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The stock market thread.

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Thucydides

Thucydides

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Dec 24, 2009
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When USA slipped into recession there a few years back, I became intrigued by the stock market. I was still pretty broke at the time, and couldn't afford to buy shares or stocks in any company. Instead I bought some books - Benjamin Graham's, The Intelligent Investor, being the one I feel the need to name drop - Everything I learned about investing, the stock market, and how to invest your money wisely has been learned from this book. If anyone hasn't read it, and is interested in investing, or the stock market itself, it's a must read. But I digress.

Fast forward a few years later, my financial situation is different, and suddenly the price of oil has gone from 100 dollars a barrel, to 43, so I decided to take the plunge into the volatile world of the stock market.

Anyone actively involved besides with your pension/401k at work?
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Always been intrigued by it but never had the disposable income to actually do anything, therefore I never really did any research on how to go about it.
 
we did a stock market simulation project in my econ class where we had a fake $100,000 to invest in real stocks. my group ended up with $146,000 at the end of the month. We just found cheap stocks around $14 that would jump in value.

We'd go all in when the price was low and then watch it until the value rose by like 20 cents, then sell them all, wait for the value to drop again, and then repeat. We'd usually buy in and then out about 20 times an hour.

we weren't sure if that was illegal or just the way that buying stocks works but that's what we did

our most reliable stock was FSAM
 
RoyalVoyager said:
we did a stock market simulation project in my econ class where we had a fake $100,000 to invest in real stocks. my group ended up with $146,000 at the end of the month. We just found cheap stocks around $14 that would jump in value.

We'd go all in when the price was low and then watch it until the value rose by like 20 cents, then sell them all, wait for the value to drop again, and then repeat. We'd usually buy in and then out about 20 times an hour.

we weren't sure if that was illegal or just the way that buying stocks works but that's what we did

our most reliable stock was FSAM
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Did your game factor in the cost of each trade? Every time you bought or sold the stock it would have cost you about $8.
 
I don't trade daily but I check on my portfolio daily. If I notice that a stock or ETF I own is starting to dip or I read something about a stock I own I'll try to sell it and take the profit I've made. I'm not trying to get rich off the stock market but I do have a nice amount for retirement that I hope to keep increasing.
 
If I bought 100 shares of td bank stock in the morning, I would pay the price for the shares, plus a 9.99 commission fee. and if selling those shares in the afternoon, it's going to cost me another 9.99 commission fee to sell.

So I need to make at least 30 bucks to be at all profitable if doing that.

I do a bit of day trading, mostly on oil stocks, as they are extremely volatile right now, some of them swinging anywhere from 40-60 cents in a single hour.

I've made some money day trading, but I've lost and been forced to hold "long" too.

I have 2 risky stocks, but for me, I see the market as an investment and try not to gamble with the market too much, unless I see a stock is crazy undervalued, and then I might throw a thousand bucks at it, and hope for 100-200 profit before selling. Besides those two stocks, all of the stocks I buy into pay either a monthly, or a quarterly dividend.

Nothing better than making capital gains on the initial shares purchased, plus them also paying you just to hold their shares.
 
Come from a finance background and very involved in the stock market.

Day trading is a fool's game. Almost all day traders will underperform the market in the long-run after factoring in fees and taxes.

Invest in low-cost ETFs unless you have the time, energy, intensity, and quantitative financial skills to research individual stocks (which most people in the world don't have). I also invest in blue-chip "dream" companies, but only at times when the world is ending, like during the last financial crisis. Unless you're in a recession, most blue chip companies are either fairly priced or overly priced, which means that they're probably not the best option if you're trying to maximize long-term returns.
 
I took a stock market class this past semester in school. It was interesting for sure but I've never had the kind of money to invest in it. I'm also a pretty risk-averse individual so while I thought it was cool and I applaud those who make it work them, it's probably not something I would spend a lot of time doing.
 
I follow the stock market only so far as to see how the overall market/indexes do for the day, as I only invest in broad market index ETFs, no singular company stocks.
 
hitman9172 said:
Come from a finance background and very involved in the stock market.

Day trading is a fool's game. Almost all day traders will underperform the market in the long-run after factoring in fees and taxes.

Invest in low-cost ETFs unless you have the time, energy, intensity, and quantitative financial skills to research individual stocks (which most people in the world don't have). I also invest in blue-chip "dream" companies, but only at times when the world is ending, like during the last financial crisis. Unless you're in a recession, most blue chip companies are either fairly priced or overly priced, which means that they're probably not the best option if you're trying to maximize long-term returns.
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While I agree with your main point - investing in broad low cost index funds (vanguard total market index fund).

As for buying individual stocks - as long as you keep up on it, buy a small amount of companies, can read and more importantly understand quarterly reports) buying stocks and reits can make you a lot of capital gain, especially when investing in the long term.

Look at the historical growth at some of your favourite companies stocks.

I am more of a deep value investor, and it is working, but it's definitely not for the lazy investor.
 
I have worked for several of the top investment banks, have been trading stocks, funds, stock options for over 20 years. My degree is in Finance, got my Series 6 and 63 while working for the Vanguard Group.

Right now I invest mostly in highly speculative stocks in the bio-tech sector. But I don't recommend it for anyone that isn't a professional as it's a very high risk area. You need to know how to read charts, how to hedge with options and find someone that you can trust that has some kind of medical background.
 
montreal said:
I have worked for several of the top investment banks, have been trading stocks, funds, stock options for over 20 years. My degree is in Finance, got my Series 6 and 63 while working for the Vanguard Group.

Right now I invest mostly in highly speculative stocks in the bio-tech sector. But I don't recommend it for anyone that isn't a professional as it's a very high risk area. You need to know how to read charts, how to hedge with options and find someone that you can trust that has some kind of medical background.
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Thinly veiled brag about being a stock market professional.
 
Hammettf2b said:
haha, question for you. What would be the minimum amount of money to start investing long term for a complete noob like me?
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That's a tough question since I know nothing about you,

what are you looking to do with the money, is this for your retirement or extra cash?

how old are you (ball park is fine, 20's? 30's?)

can you afford to take a lot of risk or do you need the money in the near future to buy things (house, car, etc..)

I assume you don't have any experience trading stocks, are you trying to learn and want to be an active investor (that means you do all the work, you do the research, you execute the trades, you track the progress) or are you just looking to put some money into the market and not have to worry about it?

You need to figure out what kind of financial instrument is best for you based off you risk tolerance. For someone that doesn't know the market, but is young so they have lots of years to grow, and is ok with taking some risk you would want something like an index fund. If you don't want to take a lot of risk you go with a bond fund or cds if you need the money in the near future and don't want to risk capital.

If you are just using "play" money meaning you want to put a little into the market to buy a stock but don't know what stock and don't know how to go about researching said stocks, you might want to look at an ETF which is a collection of stocks in a certain sector (tech, energy, etc...)
 
montreal said:
That's a tough question since I know nothing about you,

what are you looking to do with the money, is this for your retirement or extra cash?

how old are you (ball park is fine, 20's? 30's?)

can you afford to take a lot of risk or do you need the money in the near future to buy things (house, car, etc..)

I assume you don't have any experience trading stocks, are you trying to learn and want to be an active investor (that means you do all the work, you do the research, you execute the trades, you track the progress) or are you just looking to put some money into the market and not have to worry about it?

You need to figure out what kind of financial instrument is best for you based off you risk tolerance. For someone that doesn't know the market, but is young so they have lots of years to grow, and is ok with taking some risk you would want something like an index fund. If you don't want to take a lot of risk you go with a bond fund or cds if you need the money in the near future and don't want to risk capital.

If you are just using "play" money meaning you want to put a little into the market to buy a stock but don't know what stock and don't know how to go about researching said stocks, you might want to look at an ETF which is a collection of stocks in a certain sector (tech, energy, etc...)
Click to expand...

Would like to make some extra cash for the near future. I'm 30 and would like to leave the investment in one place for a while.
 
hitman9172 said:
Unless you're in a recession, most blue chip companies are either fairly priced or overly priced, which means that they're probably not the best option if you're trying to maximize long-term returns.
Click to expand...
That's funny, because the bluest of all blue chips in the world (AAPL) is severely undervalued imo.
 
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