Does anyone do short-term trading and can give advice for my wife please?

[SERGERAMOS]

There are 2 rules to trading rule no1 never lose money rule no2 don't forget rule no1 

[Yellowtail]

If it's small money, let her keep reading and trading. 

 

Also have her invest in a few long-term vehicles, and drack how well they do. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Keeps]

On 3/5/2025 at 4:53 AM, cliveshep said:

My wife is doing this and has an account. She uses only small money which after a few wins she always loses. She is practicing and reading lots of books and is wondering about joining up with a group but that seems to also be a no win exercise.

 

Can anyone advise if joining a trading group is worth it or just another way to throw money away? She has to pay to join, and they choose all the investments but is they loose of course she loses. This is a subject I just don't understand so I'm looking for recommendations on groups or informed advice to stay well clear.

Personally, I wouldn't do it. Then again, I'm not one to get involved in Bitcoin et al.

 

I've invested in the UK/Global markets for the last 20 years. I'm not greedy and know what I wanted/needed to achieve. Depends what your wife's ultimate goal is. Short term gains or long term growth/income? I in no way mean it disparagingly, but the Thai goal is often short term thought/gain.

 

I have a diversified portfolio spread across funds/shares/bonds and geographically diversified. I started with very little but built an adequate retirement fund over the space of 14 years (financial crashes around 2007/08 helped massively and a generous ex employer offering a ridiculously high extraction from their pension fund). 

 

I initially plumped for growth funds/shares and still hold nearly half of my portfolio in these. Over the last 7 years I have sold large profits and transitioned to income funds and well established companies offering high and increasing dividend yields. My current holdings produce enough income for my current needs whilst other holdings continue to grow (not always the case).

 

In future years I will possibly need to generate more income so I will move more growth holdings to income holdings. I still like the odd speculative punt on individual shares but don't go mad. Some have paid off handsomely, some have tanked. None have really hurt overall performance. 

 

Pound/cost averaging has helped along the line. Buy in on a regular basis on something you fancy so you ride the waves of ups and downs, rather than buy all at once.

 

The platform I use also allows me to set price alerts and also buy limits. If a share/fund is 250p but I'm only interested at 210p they'll either let me know when it hits my price or I can set an automatic buy when it dips to the price I'm prepared to pay.

 

As a caveat, I would also add that I lost around a third of my paper wealth during the Covid crisis. I didn't bottle it as many people I know did. I sat tight and had spare cash so bought even more at the bottom of the market. Everything bounces back eventually and goes even higher over time (I hope that doesn't come back to bite me). Just keep 2 or 3 years cash handy so you don't have to settle when you really don't want to.

  

[Yellowtail]

In my opinion, there is nothing better that oneself, one's wife, and one's children can learn than to navigate the market and invest a bit. 

 

Investing is like driving. Reading is great, simulator is better, but you don't really learn how to drive until you start driving. 

[jas007]

There's an old saying on Wall Street:  "There's no substitute for experience, and experience is expensive."  In other words, she should probably forget it.

 

The easiest way to make money is long term.  And the best way to do that is to dollar cost average into well researched stocks that you understand.  With dollar cost averaging, you put in an equal amount every month, but when stocks are lower, and that automatically gives you more stock at the time. Exactly what you should be doing. As Warren Buffet would say: "Be fearful when everyone is greedy, and greedy when everyone is fearful." 

 

I used to day trade, but the best I could ever manage was 38% a year. About the same as the S&P500 index for that year.  And in doing that, I was tied up to computers and monitors all day long.  I could have just as easily bought an S&P500 index fund and done something else every day. 

 

Some brokerages let you open an account to "paper trade" imaginary money.  That can be somewhat educational, but you waste a lot of time, and using imaginary money isn't the same as using real money. 

 

There's a girl on YouTube your wife could watch that doesn't charge anything, but she gives a lot of good advice for anyone wanting to pursue day trading.  Her YouTube channel is "Humbled Trader."  

[Yumthai]

50 minutes ago, jas007 said:

I used to day trade, but the best I could ever manage was 38% a year. About the same as the S&P500 index for that year.  And in doing that, I was tied up to computers and monitors all day long.  I could have just as easily bought an S&P500 index fund and done something else every day. 

Best post so far, you've well summed it up.

[Woke to Sounds]

I am going to start my own craptocurrency.

 

WokeCoin.

 

Tell her to send me $$$$$.

 

It's going to the moon buddy.