Re: options (finance)
SlowHabit, it's really amusing how personal you're taking this. The question you did not bother to ask - but should have - is what's my upside. It is, fact, not much greater than my downside.
Let me break it down real quick: If I buy 2000 shares of IBM (which is what I trade) at $116, that's a position worth $232,000. However, in order for me to lose $1,000 it would have to go down (or up, since I'm usually shorting anyway) 0.50c. I will never allow myself to stay in a losing trade that long!! If a trade turns sharply against me, I'm not going to stay in and hope things get better. I'm going to get out and look to re-enter (or even totally flip my position and go long if I was short before, for example) at a better time. Does that make more sense now?
Like rock said, my trading is virtually completely technical, I try to anticipate price movements based on current prevailing market conditions as well as that particular stock's patterns, since history tends to repeat itself. I'm still very much in the nascent stage of my trading "career," so to speak, and by no means all that great at it.
40k is FAR more than you need to get started. I started with much less figuring that if I lost that - of which there was a good chance - I can always reload, and it's not like trading 100 share blocks will teach you any less than trading 10,000 blocks in the beginning.
I do not work for anyone else and never intend to, unless it's completely on my terms. I trade my own money and am extremely content doing that. The mere thought of someone running my life gives me nightmares.
This post is already too long so I'll leave it at that.
Kirk
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