RevenueQuest

My first week of trading didn’t end up with me bankrupt… which is nice. I actually turned in a profit of just about 2.3% on my TD Ameritrade account, beating the market by ~3% on a couple of trades. Here are my trades for the week:

I bought 150 C @ 3.9 and 200 more @ 3.6999 averaging down to about 3.79 PPS (Price Per Share) on Tuesday. I figured that C is worth over $4 in the short term, and the pullback in the market was a good time to get in. I was right. Once it got over $4, I got a little too conservative and put in a stop loss order at $4.01. Of course, C shot right back up after I sold my shares and never dropped that low again all day. Still walked away with $48.51 profit after commissions. Commissions cut my profits by over 38%… I gotta start trading higher volumes.

My second trade of the week was actually a mistake. I subscribed to Timothy Sykes‘ TIM Alerts this week (more on that later). On Thursday he recommended shorting MNI if broke through some “technical support” @ $2. Somehow I misread the alert and I decided to buy 450 shares @ $1.9899. Luckily the market was on my side and I was able to get out on Friday with a small profit after commisions of $7.03. Holding the stock overnight, after I had realized I had made a mistake, probably wasn’t a great idea… I just didn’t want a loss.

Moving forward, I want to get into short selling stocks. Brokers require clients to be on margin trading to short sell, so I have been waiting for that to be enabled. I am debating adding some more cash to the account as well so I can have more leverage without the risk of buying on margin.

Goal for the next week is a 5% increase. If I continued increasing profits 5% ever week on my account balance, in a years time I would be up $28k. Piece of cake, right?

Affiliate marketing has come to all but a complete stop for me. I have one website still running that makes $20-50 a month from organic traffic. Anytime I try sending paid traffic to this page, it simply doesn’t convert. There may be some hope left in the offer with a different landing page, ad copy, etc. but I just haven’t had the motivation or time to get into it lately.

But that’s ok. This blog is called “RevenueQuest;” I have always accepted that affiliate marketing isn’t the only way to make great income and the future of this blog will likely reflect that.

Lately, my earnings have come from two locations. First, I got a paid summer internship at ITT Aerospace Controls. I am learning a lot and I think it will put me in a good position when I am looking for employment in the future.

The other is the stock market; and more specifically a mutual fund called Fairholme (FAIRX). My girlfriend’s brother-in-law recommended I buy this mutual fund after being not so please with MFEGX. Since I purchased FAIRX just over a month ago, it has earned me $860. Anyone that wants to take advantage of the market right now, but doesn’t know which stocks to invest in, I think this one is a great pick

I have been doing a little trading on my own and I am currently up about 7% since February/March. Moving forward, I need to put more money into each of my trades because $9.95 trading fees are killing my margins. I am thinking $4-5k would be a great place to start.

Here is some good reading I found recently. I’m thinking about trying these strategies soon when I get a chance. Powerful Day-Trading Strategies Combining Fundamentals and Market Direction

I love all people with an entrepreneurial spirit. I am sure this is why I have always wanted to make money working for myself using my own ideas. The internet is a great place to do just this. There are thousands of success stories of men and women coming up with a great idea and putting it to work on the internet. Wall Street is much the same.

I have been watching a lot of Wall Street Warriors on Hulu. (If you haven’t heard of Hulu, check out what TechCrunch had to say about it here) It is a show about a bunch of people that make a living on Wall Street. There are day traders, hedge fund managers, floor traders, and every other profession that exists on Wall Street. As I said, I was immediately drawn to the entrepreneurial spirit of the show right away.

One of the stars of the first season was Timothy Sykes. He made a name for himself by turning $12,000 of Bar Mitzvah gift money into $1.65 Million in three years! Sounds like a great ROI to me. Sykes runs a blog where he actually tells a lot about what he invests in and even shows some of his daily earnings.

Now I’m catching the Wall Street bug (as if it is a new thing) and I have been watching a lot of CNBC. I have even joined a Virtual Stock Exchange where you can buy and sell “fake” money. The idea is that you can learn how to play the stock market without losing all your money.

Hmm… sounds like a great idea for affiliate marketing. Everyone is always saying you need to invest some money and start testing to learn how the affiliate marketing gig works. Of course, no one wants to put down a few hundred dollars when they have no idea what they are doing. And rightly so as many times it turns into close to 100% loss. I’m just thinking out loud right now, but somebody should try to implement this. Could be the next big idea.

Anyway… if you are maybe a little sick of trying your hand at affiliate marketing, maybe trading stocks would be a better fit for you. I suggest taking a look at that virtual stock exchange and seeing how you make out.

Virtual Stock Exchange on MarketWatch.com

P.S. In case you are interested, I’m down about $50 after starting with $10k. You have to join a game and I am in the “Beginners 10000.00 starting bank game” currently ranked 3,298. Let me know if you join and we can compete.