Anyone here playing the markets? Dan? Dogfish?

Nope.

Nope.

I don't have the guts to play the market in that capacity, and the big traders have assets the day trader doesn't at their disposal which makes it even harder to be successful.

I'll say this - invest now in 3-D printing companies that are well-positioned. They will be the next Microsoft and Dell Computers type opportunities. It's a future trillion-dollar industry just getting off the ground. The companies that make the printers, the companies that make the cad software, and the companies that manufacture printer supplies should all be very good investments over the next decade.

Guy I work with claims he cleared 60k with house money day trading last year. I've looked into it a couple times in the past, but never got the hang of it. I've got too many irons in the fire to get serious about it anyway. Waiting for the free app that does for me. Have any favorites in the 3d world?

Dassault Systemes, S.A. - DASTY

They make a cad software named SolidWorks.



Of course, I get up and go to work every day, so factor that in.

This one had been doing well for a friend of mine....
XONE
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/20...ing-plunge.aspx

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/stockdetails/fi-126.1.XONE.NAS?symbol=XONE&form=PRSDRQ

Might be a good time to buy.

Open a brokerage account or a self-directed IRA (Fidelity) and dabble.
My friend has a Fidelity self-directed IRA and uses MSN Money to watch and screen stocks.

Talk bout two very different companies. DASTY looks like a buy and hold while EXONE looks like day trader material to me. The fidelity IRA is something I hadn't thought about. Great website, thanks. I'm getting old too quick. Making decent cash but I feel like I really got put the hammer down while the economy is doing ok. Oh, and still find time to stalk some chrome. Peace.

Might want to ask about making it a Roth IRA as well.

I don't day trade. However I am an investor, and I think that it would be wise to consider that if you attempt to day trade you will be competing with entity's with deeper pockets than you have who have spent fortunes on computer infrastructure and programming, and they are intent on taking your money.

On another point, I think tax advantaged plans are great,however I prefer to use them for low risk assets because capital loss's can not be harvested, and even the most successful investors have loss's.

It is very hard to beat the market consistently. People who are much more clever than I would say that to attempt to do so would be a fools errand.

A co-worker, aged 61 was asked why he hasn't had a colonoscopy.
The above post reminds me of his litany of excuses.

OK, however I'm up to date on my colonoscopy's.

I did not see my post as an excuse for anything. I handle my affairs just fine, thank you. I'll not be asking anyone for financial assistance as my financial affairs are in order. They are in order because of my conservative saving practices, not overspending, and also my investments have served me fairly well. I see the investing mistakes that I have made as being to aggressive rather than having been too conservative.

In my youth I new a fellow, who sadly is now deceased, he was a pool player who favored 9 ball, he used to tell my, "You pays your money and you take your chances." I never played pool with him for money, I would have been a fool to do so.

Time to sell short, a bubble is forming larger than the previous one.

Now you tell me.

I don't think that the OP is wanting to throw his entire savings into day trading.
It's definitely not for anyone, but I can see how it can be interesting.
Like when my partner comes back from lunch and announces, "I just made $5000."

So if it is hard to consistently beat the market, then you had better have your savings in the sofa and not in a managed account.
But we've been over this before.

Kindergartners beat the heads of the largest brokerage houses in picking stocks on a fairly regular basis. In fact, monkeys do, too.

I suppose if you're informed and have the sack, you could do nicely. Staying informed is the challenge.

If your funds are held in cash you will loose to inflation.

Yes, the majority of managed accounts under perform the market.

One possible answer could be a diversified portfolio of index funds.

Day trading is for retirees or those who do it during their day job while they should be working. My buddy bought some Papa Murphy's stock last week , symbol FRSH. It went up like $.75 a share like from 12 to 12.75 something like 6000 shares sold some and kept some. Anyway we took the gals Thursday night to Teatro Zinzanni and he bought his girlfriend like a $70 bottle of champaign, spends an estimated $500, I estimate I spent like $300 that night. Great show though.

I'm just going to sit back and see what my stock portfolio does and check a couple of times a week. Longer term investment that pays dividends.

My wife used to day trade penny stocks back in the 90s and did real well on one stock that went up like 6x and we sold. Spent the money on a Disneyland trip for the family.

Some like to work "under the hood", some do not.
That goes for everything in life.

Good luck OP, if you decide to dabble.

I'll never forget the first time I invested in the stock market outside my retirement account. The time was 1997, a Great Uncle from Boise with no Kids grew up with Joe Albertson and got in on the ground floor with their stock. My Mom and Sister split around 800k of company stock that was inside his safety deposit box (Uncle had no Kids) so my Mom and Aunt were the heirs. I got 20k and decided at lunch one day downtown to walk over to Charles Schwab and throw the whole chunk on AOL. The broker Lady said are you sure you don't want to split it up on some Dow 30 stocks? I had been using AOL and was convinced it was going to be the first trillion dollar company.

Make a long story short I ended up doing a 10 fold on the stock in the first 2-3 years. Bought it around 38 and rode the high to somewhere around 175 I believe. The only thing missing from the Company was broad band, that was the craze at the time. I woke up for work one morning and turned on CNBC and the breaking news was AOL had bought Time Warner. AOL went from being basically a debt free company to taking on 30 billion dollars of debt from buying TW.

The stock was all over the map that day as investors decided what to do. The next day the stock I believe dropped pretty good, so I sold a portion and held the rest for a while longer. I ended up selling it all at around 72 dollars. I was of course kicking myself for not selling it around the high, but the stock ended up falling to around 16ish, so I did pretty good. Buying stocks is easy, the hard part is selling.

Wouldn't trade that whole .com experience for anything. I also met my best Bud and fishing Partner at the flagship Tulley's at 4th and Union in 1997 watching the ticker on their TV at lunch break every day.

Good story Sol Duc. Fish Prince pretty much nailed the system I've been taught.