stock market traders

[Thrawn]

For those of you who manage you own accounts, broadly what strategies do you use to pick equity and why did you not use an investment advisor/firm? I tend to lean towards technical analysis first, when I narrow it down I do fundamental analysis, followed by investor/customer/employee sentiment. I always check a WARN list, WARN Act requires companies with 100 or more employees to notify affected workers 60 days prior to closures and layoffs. Now there are ways around this law. I have been tempted to play stupid games and let chatgpt to make some picks(not sure it will but I'm sure one of the open AIs will. I suppose I could have it pick and then track it with no skin in game but that seems boring.
@Wilson6 any input I have a suspicion you are well versed based off prior comments.

I think the average person over the long term will loose more than win. If you trade or want to I strongly recommend being intimately familiar with margin and options. I believe most people would be better off with an investment advisor. I lost 60k playing stupid games. Then I learned how to do margin, options, ETFs, futures, non traditional investments it was like welcome to the secret club, don't tell anyone because for you to make money someone else needs to loose money(not entirely true but true enough for traditional equity)

 

[Iron1]

I manage my own accounts but they're as boring as boring can get. What you said is true, statistically people who try to play the market wind up losing more than they win. On top of that the majority of financial advisors struggle to match the performance of something as basic as the S&P500 while eating into your earnings through their own administrative expenses. I learned the hard way that margin and options trading single stocks do not fit my risk tolerance.

My funds are basic S&P500 ETF and a total market index fund and an international ETF with the lowest expense ratios I can find. Any money I'm saving for larger expenses and my emergency fund gets socked away in a money market account until it's needed. They may not be glamorous and there are exceptions that will out-perform for the lucky few but statistically those are solid investments that match my risk tolerance.

To touch on something I'm sure most are aware of; make sure anyone handling your money is a fiduciary not "just" a financial advisor. Fiduciaries have a legal responsibility to be acting in their clients best interest. Financial advisors who are not fiduciaries have no such obligation. The products and services offered by non-fiduciary financial advisors are often designed make money for the FA at the expense of the investor.

 

[Thrawn]

I manage my own accounts but they're as boring as boring can get. What you said is true, statistically people who try to play the market wind up losing more than they win. On top of that the majority of financial advisors struggle to match the performance of something as basic as the S&P500 while eating into your earnings through their own administrative expenses. I learned the hard way that margin and options trading single stocks do not fit my risk tolerance.

My funds are basic S&P500 ETF and a total market index fund and an international ETF with the lowest expense ratios I can find. Any money I'm saving for larger expenses and my emergency fund gets socked away in a money market account until it's needed. They may not be glamorous and there are exceptions that will out-perform for the lucky few but statistically those are solid investments that match my risk tolerance.

To touch on something I'm sure most are aware of; make sure anyone handling your money is a fiduciary not "just" a financial advisor. Fiduciaries have a legal responsibility to be acting in their clients best interest. Financial advisors who are not fiduciaries have no such obligation. The products and services offered by non-fiduciary financial advisors are often designed make money for the FA at the expense of the investor.

I'm a huge fan of ETFs, love options too(puts, calls, hedge, straddles, saddles)but I would never ever naked short. When I speak to FA I pay very close attention to what questions they ask and how well they listen.

 

[Anita Blumpkin]

For those of you who manage you own accounts, broadly what strategies do you use to pick equity and why did you not use an investment advisor/firm? I tend to lean towards technical analysis first, when I narrow it down I do fundamental analysis, followed by investor/customer/employee sentiment. I always check a WARN list, WARN Act requires companies with 100 or more employees to notify affected workers 60 days prior to closures and layoffs. Now there are ways around this law. I have been tempted to play stupid games and let chatgpt to make some picks(not sure it will but I'm sure one of the open AIs will. I suppose I could have it pick and then track it with no skin in game but that seems boring.
@Wilson6 any input I have a suspicion you are well versed based off prior comments.

I think the average person over the long term will loose more than win. If you trade or want to I strongly recommend being intimately familiar with margin and options. I believe most people would be better off with an investment advisor. I lost 60k playing stupid games. Then I learned how to do margin, options, ETFs, futures, non traditional investments it was like welcome to the secret club, don't tell anyone because for you to make money someone else needs to loose money(not entirely true but true enough for traditional equity)

My partner was balls deep into learning how to read candles and watch stocks. He never made anything but didn't bet much either so we never risked loosing anything.
It's a tone of work and as a Canadian all the stocks open up in the early hrs of the morning so he was not getting a normal sleep pattern when he was actively trading.
Now we just do investments, we have a financial advisor and also do our own and then compare who's making us more money lol