Anyone know Stock Market software (ThinkorSwim) procedures? Options Trading?

Everyone I have known who has gone this route has gone bust eventually. Meanwhile, those who were diligent dollar cost average investors who maxed out their 401ks and also invested in taxable accounts became millionaires over the course of three decades of diligence. My MIL who never made more than what would be $50,000 a year in today's money is worth 3m, through diligence and time.

People much smarter than you, with much better access to technology, who have faster internet connections are playing these games. If you win occasionally, it was luck, just like in Vegas.
 
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Re: COVID-19:
No need to panic.

Not because the epidemiological profile isn't pretty bad (it is), but because panicking doesn't help anything, and thus fulfills no "need."

The worrisome aspects are:
(a.) you can get a mild case of it and not recognize it as having been COVID-19 (as opposed to any other rhinovirus);
(b.) you can already be spreading the virus to others before you, yourself, become symptomatic;
(c.) you can have relapses after having been apparently "well" for weeks;
(d.) it can get into your lungs and cause viral pneumonia, which tends to kill susceptible persons;
(e.) now that it's here, it's not going away, and eventually it'll become a norm of life.
Add all that up, I don't know what the f*** it means, but you got some bad-a** perpetrators and they're here to stay.
-- John McClane, Die Hard


The one tiny silver-lining, economically, is that China's bad behavior had already resulted in a lot of businesses searching for alternative supply-chains prior to the outbreak. Life would have been better with an extra year for diversification and "soft decoupling," but if this sudden shock had occurred 3 years ago when the U.S. and Europe were even more tightly-coupled, the secondary economic damage would have been worse.
 
Ouch... todays market
would have been nice to sell on Cliffs advice.
problem is my portfolio is too big... and dumping everything would bump be up into insane tax brackets and capital gaines
You pay the same capital gains regardless of tax bracket. And I'd rather pay them now than in, say, 10 years when the rates are higher than they are today.

I had a big portfolio, probably around 100 different mutual funds and ETFs. Sold everything but my utilities ETF because everyone will still need electricity.
 
You pay the same capital gains regardless of tax bracket. And I'd rather pay them now than in, say, 10 years when the rates are higher than they are today.

I had a big portfolio, probably around 100 different mutual funds and ETFs. Sold everything but my utilities ETF because everyone will still need electricity.

You have to play the long game. Values fluctuate, tax rates fluctuate, its all part of it. It's not down enough yet (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/d...wipe-out-earnings-growth-this-year-2020-02-27) for me to plow in.

Also, over our lifetime, people will be creating their own electricity more on a % basis. It is not to say utilities will cease to exist, but there was a time when Western Bell was considered a widow and orphan stock.
 
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I remember being on vacation in our RV in 1999 and I just had to make sure I ordered a generator sufficient enough to power my house because at 12:00 am on 1/1/1999, the computers were going to shut down and power grid was going to collapse.

It could have happened, but it didn't.

This kind of reminds me of that and I hope we have the same outcome.
 
I remember being on vacation in our RV in 1999 and I just had to make sure I ordered a generator sufficient enough to power my house because at 12:00 am on 1/1/2000, the computers were going to shut down and power grid was going to collapse.

It could have happened, but it didn't.

This kind of reminds me of that and I hope we have the same outcome.

Fixed.
 
I remember being on vacation in our RV in 1999 and I just had to make sure I ordered a generator sufficient enough to power my house because at 12:00 am on 1/1/1999, the computers were going to shut down and power grid was going to collapse.

It could have happened, but it didn't.

This kind of reminds me of that and I hope we have the same outcome.

Was in a 'war room' working for IBM at the time. They WAY overplanned for catastrophe.

In retrospect, I liked that outcome. I'd rather we over plan on this one too and be pleasantly surprised we didn't need all the preparations.
 
You pay the same capital gains regardless of tax bracket. And I'd rather pay them now than in, say, 10 years when the rates are higher than they are today.

I had a big portfolio, probably around 100 different mutual funds and ETFs. Sold everything but my utilities ETF because everyone will still need electricity.
Thanks.. I Google it.. and will need a few more hours before I can send my tax guy a fairly intelligent question...

Found ...35% tax rate & 15% capital gains
that would be 50% total tax

I don't know about the take it today idea...
I'm always hearing of those loopholes available
I think they get there taxes one way or the other

I for the most part buy and hold and at the core invested in dividends that reinvest... but toss in a few quick flips for fun... because it's fun to have a dream for a Shelby Cobra replica that I was able to buy with only a few thousand of my dollars... and I'm still a long ways away... but on my way

bought 15,000 shares intraday of KEGX @.0958
 
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I cant figure out why golds not spiking.
It's the kaos indicator. I as a general rule of thumb use it to determine what crisis is real or not
 
UNEARNED long term capital gain Federal rate is 15%, period.

This is why Buffett keeps saying his secretary pays more in taxes (as a percentage) than he does, because she is paying 35% on earned income.

It is not always 15%. It is 15% for most. It depends on your earned income. Those with high earned income eventually enter a 20% rate for capital gains.

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc409
 
It is not always 15%. It is 15% for most. It depends on your earned income. Those with high earned income eventually enter a 20% rate for capital gains.

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc409

What did you make last year?

A capital gain rate of 15% applies if your taxable income is $78,750 or more but less than $434,550 for single; $488,850 for married filing jointly
 
And 15% applies if you're long in that position. Short positions are taxed as income, through the nose.
 
I cant figure out why golds not spiking.

Also Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Whenever shit hits the fan in China, those serve as a good indicator there's something big rolling downhill. But they are steady at the moment, from which I conclude things are manageable there.

Though I will concede that buying gold (or Bitcoin) is the ultimate irrational response. Not only it's a bad time to buy gold when everyone else is buying, it's also absolutely useless in a crisis situation if you buy the actual, physical gold. You can't eat it, it's heavy as fuck, it's too expensive per unit of weight to use as payment, and there's little you can do with it other than look at it. And if you buy "paper" gold that's "in a safe somewhere", there's no guarantee you actually have anything at all in case things get real bad.

Which, I'd like to remind everyone, is extremely unlikely.
 
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