analysis of the info is more mature than a lot of us at least me for sure, ill try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge,,, yes money can be made our of stock trading but that doesnt mean you should quit ur job,,, it is possible to do both of them at the same time... which i would suggest 2 reasons one that the stock trading depending on strategies can take time to really generate money. and also having another source of income helps pump ur existing account when good buying opportunities come up in terms of books i recomment buffetology, its a book that i cherish its a bit simplistic but will give u a hands on style approach. ill check out if i find some more books that are interesting.. except that i congratulate you because you took a realistic stand that its not going to be easy and that u will have to face tough times.that i can assure but before starting trading with real money try to simulate the trading process on paper as if u were really buying and selling and see if u are making money and then make the decision if u want to step forward on this direction or not. also i would even suggest putting some of the money aside for rough times and trading with the remaining... like 40% in a saving account and the rest u trade or even just sell 50% of the stock u hold and the rest you keep as stocks as the price of the company stocks could continue to grow so why miss that opportunity to make extra bucks ;) gl and don't hesitate to post and ask questions we r all here to help as much as we can. chahinemm"

Justin said: "[QUOTE=chahinemm]yes money can be made our of stock trading but that doesnt mean you should quit ur job,,, it is possible to do both of them at the same time... which i would suggest 2 reasons one that the stock trading depending on strategies can take time to really generate money. and also having another source of income helps pump ur existing account when good buying opportunities come up chahinemm[/QUOTE] Clearly I would not be able to even consider quiting any outside Income I have right now. Unless I get ridiculously lucky 15k is not gonna give me enough extra money to actually cash out and use for living expenses. I am more concerned with the long term. If I spend the time and extra money now pumping up my portfolio, is it possible in the long run to make a full time job out of it? Is there anyone here that does this? Honestly this would be a dream for me to be able to do research at home and be able to make money doing it. Is there a point at where any extra time spent is just useless? So for instance maybe it takes an experienced invester 10 hours a week to make his/her extra money and keep things rolling. If that same invester spends twice that amount of time, will the money earned reflect that? Or is most of it just waiting and seeing and after a point the time spent is just fluff."

Justin said: "Actually, more specifically, what kind of profit percentage in 1 year can a competant full time invester "expect" to achieve? Obviously there will be times were some loss can occur, and times where more gain will occur, etc. But I imagine that most people who know what they are doing come with an increase at the end of a given year, or else noone would do it :)"

AlfredSokol said: "That would depend on the investor. First thing you would need to do is determine your expenses and figure out what amount of capital you need to trade with and what type of return you need to earn enough money to live on."

Justin said: "Yes I have done that, I am actually quite good with budgeting money and figuring out expenses, etc. However I think at this point I am getting a bit ahead of myself. I will spend the next few weeks reading up on the subject and I will ask any more questions if I don't understand something. Thanks!"

HappyHarry said: "Welcome aboard Justin. Since you're a young investor, time is what you have the most of. If you set a budget and systematically invest, you will be rich at some point in your future. It's just a matter of how long it will take."

investortoby said: "Justin, Expect at LEAST 2 years of losing money before you are able to break even. 1 to 2 years of breaking even then starting to profit a little. You will also need a good tax strategy or you will get eaten alive. I had 8 of my friends from my previous job quit and become day traders. 2 years later every single one of them is broke. They each lost $25,000. They didn't have a good trading plan and didn't paper trade consistently with profits OVER TIME. When you're broke you are forced to paper trade... do it now before it's too late. As far as paper trading not "being the same" as real trading -it's true but it 's the next best thing and it is free. Try donating $1500 to charity right off the bat. That will make you feel a little better before you start to watch it wittle away in the markets. and maybe it will help you really focus and become disciplined enough to become a good trader. I dont' make money as you know and have only heard of a handful of people who do. This guy might be a good place to start. [url]www.mikeysmethods.com[/url]"

alhamid said: "day trading is too much stress for me."

Justin said: "I appreciate the positive words Lance. I'm one of those people who tends to research a topic to death before jumping in. I have already been lurking around here reading everybodies posts about things and trying to get a good handle on what is going on. As far as the pessimistic comments about losing money, I think they are par for the course. A lot of people do things they probably shouldn't be doing, or have no business doing; that is the cause for the majority of all failures in all aspects of life, and I recognize that. For now I am just a sponge :P"

j.s bach said: "what is paper trading"

correction123 said: "Here is my take on this I have been trading for about 15 years and what I see is if a trader beginner or seasoned can not make money with $1000 investment he or she will not make money on $15000.00 You just got that much more to lose. When I lost $10,000.00 in the commodities market in sugar it was not because the markets were bad it was that I knew nothing about chart reading (Technicals). Once I educated myself on the classic chart patterns I begun to be interested in divergences. These pesky market phenomena's would make a trader lose hundreds or even thousands. Now when I look at a stock chart either its weekly, or Daily I can easily spot divergences either to up or downside. It made me lots of money it was so easy my wife who is not a trader even learned what to look for and she can tell me whether the market is heading up or down now this lady that came from the Philippines and never had any experience trading whatsoever. I took a chart from bigchart.com and copied the weekly chart and pointed out 3-4 of these divergence money makers... Once your able to spot these divergences you will find out that the options such as the QQQQ that I trade my favorites will be really cheap to go long with and I usually go out no more than 3 months. Just email me I got the chart free and there is plenty of money to be made out there. You just have to be able to recognize these Type 1 and 2 divergence's. Its with these divergence's that your options either calls or puts will be quite cheap because the traders not all but a good many have no clue that a divergence is in progress. That is how you can make 50 or more percent with as little as $500...Having money to invest is the easy part but knowing how to trade is another story. I just want you and anyone else to know if your patient and watch the daily and weekly for divergences you will only be trading 3-4 times a year using the weekly signals but its quite worth the wait."