XL-entLady's Account

[XL-entLady]

I just bought DBB at $15.23. Figured I needed some base metals to go with my gold miners.

Lady

[alevin]

I just bought DBB at $15.23. Figured I needed some base metals to go with my gold miners.

Lady

Hi Lady, missed you around here while you were out having fun. So. I'm curious. I tried to buy DBB and DBA each awhile back in my OptEXpress account. They put up a roadblock, apparently I have to jump through extra hoops to buy either of those, can't just enter the buy electronically-said cI had to contact broker, even tho they are ETFs and not actual commods. I AM able to buy DBC however and have owned that awhile. Wondered if it had anything to do with fact I haven't requested a margin account even tho I could. Any ideas? Are you buying the DBA or DBB on margin?

[XL-entLady]

Hi Lady, missed you around here while you were out having fun. So. I'm curious. I tried to buy DBB and DBA each awhile back in my OptEXpress account. They put up a roadblock, apparently I have to jump through extra hoops to buy either of those, can't just enter the buy electronically-said cI had to contact broker, even tho they are ETFs and not actual commods. I AM able to buy DBC however and have owned that awhile. Wondered if it had anything to do with fact I haven't requested a margin account even tho I could. Any ideas? Are you buying the DBA or DBB on margin?

No, I'm not buying on margin. I ran into the same problem a while back when I tried to buy DBP. I called my broker (Scottrade) and they said that any time a stock or ETF is showing a big price change or volume change, they put a stop to electronic trading and make you talk to a broker to be able to enter the trade. Maybe that is what you were up against too?

Lady

[XL-entLady]

Still holding DBB, gold miners, and MVSN. MVSN is my "buy and hold" stock and the only purchase that I'm really pleased with at the moment. Wouldn't Birch be chuckling to hear me say that!

Lady

[XL-entLady]

Still holding DBB, gold miners, and MVSN. MVSN is my "buy and hold" stock and the only purchase that I'm really pleased with at the moment. Wouldn't Birch be chuckling to hear me say that!

Lady

Just an update note. MVSN has changed its name to Rovi Corp and it's ticker symbol is now ROVI. Still holding it and still glad I am.

Not wild about my DBB but hoping that copper is going to make a comeback with the stimulus infrastructure spending. Sold my gold miners - - broke even on that one but I was ahead big at one point. I hate metals.

Lady

[XL-entLady]

....it's ticker symbol is now ROVI. Still holding it and still glad I am.

Not wild about my DBB but hoping that copper is going to make a comeback with the stimulus infrastructure spending.

Happier about my DBB now. Go, copper!

And a big thank you to .... whoever gave the tip about CGA ... Bullitt? It's the Alzheimers. I put CGA on my watch list and then over the weekend I sold my ROVI and bought it. And it went up big today. Cool! Now if it just won't crash until I can set a trailing stop, which won't be for 3 trading days ... because I bought it with unsettled funds.

Lady

[XL-entLady]

I can't believe it's been so long since I updated my account!

I'm glad I sold the ROVI when I did because it tanked and is just starting to come back. I sold CGA and DBB both at a profit and I sold DBB way too soon!

Most of my Roth account is now in CEF, a closed end fund that holds physical gold and silver, and it's doing very well. I also have a small position in the Q's and that position is slightly positive.

And I'm trying to leave my Roth alone as much as possible because I racked up way too much in trading fees this year!

Lady

[etftalk]

Hi Lady -

How active have you been to rack up those fees? I've been wondering about that myself.

Is there a point (percentage of account in fees) where it is OK to trade? For instance, if someone has a $2000 account, a few dozen trades over the year at $7 a trade would be painful, but it may not even be a factor for a $200,000 account.

Now if we jump to like 200 trades/year, that would be 70% of a $2000 account, but < 1% of a $200K account, if my math is correct.

[XL-entLady]

I look at it as being $14 in my Scottrade account ($7 to buy and $7 to sell). And when I first started trading I was using too many positions that were way too small - - sometimes only $1k each. I was having to pay the first 1.5% of any positive move to broker fees.

I had so many positions that it was hard to keep track of them, especially while I was travelling so much the last few months. And if a stock was doing better than my stock was, then I wanted to switch stocks to the one that was moving better.

Rookie mistakes!

Now I'm trying to keep my account to 2 or 3 positions (keeps my broker fees down to about 0.25% of the position cost), and only change those positions if there is a significant reason to do so.

Painful lessons but I hope I am learning them well.

Lady

[etftalk]

Thanks. Good plan. I agree, only 1 to maybe 4 positions at a time, unless I want to keep something long-term like a small postion in gold or bonds, then I may go to 5 or 6 in the account.