Gotcha, sounds like a pretty standard equity plan with restricted shares. Except for the part where you have to decide what to do with it. Or are they just making you move the shares into a management account that you control so they stop paying fees on it?
Because you've already gotten the shares and presumably paid taxes, a Roth IRA probably makes sense because the appreciation on the shares will be tax free if don't sell before you're 65. That's sort of a long-term proposition there, so a lot depends on what you think the outlook of the company is.
Unless they put these shares into a 401(k) where the contributions are tax-free. In which case just keep them there, that's the easiest thing to do. It seems a bit silly that you can't just put it into a regular non-retirement account.
I think it's of course possible to have hits. But most active managers who trade stocks regularly don't outperform the major market indexes. And computers using algorithms to sniff out these rapid opportunities will eventually stumble on the penny stocks you're looking at and could beat you to the punch.Any ideas of how bad it could get for me? Simply from this thread I'm tempted to use a part of my tax refund, $2500, to do some experimental trading for a month and see how it goes. If I could out perform my retail job in earnings though, the extra time could be put towards improving my resume and searching for another job, or just having extra money on top of whatever else I earn. Minimum wage + Part Time sucks to all hell when you're paying off $400 a month worth of college loans.
You may want to consider a compromise. Take half of your refund and invest it in some long-term but fairly conservative bets that also pay some dividends (utilities, CPG, energy, maybe some tech), and walk away. Then take the other half and actively trade it. Then check back in 12 - 18 months and see how far ahead you are. And if you did mak more from actively trading, was it enough to be worth the time you spent.
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Ag- Shorting gold makes some sense because there is a good chance the price increases are an asset bubble. But why short McDonalds and Google? Both are growing quickly, have solid performance and have made clear signs they intend to expand.