This is good thing that happened to you that 25k changed to 23k instead of 35k. If it did become 35k then you might try with 250k and then you will be left with 200k.I’ve read many books/articles/etc. about investing, and believe that the data backs up investing in low cost index funds such as VOO. I believe that it’s very hard for the average person to beat the overall market in the long term. Nonetheless, I still sometimes have a desire to try. I also like poker - something in me just is drawn to gambling, though I tamp that down as much as I can.
To indulge this, I opened an account with TD Ameritrade on June 23rd, 2021 and invested $25k. This was 5% of my total investment portfolio at that point. I used this account to do options trading, invest in leveraged ETFs, and generally day trade stocks I was interested in. I researched the investments and taught myself all types of options techniques.
As of today, the account is worth $23,876. The S&P is up 24.3% in the same timeframe, so if I invested the same $25k in VOO, it would be worth about $31k.
Anyway, I just thought others might be interested in my experience. I’m not saying I’m the most skilled investor - I’m certainly not. Still, I’m a reasonably intelligent and informed person, and I couldn’t really make this work.
I’m still keeping the account (now with Schwab) open, but I’m trying to move most of the investments to safer options. I’ll allow myself a little fun money to play around with when I get a “hunch” about something, but at least half of it is going to wind up on VOO.
I also some time mess around with options in small amounts, knowing well that odds are against me
I would highly recommend that you listen to this episode of BH podcast, if not already. It talks about why Warren Buffet's not being able to beat S&P 500 in the last couple of decades.
https://bogleheads.podbean.com/e/episod ... ick-ferri/
Statistics: Posted by babystep — Sun May 26, 2024 12:22 am — Replies 29 — Views 3073