Trade 8 is now official. I traded $1,295 in cash for portions of shares of stock in Amazon, Apple, Google, and Tesla.
Estimated Trade Value:
$1,295 ➡️ $1,295
This trade brought a couple of new “firsts” for me. For one, this was the first trade that brought me a completely even exchange of value. I traded/purchased the exact amount in stock, as I had in cash. And like the pivot I made when I traded/sold a macbook pro for $1,295, it caused me to think of my trading project in a slightly different way.
I wasn’t keen on risking it big with a stock to gamble and see if I could turn around and make a quick profit on. Picking individual stocks is ricky by itself even for people who really know what they’re doing, (Inside secret: Almost no one know what they are doing. Buy Index Funds…)
Instead I decided to invest equally, purchasing fractional shares in four companies I felt confident would at least be around for the next year or so. I decided to pick stocks that had some history, name recognition, and wouldn’t all of a sudden go bankrupt overright.
I went with about $325 each in shares of Apple, Amazon, Google, and Tesla. I used my Charles Schwab brokerage account to buy “slices” which allows you to buy a portion or slice of a stock when you can’t afford a full share. (Amazon alone was over $2,000 for one share).
I also picked these stocks for some strategic planning. Amazon and Google were both confirmed to do a stock split within the next few months, and Tesla was in talks to consider it as well. There’s really no way to be sure, because even big name companies do tank, but if you had to pick four to buy, these four were good ones.
Another big change for me, and the one that made me think the longest on this trade, was the length of keeping these stocks. At the least I decided I was going to keep them for one year. This removed any capital gains tax I would have to pay if and when I sold the stock. It’s not a rule set in stone, and I could always sell at any time, but that was my initial plan. A bit of a longer term hold to see how the stocks manage.
*Fun fact update, since making this trade, pretty much all stocks have taken a plunge, especially tech stocks. ha! While I’d much rather my stocks be up, I knew going in I would hold them for a while, so I feel okay about it. I bought the stocks with a “set it and forget it for one year” mentality, so I’ll re-evaluate where things stand come this time next year when I search for trade #9.
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Thoughts so far? Did I make a good trade?
