Stocks | GTAMotorcycle.com

Stocks

Boots

Well-known member
Hey guys, I just recently followed through with setting up an account for Virtual Brokers for the purpose of buying and selling stocks. This is something I've wanted to do for a while now and I finally got around to do it.

I was wondering if any of you guys buy and sell stocks and maybe are able to give a noob some tips (in laymen's terms -- I'm still trying to pick up on the terminology) on how to go about doing things or perhaps what to look out for or things like that. I know the basics about stocks, but I'm always willing to learn more.

As of now I'm still waiting on Virtual Brokers to deposit money into my bank so that I can set up the Payee, but I'm excited to get going.
 
What are you trying to accomplish?
 
Hey guys, I just recently followed through with setting up an account for Virtual Brokers for the purpose of buying and selling stocks. This is something I've wanted to do for a while now and I finally got around to do it.

I was wondering if any of you guys buy and sell stocks and maybe are able to give a noob some tips (in laymen's terms -- I'm still trying to pick up on the terminology) on how to go about doing things or perhaps what to look out for or things like that. I know the basics about stocks, but I'm always willing to learn more.

As of now I'm still waiting on Virtual Brokers to deposit money into my bank so that I can set up the Payee, but I'm excited to get going.

What stopped you from setting up an online brokerage account where you do your banking? (I'm hoping for you, it's not cost per trade?)
If you ever have an issue with a bank's online brokerage, all you need to do is get yourself to the bank, and talk to a human to get whatever it is straightened out. To me, that's worth the $9.99 / trade.
Information is usually free when you are hooked up with an online brokerage too. Level 2 for instance - free. From what liitle I know about them, it seem VB charges for every little bit of info.
Keep us posted with your trading experience with VB.
 
What stopped you from setting up an online brokerage account where you do your banking? (I'm hoping for you, it's not cost per trade?)
If you ever have an issue with a bank's online brokerage, all you need to do is get yourself to the bank, and talk to a human to get whatever it is straightened out. To me, that's worth the $9.99 / trade.
Information is usually free when you are hooked up with an online brokerage too. Level 2 for instance - free. From what liitle I know about them, it seem VB charges for every little bit of info.
Keep us posted with your trading experience with VB.

What stopped me from setting it up with RBC is their inability to make a working website. I tried to do their 10 minute signup at least 15 times before eventually giving up after multiple glitches, freezing etc. Don't even get me started on their terrible Online Banking site -- Disaster. Rather than calling and having to deal with them, I figured I'd do a little searching and came across this http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...ne-brokerage-survey/article15499322/?page=all which names VB as the top brokerage company. So I ended up, in a fraction of the time it took me to set up an account with RBC, making an account for this. I'll let you know how it goes.

RBC says this on their website


  • All RBC Direct Investing clients enjoy a low commission of $9.95 flat CDN or US for each online and mobile equity trade[SUP]1[/SUP] with no minimum balance or trading activity required. Plus, when you trade 150 times or more per quarter, you pay $6.95 flat CDN or US per Canadian or US equity trade[SUP]1[/SUP].
I'm guessing they charge per trade?


Also according to the list on the globe and mail publication, Virtual Brokers' charges
31,203 dollars for every 1000 shares of a hypothetical 30 dollar microsoft share and RBC charges 31,191 dollars -- not too bad of a difference IMO.


What are you trying to accomplish?

Well... I mean, I'm not putting my money on the line to break even or to lose it all. Though I openly accept the fact that these are two possibilities and risks I'm willing to take for a potential smart investment.
 
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What stopped me from setting it up with RBC is their inability to make a working website. I tried to do their 10 minute signup at least 15 times before eventually giving up after multiple glitches, freezing etc. Don't even get me started on their terrible Online Banking site -- Disaster. Rather than calling and having to deal with them, I figured I'd do a little searching and came across this http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...ne-brokerage-survey/article15499322/?page=all which names VB as the top brokerage company. So I ended up, in a fraction of the time it took me to set up an account with RBC, making an account for this. I'll let you know how it goes.

RBC says this on their website


  • All RBC Direct Investing clients enjoy a low commission of $9.95 flat CDN or US for each online and mobile equity trade[SUP]1[/SUP] with no minimum balance or trading activity required. Plus, when you trade 150 times or more per quarter, you pay $6.95 flat CDN or US per Canadian or US equity trade[SUP]1[/SUP].
I'm guessing they charge per trade?


Also according to the list on the globe and mail publication, Virtual Brokers' charges
31,203 dollars for every 1000 shares and RBC charges 31,191 dollars -- not too bad of a difference IMO.

Yes. RBC, and most all the bank's Online Brokerages charge a fee for each trade. Seems they've all settled in at, or about $9.95.
I was at a buddy's yesterday. He was online. He's with RBC. Everything was smooth. I watched him dump Alibaba.
I'm with Scotia's i-trade. $9.95 all day long. Commish drops with a high trade frequency - I'm not frequent enough.
VB charges $6 and change. Plus - they have other fees for things you get for free with the banks online brokerages.

Good trading to you!
 
Yes. RBC, and most all the bank's Online Brokerages charge a fee for each trade. Seems they've all settled in at, or about $9.95.
I was at a buddy's yesterday. He was online. He's with RBC. Everything was smooth. I watched him dump Alibaba.
I'm with Scotia's i-trade. $9.95 all day long. Commish drops with a high trade frequency - I'm not frequent enough.
VB charges $6 and change. Plus - they have other fees for things you get for free with the banks online brokerages.

Good trading to you!

Seems I've got a change of plans just now. Apparently my form went through yesterday (but I didnt get a conformation email saying that my form went through the window just froze). So now I'm stuck between choosing RBC or VB as my trading website. However, as of now, I am erring on the RBC side because I think VB charges you to use their trading app? I wouldn't know because I'm still waiting for this payee thing to go through
 
Seems I've got a change of plans just now. Apparently my form went through yesterday (but I didnt get a conformation email saying that my form went through the window just froze). So now I'm stuck between choosing RBC or VB as my trading website. However, as of now, I am erring on the RBC side because I think VB charges you to use their trading app? I wouldn't know because I'm still waiting for this payee thing to go through


That's GOOD news. PM sent before I read ^^ post.
 
All good, brother. Hopefully the account is live by tomorrow and then I'll take it from there. Just gotta wait for VB to do the transaction to my account so I can send it back and perhaps cancel the service.
 
For high effort with decent returns I have had luck in the past watching a single stock closely and buying a selling it almost every week. In one case I was using potash, buying at $95 and selling at $105, normally this swing happened within a week, then I'd be out for a week while it dropped to $95, then buy back in. I was making ~0.5% a day on average but it took a lot of time managing it as there was no guarantee it wouldn't keep dropping when you were in or keep rising while you were out.

Otherwise I do boring investing, find stocks that are fairly valued from companies that I use and I think are going to be around for the long haul. Throw in a few risky bets to have some fun.

There is a good thread from a while ago where people explained their strategies. Brian P (or was it RobMac?) plays the odds much better than I do with covered calls and puts, I haven't bothered to figure out that strategy yet (although it should win over the long-term).
 
For high effort with decent returns I have had luck in the past watching a single stock closely and buying a selling it almost every week. In one case I was using potash, buying at $95 and selling at $105, normally this swing happened within a week, then I'd be out for a week while it dropped to $95, then buy back in. I was making ~0.5% a day on average but it took a lot of time managing it as there was no guarantee it wouldn't keep dropping when you were in or keep rising while you were out.

Otherwise I do boring investing, find stocks that are fairly valued from companies that I use and I think are going to be around for the long haul. Throw in a few risky bets to have some fun.

There is a good thread from a while ago where people explained their strategies. Brian P (or was it RobMac?) plays the odds much better than I do with covered calls and puts, I haven't bothered to figure out that strategy yet (although it should win over the long-term).

Why didn't you short POT.t down to $95 every time?
 
For high effort with decent returns I have had luck in the past watching a single stock closely and buying a selling it almost every week. In one case I was using potash, buying at $95 and selling at $105, normally this swing happened within a week, then I'd be out for a week while it dropped to $95, then buy back in. I was making ~0.5% a day on average but it took a lot of time managing it as there was no guarantee it wouldn't keep dropping when you were in or keep rising while you were out.

Otherwise I do boring investing, find stocks that are fairly valued from companies that I use and I think are going to be around for the long haul. Throw in a few risky bets to have some fun.

There is a good thread from a while ago where people explained their strategies. Brian P (or was it RobMac?) plays the odds much better than I do with covered calls and puts, I haven't bothered to figure out that strategy yet (although it should win over the long-term).

Sounds like Brian.
 
I used to trade a lot.... Not so much anymore. I used to pay about $6 per trade but I was trading more frequent than most (1000+- per year). I had pretty good luck with trading... and only slowed because I found something else to do with my money.
 
Why didn't you short POT.t down to $95 every time?

Because sometimes it ran up to 150. Once it hit $95, it almost always quickly returned to $105, but after that things were much less predictable.
 
Right now is a pretty shitey time to be investing.

How about oil stocks? Seems the industry is fairly ripe for some good purchasing and waiting out until the price starts to come back up again...which I feel it will once OPEC kills off some of their competition with the low pricing/barrel.
 
I used to trade a lot.... Not so much anymore. I used to pay about $6 per trade but I was trading more frequent than most (1000+- per year). I had pretty good luck with trading... and only slowed because I found something else to do with my money.

Like what?
 
Because sometimes it ran up to 150. Once it hit $95, it almost always quickly returned to $105, but after that things were much less predictable.

I know what you mean. I was in agrium briefly, just before fert's took a bath.
 
Why didn't you short POT.t down to $95 every time?

Shorting leaves you open if a stock goes up. Margin call. :).

If you buy you can lose it all. If you short you can lose more.
Nice when your trader buys at 250 to cover your $105 margin.

I was looking at Potash for the long haul a while back.
 
Shorting leaves you open if a stock goes up. Margin call. :).

If you buy you can lose it all. If you short you can lose more.
Nice when your trader buys at 250 to cover your $105 margin.

I was looking at Potash for the long haul a while back.

I know how it works. I was just asking GG. It seemed too predictable to not play the downside.
 

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