Hi,
I'd say the original question was very much aimed at discovering the pros and cons of holding overnight, and what has resulted is a fairly brisk discussion of that with some fairly major cons (big gaps) being identified that many a trader discovers the hard way, along with some useful info along the lines of 'if you SB the UK stuff then you can get away with it, but don't do it with US stocks unless you have deep pockets'.
It's not about dissuading the chap, it's simply a case of pointing out potential downside - the upside is blatantly obvious, ie if a trade doesn't work out as expected intraday then leaving it running gives you more time to get the desired result. There is always a degree of blindness in trading - we see the upside readily enough, we sometimes don't notice the bit that turns round and bites us.
I for one believe that downside to be significant, and often overlooked, hence my posts here on that theme - the way to counter that is to advance reasoned argument against what I said. The UK SB post being a case in point - different markets and the limits set by SB companies, the move per pound and so forth mean that the UK and US markets are very different for an SB trader.
I believe that SB offers the trader with ability and a small sum the opportunity to build up a pot quickly, enabling them to then move on to trading shares via direct access to build a significant pot over time, anything that takes large lumps from your initial funds - almost at random, as it cannot be predicted - should be guarded against as it won't take many of these events to wipe you out... and no matter how good you are at picking shares you will NOT be able to forecast a big gap down on profit warn.
This leaves the option of only shorting - a bad idea in a bull market - or ensuring you simply aren't exposed in the first place....
Still - when all is said and done that's simply my opinion - I do accept others disagree, it would be a boring world if it turned the way I insisted all the time. You can hold overnight, you can do it on US shares, but you do have to ensure that you can survive events like profit warnings and large gaps... two occurred while I was posting from a short list of about 60 shares open for trading on CS. To survive you basically need money, for each quid per point bet on the US you need as a matter of course about half the share price ready to hand in your account, or you must be able to meet the margin call for that much at least.
I'd say the original question was very much aimed at discovering the pros and cons of holding overnight, and what has resulted is a fairly brisk discussion of that with some fairly major cons (big gaps) being identified that many a trader discovers the hard way, along with some useful info along the lines of 'if you SB the UK stuff then you can get away with it, but don't do it with US stocks unless you have deep pockets'.
It's not about dissuading the chap, it's simply a case of pointing out potential downside - the upside is blatantly obvious, ie if a trade doesn't work out as expected intraday then leaving it running gives you more time to get the desired result. There is always a degree of blindness in trading - we see the upside readily enough, we sometimes don't notice the bit that turns round and bites us.
I for one believe that downside to be significant, and often overlooked, hence my posts here on that theme - the way to counter that is to advance reasoned argument against what I said. The UK SB post being a case in point - different markets and the limits set by SB companies, the move per pound and so forth mean that the UK and US markets are very different for an SB trader.
I believe that SB offers the trader with ability and a small sum the opportunity to build up a pot quickly, enabling them to then move on to trading shares via direct access to build a significant pot over time, anything that takes large lumps from your initial funds - almost at random, as it cannot be predicted - should be guarded against as it won't take many of these events to wipe you out... and no matter how good you are at picking shares you will NOT be able to forecast a big gap down on profit warn.
This leaves the option of only shorting - a bad idea in a bull market - or ensuring you simply aren't exposed in the first place....
Still - when all is said and done that's simply my opinion - I do accept others disagree, it would be a boring world if it turned the way I insisted all the time. You can hold overnight, you can do it on US shares, but you do have to ensure that you can survive events like profit warnings and large gaps... two occurred while I was posting from a short list of about 60 shares open for trading on CS. To survive you basically need money, for each quid per point bet on the US you need as a matter of course about half the share price ready to hand in your account, or you must be able to meet the margin call for that much at least.