We Asked 3 Retail Traders About Their Strategies

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Benzinga recently had the chance to talk to some retail traders about their strategies, how they got started and what advice they'd offer to new traders. Here's what they told us.

Sumant Chittiprolu

Chittiprolu started his first portfolio in 2006 after graduating from Ohio State. He said he initially opened a Scottrade account based on the risk-taking and money management aspects offered and the ability to have growth on top of a day-to-day job.

“What really got me going was to make up for my taxes and other minor losses people encounter,” he said.

Chittiprolu said he’s technically driven, which he learned from Roberto Pedone. He looks at the 20-day moving average, although he will look at some fundamental factors.

“I did a CNBC stock picking contest in 2014. I picked SolarCity Corp SCTY based on [Elon] Musk, so that got me to the grand final just by picking the person in charge. That’s my fundamental approach, but I'm mainly technical driven.”

Chittiprolu said he started as a day trader, but has recently evolved into swing trading on a week- or several-month-long horizon.

“Swing trading came about because of the low frequency approach. For a retail trader that's coming up in the market, you’ve got to counter attack high-frequency traders with lower frequency.”

He said he’s currently in gold and gold mining stocks. To see all of Chittiprolu’s positions, view his portfolio here.

Ali Bakir

This is very different from Bakir, the co-founder of Peeptrade, who said he’s very much the buy and hold type.

“I am very loyal,” Bakir said. “So, whenever I find a brand I like, I tend to stick with it. I really learn more about the owners of the brand, the history. I think of stocks as a business. I think of investing as being a part owner of a business. I’m not a fan of over-diversifying. I choose a handful of companies and I analyze them in great detail.

Related Link: 5 Questions With Juan Mendoza, The CEO Of Portfolio-Sharing Platform Peeptrade

“And the reason I do that is because the market will fluctuate, and I'm so engrossed in the company that I know they will overcome this turbulence. That’s the belief I have in the companies I’ve invested in.”

Bakir, who’ll add to a position during a downturn, said he thinks Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD makes up half of his portfolio.

Bakir has also invested in Career Education Corp. CECO. To see the rest of his positions, check out his portfolio on Peeptrade here.

John Miller

Miller, a tax analyst, started trading a little over a year ago because, in his words, “I was making more money than I was spending. I had an account that was sitting around doing nothing.”

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He’d read plenty of books about making money work for you, particularly "Rich Dad Poor Dad," which he read while working at Costco Wholesale Corporation COST.

“One of the themes of is make your money work for you,” he said.

Miller said he’s more on the aggressive side and invests in a lot of tech companies. “Initially I jumped into Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and Tesla Motors Inc TSLA, but later sort of learned that they’re a little overvalued right now. So, I sold most of that and became a lot more diversified.”

Although he looks at insider buying as an indicator, Miller’s background in the tax industry has served him well.

“If certain companies are doing what they could to get the best tax situation, that’s usually a good sign,” he said.

That helped him out particularly with Sunedison Inc SUNEQ, which he bought for $0.30 per share.

“I jumped in a few days before they had an independent auditor come in to see if it was crashing because of unethical handling of finances. I thought, 'Well, what I’ll do is I’ll set a limit where if it drops below $0.30, I’m out.' So, middle of the night there was an announcement: Books are clean, everything’s good. They just have too much debt. People looked at the good news as more valuable than bad news. So, around 10–11 a.m. I made up for all the bad losses I’d gotten in the previous year.

“I’m not a fan of penny stock trading, but I heard the news that they were bringing in the auditor. When I’d heard that before ... most times it's always bad news long term. But for this one I was on that kick of ‘Well I’m gonna throw money to the wind and see what happens.’ And low and behold it was fantastic. Wonderful morning for me. But very stressful.”

Miller’s portfolio can be viewed here.

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Posted In: FintechInterviewGeneralAli BakirElon MuskJohn MillerPeeptradeRoberto PedoneScottradeSumant Chittiprolu
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