Stock Trading and Other Things

What are the chances of making any profit from stock trading and/or investing?

And which is more profitable - trading or investing? How likely is an average person to make any profit from stock trading? What about investing? By profiting I mean getting more money than invested.

Public Comments

1. Investing in solid companies typically profit in the long-run. Trading is shorter term, and your returns will be more volatile than investing. If you need to ask, chances are you should be looking at long-term investing rather than trading in a speculative way. You can always try your hand at either using stock simulators (investopedia, wall street survivor) or paper portfolios with fake money (yahoo or google finance, for example).

2. Average person? Every investor/trader is an average person. We all start from somewhere. Chances of making a profit from investing are VERY VERY high. Chances from stock trading are high after a few years of experience. First, buy a $25,000.00 car and a $75,000 house and then save $25,000 and then you can daytrade and lose everything or make your first million.

3. An independent person is at a distinct disadvantage when trading. The big trading houses will always be anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days ahead of you in both information and trades. In a volatile market like last week an independent trader will get eaten alive.
Investing is an entirely different matter. I buy stocks that pay a dividend (in excess to inflation), have the dividends automatically reinvested, and let the shares grow. Unless bad news hits the company, I almost never sell.
Compounding interest is almost magical. If you can resist the temptation of taking your profits and allow them to grow, a modest amount of money can turn into a substantial amount of money.

4. take a right decision in right time

5. The trend is the basis of all profit, we need long term trends to make sizeable money. The key is to know when to get aboard a trend and stick with it for a long period o ftime to maximize profits. Big money can be made by catching large market moves. Day trading or short term stock investing can capture the shorter moves while waiting for the longer term trend to establish itself.