Get an old dryer that runs, but that has no heat or disable the heat. Fill with papers or pebbles with the names of all the stocks you might consider on them. Turn on the dryer and wander away. Kill some time. Have a coffee.
Return and shut off dryer. Grab a handful of stocks with your right hand, these you buy. Grab a handful of stocks with your left hand, these you sell.
Saves all that time random walking.-- popbottle, Aug 13 2013 web site http://randomstocks.buckmaster.ca/same result [popbottle, Nov 11 2014] Knowing when to stpp http://www.american...wing-when-to-stop/3Really fine article on stopping rules [bungston, Feb 03 2016] I feel like you could save even more time by using a garbage disposal instead of an old dryer, and simply emptying your wallet straight into it.-- ytk, Aug 13 2013 everyone does this with their socks already.-- notripe, Aug 13 2013 Darn it, [notripe], you're getting off topic.-- swimswim, Aug 13 2013 Doesn't Google predict cold epidemics via searches? Trending stuff would be a pointer, on a section of the stock market, for bets.-- wjt, Nov 11 2014 Surely the best thing is to start a company, with your old dryer as the main asset, then sell shares in it. Try not go recursive by including your own stock name on the bits of paper/pebbles, don't cross the shares, that's all I'm saying...-- not_morrison_rm, Nov 11 2014 Aren't you afraid you'll lose your stock in the dryer?-- pashute, Nov 11 2014 Socks are what I lose in dryers.-- popbottle, Feb 02 2016 Not sure the dryer really grabs me and shakes me, but this reminded me of a fine article on stopping rules. On page 3 (linked) there is a system whereby one can choose the higher of 2 unknown numbers more than 50% of the time through use of a third random number. Very cool.
Could one make money in the stock market this way? It is the same problem. If one thinks today's price is higher than tomorrow's, sell. If one thinks tomorrow's is higher, buy. It would work if there were no transaction cost.-- bungston, Feb 03 2016 In a word, no. But the buy low, sell high strategy has merit-- theircompetitor, Feb 03 2016 I still don't quite comprehend why or how shorting is legal.
What's needed here is some kind of remote-session Ouija board that hooks up millions of investors collective inputs together. In fact, maybe I'll halfbake that...-- RayfordSteele, Feb 03 2016 / I still don't quite comprehend why or how shorting is legal. /
If people who love shorting are giving you trouble, I suggest a sturdy belt. Or maybe tie that drawstring tighter. Plus: remember to wear your clean undies.-- bungston, Feb 03 2016 Shorting is just one way to bet against the stock, put options basically get you to the same place.
You have to have a way to bet against the stock (or bet on the stock going down in price). You would drastically limit liquidity if you don't.-- theircompetitor, Feb 03 2016 Actually, a put option is less weird (and less dangerous) because the loss is limited to 100% of the amount paid for the option and the gain is limited by the strike price. If the price drops, there is no question that the person will be able to buy a share in order to sell it at the strike price.
With a short sale, someone borrows a share of stock and sells it. Theoretically, the buyer of that borrowed stock share could loan it out to another short seller. In the worse case, someone could sell mores shares than actually exist. There are some measures to safeguard against this, and if you have your long shares in a margin account where others can borrow them, the brokerage reserves the right to sell your shares at any time. Still, the fact that there have to these safeguards in place highlights how unstable short sales are, and allowing the outcome to be dependent on the discretion of the brokerage seems bad.
Perhaps one way to fix short selling and still retain the liquidity benefits would be to require anyone loaning a share for short selling to sell a call option for that share to the borrower. When the short seller borrows a share and buys a call option, that gives them the right (but not obligation) to buy a share at a set price (probably fairly high compared to typical call options) during some time period. Then, if the price goes up past that strike price, they can close the short position by exercising the option. Set the strike price high enough, and for most practical purposes there would be no change in trader's ability to short sell, but it would allow for a much more orderly unwinding in the extreme cases. Thinking about it more, this scenario is really not much different than the current situation where the broker has the right to sell the lenders shares or force the short seller to close their position except that in this case, the price at which that happens is pre-arranged.-- scad mientist, Feb 04 2016 random, halfbakery