Yes it's possible. No, it's not viable over the long haul. The chances of you making 300 bucks a week in a $1200 account is about zero. The chances of you losing the entire 1200 trading your suggested method is about 100% and will take about a month. Don't mean to pee in your wheaties, but what you're suggesting just isn't realistic.
Thanks for the constructive criticism everyone, I really do appreciate it. Ill break down what I have been attempting. Over the past month, I have basically been playing with fake money. Investing in 100 shares here and there (cheap ones, anything from $.35 to $2.50). At first i was failing extremely bad. The past couple weeks of studying charts and what not, I have managed to make some decent profits. Unfortunately, I do not have a whole lot of capital to begin with, so I wanted to give a shot with $1200. I am totally expecting for losses, profits though are in the back of my mind. I have allready made the E*TRADE account with $1200 on it, supposedly I get 100 free trades, terms applying of course. I am going to try tommarow with $200, and see what happens. Honestly, I am not expecting a whole lot... You people are right, I definately need to research some more and fully understand how it works. I will be doing this in the future months. But as far as tommarow goes, Im going to give it a whirl with $200, even though I shouldn't. Ill let everyone know what happens. Thanks for the criticism everyone, I will take and ponder on it.
There's the other side of the strategy that you haven't examined, and I think that's why people are hopping on a little strong. That's the risk/money-management side that you haven't said anything about. What is your plan when things don't go your way? I've been doing this for 20-years and I have never had a +50% success rate. Even on the odd-ball year that I made %1500 return, most of my trades were losses. I lost $15k in a single day. What is your plan for those instances? Cough up an extra $13k to cover margin? My suggestion is to not get too caught up in the daily tasks of trading, that's easy, you can hire a monkey (or Cramer) to do it. The important part is to develop your strategies and trading tactics. Then get it in writing step-by-step in such detail that you can be consistent with the plan. You want it so that the monkey can follow your plan and end up doing the exact same trades that you would do. When you can take a day off and go play golf without worry because you know your monkey's following your strategy to a T, then you've got the plan well-written. It's like building a toy, you don't want to push the truck down the street all the time, you want to design it so that you can wind it up, then set it off to run on its own.
Bang bang boom boom bam, warning warning nuclear meltdown imminent..... evacuate..... warning warning nuclear meltdown imminent. Just my thoughts, my best advice is to learn to treat this as a business.
u are too naive imo; i cannot believe anyone willin' to enter the mkt can have absloutely no clue about its basic mechanics and the amount of work it takes to learn to survive [nevermind to make money]. given how superficial u appear to be i'd bet u dont stand a chance and if by a miracle u eventually make it, will happen in min 7-10yrs time. also, a necessary requisite to succed is to have no financial pressures, all day free to dedicate yourself to the mkt and havin' a solid source of income that doesn't require u to work shift. i dont think u are not in this situation and this will turn out like a trip to las vegas for u. just my honest thoughts.
golf - well, you've gotten the earfuls from everyone here, I won't go there. Here's some thoughs: 1) like someone posted, you aren't going to be able to daytrade for long on $1200. You need $25k to do that. 2) Consider futures for the leverage, but you'll need at least $5000 for most brokers. 3) I would take the $1200 and invest in some good technical analysis books and pyschology of trading books. On this thread, http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=74366 I posted my recommendations (3rd post down). With $1200, you could build a nice library right away. 4) Another idea is options - you may be able to trade the more 'expensive' stocks with puts and calls and still be able to afford some. Just an idea. If nothing else golf, this will be a learning experience for you. Personally, I would not touch penny stocks. Like I said, futures or forex will provide some leverage and still keep you in quality trading vehicles vs. penny stocks. Good luck and maybe start a Journal in the Journals section. You may actually get some constructive feedback there if you post your trades as you make them and your reasoning for them. OR - you may just want to follow Rearden Metal's trades - http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73601 - your odds are probably much better following Rearden than anything else you may be trying on your own.
I don't understand how people can think trading is something we all do in our spare time, while in school, or trading on a laptop by the pool. To the OP: Stay out of traing, you are entering into this game for the wrong reasons. -Kastro
Good point Kastro. I think it's b/c people see the 'forex made easy' or 'Investools' commercials and it just takes 'minutes a day' to make lots of money. I mean, you're just trading a stock, how hard could it be?
Yeah its possible, but dont waste time with just $1200, borrow $12000 on your parents credit card and really make some money, you will being able to make $800 a day and its shouldnt take more than a few weeks to repay the loan. Infact just give up college and become a full time penny stock trader.
Guys - easy here, geeze. This kid is just asking for some advice, he admits he's a total newbie and you guys are tearing him a new one. Yes, we all agree that his 'business' plan has some flaws, but how about pointing those out constructively? I would imagine most everyone here at one point had the same dreams as our friend here. Maybe we can help shorten his learning curve just a little with constructive criticism.