Do any of you daytrade stocks or options on days off?

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Do you know what the Powerball odds are? If you want dismal, those are they. By your statement, that means only 1.5 people in the entire US will average 20-30% over a career. I can't think of anything there is only one of in the entire country, except my name. There is no one else in the US with the same first and last name as me. And it's only 10 letters for both names.
And Warren Buffett, who most would consider one of the greatest investors, has averaged 19.8% annualized. He’s even leaving his money he isn’t donating in an S&P 500 fund when he dies.

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I considered real estate.

Effort and time isn't worth it for me.

I'm ok with having 5 to 10 mil when i retire. I don't need 20.

If its fascinating to you, then persue it.
 
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Thus far I’ve been an index funder but it’s become admittedly boring and @cyanide12345678 and @emergentmd tales have intrigued me to dig a little deeper into options and real estate, respectively. But then posts like @JacobMcCandles and @skougess serve to ground me again.

As an outsider newbie it’s great to have all of these perspectives. In the end one should take it all in from those more experienced, educate oneself, and make as best a decision as possible for one’s own comfort level.

Here’s a good beginner trade if you want to merge your curiosity of real estate and options. Do your own due diligence.

Mpw is one of the largest reits for medical buildings - they have a portfolio of 400+ hospitals, surgical centers, rehab centers etc. they’ve dropped 60-70 percent because of increased interest rates, tenant financial issues (their 2 largest tenants essentially), and increasing concern that they are going to drop their dividend. Currently with their price being hammered, they are paying some 13 percent dividend, their AFFO (adjusted funds for operations), is just enough to cover the dividend, but the dividend may drop. They have plenty of cash flow - i mean they are literally paying 600 million in dividends right now, so if they face a cash flow crunch, the dividend can drop. Lastly, they’ve had a lot of short interest ~ 20 percent that has also hammered the stock.

On the other end, the book value of their real estate is actually 19 billion with 10 billion in long term debt - aka mortgages and bonds. They are currently trading at a 5B market cap, so essentially almost half their book value even. So on paper, if you buy their stock today, you are buying real estate assets for 60 cents on the dollar. Plus it’s a company that has been there for 23 or something years, didn’t even drop their dividend during 2008 (literally paid a 30 percent dividend at one point lol). And if you look through their track record, in all previous instances of tenant bankruptcies, they’ve come out unscathed and mostly got their equity back and often times their back rent that was owed to them in bankrupt of tenants.
If you sell sep 2023 puts which are basically 100 days, strike $6 which is 27 percent below the current price of $8.25. Each contracts yields around $42 based on todays price. So if you do a 0 leverage position, cash covered put, you basically get a 7 percent return in 3 months - basically 42/558 per contract. Your best case scenario is 7 percent gain in 3 months. Your worst case scenario in this situation is buying 9 billion dollars of real estate equity for a market cap of 3.75 billion. Their paper is trading at a ridiculously high cap rate than what the properties actually have traded for - and they’ve sold their entire Australian portfolio and utah portfolio which has again shown the real value in those properties. If your ‘worst case scenario’ happened and you buy something for 40 cents on the dollar, then you can either just enjoy the dividend and take the ride, or you can sell cash covered calls, enjoy the dividend and essentially get 10+ percent in dividend and 10-15 percent in covered calls. Their finances are too strong right now for bankruptcy, they’ve already acquired enough cash on hand to pay debt due until 2025, and their conservative guidelines assume $0 revenue from their second largest tenant, yet their Affo meets just enough to pay 600 million to shareholders - so bankruptsy isn’t on the cards, possible dividend drop at max which will free up cash flow to do things (buy assets, decrease debt etc)

That’s your worst case. Acquiring something for 40 cents on the dollar and then essentially making 20-30 percent while waiting for price to recover. Best case Up just get your 24 percent annualized return (7 percent in 3 months) without any headaches.

Or if you’re like me, you could just have a portfolio margin account, require only $250 per contract and make $42/250 = 16 percent in 3 months. If price goes below 6, no worries, keep rolling the position in time, keep collecting premium until the day price goes above 6 - the premiums will be very juicy if price is hovering around $5, that’s when you’ll actually make a lot of money. Plus your margin maintenance requirement should stay around that $250/contract in this situation.

I have 211 contracts for the above $6 strike trade. Fairly low risk and is definitely going to make money if someone is very patient and treats it like holding any real estate for 3-5 years.
 
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Real estate is a whole different ballgame than stock/options speculation. The greater return is there, but the trade off is you basically have a part time job to manage your buildings.
Own 600k of equity in real estate syndications. Never have and never will lift a finger.

My last two syndications that i personally put 75k in last week are still fundraising if anyone wants to know about them. I don’t make any referral money or anything, just felt they were good deals.
 
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And Warren Buffett, who most would consider one of the greatest investors, has averaged 19.8% annualized. He’s even leaving his money he isn’t donating in an S&P 500 fund when he dies.

Actually more accurately, he wants 90 percent of his money in sp500 and 10 percent in short term treasuries for immediate access.

You do realize though that Warren Buffett at the end of the day is a stock picker right? 😂
 
You do realize though that Warren Buffett at the end of the day is a stock picker right? 😂
He’s much more than a stock picker. But, you do realize you believe you’ll not only outperform the market but outperform Buffett’s career?
 
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Own 600k of equity in real estate syndications. Never have and never will lift a finger.

My last two syndications that i personally put 75k in last week are still fundraising if anyone wants to know about them. I don’t make any referral money or anything, just felt they were good deals.
Oh cmon now, are you just trying to get under my skin? Real estate is hard work at EVERY investment level, from a $100k rental home to a $300MM portfolio. If you aren’t lifting a finger, it means others are and your return is equally fractioned. Even then you need to be involved and know what’s going on with your investments and real properties in a way that you don’t with index investing.

If you really aren’t lifting a finger, I’d argue you have zero idea what’s going on with your investment.
 
He’s much more than a stock picker. But, you do realize you believe you’ll not only outperform the market but outperform Buffett’s career?
Read my message above. I’m de-risking every year as i get closer and closer to 3 million. I never claimed that i will make 30 percent every year for 30 years, i just happened to average that in 3 years. I think i can do 20 with the degree of risk i take. I don’t take the same risk i took even 6 months ago. But in 3-4 years when i have 3-4 million, the risk taking will drop even more.

I will most likely outperform the market until i retire my clinical income. After that i will be very very very low risk income based investor - think JEPI etf kind of situation.

I’m no Warren Buffett.
 
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Oh cmon now, are you just trying to get under my skin? Real estate is hard work at EVERY investment level, from a $100k rental home to a $300MM portfolio. If you aren’t lifting a finger, it means others are and your return is equally fractioned. Even then you need to be involved and know what’s going on with your investments and real properties in a way that you don’t with index investing.

If you really aren’t lifting a finger, I’d argue you have zero idea what’s going on with your investment.

What part of the word syndications did you not see?

I have 19 syndications with ~600k in equity. After initial due diligence, i actually really don’t look at them much. What’s the point? It’s not like i can change anything as a limited partner.

Syndication = passive. I really don’t lift a finger.
 
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Read my message above. I’m de-risking every year as i get closer and closer to 3 million. I never claimed that i will make 30 percent every year for 30 years. I think i can do 20 with the degree of risk i take. But in 3-4 years when i have 3-4 million, the risk taking will drop even more.

I will most likely outperform the market until i retire my clinical income. After that i will be very very very low risk income based investor - think JEPI etf kind of situation.

I’m no Warren Buffett.
Your plan is to outperform the market and then stop after 3-4 years? I think you’re underestimating personal greed. I would wager that if you got 20% annualized over the next 3-4 years that you’d continue to do it.
 
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What part of the word syndications did you not see?

I have 19 syndications with ~600k in equity. After initial due diligence, i actually really don’t look at them much. What’s the point? It’s not like i can change anything as a limited partner.

Syndication = passive. I really don’t lift a finger.
So you have no idea the condition of your buildings/units? How is the tenant profile? Occupancy? How much deferred maintenance? Who is on the payroll for maintenance and management? What kind of debt is still in the balance sheet? What kind of risk are you actually taking here? You have $600k tied up in real properties and you’re just hoping that others will take care of it? Maybe for a REIT which gives a reasonable comparable return. But for a (what I assume is a smaller) syndication? Insane.

I have no problem with you making whatever investment you want, but it’s pretty negligent to come in this board and talk about how “easy” alternative investments are to the financially curious.
 
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So you have no idea the condition of your buildings? How is the tenant profile? Occupancy? How much deferred maintenance? Who is on the payroll for maintenance and management? What kind of debt is still in the balance sheet? What kind of risk are you actually taking here? You have $600k tied up in real properties and you’re just hoping that others will take care of it? Maybe for an REIT which gives a reasonable return. But for a syndication? Insane.

I have no problem with you making whatever investment you want, but it’s pretty negligent to come in this board and talk about how “easy” alternative investments are to the financially curious.

That’s all part of the initial due diligence.

I get quarterly reports, i sometimes read them. Not always. What’s the point? I can’t change anything.

Do you know how syndications work? This isn’t an apartment building being bought by a friend running a syndication - these are companies with billions of assets under management and track records going back 20 years.

These ‘others’ happen to also put millions of their own money into these properties and they basically only get paid if the property performs well.

Why do you think a reit is any different from a syndication? It’s the same concept, one is traded on public markets, the other isn’t.
 
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That’s all part of the initial due diligence.

I get quarterly reports, i sometimes read them. Not always. What’s the point? I can’t change anything.

Do you know how syndications work? This isn’t an apartment building being bought by a friend running a syndication - these are companies with billions of assets under management and track records going back 20 years.

These ‘others’ happen to also put millions of their own money into these properties and they basically only get paid if the property performs well.

Why do you think a reit is any different from a syndication? It’s the same concept, one is traded on public markets, the other isn’t.
If the companies are as large as you say then I’m sure your return is very comparable to an index fund (probably a touch more for the increased risk) and not really what people are talking about when they are talking about “getting into real estate”. That’s the misrepresentation that doesn’t jive with “not lifting a finger”. Index funds themselves have excellent real estate exposure but I wouldn’t say I “invest in real estate” even with my index portfolio.
 
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So you have no idea the condition of your buildings/units? How is the tenant profile? Occupancy? How much deferred maintenance? Who is on the payroll for maintenance and management? What kind of debt is still in the balance sheet? What kind of risk are you actually taking here? You have $600k tied up in real properties and you’re just hoping that others will take care of it? Maybe for a REIT which gives a reasonable comparable return. But for a (what I assume is a smaller) syndication? Insane.

I have no problem with you making whatever investment you want, but it’s pretty negligent to come in this board and talk about how “easy” alternative investments are to the financially curious.

Have you read rich dad poor dad? Go through the cash flow quadrants. I like being in the investor quadrant rather than the wage earner and business operator quadrant. I hate selling time for money - which is why i want to get done with my w2.
 
Then I’m sure your return is very comparable to an index fund and not really what people are talking about when they are talking about “getting into real estate”. That’s the misrepresentation that doesn’t jive with “not lifting a finger”. Index funds themselves have excellent real estate exposure but I wouldn’t say I “invest in real estate” even with my index portfolio.

You do. 3 percent of vti is reits.

35 percent of my net worth is real estate.

So with syndications you get the tax benefits that you don’t get with reits, so reit dividends are heavily taxed, in syndications you are literally a partner and you get a k1 form and enjoy the depreciation benefits of real estate. I have about 200k of depreciation losses, I’m not paying a penny of taxes of my first 200k of capital gains and rents from my passive real estate.

The returns are slightly more - usually in the realm of 15-20 percent if all goes well. Returns can vary depending on outcome. You can lose everything or you may have significant outperformance. It varies. It’s usually best to start with a fund that is diversified into multiple properties rather than a single asset.

Development deals are usually around 20 plus percent Irr, but higher risk.

Value add deals are in the realm of 15-18 percent IRR

Core plus stabilized cash following deals are usually 12-15 percent
 
Have you read rich dad poor dad? Go through the cash flow quadrants. I like being in the investor quadrant rather than the wage earner and business operator quadrant. I hate selling time for money - which is why i want to get done with my w2.
You get one demerit for mentioning Robert “I’m A Fraud” Kiyosaki.
 
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You get one demerit for mentioning Robert “I’m A Fraud” Kiyosaki.

That fraud is still worth 100 million dollars and had a part in writing a book that has changed mindsets. And yes, the person who wrote a large part of it and ran the rich dad foundation didn’t get credit for her work as much. I don’t remember her name but I’ve heard her a few times in the bigger pockets podcast.

But if it makes you happy, I’ve read every boglehead book and have gone to the roots of investing by reading books from john bogle himself - heck i had a perfect 90:10 stocks to bonds portfolio - my stocks were 60 percent US stocks, 40 percent international stocks with a very tiny small cap tilt. It was the perfect modern portfolio theory portfolio.
 
That fraud is still worth 100 million dollars and had a part in writing a book that has changed mindsets. And yes, the person who wrote a large part of it and ran the rich dad foundation didn’t get credit for her work as much. I don’t remember her name but I’ve heard her a few times in the bigger pockets podcast.

But if it makes you happy, I’ve read every boglehead book and have gone to the roots of investing by reading books from john bogle himself - heck i had a perfect 90:10 stocks to bonds portfolio - my stocks were 60 percent US stocks, 40 percent international stocks with a very tiny small cap tilt. It was the perfect modern portfolio theory portfolio.
Ha, he earned his millions through his books and his seminars. He’s a shyster. I mean, yes, he presents some financially-sound, absolutely mind-shattering ideas like “passive investment income is more fun to make than W-2 income.” And “did you know that Jeff bezos isn’t worth $50 billion because of his wage?”. Woah, no way!
 
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The only countable games are shoe blackjack. And to say that is disingenuous, for several reasons. First, that's not a game. Second, although "allowed", casinos are free to bar whomever they want, so, they won't let you keep playing when they catch you, and only have to refund your money 1-1. They will catch you, because the margins for the counter are so low, so, if you are going to make any money, it's obvious. If you bet less, there's no advantage to count. And, it's obvious who is counting. And, you might not know this, but, card counters are put on a national database.

No game has an edge - it's always house advantage, else everyone would play, and the casino would go out of business. Hand dealt poker is different, because, as Emergent says, you're playing the man, not the house, but, to compensate, the house has a "rake" (the percentage they take of the pot to cover themselves).

But, any game, from roulette to blackjack to the carnival games (3 Card Poker, Mississippi Stud, Caribbean Stud, Pai Gow, Spanish 21, Mini Bac, those), are all random. Data from the last hand is not applicable to the next hand. So, any data from the current hand is minimal. The three prongs of a novelty game are: 1. Easy enough to understand how to play 2. big enough jackpots and 3. house edge is enough. Mississippi Stud stands alone for card games outside the poker room, as the dealer does not play. Jackpots seem like a fortune. But, the odds for MS are some of the worst.

The difference is, you can read and follow business trends, and see how things go. Even dumb luck, like having a zoo bird crap on the financial pages and buying that, or throwing a dart at the paper, will let someone win. But, one can increase their chances of making money (like an index fund; as is amply stated, passively investing there will beat active investors over whatever the timeframe above was mentioned). No amount of studying will give an advantage to slot machines or table games. The closest is the basic strategy for BJ, and that just leads to the slowest loss of money.

The first mistake of any casino is walking through the door.
As someone who’s been backed off at one casino and flat bet at another, I know the game. I also generally only play double deck blackjack when looking to do anything but lose money. When I was in Med school, one of the casinos in So Cal had $15 double deck. 6:1 spread kept you under $100 bets, which kept you under the radar generally.

However, yes, anything played from a fresh deck or a continuous shuffle, the prior results don’t affect future results.

Technically there is an advantage play for baccarat as well, but it’s much more of a grind.
 
I split KQ against dealer 2 to 6 which should give you your answer.

Double down baby
So… unless you’re looking at a +5 vs a 6, or +6 against a 5 (IIRC the deviation for that play), then you aren’t playing “by the rules”.

But yea, soft 18 would be a double for 2-6.
 
Ha, he earned his millions through his books and his seminars. He’s a shyster. I mean, yes, he presents some financially-sound, absolutely mind-shattering ideas like “passive investment income is more fun to make than W-2 income.” And “did you know that Jeff bezos isn’t worth $50 billion because of his wage?”. Woah, no way!

Do you understand how hard it is to run a successful business that makes you worth 100 million?

Why hate on everyone who is essentially very very successful?

Call him a shyster all you want, but he didn’t just get lucky and build an empire. That takes talent, creativity, hard work, marketing, risk taking, and brilliance.

You can disagree with the content, but he’s proven to be a very successful business man while we are just running on the w2 treadmill.

Do you think if i put out free YouTube videos with ‘shyster’ speech and showed off my portfolio gains and promised people I’ll teach them what I’m doing that I’ll have millions of followers within a year? If only it was that easy…. I probably won’t even get 20 views on YouTube 😂😂😂
 
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Do you understand how hard it is to run a successful business that makes you worth 100 million?

Why hate on everyone who is essentially very very successful?

Call him a shyster all you want, but he didn’t just get lucky and build an empire. That takes talent, creativity, hard work, marketing, risk taking, and brilliance.

You can disagree with the content, but he’s proven to be a very successful business man while we are just running on the w2 treadmill.

Do you think if i put out free YouTube videos with ‘shyster’ speech and showed off my portfolio gains and promised people I’ll teach them what I’m doing that I’ll have millions of followers within a year? If only it was that easy…. I probably won’t even get 20 views on YouTube 😂😂😂
I can hate on him because he is disingenuous and borders on taking advantage of people. I don’t equate wealth to goodness or admirability. Bernie Madoff was quite financially successful. I’ll hate on him all day long.

I’m sure I couldn’t create a ponzi scheme like him, try as I might. I’d rather work at McDonald’s until the day I die than be wildly successful at something that is unethical.
 
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That fraud is still worth 100 million dollars and had a part in writing a book that has changed mindsets. And yes, the person who wrote a large part of it and ran the rich dad foundation didn’t get credit for her work as much. I don’t remember her name but I’ve heard her a few times in the bigger pockets podcast.

But if it makes you happy, I’ve read every boglehead book and have gone to the roots of investing by reading books from john bogle himself - heck i had a perfect 90:10 stocks to bonds portfolio - my stocks were 60 percent US stocks, 40 percent international stocks with a very tiny small cap tilt. It was the perfect modern portfolio theory portfolio.
There’s more to life than making money by being a fraud. Just like all those get rich quick conferences and real estate conferences they have every month at the local hotel conference room, these people make their money off easy victims by pretending to be successful.

Robert Kiyosaki was the first financial book I read but I’m not giving him a pass on being a fraud.
 
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Lol

I dabble a little. I’ve sold and bought back 23k+ contracts so far this year. 25% ytd gain in 5 months. 65% ytd in 12 months. 94 percent in 3 years since i started doing options.

I’ll just leave my last 12 month performance here. I didn’t just get there immediately. 2 years of experimenting with different strategies led to finally finding a winning formula and i stick very very very closely with that formula and do not deviate - i stomach massive volatility and watch the markets obsessively. The maximum account value i have lost in 1 day is 40k. It is not for everyone. Your question makes it sound like you don’t have a deep understanding of markets, investing etc. you make it sound like it’s easy money, it’s not. maybe after you put in 1000 hours of education, you could consider picking stocks, but even then, you’re probably better off investing in sp500. Unless you have an absolute passion and read financial statements, quarterly earnings, and just really follow the pulse on the market, then you could try.

And then you follow Ramit Sethi, master charlatan. Get rich by teaching people to get rich
 
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And then you follow Ramit Sethi, master charlatan. Get rich by teaching people to get rich
All of these financial “gurus” prey on people’s sense of main-character syndrome. You aren’t a special snowflake. You aren’t by and large smarter than 7 billion other people. There isn’t some magic formula that makes the money tree grow that 99% of people just ignore.

It’s hard to make a good dollar. Period. Wealth comes from the combination of hard work, time, and luck. Some people get different ratios of each so they get there faster or slower. There is no shortcut.
 
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And then you follow Ramit Sethi, master charlatan. Get rich by teaching people to get rich

I don’t charge people a dime. I don’t make any money from telling people about any syndications. Whatever trade or syndication i talk about, i basically will have money in that trade or syndication. I know you’re not saying that I’m making money off anything, but just throwing it out there that i have never had anything to gain from talking about these things.

I make my money the good old fashioned way unfortunately.
 
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There’s more to life than making money by being a fraud. Just like all those get rich quick conferences and real estate conferences they have every month at the local hotel conference room, these people make their money off easy victims by pretending to be successful.

Robert Kiyosaki was the first financial book I read but I’m not giving him a pass on being a fraud.

Rich dad poor dad was my second financial book after the white cost investor book.

At some point an educator i feel has to pivot the business towards making money.

Do you think the white cost investor is running a scam too if most of his money now comes from telling people how to invest and save? Wci talks more about syndications than i do 😅 they even have a real estate course now
 
Rich dad poor dad was my second financial book after the white cost investor book.

At some point an educator i feel has to pivot the business towards making money.

Do you think the white cost investor is running a scam too if most of his money now comes from telling people how to invest and save? Wci talks more about syndications than i do 😅 they even have a real estate course now
So you think there is a parallel between Kiyosaki and Jim? One is a scam artist (has been sued for such and has multiple bankruptcies) and one isn’t. Jim could make a ton more money by being unethical if he wanted. He’s upfront about any relationships and conflicts of interest. He removes advertisers if there are any issues (sometimes real and sometimes perceived).
 
So you think there is a parallel between Kiyosaki and Jim? One is a scam artist (has been sued for such and has multiple bankruptcies) and one isn’t. Jim could make a ton more money by being unethical if he wanted. He’s upfront about any relationships and conflicts of interest. He removes advertisers if there are any issues (sometimes real and sometimes perceived).

I like jim. I’ve been on his podcast twice on the milestones to millionaire thing. He’s a cool dude. I’m just applying your theory - he’s making money by teaching people how to make money. Where’s the line? He’s still running ads, and has a bunch of sponsors.

Kiyosaki i don’t follow, i think he’s been a dooms day kind of a person for the last decade. However, rich dad poor dad did open my perspective on things. And i strongly have a desire to be an investor where i don’t trade my time for money.

Edit: i actually see no difference between jim and ramit. I don’t think of either as a charlatan, just regular dudes with financial knowledge who are educating others And creating a successful business. Both would frown on my options trading 😂
 
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I like jim. I’ve been on his podcast twice on the milestones to millionaire thing. He’s a cool dude. I’m just applying your theory - he’s making money by teaching people how to make money. Where’s the line? He’s still running ads, and has a bunch of sponsors.

Kiyosaki i don’t follow, i think he’s been a dooms day kind of a person for the last decade. However, rich dad poor dad did open my perspective on things. And i strongly have a desire to be an investor where i don’t trade my time for money.

Edit: i actually see no difference between jim and ramit. I don’t think of either as a charlatan, just regular dudes with financial knowledge who are educating others And creating a successful business. Both would frown on my options trading 😂
If you can’t see the difference between a scam artist and a non-scam artist then I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t say everyone who teaches people how to invest and make money is a scam artist but Kiyosaki and the people behind any of the hotel conference room real estate seminars are scammers way more than anything else. Take Ramit Sethi. He makes money by teaching people about finances and investing but he isn’t a scam artist.
 
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If you can’t see the difference between a scam artist and a non-scam artist then I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t say everyone who teaches people how to invest and make money is a scam artist but Kiyosaki and the people behind any of the hotel conference room real estate seminars are scammers way more than anything else. Take Ramit Sethi. He makes money by teaching people about finances and investing but he isn’t a scam artist.

You didn’t but @skougess and @sloh seem to think anyone running a business teaching finance is basically a scam artist lol.

I mean by their definition our very own Jim is a scammer as is ramit.

My financial advisor charging $8/month is probably a scammer too 😂😂😂
 
Do you think if i put out free YouTube videos with ‘shyster’ speech and showed off my portfolio gains and promised people I’ll teach them what I’m doing that I’ll have millions of followers within a year? If only it was that easy…. I probably won’t even get 20 views on YouTube 😂😂😂
You could have if you did it first before any other scam artists did. If Ramit and Kiyosaki tried to pull off today what they did back then, it wouldn't gain traction.
 
I’d argue WCI branching out to seminars is distasteful. At his core, though he’s a physician that is trying to help other physicians be smart with their money. He speaks from a place of experience and similar finances to his audience.

Kiyosaki and Ramit prey on human nature and essentially click-bait finances. “I’ve been holding out the TRUE secret to wealth all these years! Just come to my seminar for $10k and I’m going to finally reveal it…”

I have a fudiciary financial advisor. There are no pretenses to our relationship. He doesn’t promise me an easy path to wealth. My helps me maximize what I have/make and makes sure I’m on the right track for my goals. If he suddenly told me that for 5 years I’d been missing out in huge gains because he didn’t feel like telling me, but now he’s ready for $10k, I’d fire him. That’s the difference.
 
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All I will say is this to try and help anyone reading this thread. I have a close family member who owned their own options trading business on the exchanges in the 80s/90s. They were adamant that when they did dabble a bit in trading for their own account on occasion, even with their position on the exchange it was exceptionally difficult to make money. The money in the business wasn’t made on speculation and holding contracts, but filling orders on behalf of others and capturing the spread and/or commission (because of course options do actually have a noble financial purpose that is not just “this is a way I could get rich!”).

The idea that you will figure out a system that is better than someone who was on the trading floor and did this for a living with all the access to market makers, technology, expertise, etc approaches zero. They even laughed that during the latter part of their career, the poor people trading through Schwab and other online brokerages would frequently have orders come in late that had already taken a bath, and they would fill them immediately making a nice profit on the spread.

If you are making great money for a few years, you have misunderstood the risk you are taking.

Edit: As an aside, I do find it amusing that we constantly (rightfully) bash on midlevel hubris on this board, but then when it comes to financial plays, apparently global financial giants and experts just aren’t smart like we are when it comes to making money! Human nature, I guess.
Who places market orders?
 
Who places market orders?
You could get burned on this with limit orders just as easily…

“This retail investor set the buy limit to $32/share. It’s currently $31/share…lol okay I just filled them for $32/share just as you requested.”
 
Own 600k of equity in real estate syndications. Never have and never will lift a finger.

My last two syndications that i personally put 75k in last week are still fundraising if anyone wants to know about them. I don’t make any referral money or anything, just felt they were good deals.

Which ones are you in? Are they also through EquityMultiple?
 
Which ones are you in? Are they also through EquityMultiple?

Bear with me. It's a long list.
1) My first ever syndication was with Ashcroft Capital. 30K investment. 2.7B of assets under management. I'm in one of their funds that holds 6 apartment complexes. Joe fairless has an incredible reputation in bigger pockets as a good sponsor. Deal through Ashcroft's private investor website.


2) 230 unit apartment complex in Miami with Lynd Living as sponsor. I put 25k in this. Really experienced sponsor in multiple states with 3B in assets under management. They were initially extremely under performing but the property has turned around now and back on track. I don't know if I would invest with Lynd again however - The initial 1 year of underperformance has me scarred. This was a deal on crowdstreet.


3) 28k in NEMI fund 4. Not as experienced a sponsor since I think they only have some 300-400M of AUM. Sponsor is New Era Companies. This was through crowdstreet. They are building inpatient psych and inpatient rehab buildings and leasing them out. Obviously there's a desperate need for these, so I believe in the space. It's a fund with 6 assets essentially. One of the buildings actually is set to sell in a couple of months, so this portfolio is starting to cash out. Also through crowdstreet.


4) 25k in DC Navy yard area new apartment construction. Another deal through crowdstreet. Sponsor is Foulger Pratt. 5B AUM. 40 year old company and essentially a juggernaut in the Maryland/DC/Virginia area. New construction which finishes end of this year. This building is in Navy yard area of DC which is 10 minutes drive from Amazon's HQ2. I believe in the boom of this area. Interest rates have affected this deal, because their bridge construction loan is currently at 8%, but they are still on track.



5) 40k in BAM capital fund 2 (barret asset management). Invested through Realcrowd, but knew about the company through bigger pockets. 5 or 6 Apartment buildings in this fund. Experienced-ish syndicator with ~ 1 B assets under management. Excellent reputation of Ivan barrat on bigger pockets who runs the firm. Multiple years of being one of top growth real estate firms on the fortune 5000 list. This fund is over performing against proforma.


6) 30k in 200 W Jackson Office Building in Chicago. This is the building next to Sears tower. Nightingale properties is sponsor. 10B in AUM. Sponsor is stellar. Deal was off of crowdstreet. Still very healthy cash flow, but some pressure on the deal because of 3 small tenants that are delinquent. The largest tenant is a fortune 500 company with plenty of $$$.


7) 25k in Junction crossing apartments in Fort Worth Tx. Again through crowdstreet. Sponsor is Foulger pratt again.

8) 25k in The Bloc Office building. Sponsor Is Hempel companies. Buildling is essentially next to the great mall of America in Bloomington MN. 1B AUM for sponsor, experienced in the space and local to Minneapolis. Another deal on crowdstreet. Currently performing well.


9) 25k in The Julian Apts (400 unit building) in Orlando Fl. Sponsor is the Frankforter group. ~ 600M of AUM. Also was on crowdstreet. However SEVERELY UNDER PERFORMING. I WILL NEVER INVEST WITH THEM AGAIN. EVER. This deal will likely result in some losses - unless the sponsor turns it around. I hope they do. I've mentally written off this investment as a complete loss.


10) ~50k in ZRP Storage Fund. Fund to acquire around 15-20 self storage assets. 11 acquisitions so far. They have a coinvestment of 50% into the fund themselves which is unheard of. This deal was through realcrowd. It's a 50M dollar fund. The 4 main people at Ziff Cre have 25M of their own money in that 50M fund, the remaining is investors. They are currently over performing.


11) 30k in 3 Apartment buildings in Oklahoma ~ 700 units. Deal from equitymultiple. Not as experienced a sponsor, but the sponsor was literally able to acquire the 700 unit portfolio at a cost basis of 65k per door. You just don't find class B properties 3 miles from a major US university for 65k per door - you just dont. Trident Multifamily is the sponsor. They were decently over performing until one of the tornadoes in oklahoma threw some street light poles into one of the buildings - Insurance will cover, but the insurance has a decent deductible (1M i believe).


12 & 13) 20k in Van west storage fund I and 15K in Fund II. Van west partners is the sponsor. Deal was through equitymultiple. Currently over performing across both funds. Each fund is acquiring some 15 or so assets each.


14) 15k in an apartment complex in Des Moine IA. Sponsor is FTW investments. Deal was on equitymultiple. Smaller less experienced sponsor but their going in cost basis was great. They are over performing.


15) 30k in a Equity Multiple Fund consisting of 28 deals in one fund. They packaged multiple deals into one - it's diversification at it's finest.

16) 25k with Dovehill capital management group - This is for the Double tree hotel in Boca Raton Fl. Deal is over performing. Another crowdstreet deal. Solid company - They have a hotel fund but it has a 1M minimum investment -_-


17) 25k in Finial Industrial fund IV. Industrial space. Multiple assets in fund. Crowdstreet deal. Very recent investment - 3 months ago maybe.


18) 25k in Hempel La selle plaza - Wire sent 6 days ago. Still currently fund raising. This is a 30 floor office building that is being purchased for $46M, this building was sold in 2011 for 155 million. The previous buyer was delinquent and unable to pay mortgage - Hempel bought the 86 million dollar loan for 46 million from the bank, became the bank, and in the same transaction, the previous owner is handing over the keys to avoid the foreclosure process, so forfeiting all of their equity. This structure is being acquired at a going in cap rate of 15 or something and a price of $77 per sq/ft (this is a 30 floor Class A skyscraper in Downtown minneapolis).

Hempel is currently fund raising for this. Here is the offering memorandum if you're interested in learning about this:


19) 50k in ODC 3 Texas Apartments. These funds were sent 1 week ago and the deal remains open with 85% of funds raised. 3 Apartments, 1 in Katy Tx, 1 in Stafford Tx, and 1 in Austin. Fixed 3.8% debt for 7 years (unheard of today - but they are assuming previous owners loan) - Price per door of 167k. Disrupt equity and ODC capital are joining hands in this deal. Disrupt has 800M in AUM almost all of which is in Houston and Austin. It is their backyard. ODC capital is the company of Brandon turner - one of the biggest real estate reputations and used to host the bigger pockets podcast.

Here's more information on this deal since it's currently fund raising.



20) 25K in a Hotel in Old town Alexandria. I don't even remember the name of the sponsor. It was a deal on crowdstreet. They have been over performing. It's the only waterfront hotel in Old town alexandria. This one:


But yeah...that's the current portfolio and the sponsors that I'm invested with. Hope this helps you on your journey.
 
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Bear with me. It's a long list.

But yeah...that's the current portfolio and the sponsors that I'm invested with. Hope this helps you on your journey.

I can't thank you enough for this post - very helpful to see your picks and some of your thought processes.

It's taking me a lot longer to learn this stuff than I would have imagined, it's a whole new language!

When it comes to options I've overall come out negative, and I've read your posts over and over. One of these days I'll get it!
 
So… unless you’re looking at a +5 vs a 6, or +6 against a 5 (IIRC the deviation for that play), then you aren’t playing “by the rules”.

But yea, soft 18 would be a double for 2-6.
I know the rules of BJ, its actually super easy to memorize and if not just bring the card. But I play BJ for the enjoyment and if I am playing like a robot, its just not fun anymore.

I could easily play BJ by the rules, spend 2 hrs playing like a robot, and be lucky to win 100 playing a $10 table. If I am going to bore myself to death playing like a robot, then I might as well just work 2 hrs and guarantee myself $500.

People who look at gambling to make money, they will surely have a bad outcome. I look at it as enjoyment so I take undue risks b/c it adds another level of excitement.
 
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Investing in Syndications is a game of picking operators. Its higher risks but higher rewards and getting a good operators drops the risks significantly.

I have been a part of about 15 syndications and have close to $1M in syndications. IMO, apt syndications when picking the correct operators is a much higher reward for the smaller increase risk when compared to throwing it in the money market. IMO, high quality syndications have a higher reward than index funds with a lower risk profile than index funds. Agree or not, that is my take and I suspect its @cyanide also.

I only put my money into Private placement syndications and do not do those you can find online. I get to pick the operators better with less of a haircut.

But yes, the amount of work is no different than putting $$ into an index fund. You will spend about 1 hr filling out paperwork showing suitability and then have a hands off illiquid asset until it sells out. You do have some reinvestment and liquidity risks vs stocks/index but this is higher level than most would ever need to worry about.
 
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So you think there is a parallel between Kiyosaki and Jim? One is a scam artist (has been sued for such and has multiple bankruptcies) and one isn’t. Jim could make a ton more money by being unethical if he wanted. He’s upfront about any relationships and conflicts of interest. He removes advertisers if there are any issues (sometimes real and sometimes perceived).

At least @cyanide12345678 discloses his positions. Unlike unnamed others who won't tell you **** but humblebrag about it.

Kiyosaki is a fraud. I think he was peddling silver a few months ago.
 
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At least @cyanide12345678 discloses his positions. Unlike unnamed others who won't tell you **** but humblebrag about it.

Kiyosaki is a fraud. I think he was peddling silver a few months ago.

To me I feel like I'm spreading education. I honestly started trading options after reading a post on FB in the WCI group 3 years ago. My net worth would be 200-300k lower today if I hadn't learned about options. I benefited from someone's post 3 years ago.

Last year I pretty much laid out my exact EWZ trades and sent screenshots of my exact positions. I made it such that anyone could do the trades if they wanted to start. I make A LOT of trades, but I ONLY share my very very very high conviction plays. I don't ever want to be responsible for others losing money (though seriously do your own due diligence :p ). So yeah, I've made 105K on EWZ YTD and 109K on EWZ last year. Unfortunately EWZ is now pretty high at 31, so I hold 0 contracts of it. The next day there is a massive drop in EWZ, I'm jumping back in to make more. But currently playing the waiting game (also because I feel some drop will happen once the ~4-5% dividend is paid out this June). I only hold KRE at $28 strike and MPW at $7 strike and SOXL at $10 strike at this time.

The Texas syndication through ODC is my highest conviction Syndication play right now. It can obviously go badly and I could lose 50k, but realistically, those assets are in some very high growth areas, with migration tailwinds, new construction and jobs moving there - plus fixed rate debt at 3.8% for the next 7 years, DSCR of 2.3. Low LTV of 60%. Interest only debt for 7 years. Over 7 years, rents will move up, increasing property values. It feels like a safe play. Also, the minimum is 100k, to get 50k you just have to ask them to lower the minimum, and they usually will.
 
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Random thoughts after perusing this thread:

1. To challenge someone's returns with skepticism on the basis that if his method worked, all the banks and hedge funds could use it is flawed because individual traders actually have more flexibility and maneuverability than whales do. If a whale spent 1% of its portfolio on an options position, markets would be moved. An individual has more liquidity and "cover" available to him.

2. Kiyosaki's book is fiction. Of course it is. It should have dawned on you as you were in the middle of it that there's no way a grown man could remember this level of detail about his childhood. But as with everything else in life, one must take from it what is useful and discard the chaff.

3. Kudos to cyanide for having achieved such returns in markets as volatile as those of the past couple of years. The seesawing has seasoned portfolio managers pulling their hair out.

4. Unless you truly hate Medicine, probably the best investment you can make is to ensure the longevity of your career. Everyone wants to be able to live this imaginary life of low-stress remote work from luxury resorts in the Bahamas. If you're a gorgeous TikTok model, sure, you can do that. If you're one of the rest of us, that's not gonna happen. Trading and investing are nothing more than respectable gambling, and people who trade full-time respect the danger of betting one's money on a VWAP or a 200-day SMA. And if you like to rely on fundamentals, please make sense for me of both NVDA's and ACRX's current valuations with a unifying theory.

Work 3-4 days/week with the goal of whittling this down to 1-2 days until you get dementia, live somewhere that isn't a dump so every day has beauty for you, compare your life to the one lived by the average person just 10 years ago, and exercise.
 
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And if you like to rely on fundamentals, please make sense for me of both NVDA's and ACRX's current valuations with a unifying theory.

omg i can’t understand nvda at all. I never buy puts, unless closing a trade, but legit being tempted to buy a couple very long term puts because i think nvda is over valued from a fundamentals perspective.

Whoever says that the market is efficient doesnt actually follow the markets - the market is so whimsical, it has the temperament and fore sight of a toddler.

On one side you had FB last November with its 40B dollars of cash, and 30 ish billion of annual profit trading for a price to earnings ratio of 9 and trading at a market cap of 230 million. And then you have nvda trading at almost a trillion dollar valuation despite its 6 or so billion dollar income. What irrationality.
 
Late to the party but answering the original question. Yes, I used to day trade a bit but day trading is a different beast entirely and more about price action and honestly....most EM docs just don't have a schedule that is very conducive to regular day trading. Plus, it's stressful. I'm not very good at it.

I do a combination of long and short term investing. My short term investing are more swing trades that last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. I have a variety of finance sites that I use to perform fundamental analysis and utilize a combination of fundamentals with technical analysis. I probably use RSI more than anything to find decent entry points and will peruse a variety of stocks and set alerts on my charting program. A few days, weeks or even months later I may get an alert on the particular stock and I see if anything has changed from a fundamental standpoint and then decide whether to take a starting position or not. I like Seeking Alphas quant system. It's not perfect but I've found some gems in there though it takes some time sifting through the trash. I also like reading the articles. It's kind of like reading Barron's + an investor's Facebook. Lots of opinions. I also use Morningstar for research. I don't trade options. Most of my trades are long though I do short on occasion...but not often. It's just not my style or market view. If I had to pick one indicator I use more than anything, it's ichimoku clouds believe it or not.

Anyway, I love investing and love learning more about it and try to read as much as I can. ChatGPT has also been really helpful in explaining various concepts as well as generating Pinescript for my trading view indicators.

I'm about 41% gain over the past year. 27% over the past 3 months. (Pretty damn good for me.) I try not to get too cocky because I've had some dramatic downturns as well that have thrown me into depression fits. My investing style is definitely high risk and I wouldn't suggest it for most people. Most friends and family that ask me for investing advice, I suggest boglehead 3 fund approach with combination of total stock market, total international stock market and total bond market.

I don't do any real estate investing other than REITs.

Current subscriptions:

Tradingview, Trendspider, Seeking Alpha, Morningstar Investor

Most commonly used indicators: Ichimoku clouds, SMA, RSI, MACD

Long term... I'm thinking of subscribing to Rida Morwa to understand a little better how he approaches a complete dividend portfolio because I kind of like the idea of doing something like that when I approach retirement but I'm nowhere near that point yet.

The biggest lesson I've learned over the years is to be patient and wait for optimal entry points. It's hard to resist not investing your cash during your day off but saving some of that powder to burn during red market days when some of those hot stocks are pulling back to support levels can really land you greater gains. I set lots of alerts in trading view that are constantly firing off. I don't claim to be an investor pro, just someone with a great interest in investing and constantly trying to learn as much as possible. All that being said, some of my winners have undoubtedly had more to do with luck than with skill.
 
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Whoever says that the market is efficient doesnt actually follow the markets - the market is so whimsical, it has the temperament and fore sight of a toddler.

Agreed. I think Buffett describes it best when he says in the short term it’s a voting machine but in the long term it’s a weighing machine.
 
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Late to the party but answering the original question. Yes, I used to day trade a bit but day trading is a different beast entirely and more about price action and honestly....most EM docs just don't have a schedule that is very conducive to regular day trading. Plus, it's stressful. I'm not very good at it.

I do a combination of long and short term investing. My short term investing are more swing trades that last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. I have a variety of finance sites that I use to perform fundamental analysis and utilize a combination of fundamentals with technical analysis. I probably use RSI more than anything to find decent entry points and will peruse a variety of stocks and set alerts on my charting program. A few days, weeks or even months later I may get an alert on the particular stock and I see if anything has changed from a fundamental standpoint and then decide whether to take a starting position or not. I like Seeking Alphas quant system. It's not perfect but I've found some gems in there though it takes some time sifting through the trash. I also like reading the articles. It's kind of like reading Barron's + an investor's Facebook. Lots of opinions. I also use Morningstar for research. I don't trade options. Most of my trades are long though I do short on occasion...but not often. It's just not my style or market view. If I had to pick one indicator I use more than anything, it's ichimoku clouds believe it or not.

Anyway, I love investing and love learning more about it and try to read as much as I can. ChatGPT has also been really helpful in explaining various concepts as well as generating Pinescript for my trading view indicators.

I'm about 41% gain over the past year. 27% over the past 3 months. (Pretty damn good for me.) I try not to get too cocky because I've had some dramatic downturns as well that have thrown me into depression fits. My investing style is definitely high risk and I wouldn't suggest it for most people. Most friends and family that ask me for investing advice, I suggest boglehead 3 fund approach with combination of total stock market, total international stock market and total bond market.

I don't do any real estate investing other than REITs.

Current subscriptions:

Tradingview, Trendspider, Seeking Alpha, Morningstar Investor

Most commonly used indicators: Ichimoku clouds, SMA, RSI, MACD

Long term... I'm thinking of subscribing to Rida Morwa to understand a little better how he approaches a complete dividend portfolio because I kind of like the idea of doing something like that when I approach retirement but I'm nowhere near that point yet.

The biggest lesson I've learned over the years is to be patient and wait for optimal entry points. It's hard to resist not investing your cash during your day off but saving some of that powder to burn during red market days when some of those hot stocks are pulling back to support levels can really land you greater gains. I set lots of alerts in trading view that are constantly firing off. I don't claim to be an investor pro, just someone with a great interest in investing and constantly trying to learn as much as possible. All that being said, some of my winners have undoubtedly had more to do with luck than with skill.

First of all, congratulations on your success. That’s impressive returns! Good for you. Similar to you, literally half the people who i know ask me for investing advice - my advice to the normal person is - m1finance, make a pie of Vti, vxus, bnd/vteb. That’s it.

How are you using trading view and trend spider? The only money I’ve spent is on seekingalpha, wondering what other subscriptions have been very helpful to you.

Have you ever looked into JEPI? I think that’s an incredible way to have an income producing portfolio whenever it’s time. You should look into it if you haven’t, monthly 8 ish percent return, plus decreased volatility, downside protection from covered calls, and you still get to participate a little in market upside.

And i absolutely agree with you. Patience is actually key, stocks are cyclical usually, a lot of times you get reversion to mean, sometimes it’s best sitting on dry powder waiting for the right entry point. Im currently keeping enough juice to have a 1-1.5 percent monthly return, but sitting on more than half of my account in available buying power that is essentially sitting in a money market collecting 4.9 percent.
 
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First of all, congratulations on your success. That’s impressive returns! Good for you. Similar to you, literally half the people who i know ask me for investing advice - my advice to the normal personal is - m1finance, make a pie of Vti, vxus, bnd/vteb. That’s it.

How are you using trading view and trend spider? The only money I’ve spent is on seekingalpha, wondering what other subscriptions have been very helpful to you.

Have you ever looked into JEPI? I think that’s an incredible way to have an income producing portfolio whenever it’s time. You should look into it if you haven’t, monthly 8 ish percent return, plus decreased volatility, downside protection from covered calls, and you still get to participate a little in market upside.

And i absolutely agree with you. Patience is actually key, stocks are cyclical usually, a lot of times you get reversion to mean, sometimes it’s best sitting on dry powder waiting for the right entry point. Im currently keeping enough juice to have a 1-1.5 percent monthly return, but sitting on more than half of my account in available buying power that is essentially sitting in a money market collecting 4.9 percent.

I use trading view for all of my charting and technical analysis as well as custom indicators and backtesting. I used to do a lot of my charts in TOS since I'm a TDA client but Trading View is just way easier and much more robust. It's also got a huge community and people are always posting ideas and custom indicators/strategies that will often give me ideas. The downside is that you have to learn pine script to do anything advanced but it's not any more difficult than think script within TOS. Anybody can learn it. It's even easier now with ChatGPT. You can just tell ChatGPT what you want the script to do and it pretty much writes the entire thing for you. You have to tweak it a bit but can essentially cut and paste it into the pine editor.

Trendspider is very slick. It's easier to build and backtest certain strategies and doesn't require learning a scripting language, so that's a plus. It's easier to punch in a strategy "on the fly" so to speak and test it against certain stocks where I would have to write a pine script to accomplish the same thing in TV. I do like the aesthetics of the charting interface better compared to tradingview but that's me. I don't know if I'll keep the trend spider subscription long term as I just started using it about 6 months ago but so far, so good.

SA subscription has been the highest yield. I really think Steven Cress has a good quant system that he sold to SA. It's got it's own problems and there's a lot of trash in the quant screener, but virtually 90% of my winners have been found from that site. It honestly just takes time to sift through the weeds and find the few diamonds in the rough. I have several authors on that site that I follow but if Cress posts a new article, I most definitely read it and am probably intensely analyzing his suggestions.

Honestly, I don't consider my "system" to be horribly complex. I find my picks from the quant system on SA. I do additional research in Morningstar. I have to believe in the company or product/service. Virtually all of my stocks have to meet my charting/technical requirements. That part can be a little much for this post but suffice to say, they are all "bullish" within ichimoku indicator. I have to be ok with the overall chart and I think that part takes practice and is akin to a clinical "Gestalt". I either like it or I don't. I correlate with the usual sector rotation and performance. Correlate with SPY performance. Most of my entries are during oversold conditions so the majority of my alerts are based on stochastic RSI within Trading View. I never trade Pharma stocks or Chinese stocks. Ever.

I'm alerted if the stock moves out of the SA quant to anything other than "strong buy". I don't always sell if that's the case, it really depends. I sell 100% if it develops bearish signals on ichimoku or essentially closes below the cloud. That's it.

Oh, you asked about subscriptions. I've done so many over the years... One moderate yield one I had was wall streets.io. I wouldn't recommend it though as it's expensive but they had this proprietary system that was basically a glorified algorithmic backtesting platform that would allow you to apply multitudinous indicators toward stock performance and develop algorithms and strategies that would be profitable and not just slightly but significantly beat long and hold strategy. I think what I learned the most is that there is most definitely a correlation between indicators, sets of indicators combined with conditions and certain stocks. (But not all stocks) I kind of learned patterns from that website if I think about it. They are big on Heikin Ashi strategies, etc.. It's not a very good system for sideways or bear markets. Also, the strategy probability success rate can be exaggerated as many of the strategies might not have firm exit position conditions and given that a market trends upwards over time, you might have an essentially losing short or moderate time strategy with a technical "win" per trade but only because the trade lasted 100 days, etc.. Still though, it's an interesting platform but I do not utilize their system in my current trading.

Yeah, I'm familiar with JEPI but it's been awhile, I'll look more into it. Thanks for bringing it up. I've been really analyzing dividend heavy retirement portfolio systems and think that may be the way to go for me when the time comes. I feel like I get inundated with Rida Morwa stuff every time I log into SA. I'm probably slowly becoming brainwashed.
 
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You could get burned on this with limit orders just as easily…

“This retail investor set the buy limit to $32/share. It’s currently $31/share…lol okay I just filled them for $32/share just as you requested.”
... but why would you place an order for an immediate limit buy that far over the current ask?
 
I use trading view for all of my charting and technical analysis as well as custom indicators and backtesting. I used to do a lot of my charts in TOS since I'm a TDA client but Trading View is just way easier and much more robust. It's also got a huge community and people are always posting ideas and custom indicators/strategies that will often give me ideas. The downside is that you have to learn pine script to do anything advanced but it's not any more difficult than think script within TOS. Anybody can learn it. It's even easier now with ChatGPT. You can just tell ChatGPT what you want the script to do and it pretty much writes the entire thing for you. You have to tweak it a bit but can essentially cut and paste it into the pine editor.

Trendspider is very slick. It's easier to build and backtest certain strategies and doesn't require learning a scripting language, so that's a plus. It's easier to punch in a strategy "on the fly" so to speak and test it against certain stocks where I would have to write a pine script to accomplish the same thing in TV. I do like the aesthetics of the charting interface better compared to tradingview but that's me. I don't know if I'll keep the trend spider subscription long term as I just started using it about 6 months ago but so far, so good.

SA subscription has been the highest yield. I really think Steven Cress has a good quant system that he sold to SA. It's got it's own problems and there's a lot of trash in the quant screener, but virtually 90% of my winners have been found from that site. It honestly just takes time to sift through the weeds and find the few diamonds in the rough. I have several authors on that site that I follow but if Cress posts a new article, I most definitely read it and am probably intensely analyzing his suggestions.

Honestly, I don't consider my "system" to be horribly complex. I find my picks from the quant system on SA. I do additional research in Morningstar. I have to believe in the company or product/service. Virtually all of my stocks have to meet my charting/technical requirements. That part can be a little much for this post but suffice to say, they are all "bullish" within ichimoku indicator. I have to be ok with the overall chart and I think that part takes practice and is akin to a clinical "Gestalt". I either like it or I don't. I correlate with the usual sector rotation and performance. Correlate with SPY performance. Most of my entries are during oversold conditions so the majority of my alerts are based on stochastic RSI within Trading View. I never trade Pharma stocks or Chinese stocks. Ever.

I'm alerted if the stock moves out of the SA quant to anything other than "strong buy". I don't always sell if that's the case, it really depends. I sell 100% if it develops bearish signals on ichimoku or essentially closes below the cloud. That's it.

Oh, you asked about subscriptions. I've done so many over the years... One moderate yield one I had was wall streets.io. I wouldn't recommend it though as it's expensive but they had this proprietary system that was basically a glorified algorithmic backtesting platform that would allow you to apply multitudinous indicators toward stock performance and develop algorithms and strategies that would be profitable and not just slightly but significantly beat long and hold strategy. I think what I learned the most is that there is most definitely a correlation between indicators, sets of indicators combined with conditions and certain stocks. (But not all stocks) I kind of learned patterns from that website if I think about it. They are big on Heikin Ashi strategies, etc.. It's not a very good system for sideways or bear markets. Also, the strategy probability success rate can be exaggerated as many of the strategies might not have firm exit position conditions and given that a market trends upwards over time, you might have an essentially losing short or moderate time strategy with a technical "win" per trade but only because the trade lasted 100 days, etc.. Still though, it's an interesting platform but I do not utilize their system in my current trading.

Yeah, I'm familiar with JEPI but it's been awhile, I'll look more into it. Thanks for bringing it up. I've been really analyzing dividend heavy retirement portfolio systems and think that may be the way to go for me when the time comes. I feel like I get inundated with Rida Morwa stuff every time I log into SA. I'm probably slowly becoming brainwashed.

SA has been very helpful for me as well, plus honestly, i just enjoy reading a lot of those articles.

Rida morwa helped solidify a lot of my thesis on ewz. I think it gave me the balls to sell 800-1000 contracts on ewz which is a massive position. Several months in a row, my entire portfolio was ewz.

The only problem with the SA quant rating is that it chases performance and you are going in hoping that the momentum continues. It really dings value stocks who might have excellent fundamentals and have unfairly been punished by the market and are now trading in that really really really great value Range making them excellent buys. Those are the trades i look for and those are the things that their quant system gives extremely terrible numbers too - i feel it heavily focuses on short term momentum rather than long term fundamentals. Fundamentals should matter more i feel.

I barely use charts to trade because I’m using etfs now. Sometimes i might look at rsi, macd, and moving averages, but realistically i care more about IV rank, IV, VIX, and how negative the etf/stock is that day. The bigger the drop, the juicier the premiums and the bigger i go with selling puts.
 
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