School me on investing...

Someone talk me out of this?



https://robinhood.com/us/en/support/articles/ira-match-faq/

 

Its Robinhood. Stay away ...

 

Robbing da Hood

 

Meh, you gotta keep your money there for 5 years for the match.

If it was a quick 6 month thing I would've been more interested, but 5 years is more time than I wanna be affiliated with Robin Hood.

 

PYPL...you're breakin my balls over here! Fuck it, I'm doubling down (more like sextupling down at this point)

 

Dammit, I'm just suffering. Pretty sure I don't wanna throw any more $$ on the fire!

 

Aww come on in, the fire's fine!

 

The 1 yr graph on PYPL is pretty bad ... whats your avg?

 

Started buying in Oct. '22 at $80... now sitting on 320 shares at an average of 60.48 That's a pretty big position for me, but I'll buy a little more if it keeps getting beat up. I'm not worried... have a 5-7 year timeline unless something goes horribly wrong and I NEED that cash- and if that happens I'll have bigger issues.

 

Oh thats not bad at all... my brothers avg is over $120

 

And then right back to what it was even though the offer is still in the works.

Could be an opportunity, but I'm not in.

 

Ouch! Coulda been a lot worse... I'm sure someone went balls deep at $289 a couple years ago.

 

After over a year of me being "bullish" come earnings time on them, and repeatedly getting smacked.. I sold a March $2 wide call credit spread against them, that had about 42 days till expiration on Wednesday at 1pm. Hit my profit target at 9:45am on Thursday morning. Stupid PayPal.

Also, I basically ONLY trade options now lol.. Even with futures, which I've always loved trading. (I'm actually trying the "wheel" strategy on futures/options on my sim account and it's pretty wild)

I was kinda of scared of options for a long time because I didn't really understand them. I took the time a few months ago when I was dealing with some mental/anxiety blocks regarding trading to learn about them. I started dabbling a bit around the end of summer. Then when my daughter was born I had 6 weeks off of work and I started doing it more. and by December I had sold out of every underlying that I was holding shares in and am now 100% options only.

Obviously, like every idiot I took some shots at 0DTE stuff, had some bangers and was like "i'M gUnNa BuY a YaChT wItH aLl ThESe PrOfItS" Then, I basically gave most of that money back to the market. lol From there, I started lowering my contract sizes, and pushing the DTE out. Now I feel like my trading days are MUCH smoother. I like the math aspect of the game and the way I can use capital much more efficiently is really what is engaging.

Anyway, I hope everyone is kicking absolute ass with this crazy market right now!

 

What % gain to sell and take profit? This is not designated retirement money, just a case of having some extra money in bank and trying to earn more interest than the savings account was earning.

 

I'd love to hear how anyone actively trades outside a retirement account without getting hammered on taxes.

 

If this is a question for me, then I usually set my take profit of 50% of the initial credit received. However, if at any point I open thinkorswim and see that I have 35-40%+ of profit, then I will usually just close the order and get my buying power back. I don't set a stop loss on option spreads that I sell... I will ride them out for a week or two and manage (by closing the trade or rolling it forward) about halfway to the expiration if its still a loser. I only roll put credit spreads, never call credit spreads.

Most times I have positions in all the big ETF's (SPX, SPY, QQQ, IWM, DIA, etc) Then I will also trade other underlying's based on their volatility.

Usually during earnings/news, I will usually put a position on the day before earnings release with a 50% take profit. Then by 9:50-10am the next day I am usually closing these earning's plays out for a win or a loss. That way i can quickly just take back my buying power. I trade a lot of small contracts so my max loss is always pretty low. My risk is also always defined in stocks/ETFs.

I will do undefined risk trades in futures options, because they don't soak up as much buying power due to SPAN margin.

The biggest things that have helped me with this is understanding what volatility does to option price premium, understanding how much delta(risk) i should have on at all times, how much of my account is being used for buying power, and how much theta(price decay) i am pulling a day.. It's all math, and it's cool..

 

Not too worried about taxes. I'm not trying to be the next Buffet, just looking to turn $10K into maybe $15K in 2-3 yrs. Just some cash to give to grandson for a car, trade school, college, whatever in a few years. Started account 2 months ago and am already up 27% as of today. Figured it would take at least a whole year to gain that much.

 

Not specifically directed at you, but I do appreciate the info. I know I can Google for days for all kinds of info, but figured I ask folks here too.

 

I've honestly never really given a shit.. I have a portfolio margin account, I trade daily. I make enough profit to not see it as a waste of my time, and I just pay whatever the tax man says I owe every year.

The profit I make is now mostly across short term capital gains, and the rest of the profit gains are on futures and other stuff like SPX options, they're subject to the Section 1256 tax treatment which is that 60% of that profit is taxed as long term, and the remaining 40% is taxed as short term.

I have yet to have a tax responsibility on my yearly trading profits that has made me want to stop day trading.. I'm not making millions of dollars a year, I also haven't tried to see if I can qualify for "Trader Tax Status" I do a decent number of trades per day, but I'm still making more from my day job, than I am trading. I don't use an IRA account, because honestly, if I decide to quit, it's nice knowing that I can pull all of this money and go do something silly. I can also use it for other opportunities like maybe start up my side business again and I'd have capital for equipment/real estate space.

Others may have different feelings about this though. lol

 

It is generally a good idea to have some pre-tax and after tax (401k / IRA) type of savings for your retirement. All in one boat or the other typically has you paying more in taxes. Also, you may want to retire before you can / want to pull from SS, 401ks, and IRAs without penalty, so some after tax investments are a good idea to cover that gap as well.