What kind of Trader / Investor are you?

[Bluerobin]

Ok, I was a little shocked when I saw Rovo's trading station. I knew he was a serious investor, but not to the extent.
What kind of trading do you do?
I am a buy and hold type and I favor dividends at present. I do have a few growth stocks.
A few years ago, I started a "day trading" account, to see if I could adapt to short term trading. Sometimes I am in and out, other times I hold for a little while. I am learning this skill.

[rovo]

Despite your comment, I consider myself to be a rather conservative investor. Most of my $ are in longer term positions and I have quite a few dividend payers in the port. I allocate about 15% of my account to high or higher risk plays for the short term.

I do a little day trading and swing trading (weeks to months) and the buying of options with the 15%. I just see the shorter term trades as fun and it offers me a little excitement in an otherwise quiet life. LOL.

[Bluerobin]

Rovo, I can't imagine handling that many monitors at once. I still think you are miles beyond me. I do the buy and hold, and amuse myself with a few day trades and swing trades (thanks for naming that for me).
I am just wondering what others do. I have a friend that day trades bank stocks exclusively. Before that, he did oil. One sector and a handful of stocks.

ETA: I like the panelling, I too have wood panelling in my den.

[ModE98]

The last two years, in relection, believe I was a stupid, ignorant, stock investor for overindulgence in China ADRs in spite of Rovo's excellent advice to BEWARE.
So now am turning a new leaf and trying the high dividend routine.... which again may be too far out on the limb. Like Steve Martin, "Just a wild and crazy guy". Yet, just maybe, the economy will continue on its slow and agnonizing advance over the next few years and the REITs will come out smelling like a rose.
All will be resolved in the fullness of time. I thank Rovo for his sound advice, but my hard head got in the way.

[Bluerobin]

Mod E, I can't touch anything foreign - it just nose dives.
One thing I learned about dividends is don't go too high, those are bound to be cut, unless their industry "demands" a higher dividend.

[Value Buy]

FINANCIALS
OILS
UTILITIES

ALL EQUAL DIVIDEND REINVESTMENT
Financials, dividend reinvestment, not so much, but soo to come!

[rovo]

The following statement made by D.I. in the previous post is worth repeating:

We all Have our Different Ways of Doing the Same thing, what works for one Person may not be appealing to another. But, this is what make this Community Great, there is ALWAYS another Idea out there for your consideration. And that can Cause you to Pause and consider the Possibilities..


There are dozens of ways to make money in the markets. This board is made up of a diverse group of investors with different ideas. Seldom does a day go by that I don't learn something from the other posters.

[tyfighter3]

My trading style is looking at sectors that I think will do good for several years. For the last few years I've been into the Energy Sector, whatever that energy could be. I chose 10 to 20 stocks that I believe will grow over time and learn everything I can about them. I don't try to learn every stock in that sector but to learn a few that you then know what you need to, to trade them. I've done well with that strategy over time.

[bimetalaupt]

Rovo,
I have an A++ Account that I used to test a real hot broker from New York.. After a few Months I closed the New York account to add money back to the self run Stock/Bond account.. Like You It has a 10-15% high risk element.. As we talked about it last year: it is now Citigroup bought at 0.97%..

The 1.5% percent cost for a mutual Fund is hard for the Mutual Fund to beat the market.. With 10 stocks and three or four bonds we beat the market 9 of the last 10 years. I like to play and I love my drama of low cost holding.

Great Post and very interesting how well everyone has moved over to "Refugees"

Just a thought,
Bi metal AU Pt

[yclept]

I'm primarily a mechanical investor/trader -- a slave to the best screens I can build. As often as not, when I try to inject other prejudices and/or analyses into the decision, it worsens what would otherwise have been the outcome. That being said, I've also been known to send the money-dog out to chase a stock-rabbit now and again, usually with the same effect as when the real dog chases real jackrabbits -- a tired dog and a rabbit no worse for wear.

[clarkrl2]

Primarily I like to invest in companies I would be comfortable holding for one or more years. I like screening for companies that meet certain criteria and usually take a close look at valuations. Many of my screens have valuation criteria built into them. Recently I have been using options which I limit to selling covered calls, and call and put spreads. I also like to use a little cyclical and technical analysis.

[Deleted]

I am a Boglehead. I invest in low cost indexed mutual fund for the long term.

So boring.

[tyfighter3]

And I thought I was lazy. lol

[ModE98]

Some like it hot, others do not. Whatever moves 'ya. Although that makes it awfully simple. Takes the daily grind to aboat 0. Exciting investment life, eh Archie? LMHO

[Bluerobin]

Arch, keep coming back, we will get you gamblin!

[MittenKitten]

It depends on the stock and the Market. I have dividend investments like T and I have a few spec stocks, like C. In 2009 I sold a lot of Calls and made a fair amount percentage wise. This year the Calls weren't worth much so I kept most my stocks.

Now I am just not sure what I am going to do with my financial stocks, keep them or buy something different..... Seems like they need to come back soon....

I try to buy a stock with a decent chance at appreciating in the next year timeframe. Then I keep looking at them to see if I should sell or hold. I was happy with most my positions last year but time to sell a few.

I like the idea of selling Puts, I may have to look into that. Thanks for the idea!

[bimetalaupt]

DI,
Are you talking going Necked or covered.. I used to short stocks and sell puts.. Did well but you are always playing for the cash value.
I used Merton Differential Equation as presented in John C. Hull 4th ed Options,Futures and other Derivatives.. Also MBA study on risk.. Most will pay too much for put coverage. The Decay of value on puts is greater then calls.. I used the 30 year T-Bond as 90% cash.. Did well but Flow5 has done better. I took out my start-up cash to buy art and am playing with houses money.. when I have time to give it 100%..
This is all high risk.. I used to play the short against the "BOX".
Just a thought,

bi Metal Au Pt

[Deleted]

What kind of Trader / Investor are you?

I'm pretty laid back & don't spend a lot of time with investments. We invest only in mutual funds & each fund is in a different area (limit 6 funds). If one fund is in an area that is under performing & we don't feel that it will improve we do research & pick a different area of the market. Two things I like to look for are: Funds that are doing well & a little smaller than the norm in their area of investing or funds that are doing real well compared to other funds in that area. We hit a hot fund once & we averaged 26 percent per year for 2 years. Sadly the fund did so well that everyone flocked into it (making them change from a small company fund to a midcap company fund) & we got out of them when they started under performing.

[gambler]

I prefer day trading. but for excitement, I have a penny account which for some reason i seem to do better with.I take a lot of risk on biotechs but the pay off so far has been outstanding I must say I do not depend on investment income for living expenses at this time so I have a lot of lee way.

[totalkaos]

I use an asset allocation model that I try to match countercyclical to the stock market. It uses mostly mutual funds or etfs and calls for buying and selling based on price levels of the S$P compared to the all time high in the market. I sell as the market rises and buy when it falls. When the market reaches a price threshold it requires my re-balancing my percentage of stocks to fixed income. I also subscribe to an advisory service that is perennially bullish and of a long term nature. Since I am a bear at heart, that forces me to recognize the bullish argument. When they give a sell signal it is unusual and instantly catches my attention. The best thing is they are very good at identifying buying opportunities. The long term stock market has always corrected a lot of mistakes providing one is not left on the sidelines when the train leaves.

A significant amount of my trading activity is in purchasing individual bonds in the bond market. Bond investing is like the wild wild west. One is able to find as much or as little excitement there as a person cares to stomach. Commodity speculation was my first venture. I learned much about leverage there. You can make and lose a lot of money in a hurry. The stock and bond markets are preferred by me.

[ModE98]

Just a thought....
A conservative investor would be best to ask this question first prior to the selection of any stock for his/her port....
"How much LOSS potential is there in this stock?" This question is likely to make one think and investigate before pulling the trigger to make a buy.

Believe most people merely think. "How much PROFIT potential is there in this stock?', seldom really considering the potential for loss. We all like to look through rose colored glasses at our stock picks, overlooking the "potential" bad side. Ego overcomes logical DD.

The first question, properly considered, should help keep one from being blindsided, leaving little to mere chance. If the odds are not fully in one's favor, best to pass on to another selection.

[ModE98]

DI, you have a brilliant brain, perhaps you a just too smart and others cannot keep up with you? I know at least one, me . Of course, my aged brain can no longer calculate and reason as 50 years ago.

[ModE98]

DI - have learned over many years there are certain principals that seem to apply and work very well ....
KISS
Murphy's Law
Peter Principal
It's just the way it is ...

[lovetobike]

I'm still trying to figure out my investment strategy. I think I would do best with some structure to remove some of the emotion that I let get in the way. At this point my goals have been to build my account to levels where I can actually start making larger sums of money without risking large part of my portfolio. This has been done by choosing growth stocks, selling, and adding cash to my accounts.

I see that most investors have built up a nice base of dividend paying stocks in their "long-term" accounts and so I'm working on doing that. Right now I'm going to consider DE, INTC, WIN, WHX and AEP as part of my long-term port. I may take some profits and then add to these stocks when the dips occur. I've been paying attention to WHX and realize that I probably need to unload all it around 2013 (or was it 2017 - I better figure this out!) due to the well capacity and other items (I don't remember the details but it was posted on this board)

For the rest, I'll use these as opportunities to keep growing my account. I have some short term and long term goals regarding the amount of money I hope to have in the future. I'm moving a large part of my cash into VIG - an index dividend paying growth fund to collect dividends while I wait for opportunities to buy individual stocks. I have 2 reasons: 1) it allows me to have lower cost trades in my Vanguard account ($7.00 vs. $25 per trade) and 2) that index fund doesn't move too much in the downturns and so my money is relatively safe (I know it isn't risk free!).

I've chosen to have 10% of my "trading account" allocated to bonds and I'm sticking with ETF/index funds because I don't want to take the time to learn how to manage individual bonds. I'd rather focus on learning how choose equities and sometime graduate to using part of my port to trade options.

How much of your portfolio do you allocate to long-term, steady, stocks that you don't plan to trade often vs. a short term %?

[yclept]

Everything I own is for sale all the time if the price is right. I have no sacred cows. For that reason, most of my positions have limit sell orders in place well above any price I expect to see near term. Every now and then one of those gets hit on some piece of news. Now and then when that happens I sell too low (in retrospect), but more often within a week or so I can re-buy the position at a price substantially lower than the price I sold on the limit order (assuming I still want to own the position).
That's just my methodology. As someone on the old Supermodels board used to say (was it Mountain Girl?): "Your mileage may vary."

[fvbridges]

I am basically a rookie. Back in Jan. 2009, I had about $2500 in savings. Ford was at $1.55 a share. I asked a customer of mine(our local Edward Jones person) about putting that money in Ford stock.(I worked at a Ford dealer at the time) He said no......too risky. I did not buy and regretted it when the stock hit $15. I started with sharebuilder in Dec 2009 and have been at it since then. I have made a few mistakes like selling AFOP at $1.40 or so, but overall I am ahead. Can't afford to put a lot in($50 a month), but I am enjoying it and the money I have invested would have earned a few cents in a savings account.