I remember some time in the '90s when day trading in shares was considered to be the new way to instant riches. Of course, you first had to be taught by some cowboys who considered running seminars in day trading to be their new way to instant riches.
I had just come down to my new weekender at "Riverbend", where two neighbours had jetted off to some expensive day trading seminar in which they would be taught how to buy and sell shares with almost no money down and a big pot of gold at the end of the day. "He's given up his day job and is a day trader now", the wife of one proudly told me.
Well, his day job hadn't been much to start with, so perhaps it didn't matter that his dream of buying low and selling high was also dashed. His finances, though, took a bit of a beating, first through paying for the expensive day trading seminar, and then finding that the real life charts often looked the opposite to the ones he'd been shown at the seminar.
I don't do day trading; I do occasional trading! I hold a regular long-term portfolio of shares which pay me regular fully franked dividends twice a year. I regularly monitor this portfolio and trust its performance and never change it. What I do do is that perhaps twice a week or twice a month I add to those same shares at a price which seems below trend, and sell again at a price which seems above trend. It's the same chart as the one shown above but stretched over several weeks or even months.
It gives me an added interest in life and it pays for the housekeeping!
