Earlier in the year, I had some excess capital. Since my money was gaining next to nothing sitting in a Savings account, I figured, why not invest the money a different way? I read about the multiplier effect, the power of compounding, and blah blah blah. Long story short, I opened in IRA account and I have been trading the account for about 6 months now.
This is a long term trading account and I am making position trades (trades that generally last a few months). I allow my personal biases about companies to color my trades because I think the longer term timeframe allows more times for theories to be proven right. Chart confirmation is key at the end of the day though... for example, I think that Herbalife is a publicly-traded ponzi scheme, as Ackman states, but I refuse to short it until the chart shows long term weakness that is not currently evident. It is a Retirement account so I have +40 years that I can wait anyways ;)
The Basics
Age: 26
Instrument used: Options
Strategy: 'Invest' LEAPs based off daily/weekly timeframe & occasionally trade around the position
Broker: OptionHouse
IRA Type: Roth
Max contribution allowed/year: $5,500 (currently maxxed out for 2013)
Note:
Because this is Retirement related, I feel like I really have to mention this. Do NOT trade options in your IRA unless you are very confident in: a) Options theory b)Your abilities and c) The inherent risk of leveraged instruments... This thread is not for retirement advice, but merely to keep track of my progress, and hopefully motivate more people to invest for the future. I don't want any private messages about how you work the graveyard shift in Burger King at 87 years old because you blew your Retirement savings buying LEAPs on the Vix.