How I Started Trading Stuff

I started out in stocks. Penny stocks were so easy to trade and didn’t require a ton of capital to make some money. It was so fun and addicting. Investing money in stocks is almost like gambling. It’s got the same feeling. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did brain studies on investors and gamblers and they found a very similar type of brain activity. It is an addiction based on profit and loss. I love it – lol.

But after a while I wanted to up the ante so I started investing in currencies. Foreign exchange markets are really tough cookies to crack, but man can you make a TON of money investing in these markets. You just have to buy a certain type of currency and then sell it once it’s at a higher rate as compared to another type of currency. You do this continuously until you’re able to cash out big! 

I love investing. It’s such a great field to be in. I don’t even know how or why I decided to start investing, but I remember the day I started. I bought a penny stock at $0.43 per share (1000 shares) and sold it for $0.76 per share. That’s a total profit of $300+ in the matter of days. And I didn’t even have to do a ton of work. And if you’re lucky you can even score big if a penny stock starts to move up and up and up to the double digits. It’s amazing, but it’s very rare.

After a few months of doing that I started to trade foreign exchange with similar results. It was a great feeling. I was making lots of money in the investment game. But then I made a stupid mistake. I placed bets on pure emotional attachment to stocks and currencies. I totally failed miserably. The stocks and currencies plummeted and I was left biting my hands. It was gut-wrenching. 

Luckily I didn’t lose ALL of my money. I still had some money left. But this time I decided to go into a more stable market with more long term success and value. I decided to purchase commodities - precious metals to be exact. Precious metals are a great thing to invest your money in. They are beautiful, but also valued very much. They are a store of value, because of the demand they create in the world.

Mistake In Investing Directly In Metals

Don’t make the mistake of doing this emotionally. There are some great stories that end in tragedy and heartbreak (as well as broke-ness) from people who invested their money emotionally. Take all of the emotion out of it. This isn’t a game you want to play when under a hot head or heavy heart. You need to use your mind to invest properly. You have to really understand and analyze things with a special attention to detail. You need to really be on your game.

When I first got into investing, I didn’t know where to begin. I played games and bought and sold stocks based on “gut feeling.” And although sometimes and some people are able to take advantage of that “gut feeling.” It’s not always the best indicator of success in any financial market. You really need to differentiate between a gut feeling based on fact and data and analysis, and a gut feeling based on emotional attachment to a particular type of investment. 

Don’t make the same mistakes I did when I first started out selling bonds, and trading stocks. I was a fool-hearted moron who lost a lot of money. But having said that, my early days as an investment trader were full of life lessons I’ve carried with me throughout my entire amateur career as an investor in financial markets around the globe. I learned a lot of things that I still use today. 

And who’s to say that I wasn’t meant to go through all those losses just so I could get to the point I’m at today with investing my money. I learned a  lot of different things and I was able to pick up some tricks along the way to. 

Investing in Commodities and Precious Metals (And Other Things)

Investing can really be seen as an art form. Whether you’re investing in precious metals or you’re trying to play the mutual funds game, or even if you want to buy and sell stocks – investing really has an art to it. You have to see and learn and know things the other guys don’t. You have to be able to predict trends. And sometimes you even just have to get lucky.

There’s no point in trying to invest if you can’t really dedicate some time into researching your targets. You have to actually bunker down and learn about the investments you’re planning on making. You have to know their history, who the major players are, what they’re trying to do, why they’re trying to do it, how likely they are to succeed, economic conditions and so much more. There’s a lot to know.

That’s why investing and day trading part time (with another full time job) is such a hard thing to do. You really want to eventually make this investing your full time job. You don’t want to just do it here and there like a hobby if you want to make any real money from it. And by real money, I’m talking six-plus figures. And that’s not even where the big boys play. The big boys play with stakes in the seven/eight-plus figure range.

That’s where the real fun happens. But you still have to know your stuff and be very careful. At that level, the slightest misstep could mean that you’re done for. And it’s really hard to recover from such devastating blows to your portfolio. But then again, even if you’re buying and selling stocks, bonds, metals and currency at a low level, a slight miscalculation or foolish move led by emotion can be devastating to your entire life and livelihood.

Learn more about precious metals here.

Where to Find Precious Metals

Precious metals are defined as any kind of naturally metallic element that has a high economic value. They are viewed as hidden treasures of the Earth and are being sought after by many collectors and investors alike.  Most of these metals are being stored in large storage vaults with Fort Knox being one of the most famous depositories of gold bullion in the world. So where exactly do these precious metals come from? For one thing, we all know that these things are mined and are processed afterwards, but are mines really the only place where you can find precious metals? Let us look a little further, shall we?

You Can Find Them Inside Your Mobile Phones

Well this is a bit of a surprise now, isn’t it? Mobile phones, the same ones that you carry with you wherever you go, actually have some precious metals in them. So I guess you can say that you have a portable depository of precious metals in the palm of your hand. Some of the metals that are used in cell phones include the likes of gold, silver, copper, and iridium.

Whenever people discard their old mobile phones, “urban miners” would try to scavenge whatever precious metals they can find inside them. With the way their prices have skyrocketed as of late, these urban miners can sell them off for a very good price.

Inside Your TV 

Old televisions, especially the letterbox models, have some precious metals in them. Even when you take your TV set apart, the precious metals in it are not going to be visible to the naked eye. Most HDMI cords and your old AV cords are gold plated so you might want to have those things examined before you think about throwing them away because you can still fetch a good price for these babies.

Online

Seriously though, what can’t you purchase from the Internet these days? There are sites on the Internet that allow people to either purchase precious metals directly from their site or invest their money in them. Either way, you are still going to be in a win-win situation because the price of precious metals continues to skyrocket each year, especially gold. 

But be sure to have enough, and I mean enough, money if you are planning to purchase precious metals of any kind online. Only those who have the deepest of pockets should purchase precious metals from the Internet. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of investment here and it is something that could either make or break you.

Conclusion

So as you can see, mines are not the only source of precious metals. A lot of them can actually be found in most of the stuff that we use on a daily basis. The very cell phone that you use to communicate with your friends and loved ones also happens to be a mini gold mine and the TV in your living room has more than a few precious metals in it as well. To learn more check out Wholesale Direct Metals

Hey There. I Like Metal

My name is James. I’m a not-so-savvy investor who trades stocks, bonds, commodities and more. I do have a day job, but I’m trying to become a day trader full time. I trade a lot of different things, and although I’m no expert, I do know a little bit about the various topics. I never really knew that buying metals was such a good game, though. I always thought stocks were where it’s at. Well, more on that later but for now…

I started this blog so I could basically just chronicle my exploits as an investor and share my experiences. I’m not really sure exactly what I’m going to share on this blog, because like I said I’m not exactly an investment guru. But I do try and make some money from this game. If you’re a new investor too, you may find this blog helpful. If nothing else maybe this blog can help you in knowing that you’re not alone out there in this intimidating world of investments.

 Either way I hope I can help some people out with my ramblings and musings.