I'm an active trader. I play long and short. Sometime one account long, the other short.
Also, some may offer better tools than others too.


Anyway, guys, tonight, I want everyone to pay attention to the news from Washington and look at the volatility coming out from the market.
Get your cash ready!!

But bro, let's say for buy and hold, which platform bagus?

"bagus" is relative. My "bagus" is not the same as yours.
Ask yourself.. what's important to you?

Price? Customer support? Safety? Ease of use? Don't forget, how's your Internet speed like to US backbone?

Go ahead and list out your criterias.. then others can also help and give their experience or preference on their platforms and brokers.

But bro ah, u no concern meh? You have so much money in these platforms. They could easily close down one day when your money is gone.

No worry. Either the market will collapse and you loose your money first before the brokers take away your money.
Look up and read on SIPC. You will know why.

I can tell you that two of my accounts been there over 10 years. One of them have been taken over by two diff brokers. No issue.

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Sep 25 2013, 12:55 PM

Price? Customer support? Safety? Ease of use? Don't forget, how's your Internet speed like to US backbone?

Ok. I am more assured now. Since it covers up to 500000USD, i think it's safe since I wont be trading in such a large amount anyway.
So safety aside, my priority is reliability and cost, since I am a buy and hold person. I want to hold stocks for long period of time but once in a while of course if there is anything wrong, I would like to sell off ASAP. But I would like to trade mainly US/UK stocks.

bought at 27, sold 33, then buy at 37 again...keep till now
with the rate it is going....really hard to predict how high it can go

emotion emotion emotion.
that's one of the kungfu in stock trading.
we need to set a firm target, then follow that target (min profit taking point + max cut loss point etc) ignoring noises.

This post has been edited by yok70: Sep 25 2013, 05:22 PM

Or.. he could set a trailing stop (in percentage or points) in place. Sometimes, when a stock takes off.. we don't know where the highs will be but it will come back down later when all the buyers are exhausted. So, the trailing will protect the profits if the stock price decide to move south pass the stop price.

We all seen this in the big AAPL stock last year, didn't we? When all the bulls were crying for $1000 when it near $700, then they get trapped with the sudden change of direction but smart traders protected their profits with the stop.

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Sep 25 2013, 08:42 PM

Ask yourself, do you really need the stock to lock profit or not ?
Do u need to use the profit and $$$ for cash holding for future opportunity, FD, landed property, business ..etc ..
Otherwise, let the stock grow yr net worth and WORK EVEN HARDER for you..

Note: usually all ppls worked very hard for money.. Why not, let the money work even harder for you ?

well i don't need the $$ for now....i just want to make more $$ with the $$ i have now hehehe
so i think i will just ride the wave until some bad news broke out only throw

I have a Jan'14 $44 C bought at $4.95, now $8.00. Will see how far it will go up as the spread is still very narrow even deep ITM. Bought just for the heck of it. If know it will go up so high, would have bought more.

You're taking so long to decide about the broker. Why not just open trial account at each of them and try it yourself. Which one you feel comfortable with, stick with it if the fees are quite reasonable. Not all of us paying at advertised fees. I'm paying $5 per transaction on stock and $1.27 per contract flat rate with TDA. Their advertised rate is $9.99 for stock and $9.99+$0.75/contract for option. I like TDA with their TOS trading platform. I tried OptionXpress before but not like.

din catch any news regarding the debt ceiling last night....any updates on that?

Nothing new. Seems like unavoidable or could be 11th hour deal.
Market making its move already.

Waiting for SP500 to dive below 1680 all the way to 1650..

Are you a stock picker? If not, then you may have to do a lot of fundamental analysis before you should pick the right stock.

If not a stock picker, and if you wish to spread your risk, just pick a sector that you like, study it and
pick an ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) that cover a sector. The ETF maintenance fees are low and quite a few of brokerage offers
"commissions free" ETF for you to buy and hold. Most ETF tends to follow the broader market.
Go to broker of your choice and search for commissions free ETF. You'll find them.

Also, most broker will offer you free trial of their tools to try and test account. Give it try. See which one you like best.



This post has been edited by danmooncake: Sep 26 2013, 09:29 PM

then if taper also in Oct ...

I doubt the power of tapering as it has been there for too long. The bear is tired already.
I doubt it could create strong wave.
On the other hand, it might even drive market upwards as uncertainty fades away.
Never know, just watch the show.

This post has been edited by yok70: Sep 27 2013, 12:11 AM

Darn.. I'm not making money this week. Market not moving much and not showing me which direction it wants to go.

this weekends bring family eat kfc loh, no go 5 stars hotel.