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[Spehss _]

One of my stocks (TSE:BOY) hasn't moved up or down at all for like 2 weeks.  I thought maybe it was frozen temporarily, but I couldn't find any information saying so.  So I figured I'd buy 3000 dollars worth of shares to see if the transaction would be rejected. 

It went through, and I was hmm!  Well, whatever.   

An hour later, the stock price moves up 20%.   

Now I still don't know if it WAS frozen and I just happened to buy at the exact time it was unfrozen, or what.   

Huh. could you sell the shares back and take the $600 you made, then buy $600 of shares to make more money? Is this how stocks work? Seems scammy.

[Levi]

One of my stocks (TSE:BOY) hasn't moved up or down at all for like 2 weeks.  I thought maybe it was frozen temporarily, but I couldn't find any information saying so.  So I figured I'd buy 3000 dollars worth of shares to see if the transaction would be rejected. 

It went through, and I was hmm!  Well, whatever.   

An hour later, the stock price moves up 20%.   

Now I still don't know if it WAS frozen and I just happened to buy at the exact time it was unfrozen, or what.   

Huh. could you sell the shares back and take the $600 you made, then buy $600 of shares to make more money? Is this how stocks work? Seems scammy.

I could (that is pretty much what day trading is), but there wouldn't be much point because that $600 would be the same value if I rebought(and I'd lose out a few bucks on commission fees AND I'd get taxed on the $600).  I don't really try to time the market, I try to hold stocks until I think they are overpriced.

So I'll just leave those shares alone.

[Arx]

One of my stocks (TSE:BOY) hasn't moved up or down at all for like 2 weeks.  I thought maybe it was frozen temporarily, but I couldn't find any information saying so.  So I figured I'd buy 3000 dollars worth of shares to see if the transaction would be rejected. 

It went through, and I was hmm!  Well, whatever.   

An hour later, the stock price moves up 20%.   

Now I still don't know if it WAS frozen and I just happened to buy at the exact time it was unfrozen, or what.   

Huh. could you sell the shares back and take the $600 you made, then buy $600 of shares to make more money? Is this how stocks work? Seems scammy.

That's how stocks work, yeah.

[itisnotlogical]

Called in at work today. Surprisingly, I only really feel guilty about the ~$74 I would have made and not much else. I was thinking the guilt would be a lot worse, but honestly I suppose I don't care at this point.

[EnigmaticHat]

One of my stocks (TSE:BOY) hasn't moved up or down at all for like 2 weeks.  I thought maybe it was frozen temporarily, but I couldn't find any information saying so.  So I figured I'd buy 3000 dollars worth of shares to see if the transaction would be rejected. 

It went through, and I was hmm!  Well, whatever.   

An hour later, the stock price moves up 20%.   

Now I still don't know if it WAS frozen and I just happened to buy at the exact time it was unfrozen, or what.   

Huh. could you sell the shares back and take the $600 you made, then buy $600 of shares to make more money? Is this how stocks work? Seems scammy.

Sort of.  In America at least stock sales are taxed much less if the stocks are held for at least a year before you sell them.

The taxes only apply to profits, so he would technically make money if he does this.  But you have to remember, in the stock market, not all of your stocks are going to make money.  The stocks that you sell at a gain need to beat out the ones you sell at a loss.  So getting money shaved off of your profits is a big deal.

There are reasons most day traders lose money in the long run.

[Levi]

The taxes only apply to profits, so he would technically make money if he does this.  But you have to remember, in the stock market, not all of your stocks are going to make money.  The stocks that you sell at a gain need to beat out the ones you sell at a loss.  So getting money shaved off of your profits is a big deal.

I lost a bunch of money on one bad choice once.  Its worth basically nothing now.  I sell bits of it off whenever I need to offset my profits now to avoid capital gains tax.  I figure that ways its at least doing something useful.

[Frumple]

There are reasons most day traders lose money in the long run.

From what I recall, the major one is because even the best of stock traders are apparently only marginally more effective than an RNG. People are pretty incredibly bad at the whole investment thing, it seems :V

Wish I could remember where I saw that study/article thing. It was a good few years back, and entirely hilarious.

[Levi]

A lot of people are excellent at the whole investment thing.  Just drop your cash into a index fund with low fees and your golden. 

You get a decent return and virtually zero risk.

[EnigmaticHat]

There are reasons most day traders lose money in the long run.

From what I recall, the major one is because even the best of stock traders are apparently only marginally more effective than an RNG. People are pretty incredibly bad at the whole investment thing, it seems :V

Wish I could remember where I saw that study/article thing. It was a good few years back, and entirely hilarious.

Was it Steven Colbert's second book?  Not a study of course, but I remember it having an absolutely scathing section on day traders.

[Graknorke]

A lot of people are excellent at the whole investment thing.

Not really, the luckier ones just end up more popular. Then when they do fuck up everyone forgets about them. Confirmation bias at its finest.

[Rolan7]

It's a zero-sum game.  The only way to make money in the stock market is for other people to lose money.  Technically it's a negative-sum game, due to brokerage fees and taxes.

That's why I have absolutely no interest in playing the stock market as an amateur.  You're trying to outsmart hundreds of thousands of extremely dedicated professional analysts.  And many of them are cheating, with informants of varying legality.  You might get lucky and win, but the same is true of casino games.

Mutual funds are better, because there you have a professional with a vested interest in your investment.  They're also diversified.  Going "long" on a stock (like, years) is also different than short-term playing the market...  I have a bit of stock in the company I work for.  Partially because I believe in its future, but mostly as a token of loyalty.

[Cthulufaic]

Yeah, one of my grandparent's friends lost basically all his money from day-trading, which in and of itself is stupid, and he blames that other people just have faster computers than him.

Yeeeeah... I'm going to take your advice (which is also what my parents told me) and focus on mutual funds when/if I get into that kinda stuff.

[Levi]

Index funds!      

They are like mutual funds but without someone else taking a cut of your money. 

[Graknorke]

The fact that index funds are given as the holy grail of investments on /biz/ makes me suspect that actually they're not that good.

[Tellemurius]

Eh, I dabbled in the markets for a bit and I can say this: knowing friends in the market does help. Couple of buddies watch the market like hawks and go for the long haul investments. Took their advice a couple of times and I gotten at least a 33% return after a couple of months waiting. The biggest bump  in all of this is that you need to invest alot if you want to see profits. A 100 here and there won't get you much anywhere fast. I dropped 600 on a power company down in brazil and made back around 1100 as their prices jump after a recent acquisition from the company. Almost disgusting thinking about it considering its just cash laying around that piles up.