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Anyone in to swinging :)

Honest reporting on shorter-term trading activity and ideas
MoseleyRed
Posts: 2
Joined: March 31st, 2018, 4:53 pm

Re: Anyone in to swinging :)

#386417

Postby MoseleyRed » February 13th, 2021, 2:40 pm

Hey Rams,

I am a similar age to you and I am looking into doing the same thing as you. The replies to your message seem to be predominantly negative to your plans. Personally I think it's a good idea but it needs to be managed carefully to minimise losses.

I recommend checking out the website and articles by Michael Taylor. He gives you advice on how to set up and which trading software to use. I am doing things slowly, identifying companies and then put together a plan for buying and selling then activating.

Good luck

dspp
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Re: Anyone in to swinging :)

#386431

Postby dspp » February 13th, 2021, 3:09 pm

MoseleyRed wrote:Hey Rams,

I am a similar age to you and I am looking into doing the same thing as you. The replies to your message seem to be predominantly negative to your plans. Personally I think it's a good idea but it needs to be managed carefully to minimise losses.

I recommend checking out the website and articles by Michael Taylor. He gives you advice on how to set up and which trading software to use. I am doing things slowly, identifying companies and then put together a plan for buying and selling then activating.

Good luck


You might want to read this thread
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads ... la.191290/

Personally I tend to avoid short term trading as I am not very good at it, and I avoid options so as not to make things even worse. YMMV.

regards, dspp

Steveam
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Re: Anyone in to swinging :)

#386581

Postby Steveam » February 14th, 2021, 10:15 am

I started trading stock options, especially writing covered calls, in my 40s and made a lot of money using a fairly conservative strategy. I then got a little bit greedy and was badly caught out by the 2008/9 crash. I did some calculations back then and reckon I gave back 40% of the “profits” from the previous 5 years - ouch. By this time I was in my mid 50s and had taken early retirement. I realised my various pots were more than enough to see me out and I read an interesting article about how gamblers don’t stop when they’ve won the game: I decided to be an exception. I’d won the game and stopped playing (that particular game). Less stress, much less risk and I now pay very little attention to my investments having an income that way exceeds my income.

No advice to the OP - my circumstances were very different as I had both a very well paying job and substantial pots. The options venture was fun and made me money but I’m not sure that I wouldn’t be in very much the situation if I’d just invested passively and I’d certainly not have had the stress and risk.

Best wishes,

Steve

Clitheroekid
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Re: Anyone in to swinging :)

#526654

Postby Clitheroekid » August 31st, 2022, 5:26 pm

Steveam wrote:Less stress, much less risk and I now pay very little attention to my investments having an income that way exceeds my income.

I think this may be the first time I've visited this board, but I can see that I've been missing out - please reveal the secret of this amazing outcome! ;)

Steveam
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Re: Anyone in to swinging :)

#526714

Postby Steveam » August 31st, 2022, 11:49 pm

Hi Clitheroekid, There really isn’t and wasn’t any secret. Financially speaking I had lots of luck on lots of fronts. The “trading my way …” bit was pretty simple. I had considerable surplus income and assets. I had premium bonds, savings accounts, a few funds but knew nothing of what I was doing. Then I started buying individual shares as I felt the financial services industry was full of expensive amateurs - I really wasn’t impressed with a couple I’d been to see (I remember visiting a silly advisor who talked about saving £££ per month and by the time I was retired I'd have ££££ - but no discussion of compounding or inflation or risk).

I started reading the Weekend FT (still subscribe) and built up a useful portfolio of shares in major FTSE companies. One article talked about options (both index and stock) but it all seemed a bit risky until I stumbled upon writing covered calls - this is options for elderly cowards - and I did a bit of research. My portfolio was essentially long term buy and hold with a focus on the dividends. I started writing well out of the money calls and my target was to double my dividend income each year … so, I owned a share and would be very happy to sell it if it rose, say, 20% - I wrote the call: I pocketed the premium and if the share rose sufficiently it got called away, if it didn’t rise enough: rinse and repeat (and, of course, I was still receiving the dividends).

I did this for a number of years and stretched myself a bit and even started writing puts on shares I’d be happy to own if they dropped a bit - and the money kept rolling in (just kidding). The market had enjoyed a relatively benign upward trend and I’d been lucky. I had no idea I was directional trading until the direction (abruptly) went south: hey broker I don’t want all these RBS shares … you’re kidding me - it’s going to cost that much to close those puts. Ouch, ouch, ouch - I’d been lucky for years.

In ten+ years of “trading” (mainly writing) options I’d made near on £1M - although it’s hard to get the number exact I reckon I gave back about 40% of that in the 2008/9 period (I lost £100k on RBS [and it would have been worse if I hadn’t made a gambler’s final throw and doubled my holding at about 10p a share], I’m stilling holding Lloyds and showing a big unrealised loss, I acquired HSBC at the highest price they’ve been at in 20 years, etc)

At about this time brokers started making it difficult - if this was to protect the public it was a bit bl**dy late.

I took a long hard look at myself (and I knew a few others who used options) and realised I’d been lucky rather than clever and I’m not half as smart as I thought I was. There were a few other things but it all led to stabilising the asset base, reducing risk and enjoying the sunshine.

Really wonder why I’ve written the above. Perhaps it’s a case of confession being good for the soul.

Best wishes,

Steve

Clitheroekid
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Re: Anyone in to swinging :)

#526914

Postby Clitheroekid » September 1st, 2022, 10:01 pm

I feel a bit guilty now, as my post was supposed to be mildly humorous - I was gently pointing out that your original post said that you'd managed to achieve a pretty remarkable situation where your income exceeded your income!

Anyway, although the `joke' fell at the first post it produced a much more interesting and enlightening response than I'd anticipated, so thanks.


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