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If I'm being honest, I trade as a form of gambling. And I treat it just like I'd treat traditional gambling if I partook (the most I'll do is $5 or $10 in a pok
by zippergz 12y ago
If I'm being honest, I trade as a form of gambling. And I treat it just like I'd treat traditional gambling if I partook (the most I'll do is $5 or $10 in a poker machine). I only trade with money I can afford to lose. It's a fun pastime, and I have been lucky (yes, lucky, not smart) enough to come out ahead so far. But I'm always sure to avoid getting cocky and throwing in money I can't lose.
- berberous 12y agoDid you 'come out ahead' in the sense that you made money, or in the sense that you beat the S&P or similar indices? I don't doubt that you, specifically, may have beat the S&P, but I think lots of people don't keep a great track record of how they've done, tend to forget their average or bad trades, and overemphasize their good trades in their minds. I'll then ask them how much their overall portfolio has grown from year 1 to year 5, and then calculate the S&P's growth in that time, and they almost always have only managed to match it (with a lot of time wasted to do so) or actually did worse.
- zippergz 12y agoI keep obsessive track, and over the last 12 years I've been roughly equivalent to the S&P 500 (which, again, I attribute far more to luck than anything else). Like I said, this is for fun, not for true investment purposes. So anything that doesn't lose money is a win in my eyes. My real investments are primarily in index funds.
- exhilaration 12y ago* I think lots of people don't keep a great track record of how they've done Ha! This is true for me, I only realize how much I've lost when I see those negative numbers in TurboTax before filing my tax return.