Ask HN: What's the best place to get investing advice?

4 points by pkukkapalli 4 years ago | 5 comments

Are there are any forums like HN, where you guys go to get investing advice/suggestions? I know Bogleheads is one, and I frequent it occasionally, but the advice seems to boil down to "avoid active investing, and use index funds."

Basically looking for something that offers more diverse perspectives. Surely there must be something more to personal investing than buying index funds or YOLOing random stocks.

_benj 4 years ago |

a few months I was very interested in trading and found that one of the best places to learn was with books.

Regarding to books tho, maybe look for books that have been around for a while, instead of a get-rich-quickly random ebook online.

My focus was technical trading, which at the end is learning how to read the sentiment of the market (tons of people selling out and the price plummeting, or tons of people buying and the price increasing).

There's also fundamental trading, which has to do with learning about the company and if it's currently (under/over)valued and trading accordingly.

Whatever you do, spend time learning the language, learning to use stock screeners, understanding why price change, market makers, etc...

there's a lot of specific vocabulary and investiopedia is your friend in that regard.

A book that I particularly liked was "The Art and Science of Technical Analysis" by Adam Grimes

There was another that I can't remember the name right now, but it was mostly about the psychology of the market, i.e. there are tons of people looking at the same graph that you are looking, and they all are trying to predict the future in order to make money... so, mob mentality in a graph!

As with everything, be careful, don't invest anything you can't afford to lose and I'm not a financial advisor and all the disclaimers...

Good luck with this!

pkukkapalli 4 years ago | |

Thanks, had not heard of The Art and Science of Technical Analysis, will definitely check it out. I read Intelligent Investor, but kind of felt it lacking, because I didn't feel like it went low-level enough. I also have Security Analysis by Ben Graham, but have never gone through it. Any thoughts on that?

_benj 4 years ago | | |

I guess, like with everything, the best way to learn is with practice, so as soon as you can start getting screen time on the markets.

Use whatever books to understand concepts, not strategies. For example, work to understand the why of the Bollinger bands or why hammer patter and how is can be related to volume... don't try to learn strategies like "buy the dip" because nobody really know what's the "dip".

It's very easy to see patterns on a graph but it's completely different to see them as they are forming and being able to predict what is going to form.

It is all random but it's based on human behavior, so a "breakout" is not just something that happens on a graph, is a bunch of people (or machines programmed by people) looking at a specific price and when that price is reached a bunch of trading happens moving the price because an expectation was there... "if $AMZ reaches $XYZ I'll buy"

Also, people have memory, and tons of greed, so if they made/lost $$ at some price point it's possible that they are now fixed around that price to make an action... i.e. I buy $AAPL at $500 but it went down to $480... well, I'm greedy enough to try to save face and try to wait for AAPL to go back to $500... even if it keeps dropping...

All that is to say, look for books that give you insight into why people behave the way they behave on the market and then try your hardest to behave in a way that is of your choosing and to your benefit instead of just letting emotions take over.

Also, about getting screen time, it's completely different to get screen time on a paper account vs with your own money, so as soon as you are able put some money in (something that you are ok loosing), you'll very quickly realize some strong emotions creeping in, and handling those emotions is what a few traders say separates the ones that are profitable vs the ones that get wiped out.

s0rr0wskill 4 years ago |

wallstreetbets

Seriously though, be wary of online sites for investing advice. Better to come up with your own plan and do your own research since it's easy to get caught up into something you'll end up regretting

pkukkapalli 4 years ago | |

Yeah, I know that online "investing" is driven by hype these days. But, I was basically hoping that there was something out there that at least explores investing ideas out of the mainstream not based entirely on hype or rug pulls. Just want exposure to some interesting ideas that I can then do due diligence on.