Working on an early retirement
First, note the disclaimer at the top of this page. It's new and shiney and stuff. A year ago I knew little to nothing about investing. I have a 401K with a little more than $1000 in it. At this rate retirement is going to be rough. However, a few months ago I stumbled upon some things that prompted me to do some learnin' 'bout stocks.
At the top of this site you'll see a link that says "Next Blog". I don't recommend clicking on it for the most part, but one day I was bored and I did. I was taken to a blog about investing in stocks. It was October and this new investing blog had just begun at the beginning of that month. That blog has since moved and is now found here. Basically, he writes everyday about decisions made in a virtual account that started at $100,000. He has since added a smaller virtual account that started at a more manageable $10,000.
BHCO mentions a guy named Josh (aka Maui Trader), who is good at making money in the stock market and also sells consulting services on the investor paradise website. Once the site was no longer free I stopped reading it, but what I got before then has been useful. BHCO and Josh use a system called CAN SLIM, which was created by William J. O'Neil. Josh also recommends a number of books to read of which I've read 2 now, Reminiscenses of a Stock Operator (Edwin Lefevre), and How to Make Money in Stocks (William J. O'Neil). O'Neil created a newspaper and now a website that provides gobs and gobs of information. With all of that I thought to myself, "self, I could maybe make some money in that mysterious old stock market."
So on Yahoo's finance site I created an account to watch stocks I think I would choose. I also created a virtual portfolio that tracks what happens with imaginary stock trades I do. I decided my fake account should more closely resemble reality, so it starts with only $5000 cash (I swear I really could save that much if I just concentrated on it...honest). To be realistic I'm including a commission of $7 for each trade which is reasonable because Scottrade offers that.
I won't be posting very often about it, because there really won't be that many trades made when you don't have much capital. I will explain why I chose the companies I did and the timing of buying and selling decisions that I make. In the end if I can do this for a while and not lose money, then I might open a real account.
ps. I think the ordeal with Verizon is finally over, so I'll finish that story.
At the top of this site you'll see a link that says "Next Blog". I don't recommend clicking on it for the most part, but one day I was bored and I did. I was taken to a blog about investing in stocks. It was October and this new investing blog had just begun at the beginning of that month. That blog has since moved and is now found here. Basically, he writes everyday about decisions made in a virtual account that started at $100,000. He has since added a smaller virtual account that started at a more manageable $10,000.
BHCO mentions a guy named Josh (aka Maui Trader), who is good at making money in the stock market and also sells consulting services on the investor paradise website. Once the site was no longer free I stopped reading it, but what I got before then has been useful. BHCO and Josh use a system called CAN SLIM, which was created by William J. O'Neil. Josh also recommends a number of books to read of which I've read 2 now, Reminiscenses of a Stock Operator (Edwin Lefevre), and How to Make Money in Stocks (William J. O'Neil). O'Neil created a newspaper and now a website that provides gobs and gobs of information. With all of that I thought to myself, "self, I could maybe make some money in that mysterious old stock market."
So on Yahoo's finance site I created an account to watch stocks I think I would choose. I also created a virtual portfolio that tracks what happens with imaginary stock trades I do. I decided my fake account should more closely resemble reality, so it starts with only $5000 cash (I swear I really could save that much if I just concentrated on it...honest). To be realistic I'm including a commission of $7 for each trade which is reasonable because Scottrade offers that.
I won't be posting very often about it, because there really won't be that many trades made when you don't have much capital. I will explain why I chose the companies I did and the timing of buying and selling decisions that I make. In the end if I can do this for a while and not lose money, then I might open a real account.
ps. I think the ordeal with Verizon is finally over, so I'll finish that story.
posted by BugHunter at 1:51 PM
2 Comments:
$7 commissions?
Dude, try Zecco.com
40 free trades/month- no minimum
i opened an account with them beginning of this year, and i must say i am very pleased.
I knew you had a broker like that, but I couldn't remember who at the time I started this.
With how little I'll be trading when I do this for real, Zecco sounds like a perfect fit for me.
Now that it's over here on my blog, maybe I won't loose the reference. Thanks.
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