Sorry for not posting for awhile but life has been getting in the way. In my case, I must admit that every day for me is like going to Disneyland. I have been contemplating lately whether it is just my position in the time line of life or if it is always supposed to be this way? I have come to the conclusion that whatever your age or position, if every day for you isn't filled with fun and excitement, you really need to change something. Either that or somebody is slipping something in my coffee pot while I'm in the other room writing blogs.
So when I say that life has been getting in the way, I mean I have been distracted by working, riding the bike, playing music with the boys, watching Dexter and Netflix in general, hiking, playing chess online and at a friend's house, playing poker, going out and hearing some great local music, visiting family, reading, playing the bass and keyboards, following world events, and trading stocks online. (I noticed I said "playing" several times).
Trading stocks is not a game for everyone but it is something I got into a few years ago. Until the Ford administration, there was no such thing as an IRA or a 401(k). Back in those "good old days," the DOW trudged along at 1000 with very little volume compared to today. Very boring. I knew nobody who owned stocks just 30 years ago. With the advent of the above vehicles, volume rose dramatically while most everybody pumped money into the stock market for their retirement account. Now it is to the point where most everybody has some exposure to the stock market although most people don't actively trade. I have heard it estimated that 1/2 of the entire stock market is related to retirement accounts and pensions! (Just a thought, what do you think the DOW would be today without the government subsidy of a tax break for retirement accounts? Yet another example of government intervention in the free market distorting real price values).
So I have an IRA and a separate trading account at TDAmeritrade. What else am I supposed to do with cash, take advantage of Chase Bank's current 13-month CD rate of .6%? Yes that is right, POINT 6 percent. So if I put $10k in a 13-month CD, they will give me $60, which will be taxed, of course. As long as I don't take it out early and get penalized. I also have some physical gold and silver stored in a safe deposit box. Everybody should own some gold and silver. If you don't, what are you waiting for?
So the last four years or so I have been actively trading and trying different methods. I have stumbled onto a couple of strategies that have worked out well and a few that didn't. I managed my mother's $90k account for a year and a half until she died and made $17k, a 14% annualized rate. Not bad for a pizza delivery driver/bass player. (This helped offset her expenses at an assisted living facility). I did this by buying GLD and SLV and selling the calls. In a primary bull market it was like taking candy from a baby. Believe it or not, I was 15 for 15 in profitable trades with no losers. If you would like details I would be happy to post my trade history.
There are many indicators to watch and I have recently been doing well using another method. Since January 1st of this year my accounts are up 8.6%, which is an annualized rate of about 43%. That should be a hard rate to keep up, but looking back at my trades it is amazing the glaring weaknesses I see. Even so, including both accounts I have 10 winning trades and only 3 losing trades, an amazing win/loss ratio of 76%! Take that, Chase banksters!
So can you beat The Pizza Guy? Here's the deal, I will post all trades I make on this blog. I just signed up for a Twitter account, so I will also tweet my trades immediately so if you follow me you will get instant notification. Don't forget that I am using "live ammo," a real account with real hard earned cash, if you consider delivering pizzas hard work, that is. Whether you have a real account or not, see if you can beat me! Let's imagine we each have $40k in a trading account. Buy and sell stocks and options too if you want since I will be trading both. If you don't know how to trade options, just buy and sell stocks. If you have a real account, all the better!
Here are the rules...if you decide to make a trade, leave a message on this site immediately after you make the trade. No fair cherry picking and waiting for a future time to post a better price. I will keep a spreadsheet with all the trades and post a running tally twice per week here. As I said, I will post my trades and also tweet them. After two months the loser buys the first pitcher of beer. Or maybe you can think of a better reward although it is hard to top beer. In any case, I will try my method against yours and we'll see who has the best method. The worst that can happen is we can learn from each other and have some fun along the way, besides drinking some beer. I know for a fact that there are some serious sharks who occasionally stop by here and I am also looking to learn and know why you make the trades you do.
So are you afraid of The Pizza Guy?
No comments:
Post a Comment