Tim,
I’ve managed to save about $4,000 over the years and after hearing about your story on Wall Street Warriors, I’m inspired to put it to work in the stock market. Do you have any tips for a beginner? Any favorite stocks?
-Mike M., Dayton, O
Mike,
Awesome, yes, you should definitely start putting your money to work–mutual funds are the safest bets around and I’d encourage you to look at them first. But if you want to take on some risk and start trading, my favorite broker is Thinkorswim, mainly because they have some really outstanding tools and incredible customer service. As you’ll read in my new book , I created my wealth not through long-term investing or stock picking, but by playing whatever stock is in play, holding it for a few hours or days, buying it (or going long) when I think the momentum can continue, and shorting it when I think the hype will wear off soon and I feel the stock price will drop.
my book isn’t very technical so if you want to learn exactly how I trade, check out my instructional trading DVD. Basically I don’t aim for big winners–I think it’s much more difficult to try to pick big winners that will double or triple; instead, I’m perfectly content with aiming to capture $1-$2/share in profits either from the long or short side.
Tim,
I feel like an idiot to be asking you, but I don’t understand short selling, can you explain it to me?
- Jared
Jared,
Don’t feel bad, you’re not alone, I get that question all the time. Short selling is when you sell shares you don’t own (taking a negative position) to profit from any fall in stock price. It’s riskier than buying since you have to borrow shares to take a short, you can lose more than you put in (since stocks can continue moving higher) and stocks tend to go up over time, but it’s what I excel in. You gotta remember that there’s a lot of idiots on Wall Street and many companies, especially smallcaps, microcaps and Penny Stocks will fail–you might as well profit from it!
Dear Fraud,
You haven’t made money since the bubble years in 1999-2000, stop pretending!
- Tim is a fraud!
Dear Misinformed Person,
Actually I’ve been solidly profitable 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. 2006 was my first down year and as you’ll read in my book, those losses were the result of my failed investment in one company when I stupidly got away from my core trading strategy. Before closing my fund down 3 weeks ago, I simply was never allowed to detail my performance 2003-2007 because of the hedge fund industry’s regulations (this situation has helped me realize how flawed these regulations are).
As you’ll discover in the coming months and years, my trading strategies are still effective and my goal is to share everything so there won’t be any more confusion.
Posted in Basics, Interviews