A little investment fun

[IGBT]

A couple of days ago I decided to try out RobinHood to see if it would actually be any good.

I had heard some things about it but figured it had to be pretty slow or some catch, since it is supposed to be commission free trading.

I figured what the heck and started the account with an invite from a random forum member on another board.   It said both you and they get a free share of stock (could be Apple!) when using the link, so why not?

I funded it with $2500 and received a share of.....drum roll....ZNGA, worth a whopping $4.06 lol.

So now my account had $2504.06 in it.

I then placed a few trades, which were indeed free and executed fast and at the bid/ask price I wanted.  I even did a few option trades to try them out.   The interface is a lil bit clunky...you can't seem to do option trades on the web browser but have to use the phone app for those.  This is probably not an issue for most people, as most people (wisely) avoid option trading.

Anyway, it works and it is kind of fun.  I love being able to buy 5 or 10 shares of something and not pay $3 to $10 in commission on the trade.

My account has grown in 2 days from $2500 to about $2670, so not bad.   I am hoping to grow it to $250,000 over a 10 year period, which is a rather ambitious goal but *only* requires a annual compounded return of 60% 

If any of you want to try it, here is my invite link so we each get a free share of stock (hopefully not ZNGA):

https://share.robinhood.com/richare462



Here is a screenshot of my current portfolio, which includes a biotech play Geron that I think will go from $3 to $5 over the next few months.  I will update this thread now and then to let you see how things go, even if they go poorly.

 

[Van-Tramp]

I tried Robinhood last year but just couldn't stay interested in the stock market, mainly due to the low amount I could invest (under $1000). I know it is totally do-able with that amount, just wasn't giving me any excitement. Maybe this year I can consider more and give it another go.

Good luck!

 

[gojo]

It should be great with penny stocks, make a few pennies here and there, where you can't do it on regular commission. That shouldn't be too bored.

Could be good for Stocks Options, being that you pay regular commission and the active rate per contract.

I'll check it out...…………………...Good luck...

 

[IGBT]

A few days later, a little update.   I bought and sold Merck and Geron a few times.  Got a couple of free stocks (thanks, hope you got something good too!

Increased the account to $2916, which is a $400 gain not counting the $16 in free stocks.

$400 gain in a couple of weeks on $2500 isn't horrible...that is a 16% return.  If you annualized that (assuming you could keep up the 16% return every two weeks) it would be a yearly return of 4000% (that probably isn't going to happen...I am shooting for 60% a year which will actually give me $250,000 in 10 years...compounding rocks!)

 

[Weight]

Some body has to pay the fees. trading on stock markets are never free. the fee is just well hidden, or this becomes a scam. I will stick with Fidelity.

 

[IGBT]

Ok, so here is my update.  I have mostly been trading in Merck and Geron.  Geron recently spiked from the high $3 area to low $5 area when J&J made a job posting in Europe for a position marketing the drug that Geron and J&J are collaborating on.  This caused the stock to go haywire on speculation of a early approval in Europe or at least that J&J will continue the partnership.  $6 to $10 is a reasonable expectation on continuation of partnership.

So I have about $3640 in the account now, or a $1140 gain on the initial $2500.  That is a gain of over 45%!

Remember, to reach $250,000 in 10 years from an initial start of $2500, you "only" need a 60% gain each year. 

 

[tx2sturgis]

Short term capital gains have a high tax rate. Yuk.

:dodgy:

 

[IGBT]

Yeah I would rather pay short term cap gains on a 45% return than long term cap gains on a 4% return (about what the stock market has done YTD)

 

[tx2sturgis]

Yeah good point...

:-/

But, sometimes in later years a persons income level has dropped, (not always of course) and the tax bite can be a LOT smaller.

 

[WanderingCanuck]

Let us know when you take the money out and have it somewhere else. Until then I'm not buying it (literally).

If this were for real and a reliable way to make money, everyone would be doing it. Shortly thereafter (if it isn't already) the government would tax the hell out of it and then no one would do it anymore.

 

[IGBT]

Let us know when you take the money out and have it somewhere else.  Until then I'm not buying it (literally).

If this were for real and a reliable way to make money, everyone would be doing it.  Shortly thereafter (if it isn't already) the government would tax the hell out of it and then no one would do it anymore.

I am not taking the money out for 10 years if all goes well.  At that point I will have ~$250,000 in the account.

It is real.  I am not taking the time to photoshop fake RobinHood numbers lol.  As for why everyone is not doing it, well, they are, but the chances of success are very small.  If you figure I have a 50/50 chance each  year to reach my 60% return goal, then in order to do that 10 times in a row the overall odds would be 1 in 1024 or about a 0.1% success rate.  999 out of every 1000 people who tried to turn $2500 into $250,000 in 10 years would fail.

 

[gojo]

I think you could do just as good with most brokers today. With TD Ameritrade I pay 6.95 commission and with options 0.75 per contract. I remember back in 1994, commission was $49.00,  round trip was $98.00, with Accutrade on a touch tone phone. It's nice today with cheap commission.
I remember back in 1988, I bot. an offshore cd for $1500, at 21% compound interest, maturity 5 yrs. and that's when the dollar wasn't so deluded. My friends told me I'd do better throwing my money in the trash. Well 5yrs later I received $3200. check from Chase Bank.  

Good luck and stick with it, there's only a few of us left...………….
GOJO,  Chuck.

 

[IGBT]

Broke $4000 today! ($4039 actually)

So I have reached my year goal of 60% in just a few months.

Nine more times of doing that and I will hit $250,000!

 

[bullfrog]

Good Luck! We are watching!

 

[gojo]

It would be nice if you would show the date of entry and the date of exit. That way, we can see the ups and downs you may have to go through before profiting. That's where greed and fear comes in. A lot of buyers lose through fear, because the stock isn't going their way for a period of time.

 

[IGBT]

It would be nice if you would show the date of entry and the date of exit. That way, we can see the ups and downs you may have to go through before profiting. That's where greed and fear comes in. A lot of buyers lose through fear, because the stock isn't going their way for a period of time.

Hmm, that would require probably more work than I feel like doing as I don't see a good way to grab the transactions from Robinhood so I would have to enter them by hand here...

Mostly it has been Endocyte recently, buying a couple hundred shares in the mid $17s and selling in the low $18s.  Merck has done well, too well actually and I have not been buying it.

Currently at about $4160 and climbing.

 

[SLB_SA]

It would be nice if you would show the date of entry and the date of exit. That way, we can see the ups and downs you may have to go through before profiting. That's where greed and fear comes in. A lot of buyers lose through fear, because the stock isn't going their way for a period of time.

I find that people are usually more willing to post when they have gains than when they have losses.  :huh:
One of the top investing "social media" sites is Seeking Alpha https://seekingalpha.com/market-outlook and it is rare to see people talk about their gains and losses over short periods of time.  Day trading does not seem popular there.  I think I will stay away from this great deal.

 

[IGBT]

I agree with you that people are more willing to show gains than losses.   I had purchased 200 shares of Endocyte weeks ago at $17.30 in this Robinhood account and watched it fall to $15, a $460 decline.   I should have posted a screenshot of that!   As it turned out though, Endocyte got bought at $24 and I realized a $1300 gain instead.   Yes it is a bit of a lottery and most should stay away.

That being said, my RH account which was started this summer with $2500 now has $5800 

 

[IGBT]

Well, I broke through the $6000 level in the RobinHood account.   It has been around four and a half months since I opened the account with $2500 so this represents a gain of 140% during that time.

I have been lucky, missing a couple of routs (but also missing out on sticking with some early picks like Merck, who just keep going up).

Currently sitting in cash trying to figure out my next stock idea.   I am looking at Arrowhead and Nektar.   Both had a lot of gains over the past year but have fallen back significantly.   The hard part is trying to guess if they are done falling back and will recover or if they will continue to decline.   A lucky decision could mean another 100% gain while a mistake could cost me everything.

 

[gojo]

At the present, I like NKTR.  My source of divergence, on RSI and chart price shows a buy.