Talking stocks, trading, and investing in general

[NameBack]



Lame maybe, but reality. But honestly why should we individual investors get preference? We are trading less then chump change compared to the bigger players and if we were excluded from the market, there wouldn't be much effect. Me buying 1500 shares of BAC is nothing compared to the daily volume.

On a side note, I have noticed Interactive Brokers executes my trades much faster than Schwab though.

Are you sure this is how it works when you put in an overnight order? I did a bit of research and it seems that when the market maker determines the opening price, they're aiming for a price that clears the market of backed-up orders from the night before. I assume that means if I put in an order the night before, I can expect it to be cleared at the opening price, because any of the overnight orders that can clear at the opening price will all clear at once (and I'd be using a market order, so I'm sure it would clear)?

 

[javyn]

Thinking....once VIX hits the bottom Bollinger Band, currently at around 20....I'm going long GLD. Thoughts?

 

[HgaleK]

I purchased a few calls on GLD when it closed over 175.50. I normally hate holding positions over the weekend, but support is healthy, it's in a short and long term up trend, and the market probably won't be shooting upward given the whole hurricane situation.

You end up taking the position?

 

[javyn]

Nah, I'm waiting. My whole idea was to buy GLD once volatility dropped, whenever that may be. I'm looking for when things *really* start to settle down, and the VIX drops down to mid to low 20s.

 

[HgaleK]



Nah, I'm waiting. My whole idea was to buy GLD once volatility dropped, whenever that may be. I'm looking for when things *really* start to settle down, and the VIX drops down to mid to low 20s.

Ah. I exited this morning at ~178.

Made a little bit on Baidu over the last two days. I'll think about reopening a position in Baidu after we definitively break 156.68

AAPL harshed on my profits a bit.

 

[javyn]

GLUU up 15% right now on huge volume due to Seeking Alpha article and Zynga buyout rumors.

After reading de Masi's amendment to his employment contract last month, I believe they've either got Zynga or MSFT on the hook.

A close above 3.67 will turn the 200MA into support, and IMO it's smooth sailing back up to the high 5s before the market tanked this month.

SA article speculates buyout at 600 million / 10 a share. If so, great, fast money. If not, I'm still okay b/c I love their games and business model. By mid 2012, they should be valued around 1.5b JMHO. We'll see what the talent they acquired from Blammo Games will do for them by then. They were on the verge of profitability before the Blammo and Griptonite acquisitions, may suck wind for a few months more to digest those two, but I think the casual mobile gaming superstars from Blammo are going to set GLU off. They now have 20 teams in their studio, which means many more games to come, hopefully we have some blockbusters in the iPhone and Amazon Android app stores. Oh yes, and firm beachhead in the Chinese market with TOM.

Only thing that concerns me is Griptonite, I have no idea why they wanted those people.

 

[Berzerk91]

So, I'm doing this practice trading account for my finance class; and I have no idea where to begin. If anyone's willing to give me some advice I'm definitely looking for it. What are some blogs/sites not as popular/obvious as the Wall Street Journal that actual traders or just you yourself frequent? Is currency a good place to start trading or should I just start looking at stocks/futures/options/bonds/etc.? I know the Euro is at 1.40ish right now which is pretty low; at work we scrambled to buy a few forwards to pay off some suppliers in Spain with this low exchange rate. What industries do well between now and November?

It's tough making your first trade when there's actual money in a practice account that can't be reset. I don't want to make a fool out of myself so I'm exhausting every tool I have to really succeed at this. For reference, we have "$500,000 cash and $1,000,000 buying power" in our account. What would you trade with that?

 

[chogall]

So, I'm doing this practice trading account for my finance class; and I have no idea where to begin. If anyone's willing to give me some advice I'm definitely looking for it. What are some blogs/sites not as popular/obvious as the Wall Street Journal that actual traders or just you yourself frequent? Is currency a good place to start trading or should I just start looking at stocks/futures/options/bonds/etc.? I know the Euro is at 1.40ish right now which is pretty low; at work we scrambled to buy a few forwards to pay off some suppliers in Spain with this low exchange rate. What industries do well between now and November?

It's tough making your first trade when there's actual money in a practice account that can't be reset. I don't want to make a fool out of myself so I'm exhausting every tool I have to really succeed at this. For reference, we have "$500,000 cash and $1,000,000 buying power" in our account. What would you trade with that?

Figure out what you want to 'trade' first. EUR/USD @ 1.41 is not low at all, depending on your macro view and tomorrow's German High Court ruling. Given the current environment, macro style investing/trading is the most prominent.

KCJ Index is at 75+, which means top 50 stocks in the S&P 500 index have 75% correlation. Absolute nightmare for stock pickers.

I think forex.com can do practice account for forex trading. Not sure if thinkorswim does the same for options. Not sure who does futures. Stocks you can do it anywhere. And you can't touch CDS.

 

[Swag22]

looks like I'm the only one going short on gold over the long term.

Gold is clearly a hedge on fear and a speculative choice safe haven. Once the fear subsides, people will dive back into equities, and thus gold will plummet. When that will be, God knows. But it'll happen eventually.

 

[chogall]

looks like I'm the only one going short on gold over the long term.

Gold is clearly a hedge on fear and a speculative choice safe haven. Once the fear subsides, people will dive back into equities, and thus gold will plummet. When that will be, God knows. But it'll happen eventually.

In the long term, we are all dead.

 

[HgaleK]



looks like I'm the only one going short on gold over the long term.

Gold is clearly a hedge on fear and a speculative choice safe haven. Once the fear subsides, people will dive back into equities, and thus gold will plummet. When that will be, God knows. But it'll happen eventually.

It'll retrace back to support at some point, but it's still going up. Eventually the bubble will pop, but right now it's not going to. Additionally, it's not like we're going in to some sort of roaring bull market, so there will be plenty of time for gold to lose momentum before it goes pop.

 

[NameBack]



looks like I'm the only one going short on gold over the long term.

Gold is clearly a hedge on fear and a speculative choice safe haven. Once the fear subsides, people will dive back into equities, and thus gold will plummet. When that will be, God knows. But it'll happen eventually.

Well, there's also the fact that people are fleeing to gold as flight to safety, despite the fact that gold is not actually safe. It has no properties that distinguish it from any other speculative investment vehicle -- it's no different from equities. I think if there's a strong enough crash, people will wake up to that and flee to the only truly safe assets in a recession/depression: cash and Treasuries.

 

[stevent]



looks like I'm the only one going short on gold over the long term.

Gold is clearly a hedge on fear and a speculative choice safe haven. Once the fear subsides, people will dive back into equities, and thus gold will plummet. When that will be, God knows. But it'll happen eventually.

Plenty of people have this as a long, but plenty of people are also thinking why lose money now by not buying gold now? If you're a day trader / computer auto trader, they'll keep buying until the drop, and cash out before they lose much.

 

[HgaleK]

Did anyone take a speculative position on LULU? Tight consolidation, kissing the 50 day MA, and earnings right up ahead. I can't do much intraday work with school now, so I'm waiting for a proper breakout before I enter a position, but it's not looking like a bad gamble, especially at 5.50 for a near money call.

I'm also looking for a breakout with AAPL, BIDU, NFLX, and OIH.

GMCR made its move, but I need confirmation before I step in. The 1 hour price action isn't reassuring, but it may make a proper move come tomorrow. Same goes for AMZN.

PCLN is looking good if there's a close over 544

The SPX is in a rather perfect bear flag, so I'm cautious of any long/bullish positions. Any positions I open in the next week are going to be subject to tight stops and rolling my delta rather quickly to take profits. I would love to see a downward break, as it would mean some pretty quick profits, but us beginning the upward crawl wouldn't hurt either.

***Note, I'm hammered right now, so take everything with a grain of salt. This is why I don't trade forex or futures.

 

[Monaco]

If anybody is interested, CNUV just closed a acquisition deal (soon to be RM) of SURGLINE.

This thing has huge potential but don't take my word for it, go do your DD, you may like what you find.