Etrade, Ameritrade,

[Eagle Road]

[QUOTE=Riccardo;1763544]We were all in too, and a few years later made it all back and more. Unless you need to start tapping into it within a few years you're usually better off staying in the market.[/QUOTE


All true, but when you have/had several businesses tied to the transportation industry, and it collapses, you have to make a decision on cashing out stocks to float your business until things improve, OR you can try and sell your business with hopes the market returns.

At that particular time, it was a VERY tough call for someone in my shoes, affiliate businesses were closing down every day!

[GroundedBird]

To me it depends. I've done pretty well in the market, both down and up.

For Investing (time horizon longer than two months) and investing yourself, any platform using stochastics (a popular indicator of direction/trending) will work. Learn about ETFs. Join Philsgang.com

For trading (aka swing trades - longer than a day but less than a month) you might want to learn about options using think or swim. I needed to do that to help out my parents.

Personally, I have done really well in options since I started using Think or Swim (TOS). It has a probability of finishing out of the market. Use penny wide stocks (bid and ask pennies apart). Learn about Implied Volatility (that's the major influence on Option Pricing) and managed risk strategies. join TastyTrade.com.

ALWAYS watch out for earnings - use EarningsWhisper.com

Can't recommend these sites enough. Practice using paper money.

Please, please, take your time and learn how things work.

[Eagle Road]

To me it depends. I've done pretty well in the market, both down and up.

For Investing (time horizon longer than two months) and investing yourself, any platform using stochastics (a popular indicator of direction/trending) will work. Learn about ETFs. Join Philsgang.com

For trading (aka swing trades - longer than a day but less than a month) you might want to learn about options using think or swim. I needed to do that to help out my parents.

Personally, I have done really well in options since I started using Think or Swim (TOS). It has a probability of finishing out of the market. Use penny wide stocks (bid and ask pennies apart). Learn about Implied Volatility (that's the major influence on Option Pricing) and managed risk strategies. join TastyTrade.com.

ALWAYS watch out for earnings - use EarningsWhisper.com

Can't recommend these sites enough. Practice using paper money.

Please, please, take your time and learn how things work.

Thanks for the info GB, looks like I have some reading to do.


Appreciate the lead.

[Sugar12]

Index or Advisor

I am a financial advisor by profession so I am obviously biased. Of course I think you will do better with an advisor just because we make better decisions and without emotion...However if you aren't going to use an advisor, I would definitely be using a low cost indexing strategy: S&P 500, Barclays Agg, Russell 2000, MSCI EAFE, etc.

Also I think it is important to find an advisor that is purely independent - not captured in anyway...Also find an advisor that utilizes a third party money manager. These are people whose only job is to move money around and continuously pick the best stocks/bonds/mutual funds/ETFs. Typically the only fee other than the fund expense is a 1% management fee - no transaction costs on mutual funds and $8.99/trade on individual stocks/ETFs.

We use Charles Schwab's Institutional trading platform.

[GroundedBird]

Thanks for the info GB, looks like I have some reading to do.


Appreciate the lead.

My pleasure.

Send me a PM if you'd like to chat more.

I love to talk Standard Deviation, Probability of Expiration, candlestick indicators, Stochastics, Implied Volatility.

The method works, it's just not for everyone. Let me know if I can help.

[IronEagle]

P.S.
I haven't seen the films you mentioned. But I googled them and here's the thing: The scams I described were going on in the late '80s (I worked at the place that they were cold calling from 86-89). The scammers got busted late during that time as well.

The events about the wolf of wall street were a number of years later in the 90s so apparently the government did little to either investigate or enforce actions against these sorts of frauds.

(Edit-- after reviewing this some more, it was all happening at the same time. They did catch them eventually so they DID do something. But the guys cold calling me weren't the people depicted in the films. It was a different fraudulent organization.)

I did a little more searching and it turns out the guy in the wolf of wall street cut his teeth at the place I was talking about! It was called "Investors Center". But it appears the movie is focused on a company that guy started called Stratton Oakmont.

Now I definitely want to see that film.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansol...ordan-belfort/

[JuTMSY4]

You should. Solid film. Boiler room less so, but Ben affleck does his best Alec Baldwin from glengarry Glen ross

[IronEagle]

You should. Solid film. Boiler room less so, but Ben affleck does his best Alec Baldwin from glengarry Glen ross

Here's an article describing what Investors Center was doing. Messed up.

http://www.insuranceobserver.com/dav....php?article=4

[Riccardo]

Yep. And they basically admit "investing" in penny stocks is just gambling

ok as a hobby but I would never put any serious money in them

[GroundedBird]

ok as a hobby but I would never put any serious money in them

... and with very poor probability of profit.

[Mt Iggle]

I like C. Schwab - 8.95/trade, and good info.
Just buy the S&P 500 index - SPY - outdoes the majority of mutual funds.
Or - buy the SP Dividend Aristocrats index.

[Mt Iggle]

I'm 32% cash right now.

[Noogs]

I'm with OptionsHouse, which probably has the cheapest rates out there. I do both stocks and options with them. Their research tools are limited, but I don't really care because I don't need much hand-holding and use other sources anyway.

Think or Swim is a pretty good platform too.