Sergeant Investor
Newbie
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Hi,
Paper trading to me sounds like "potty training" so let me start by saying I can't wait to pee standing up like all the big boys. I'm open to learning and criticism 100% though, because I want to learn how to aim correctly before just letting her rip.
Anyways, enough with the bathroom metaphors. This last weekend I went to an Investools seminar. It only cost me 90 bucks and I figured I had a lot more on booze in one night so hey, might as well try and learn something that might be important. I just got out of the USMC a year ago and I was raised by my conservative grandparents so I was ready to take everything with a grain of salt (is that the expression?)
The guy giving most of the lessons did a pretty good job teaching the basic concepts behind the market. Trends, technical analyst, support, resistance, MACD, Stoc, etc, etc...
He didn't really elaborate too much on options but did talk about it enough to get my interested. I guess that's how they sell their options class huh? Well I didn't buy into anything and decided to do my own research and read books instead. So far I've just been experimenting with the papermoney and investools website combo that I get to use free for 3 months. I tried a very general strategy yesterday with earnings coming out.
I got in as soon as I could on SOHU after earnings. The technical analysis numbers I got from the InvTools website showed it had poor scoring so when the price dropped 4 points right after earnings I decided it would probably continue to drop. I bought a put on it with a relatively close strike price. The stock dropped enough for me to make a profit and I sold it. Is this a viable strategy whatsoever? I looked at some other examples of companies that had earnings lately and they either shot up or shot down, and then trended in the respective direction, except one that rebounded just as hard and quickly. I know I probably need to do much more due diligence but the tools on the website are pretty straightforward and easy to use in my opinion.
I also bought some put options on Caterpillar because all the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all have an intermediate trend in the oversold position so I figured the market is going to become bearish soon.
Basically I just want to know if I'm taking the right first steps and if my way of thinking is off base or not.
Thank you for taking the time to read and respond,
-Jay
Paper trading to me sounds like "potty training" so let me start by saying I can't wait to pee standing up like all the big boys. I'm open to learning and criticism 100% though, because I want to learn how to aim correctly before just letting her rip.
Anyways, enough with the bathroom metaphors. This last weekend I went to an Investools seminar. It only cost me 90 bucks and I figured I had a lot more on booze in one night so hey, might as well try and learn something that might be important. I just got out of the USMC a year ago and I was raised by my conservative grandparents so I was ready to take everything with a grain of salt (is that the expression?)
The guy giving most of the lessons did a pretty good job teaching the basic concepts behind the market. Trends, technical analyst, support, resistance, MACD, Stoc, etc, etc...
He didn't really elaborate too much on options but did talk about it enough to get my interested. I guess that's how they sell their options class huh? Well I didn't buy into anything and decided to do my own research and read books instead. So far I've just been experimenting with the papermoney and investools website combo that I get to use free for 3 months. I tried a very general strategy yesterday with earnings coming out.
I got in as soon as I could on SOHU after earnings. The technical analysis numbers I got from the InvTools website showed it had poor scoring so when the price dropped 4 points right after earnings I decided it would probably continue to drop. I bought a put on it with a relatively close strike price. The stock dropped enough for me to make a profit and I sold it. Is this a viable strategy whatsoever? I looked at some other examples of companies that had earnings lately and they either shot up or shot down, and then trended in the respective direction, except one that rebounded just as hard and quickly. I know I probably need to do much more due diligence but the tools on the website are pretty straightforward and easy to use in my opinion.
I also bought some put options on Caterpillar because all the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all have an intermediate trend in the oversold position so I figured the market is going to become bearish soon.
Basically I just want to know if I'm taking the right first steps and if my way of thinking is off base or not.
Thank you for taking the time to read and respond,
-Jay
