Investments/Trading and other such things

[ygolo]

Investment is something most people do to augment their income. Some do a lot more/less than others.

Investment is certainly an important consideration when it comes to careers.

Some learn to trade, in addition to their investments, to try to get higher rates of return.

Some even become full-time traders.

So discuss your part triumphs, screw-ups (we learn more from these), philosophies, styles, and other thoughts on the subject?

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EDIT: I guess I should start.

My biggest screw-up was buying a condo near the top of the housing bubble (I actually bought late 2005, was expecting to be married and all that jazz). I'll be paying for that one for a while.

However, my area didn't crash quite like a lot of Northern California did, and since I am living in my condo for not much more interest than rents are around here, I will stay in there till the market recovers (some experts claim it will take 4 more years).

I didn't really think about investments till about 2003. At that point I put a lot of money in a gold mutual fund (GOLDX) which was accessible through my 401K plan (tax sheltered retirement plan in the U.S). It turned out to be a rather smart decision, and is responsible for a 1/3 of my current net-worth.

Admittedly, that was blind luck. I did get out before it tanked later, and put some back in 2005.

I was also timing some other funds, and doing OK till about the end of 2006 (after this life-events, that I would not like to detail, lead to a deep depression that had me not concerned about investments for a long while).

I would have preferred to time stocks or ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds--like mutual funds but without the fees, and often option-able--like stocks) but these were not accessible in my 401K, and what I had managed to put in my Roth-IRA (another tax-sheltered plan--just from capital gains, you put money in after-tax) did not give me enough capital to properly time stock, so I began learning about options.

I had taken a break from learning about this stuff for a while (due to life-events mentioned above), but had been virtual trading some before that, and some real trades to see how it worked.

Just recently got back into real trading. The first trade I entered was a calendar spread that I screwed up the entry on. I am going to write off that as a loss, it looks like.

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Edit 2: I guess most people being students, wont know too much about these things. However, I believe, in the long run, it will make you more money than learning to play poker (for instance) and (from my impressions alone--I don't play poker) seems like similar skill-sets.

[Jive A Turkey]

I'm a fan of commodities options trading, but I'm not very strong. It's difficult for me to be objective thorugh the analysis. I still believe, though, that the markets are driven by human behavior and emotinal reaction. Getting a handle on it is so difficult.