Stock market investments now or later and who?

drkelly said:
My thinking is the exact opposite of what you are describing. I believe in trading more, and taking more chances when young, then becoming more conservative as we age. Two of my father's friends were HEAVILY invested in tech stocks in the late 90's. After the crash, one of them had to come out of retirement and go back to work for several years. The other had to delay retirement many years.

Several years back I created a spreadsheet that calculates our projected monthly income at various ages based on 401k withdrawals, SS, pensions, and E-trade accnt withdrawals. Our goal is to work until we have saved a VERY comfortable buffer such that if another massive crash hit the markets, we would not have to change our lifestyle in retirement. So far things are looking good.

Since you mentioned 2025, the S&P500 went up 17.9% that year. Trading a 5% move 5 times in 2025 would have beat an index fund, but you would be required to pay short term capital gains tax on all of those transactions. Were you able to beat the S&P500 in 2025 with your trading of SPY and accounting for paying short term capital gains tax on what you made? Can you do it year after year after year? If so, hats off to you because that is VERY hard to do.
Click to expand...
The other piece is if you have a full time job it's very difficult to sit there with multiple screens up of candle stick charts watching price moves all day. I have a hybrid office/plant role and I was either in a meeting or on the floor the entire day the market was open yesterday for example.

If I ever get laid off/AI'd out of role, or hopefully retire early, I'll probably be trading some of my stuff during the day.
 
gslander said:
The other piece is if you have a full time job it's very difficult to sit there with multiple screens up of candle stick charts watching price moves all day. I have a hybrid office/plant role and I was either in a meeting or on the floor the entire day the market was open yesterday for example.
Click to expand...
Nah man. That's intraday trading. What I'm talking about is making one investing (trading) decision every week at 3:55 on Friday. Most weeks you do nothing.

@drkelly I don't think you're understanding me no matter how I try to explain it. Again, you're not alone, it's the way it's been sold to you for decades.
 
Will Carter said:
Nah man. That's intraday trading. What I'm talking about is making one investing (trading) decision every week at 3:55 on Friday. Most weeks you do nothing.

@drkelly I don't think you're understanding me no matter how I try to explain it. Again, you're not alone, it's the way it's been sold to you for decades.
Click to expand...
So, are you creating your own ticker or using a certain platform to follow the trends?
 
Will Carter said:
Nah man. That's intraday trading. What I'm talking about is making one investing (trading) decision every week at 3:55 on Friday. Most weeks you do nothing.

@drkelly I don't think you're understanding me no matter how I try to explain it. Again, you're not alone, it's the way it's been sold to you for decades.
Click to expand...
That makes more sense
 
Will Carter said:
@drkelly I don't think you're understanding me no matter how I try to explain it. Again, you're not alone, it's the way it's been sold to you for decades.
Click to expand...

Animated GIF
 
Will Carter said:
Nah man. That's intraday trading. What I'm talking about is making one investing (trading) decision every week at 3:55 on Friday. Most weeks you do nothing.

@drkelly I don't think you're understanding me no matter how I try to explain it. Again, you're not alone, it's the way it's been sold to you for decades.
Click to expand...
So if you make 1 decision a week, and most weeks you do nothing, then how often are you actually trading? And if you're not actually trading, how are you making money?
 
jeepinmatt said:
And if you're not actually trading, how are you making money?
Click to expand...
You only have to trade 1 time to make money.
The money follows the good trades.
you only need more trades if (when) your prior one turns out to be no longer a good one.
 
RatLabGuy said:
You only have to trade 1 time to make money.
The money follows the good trades.
you only need more trades if (when) your prior one turns out to be no longer a good one.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the wisdom. I was wondering how trading works. I now understand. I'm going to start trying to trade things now that I know what to do. :flipoff2:

I'm just trying to figure out if @Will Carter is actively trading on a weekly basis, or only occasionally trading every few weeks based on some kind of chart indicator. Because it sure seems like mixed messages to me.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Thank you for the wisdom. I was wondering how trading works. I now understand. I'm going to start trying to trade things now that I know what to do. :flipoff2:

I'm just trying to figure out if @Will Carter is actively trading on a weekly basis, or only occasionally trading every few weeks based on some kind of chart indicator. Because it sure seems like mixed messages to me.
Click to expand...
Same, seems more like a play on dollar cost averaging but with a few astrict's after it. I guess selling on Friday afternoons make sense though. Curious as well
 
jeepinmatt said:
Thank you for the wisdom. I was wondering how trading works. I now understand. I'm going to start trying to trade things now that I know what to do. :flipoff2:

I'm just trying to figure out if @Will Carter is actively trading on a weekly basis, or only occasionally trading every few weeks based on some kind of chart indicator. Because it sure seems like mixed messages to me.
Click to expand...
He's told us previously... he's not trading anything at all, this is just intellectual masturbation about all the money he would have made if he actually did anything :laughing:
 
jeepinmatt said:
I'm just trying to figure out if @Will Carter is actively trading on a weekly basis, or only occasionally trading every few weeks based on some kind of chart indicator.
Click to expand...
Yes.

jeepinmatt said:
Because it sure seems like mixed messages to me.
Click to expand...
What I do daily and what I’m telling people to do for investing are waaay different. And I understand that I’ve thrown a bunch of rando

Like right now. I got short last night and added this morning and have been losing all day until about 5 minutes ago.

IMG_9264.png

But no one on this thread should be doing that.

My 401k is long SPY about 25% of its worth since the first 5% pull back. I’m still looking for the lower prices I’ve called out earlier in the thread or until the chart says “get in or we’re leaving”.

I have another standing order at 10% drop for another 25% if it’s worth. Just missed it last week.

Sell them when they go up to their respective 5 and 10% profits then wait for the next one.

That’s what I’ve told people to do in this thread if they don’t want to learn some basics in charts. If you do educate yourself on things like swing points and breakouts you can hold onto those investments a little longer sometimes.

My other pretty pictures of charts are just to say “hey, it’s all about risk reward, nothing else matters”.

First hardest thing is ignoring the Trump tweets of the world and associated opinions.

The second hardest thing is pressing the buttons on your own life savings. That’s why there’s a whole market of ‘advisors’ who will press the buttons for you (even though most commercial advisors don’t hit any buttons at all, they just sell you their brand of etf and shove you in for the long haul, Jesus take the wheel)

The third hardest thing is that you’ll spend some of your time in cash. And everyone has been sold that’s the wrong way to do things.

I’ll provide receipts tonight when I get back to the computer.

If I can convince a few people here maybe I’ll start my $129.95 trading course! You all are helping me refine my notes.
 
Will Carter said:
Yes.


What I do daily and what I’m telling people to do for investing are waaay different. And I understand that I’ve thrown a bunch of rando

Like right now. I got short last night and added this morning and have been losing all day until about 5 minutes ago.

View attachment 454833

But no one on this thread should be doing that.

My 401k is long SPY about 25% of its worth since the first 5% pull back. I’m still looking for the lower prices I’ve called out earlier in the thread or until the chart says “get in or we’re leaving”.

I have another standing order at 10% drop for another 25% if it’s worth. Just missed it last week.

Sell them when they go up to their respective 5 and 10% profits then wait for the next one.

That’s what I’ve told people to do in this thread if they don’t want to learn some basics in charts. If you do educate yourself on things like swing points and breakouts you can hold onto those investments a little longer sometimes.

My other pretty pictures of charts are just to say “hey, it’s all about risk reward, nothing else matters”.

First hardest thing is ignoring the Trump tweets of the world and associated opinions.

The second hardest thing is pressing the buttons on your own life savings. That’s why there’s a whole market of ‘advisors’ who will press the buttons for you (even though most commercial advisors don’t hit any buttons at all, they just sell you their brand of etf and shove you in for the long haul, Jesus take the wheel)

The third hardest thing is that you’ll spend some of your time in cash. And everyone has been sold that’s the wrong way to do things.

I’ll provide receipts tonight when I get back to the computer.

If I can convince a few people here maybe I’ll start my $129.95 trading course! You all are helping me refine my notes.
Click to expand...
Man this guy needs to get a job.
 
The US dropped some bunker buster bombs on a munitions depot in Isfahan and Iran requested a ceasefire. Trump says the war will be over in 2-3 weeks. Nice turnout in the markets the past two days.
 
Back
Top