Ask HN: Have any of you had success trading the stock market?
The key to trading was always to be in it for the longhaul unless you are a penny trade or day trader. You can expect to lose more money as a day trader but you may win as much too. Longhaul is the safer route. It is what will allow you to prosper. Looking at the stock market everyday will drive you into an anxiety and a deep depression, so its almost best to pick a variety of stocks and ETFs and let the money make money on itself. What goes up must come down and what goes down must come up.<p>My advice to anyone looking to invest: the stock market is a great way to make money no matter how good or bad it may seem and you should let your money make money on itself... making your money work for you is like having someone else work a second full-time job and giving all the money back to you.<p>Also, its a great time to get in the stock market right now if you aren&#x27;t in at all. Watch it for a couple of weeks. Note the high of your stock, the average, and the low for what it is trading at. Pick a low number and buy a good amount (5 or more to see some type of return). Buy it low. Hold on to it for a while. Then sell it when you feel it is high. When you sell it, you are always really just transferring your invest... whether to pay off debts, mortages, or improvement.<p>I started trading on the stock market at 25... I chose Ford and Intel at my first stocks with just $5,000 split between both, not understanding that I could&#x27;ve chosen some better ones at the time, though I made my money on those, before selling them and buying others including Adobe (at around $70), Netflix (at around $80), NVIDIA (around $35), Tesla (at around $80), Facebook (at around $60), and many more that paid well.<p>During the Trump era, which was a wild ride, especially during COVID-19... the market was being inflated.... which benefited those of us who bought our shares when they were low.... I had about $125,000 in the stock market which grew to $200,000. Although I&#x27;d missed the hype of GameStop, I grabbed around 2,000 AMC at $2 and held on to it until it reached about $40. I also grabbed some marijuana stocks too when they were under $10 and they grew to $15 - $30. I since sold those knowing unless they are federally legalized, they are mainly OTC trades and won&#x27;t see much more profit on the market. Cash grabs if you own a dispensary though!<p>At the end of the Trump era and headed into the Biden era, unfortunately, the media did its best to try to put the Biden stock market in good light, and took forever to admit what was really going on and report on it, but inflation and gas prices always tell the story, no hiding what&#x27;s going on... its either supply and demand or greed... but for those of us who are advanced&#x2F;novice&#x2F;expert traders knew the stock market had performed the worst under Biden.<p>Just backing the previous statement up with facts and showing this is - not my opinion -, as I&#x27;m not trying to get political here. &quot;The average increase is about 14%. Under Republican presidents, the index typically rises 68% of the time, while under Democrats it increases 60% of the time. In terms of markets Biden&#x27;s first half is the worst for any Democratic president since Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1979, when stocks fell 13%.&quot;  Read more: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.barrons.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;president-biden-stock-market-performance-51674207179" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.barrons.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;president-biden-stock-marke...</a><p>I don&#x27;t really think Biden cares about the stock market. Again, not making it about politics, but seriously, he&#x27;s 80... I&#x27;m taking care of my 86 year old grandfather with dementia right now, and the only thing I pray for and hope he does everyday is not piss or sh<i>t himself. Like that is #goals for a man in his 80s. But I mean, truly, that is #goals for us all... can&#x27;t tell you how many times I&#x27;ve been out and I have to emergency sh*t. But anyways, back to the main focus: the stock market.<p>Before I lost any more money, I decided to switch gears and as of 2022, although I contribute somewhere around 6% to 12% to a 401k, I am not actively making trades in the stock market anymore, and went into real estate which seems like its full-time, even though if you get good tenants, its just once a month, and then maybe some work to get another good tenant in there.<p>I pulled all my money out of the market and bought two sister studio condos across from each other in a major city on a busy road across the street from a hospital, which I rent out to doctors, medical students, and travel nurses. One of the condos is paid off while the other is about half paid off. I am currently making somewhere or will be making around $2k a month for renting out both condos.<p>Buying Amazon and Google when they were down to somewhere around $85 would&#x27;ve probably been a great call.. let your money sit in there for the next decade and you&#x27;ll reap those rewards. However, you&#x27;re going to have to take that roller coaster ride. You&#x27;ll see it up and down, up and down, but it will never fail. Because Google and Amazon are too big to fail. Unless you believe Jeff Bezos stating that Amazon will fail. It&#x27;ll be a while. But Amazon works for our instant gratification.<p>I do intend to get back into the stock market within to the next 5 years. My focus right now is actually paying off my mortgages. But if you&#x27;re 50 and under... you can&#x27;t go wrong with tossing some money into the stock market and just waiting for it to grow.</i>