401(k) Day Trading: The Art of Cashing in on a Shaky Market in Minutes a Day

by Richard Schmitt

Overview

401(k) day trading offers a groundbreaking way to get more out of retirement savings in a stock market chock-full of surprises. How can that be? Day traders buy and sell stocks continuously all day, whereas 401(k) accounts are generally valued but once a day at the market close. The best a 401(k) participant can do is to execute a single fund transfer each day. So that is what a 401(k) day trader does each day by making a simple daily fund exchange to set up and capture gains from the stock market's natural volatility.

Such a daily ritual taking only minutes a day could alternatively be described as "everyday trading." With this approach, you won't have to sit around at your computer to execute trades all day. Instead, you simply execute a single daily fund exchange in 401(k) and other types of retirement savings accounts on your way to a more secure retirement.

Based on years of experience consulting on retirement plans, author Richard Schmitt offers investors a clever way to enhance the returns on their retirement savings in 401(k) Day Trading. This book takes you on a backstage tour through the environment, rationale, and process for day trading a retirement portfolio. Its approach to buying low and selling high through quick daily fund exchanges draws on many of the fundamental principles of investment management to exploit daily market volatility. This day trading method uses basic arithmetic to set up and capture stock market gains in a wobbly market from once-a-day fund exchanges within the unique framework of retirement savings plans—where trades do not trigger immediate taxes or direct trading costs. Engaging and informative 401(k) Day Trading:

• Offers the do-it-yourself investor, novice and pro alike, fresh direction on trading and managing 401(k) and other retirement savings accounts, such as IRAs, 403(b), and 457 accounts
• Highlights real opportunities to earn better returns through retirement portfolio management in the current type of market environment of high volatility and no apparent direction
• Provides a proven and accessible approach to navigating the road to retirement funding
• And much more

In addition to describing the process and nuances of day trading retirement savings, this book also introduces you to some of the basic tenets of investment management that apply to this form of trading and touches on essential topics ranging from expense management to seriously saving for retirement.

Until now, day trading 401(k) accounts has been somewhat of a dirty little secret that plan administrators would rather you not know about. But the fact is that 401(k) and other retirement savings plans offer favorable conditions, which make it possible to derive value from each daily trade over the long term. Isn't it time you took control of your retirement destiny by following a strategy that works in the type of bumpy market environment that has put us back where we started over a decade ago?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118128237
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	08/17/2011
Series:	Wiley Trading , #523
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	851 KB

About the Author

Richard Schmitt is an adjunct professor teaching retirement planning at the Edward S. Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. Having worked in the retirement plan industry since the origin of 401(k) plans, he has assisted companies in the design, implementation, and administration of 401(k), 403(b), 457, and other retirement savings plans for over twenty-five years. Before joining academia, he worked as a corporate manager overseeing compensation and benefits plans for a couple of the largest U.S. companies based in Silicon Valley. He also worked as a consultant at major international consulting firms serving other Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Schmitt is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and an Enrolled Actuary licensed to practice before the Internal Revenue Service. He graduated with distinction from the University of Michigan with a Bachelors of Business Administration degree and subsequently earned teaching credentials at San Francisco State University.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xv

PART I Introduction 1

CHAPTER 1 Game On: Making Something Out of Nothing 3

PART II Environment 27

CHAPTER 2 The Shift: Pensions to 401(k) Plans 29

CHAPTER 3 Rules of the Game: 401(k) under the Hood 55

CHAPTER 4 Tools of the Trade: A Look at Your Assets 77

CHAPTER 5 Uneven Playing Field: Volatility in a Sideways Market 115

PART III Rationale 143

CHAPTER 6 Playbook: Retirement Savings Investment Strategies 145

CHAPTER 7 Getting an Edge: Buy Low and Sell High 187

PART IV Process 211

CHAPTER 8 Game Plan: The Art of Day Trading 213

CHAPTER 9 Postgame Press Conference: Moving Forward 251

APPENDIX A Decision Tree Controlling Transition of Day Trading Accounts 267

APPENDIX B Outside Assistance in 401(k) Day Trading through Systems, Services, or Funds 271

Notes 273

Glossary 279

About the Author 285

Index 287