Taking a profit is never bad, but.....I've learned the hard way to consider selling half at a double. Then, consider letting the rest run if the company still looks like a winner....and maybe sell 25% more shares each time the price doubles from your buy point after that....then, no matter how high the price goes, you keep making money. Food for thought. This is concept, execution is tougher....and it applies to significant, core holdings where larger volume/$ value justifies the effort
tbb...I too have three young children to take care of...which is why I have time to focus on stocks. I left work over two years ago now to take care of our daughters, 7, 5 and 3. When the youngest is in first grade, or SOONER, I hope to be trading for more income that I used to make working. "sahd3g" is stay at home dad/3 girls....best job around!
I had 23 years in towards a pension, 5 weeks vac. and a very good income. They were shocked with the 30 days notice, but its been a blessing and a challenge...dealing with thyroid cancer while dealing with three kids too. Anyhow, we made a bunch on SIRI and many others....but, the learning curve has been a bear....and we've given most of the gains back.
Anyhow....I suspect by 2006, I'll have two distinct strategies...the first being diversified, but aggressive, IRA holdings...with some swing trading to take advantage of market inefficiencies. The second being a switch to mark to market accounting.....capital preservation being key in the taxable account. This would be a combination of capital growth, and trading for income....$200 to $500 per day would be great. Back to all cash most evenings would be the deal there, looking for "flavor of the day" stocks, momentum opps, higher grade Nasdaq National Market stocks...looking for 2% or so per trade...using daytrade buy power to turn enough stocks each four days to grow the principle and take a little off the top as income....moving away from penny stocks with that particular strategy would be key too.
With accounts labeled "daytrading"....something I view more as "captial preservation"....anything above $25k in cash can be used to trade more value in your account each four days, than the account contains...getting around the settled funds rules. So, any cash or marketable securities above and beyond $25k, you can multiply by about 7 or 8. By using the margin, or daytrade buypower, an account with $100,000 cash, could control near $600,000 worth of trades each 4 trading days....even if you were back to cash each day.
Good luck folks.
AI
