This is also a response to T-R1, #2721, and stingray113, #2676.*
I am just learning how to do this. Many people on this board have been trading stocks for many years, or for decades. I have just a small "starter" account, using only cash, so I have to worry about settlement dates.*
I can't sell the shares I bought Tuesday morning until Thursday, because the funding sale was Monday.*
I am told that if I had a small margin account, I wouldn't have to worry about settlement dates. But then I would have to worry about the day trade rule. I am also told that if I have only a cash account, then I don't have to worry about the day trade rule. Until the account is $25,000 or more, there will be restrictions of one kind or the other.*
The question then becomes: Does my track record of past trades justify taking on more risk? Does it justify making the situation even more complicated, or harder to understand?*
If I went to a different broker, where the cost per trade is less, I would still be running up against those other problems. I like being able to talk to someone in person if I have to. I can either call on the telephone or drive to the broker's office. I figure they have to get paid somehow for their time. If my cost per trade was lower, that would cut into the money that pays for personal service.*
In my first year, I could count it as a "success" just to be in the game at all. In my second year, it's a success when I can add new cash to my account faster than I lose it by trading. Right now, I have more in my trading account than I had at any time last year. By next year, I expect to be showing profits and paying taxes on it.*
One of the PBS shows I used to watch was called "Adam Smith's Money World." The man, whose real name is George Goodman, published a book called "The Money Game" in 1968, under the pseudonym of "Adam Smith." I had read the book several years ago, but before I started trading I read it again. Has anyone else here seen this book? In any case, he pushes the concept that the stock market is a "game."*
I was also reading some other books, such as "Trading for Dummies" and "Day Trading for Dummies."*
Well, I'm a "slow learner," but then so are a lot of people. I don't want to end up as one of those "failed day traders," so the best way for me is to take it slow.*
One website says this: "Are you a failed day trader? If you did not fail as a new trader, then your experience was not like 99.4% of the day traders around the world."*
(I'm not recommending that website. I just wanted to use the quotation).*
--* Today is the 1-year anniversary for starting the UVXY board. On April 24, 2012, the TVIX board had about 3134 comments. Now it has about 5828, and the UVXY board has 2757. This means that the UVXY board has added more comments in the past year than the TVIX board has done. I predict that in another year, the total number of comments on the UVXY board will be greater than the total number on the TVIX board. The large number of comments is at least one measure of success.*
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