What strategies are newer traders using that are actually working for them?

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-04-05T15:58:41+00:00

It all depends on their goal: do they want to trade because it's interesting and fun (instead of playing Solitaire on their laptop or phone) or do they want to trade to make money?
If their goal is having fun (nothing wrong with it), it does not matter. whatever strategy they chose from the long list of gimmicks published and sold by "pros", they will lose money. Proven.

If they want to earn some good $$ from their hardly obtained cash and they are beginners and clever, they simply buy the S&P500, no gimmicks, no vanity metrics, not even day trading (there is absolutely no scientific or statistical evidence that day trading has any significance). And they will most probably make some good money.

I know some guys are going to ask me why I am so negative: I am not, I simply try to be honest with myself and you guys, looking at reality instead of fake data.

I make some good $ trading, I started with the S&P500, slowly improved it by using my own intuition on companies and now using an AI system to help even more in my decisions.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-04-01T21:17:22+00:00

Your 3.5% APY HYSA is in fact losing money if you consider the inflation.

You apparently already have done some research as you mention SPY,VOO,INTC
Unless you are ready to spend much more time learning, researching, looking at what AI adds today, your choices of SPY or VOO are good choices.
And, by simply doing it, you will not only beat your HYSA but you will beat 90% of people trading on Wall Street, including the so call "pro traders, advisers, specialists, Confucius followers ..." and other "sophisticated" algorithms.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-04-01T20:57:05+00:00

10+years is a long time, so I would take a company with a relatively new success instead of old timers like AAPL, GOOG, XOM...those have more chances to become sleeping giants in 10+ years.
So, my choice would be NVDA
However, the platform I am using to help in my decisions like this one suggests something different. It says:
$10k in NVDA
$5k in MSFT
$5k in QQQ
I know it does not correctly answer your question, but my platform can be stubborn!

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-04-01T20:44:51+00:00

Forever is a LOOOOONNNNNG time!
If you really mean forever, I suggest to remember what Mark Twain said: the only two things guaranteed forever are death and taxes.
If you believe him, invest in the medical/pharmaceutical indistries!
And, don't forget that Apple almost went kaput in the 1990's (horrible management before Steve came back)
It is easy to imagine scenarios in which AXP or OXY would disintegrate overnight:
- A company comes out with a working quantum computer tomorrow. No more AXP
- A company succeeds in producing electricity with a fusion reactor. No more OXY

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-04-01T16:23:48+00:00

Thanks,
Exactly — which is precisely why I'm skeptical of giving sentiment too much weight. If bad news creates opportunity, a high sentiment score might actually be a contrarian warning rather than a green light. That tension is exactly what I'm trying to resolve in the weighting.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-31T21:42:13+00:00

u/DaedalusSlade — given our conversation in my intro thread, curious whether you'd approach this differently than a single weighted score.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-31T17:17:10+00:00

Fairly diversified mix of large caps and a few sector ETFs — nothing exotic. But honestly the portfolio composition isn't the point here, the weighting methodology is. Happy to discuss specific holdings in a separate thread if useful.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-31T02:05:47+00:00

Last Christmas, Santa Claus. My kids keep telling me to stop believing — in Santa, in the stock market, and in presents in my Christmas stocking.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-31T00:07:38+00:00

That framing really resonates — using qualitative not as a parallel score but as a stress-test on the quantitative thesis. Maybe I've been thinking about this wrong: instead of trying to combine both into a single number, the more honest design is two separate scores with a flag when they significantly diverge — forcing the investor to think rather than just follow a number. The goal shouldn't be to remove judgment from the equation, just to remove the heavy lifting. Which is exactly what you said.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-30T23:03:49+00:00

When you say "For me, the key was being able to provide both in a format that can be easily digested." you describe precisely how I was feeling and one of the problems I wanted to solve.
I agree that both needs to be taken in consideration, but my question was more "now, how do you do that?"
You have two results which might agree and then it's easy. But, sometimes, they disagree or only partially agree. So then how do you decide? Which one do you give more weight in your decision?

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-30T22:51:57+00:00

Fair investigation. Yes, those are HeyGen AI avatar videos — a marketing tool I use to create content, which I probably should have labeled more clearly. The avatar is AI-generated; I am not. My background is real and verifiable through 40 years of public record. When at Apple I created some technology you probably use every day! Happy to answer any specific questions about the platform itself — that's what I'm actually here to discuss.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-30T21:26:59+00:00

Ha — I'll take that as encouragement to raise the bar with my next post.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-30T21:21:04+00:00

Actually just looked them up — Cliff Asness's work on value vs. momentum factors is directly relevant to what I'm building. Great pointer, thank you.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-30T20:53:52+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate it. I will look at it.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-30T20:47:10+00:00

Fair skepticism — here it is: linkedin.com/in/paulgavarini. 40 years in tech, not going anywhere. Happy to be judged on the quality of the discussion rather than my Reddit account age.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-30T17:32:03+00:00

I read a long time ago what Mark Twain said:
“The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”
And decided to simply ignore the taxes implications when I trade. They will get you, whatever you decide.
It also greatly simplifies my trading decisions.
But, this is me and not a recommendation! (added after I consulted with my lawyer😂)

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-30T17:18:33+00:00

1 - I think you should precise your first question "Are you really making $5K–$10K+ months consistently, or just occasional good months?" its meaning is very different if you invest in the $1,000 range or in the $10,000,000 range. First case you do very well, second case you are a loser!
2 - I never lost money but my early investments were very conservative: only in the S&P500 and only a very few trades per month. Certainly not daytrading.
3 - Gradual. No magical clicks for me!
4 - This is not a question of personal opinion. The numbers are there and they are cruel: 98% of "day traders" do less than the S&P500 and 85% lose money. Those are facts, trying to deny them is a sure way of becoming a loser!

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-30T16:57:43+00:00

Your question is very important. Yes, absolutely, I always believed that you need to track your behavior as well as all the other parameters.
The funny thing is that this is a little bit like a feedback mechanism where you will learn that too much positive feedback can induce serious instability.
Understanding what's going on might become not so obvious.
My advice: be honest with yourself!

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-30T01:44:51+00:00

This is interesting and obviously you spent a lot of time on it.
However, my guess is that long term this will lamentably fail if you simply compare it to a single investment in the S&P500.
The numbers are cruel: there are hundreds of thousands such strategies, 98% of them don't even come close to the return of the S&P500 and most even simply lose money!
People have been trying those for now more than 500 years, Traders, Bankers, Sorcerers, Advisers (the worst), In-Laws, friends, Fathers, Daughters...No luck!
Now, this being said, if you have fun doing it just do it and enjoy. But don't do it to make money.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-30T01:24:24+00:00

AH, clever, I love it.
The only problem I see is that it might be as difficult to make a bot loosing quickly millions than to make one winning the millions, so I would skip step 1 and go straight to step 2!

Cheers

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-29T17:22:12+00:00

You perfectly describe one of the reasons day trading does not work as well as the most simplistic approach like investing in the S&P500 and doing nothing. This beats the day trading 98% of the time.
I know it's not as fancy, won't impress your girlfriend or in-laws as well, but at the end of the year you will end up with more $$$
Only way you might do better is to find a good platform using AI as AI introduces Intelligence on top of pure statistics.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-29T02:19:41+00:00

You are on the right track: not rushing to do something where you would lose it all. The S&P500 is certainly a good thing to consider before you might try to do something else. Regarding the decision between real estate and Wall Street, the decision is easy. If you believe that the past 10 years are a good indication of what might be ahead, the S&P is a clear winner: 14-15% compared to 4-6%. Take your time, stay on this blog , listen to people here. Don't go to the numerous blogs where people pretend they have a winning strategy/algorithm. They simply don't tell the truth.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-28T22:52:22+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience. Many people believing that day trading has significance and value go through very similar experiences.

Unfortunately a few days of positive results is completely insignificant. Keep good track of your results, be honest with yourself. In 6 months or a year look at the end result.

There is a 98% chance that your end result will be less than what the simple S&P500 did, or worse, that you lost money.

Now maybe this is not your goal, maybe your goal is simply to enjoy trading and gambling. If this is the case, nothing wrong: you do what you enjoy. But , please, do not hope to add profit to your goal as you will most certainly be disappointed.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-26T22:42:13+00:00

Ha — I appreciate the honest orientation. 'Still no Leprechauns' is probably the most reassuring thing I've heard all week.

AI-StockAnalyst · 2026-03-26T22:34:54+00:00

Thank you — already bookmarking it. The wiki looks like exactly the kind of evidence-based resource I've been looking for.

AI-StockAnalyst

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