Here's what I do when a friend or someone in my family does something similar: I ask: "would you like my opinion?" If they say no, or say yes but act like they're not ready to hear what I have to say, I keep my mouth shut.
If it was my friend, and I liked him, and I cared about him, then I would DEFINITELY tell him...what good is this info if you can't share it with people who matter to you (the very few that there may be).. If it was some jerkoff that I met at a party or something I heard in passing, I wouldn't say anything...that is, unless I could get him on my book....
People that know me do not ask what i think of the mkt because i say: i do not know. They do not ask about specific stocks because i say, I do not know about specific stocks because i do not trade anything but the index. Then i might say, and if a told you about a specific stock and you bought it and the stock was going down, I do not think you would sell it if i called you back and told you i was 100% wrong and made a stupid mistake. I "WILL" though give out trading advise, i am comfortable doing that because i have the experience to back up my advise. In fact, i can have some very interesting chit chats about "HOW" to trade etc as long as no recommendations are asked for, either specific or implicit. Thus, you never upset your friends, they know where you are coming from.....
I don't day trade, just medium term invest. So when someone asks me, all I say is don't risk your money yet. I'll email you what I'm doing - buy/sell, and you decide. That way it's their decision. Most never act, which is probably good. But 2 have actually become interested and put in their own time to not pay attention to me any more. That's probably the best way to help a friend. Show them the road but make them drive it themselves...
Why is there this need to tell other people what to do? Bottom line, let people stumble into the next wall or avoid the next pitfall depending on who they are .. so what. Its a bad idea to be an interfering arsewipe with friends. Make your fortune. Become Mr Big. Then see if you never do some small dumb thing .. but hey does that matter when you're rolling in dough.
I had this problem just last night. Friend: What exactly do you do for a living? Me: I'm a quantitative model of automated trading systems. Friend: Huh? Me: I trade stocks. Friend: Oh. Me: Actually, I trade futures. Friend: Huh? Me: Nevermind.
JN- Well, if I could chime in here... I was a financial salesman, I mean 'financial advisor' for 4.5 yrs and resigned in July to become a full-time trader. If I could offer a few pieces of advice should you decide to approach your friend (and I have quite a bit of knowledge about our good friend EJones)... 1) $3500 on a $100,000 portfolio sounds more like mutual funds. That would be exactly a 3.5% UP FRONT FEE on $100,000. Not to mention the ONGOING MONTHLY COMMISSIONS to the broker. You better ask about this. Even at a full service firm, getting 3.5% on a stock portfolio is next to impossible. Perhaps your friend heard 'stocks', but the broker saw 'big commission', aka mutual funds. 2) If they are mutual funds, you may want to let your friend know EJones was fined $75 million for deceptive mutual fund sales practices recently. Search google for 'Edward Jones lawsuits' and you will see plenty still out there. 3) If they are stocks, tell him he better be ready to hold for eternity. Jones does not give up on reco's very easily. And forget about any technical analysis. Just a few things, but I would find out about the mutual funds. Jones recommended funds, while not in house funds, carry some heavy ongoing fees/expenses.