Comment by conception

11 hours ago

I can’t say I’ve tried this but the thought just came to me that generating such trades would be trivial to do monthly now.

Sure, if you want to print a 1000 page supplement and staple it to your taxes.

More seriously, I would still worry about order execution and transaction costs. You are likely to end up on the wrong side of the bid/ask spread when playing against the big boys.

If you're actually serious about this, you might as well start your own ETF. Or just buy this one I found after a quick Google: https://www.proshares.com/our-etfs/strategic/spxt Buying multiple sector-specific ETFs is another approach. I'm told that utilities are good to hold during a downturn.

In some countries (like Switzerland) you don't have any capital gain tax __unless_ you are a professional investor. What makes you a professional investor? One of the things that can elevate you to that status is the amount of trades you make.

So I am sure this is not viable for many people as buying an ETF counts like 1 trade, but investing the same money in the underlying assets count like 10s of trades.

  • Unless you have huge amount of money to play, there is no need to buy dozens of stocks every month. If you already have a portfolio of several stocks, you can buy just one or two every month and increase your portfolio. If you are just starting, you can buy a few more, or decide to start just with the most boring and safe stocks like coca-cola or IBM.