Call it beginners luck or my plain intelligence but I managed to make a whooping little over a 1,000$ in my first week of investing. I started with 2,000$ on my first day and transferred 3,000 more same day. So a total of 5,000$ I had invested on which I was able to secure one thousand dollars. My main heros were Citibank and Occulogix Inc. Citibank brought home 403$ and Tear earned me 529$.
Few things that I learned over my first week are as following:
- Never pull out too quickly. I entered C when it was hovering around 3.28$ and set an auto exit for 3.5 and got out. Well I made decent money but I could have made more
- Diversify: There were few other companies I put money into and that helped me to diversify my risk. I actually ended up investing some in Vonage because they came out with the promo for 14.99$ / month trial offer. I expected the stock to rise but it ended up going down. That loss was offset by Sprint which brought me approximately 80$ same day. So I was happy.
- Short Sell if you are confident: Short selling is an excellent vehicle if you wanted to get cash in the bull ride (and you know that it will plunge down soon)
- Maintain a margin account vs. Cash Account: Margin account gives you access to more capital based on how well you are investing. My brokerage allowed me to invest up to 3 times what I had as cash at any given point. I loved it! I only put in 5,000 and it allowed me to go up to 14,000 at a point and I sold stuff on my own anyways.
Essentially the bottom line is keep an eye on Google finance and set some automated trading (limit sell or buy are perfect) ! I loved my first week and looking forward to see how I fare this week.
Another important point is to open an account with a brokerage firm that gives you free trading (for limited time obviously). There are several companies running specials like that. I like OptionsHouse as their rates are the cheapest in the market. For real! They charge 2.95$ / trade. Its a flat rate, regardless of how many shares you are buying. Check for yourself at OptionsHouse Account
Please click OptionsHouse Reviews to read the user reviews about the cheapest brokerage firm on the block.
