Retail investors and their success?
Hi,
I'm from the UK and currently working as a Personal Banking Advisor in other words I sell products like loans and credit cards. Although I have no experience in Investment banking or the stock market as whole I am an avid stock market investor and amateur analyst [for what that's worth].
I want to manage my own funds invested in the Alternative Investment Market, currency and bonds. I just wanted to know what kind of success individual/retail investors have had [if any] and are there any that are well known?
I ask this because it is something I have wanted to do for some time with money that I have put away and have always wanted a career in investment banking but have missed the boat and have settled for Retail banking.
bump
It's highly dependent on the investor. Some are successful. Most aren't. It doesn't matter how well other people do, it matters how you do.
Decent article: http://www.fool.com/investing/small-cap/2009/07/01/the-ultimate-strateg…
Know this: the stock market has winners and losers. Most of the winners are spending at least 40 hours per week researching their investments/trades. The more time you put in, the more successful you're likely to be.
There's a catch though. The guys that are doing this as their primary means of living have people teaching them. You won't have anyone teaching you. If you pay to take a course directed at investing, it's not going to be anywhere near the same quality and you won't get anywhere near the same experience as a company that's paying people to invest/trade.
The best piece of advice I got regarding personal investing/trading: take your time (I haven't done any, but it sounds smart). I talked to a pretty damn good asset manager about this. He said if he were in my shoes and only putting in 10-15 hours per week, he'd spend the first year or so making small trades/investments of $100-$200, just to get the feel for what it's like to earn and lose money. After that, you've got a few hundred hours of experience. If you do well, keep going and up the ante. If you don't figure out what you're doing wrong and adjust.
Good luck.
indexes that track the buying/selling of retail investors? (Originally Posted: 11/03/2011)
Thought the traders might know best regarding this question:
are there any indexes that track the buying/selling of retail investors as a group?
Commitments of Traders (COT) for Futures. Click on any individual chart: http://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx
Thanks a lot MacroArb. Is there one that excludes commitments of institutional traders?
The "non-reportable positions" are retail traders
You could probably find something you'd like here:
http://www.sentimentrader.com/indicators.htm
You can probably find a decent amount of them free online.
Thanks guys. Here's an interesting article on retail investor sentiment and its affect on small-caps and other securities retail investors like to focus on: http://www.afajof.org/afa/forthcoming/2416.pdf
Another way to track the sentiment of retail traders is lurking sites like stock-twits and elitetrader. Those sites are oozing with retail guys.
Is It Too Easy For Retail Investors? (Originally Posted: 02/12/2013)
I remember when I was younger and day-trading stocks seemed like a mystical thing reserved only for really rich people or people who were really smart. Now, it seems like almost any body can some how take advantage of investment tools and engage in day trading. The most blatant example is “NADEX”. For those of you not familiar with it, it is a website that allows users to take positions with binary options and bull-spreads. While bull-spreads are a good strategy to manage risk, binary options are nothing more than bets. The fact that this website is making them (binary options) seem like a legitimate investment tool boggles my mind.
A similar thing can be said with regards to FX. The appearance of “Nano” accounts that require only a $25 deposit and offer 400:1 leverage is clearly not meant for people who understand currency trading. It is simply meant for naïve individuals who think that they can get rich off of some lucky trades.
I am all for increasing financial literacy. In fact, I think financial literacy is exceptionally important given the state of the U.S. economy and the negative connotations attached to the Street. However, doing things like NADEX and retail FX trading for people who don’t understand finance is just wrong. It is one of the most blatant ways to take advantage of someone.
Personally, I think we need more barriers to entry. I think that the emergence of those things will only increase people’s opinions that finance people are sociopaths trying to steal other people’s money. What about you guys?
There was an article floating around a while back that most of the retail focused forex platforms wern't investing the money, just holding it in money markets. Their thought was that most people would either break even or lose after brokerage costs, so they just took the other side of each bet.
No one is getting taken advantage of, all trades are voluntary. The more dumb money in the system the better for everyone actually in the business. Don't know how you can possibly succeed in the business with your attitude. Join the peace corps.
Retail Investing (Originally Posted: 03/24/2013)
With this being a finance board, I am curious how many people here actively manage some portion of their money. How many of you have had good success retail investing? What strategies have worked best for you and where do you tend to focus your investments?
buying JPM at $33 worked pretty good for me
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