The Dividend Pirate

Click the link to see a trader’s mindset and why they end up making losses. This should also give you a good idea on why you should not risk too much money trading stocks(as opposed to investing in stocks).

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I consider myself a long term trader and don’t usually sell any of the stocks that I really believe in. I try to follow Warren Buffet’s principle, “The best time to sell a stock is never“.

I have a few stocks that I have invested in for the long term and don’t plan to sell them anytime soon. On the other hand, short term trading is not investing but gambling. I have recently tried twice to do short term trading and am trying it once more today. Below I am sharing my experience,

1. I first tried short term trading with SCSS. This stock was a 4 time recommendation of Motley Fool Hidden Gems. I bought the stock at around 17 bucks. In just a few hours it went up a dollar or something. I could have cashed in on the profit but I became greedy. Over the next few days the stock went to around 15. Of course I didn’t want to sell it for a loss. So I held it for a couple more months. It reported a disastrous quarter and the stock fell to 7 bucks. I finally sold it off in December so that my losses could be tax deductible. I plan to buy back the shares after the wash sale holding period(I plan to write a post on this soon.)
2. Recently I purchased 60 shares of my favorite stock GRMN at 95 and sold them off at 102 making a quick profit out of it. At this time I had decided that I will sell the stock as soon as it hit 100.
   

Today Garmin ’s stock again hit 93 bucks and I purchased it. I hope to sell it off again at ~100.

Strategy that I follow for short term trades