Anyone Follow The Stock Market(s)????????

reefforbrains

Active Member
I am curious who else lives close to the stock market(s)?
Where are YOUR eggs?
High risk pinky Financial sections?
Blue Chip/Conglomerates as the safe bet to weather the storm?
IPO's.......Pulling out all together?
Feel free to say anything you like about both the topic or the markets but please, lets hear some personal thoughts. Insight or even just regurgitating information you read/saw in some news article....... it doesnt matter.
I will admit I almost BLINDLY pick stocks based on gut hunches, on referals from friends, from personal exp with unknown products ect.
There ARE NO wrong answers.
Bring it on folks....
 

sickboy

Active Member
Well, blindly picking them works! "A random walk down Wall Street" talks about the dart board thing.
I follow the market closely, but it is not for me yet (will be in about 2.5 weeks when I start my new job), but for my parents and grandparents, and the workers at the family business (for their 401Ks).
I would be investing like crazy if I had the money. There are companies that are dirt cheap right now. US Bank, the last time I looked was at a major discount. I would be all over the place, small, mid, and large cap. Once this economy picks up, there is 10 years worth of gains to be made in a couple months!
 

reefraff

Active Member
I have long term investments and do short term trading. Buy names you know. As long as the company doesn't go belly up it will be hard not to make money if you buy in now.
Personally I am taking everything out and buying cheap rental property. If things get worse they will be in demand, when things get better the price of the houses will increase. Only thing I am leaving in the market is trading cash. Being a rookie don't try trading, you will get burned. I think British petroleum might be a good bet. They are probably more into alternatives than the other major oil co's and the price of oil will move back up. You also earn a lot better interest on the dividend than the banks will pay you.
PGH is another tasty dividend play. I bought the crap at 14 and it's in the 7 range now. Its an oil and gas trust out of Canada. I dont see how you could go wrong on that one but then again I thought I couldn't go wrong at 14 :) Pays around 20% but the dividend is paid monthly which is nice, the on line brokerage places pay interest on the cash in the account so it's a little extra when you get the payments every month.
 

reefforbrains

Active Member
I am very keen to see how C- Citibank, and BAC- Bank of America do a year from today.
It is SOOOO tempting to take big risks with them since they are so cheap.
By any chance anyone happen to follow SIRI- Sirius radio? It is either going to fall off the planet, or make some serious money. I think it is doomed, but I couldnt help gamble on at least a couple of lots since pricing is so rediculous.
As for PGH @7.xx I think it is going to continue it's spiral sideways with the rest of the lot until demand for gas goes back up. With the oil reserves so stocked up I feel it will be quite some time before they make back thier lost ground...Unless a discovery is pioneered. Not a horrible position to be in at its current price as long as both feet aren't in it at the same time.
 

al mc

Active Member
I 'dollar cost' average all investments and feel that the theory works quite well. Occaisionally I will buy some larger quantities that appear to be a real value.
Citibank...I would not touch with the kid's college money or retirement money
BOA..Different situation....I think it is a value play and will pick some up at this price.
Sirrius...R.I.P.
 

t316

Active Member
I am slowly getting back into it after taking a year and half off to build my house, but mainly what I am/was doing is Calls and Puts. Playing this way, you really don't care which way the markets are going, you just play accordingly. I have long term stock, but I don't follow it...what's the point if you bought it for the long haul? Writing covered calls is an easy, fun method for playing the stock market if you are a person who can set your emotions aside while you are in a play.
 

jackri

Active Member
I do long term investing in mutual funds and keep right on investing the same reguardless what it's doing now... yeah I've lost about 1/2 along with everyone else but I have 30 years to go and if you go by historical data... just ride it out and look long term.
Even during the boom of the 90's something like 85% of day traders lost money. Unless you really think the country's biggest and best companies won't be around in the future no one should really feel uneasy investing long term --- but as far as short term investing, well that's more like gambling and I just as soon have a fun weekend in Vegas :)
 

t316

Active Member
Originally Posted by jackri
http:///forum/post/2962826
but as far as short term investing, well that's more like gambling and I just as soon have a fun weekend in Vegas :)
Gambling depends on luck. Short term investing (daytrading) has nothing to do with luck. If you don't do your homework and are just throwing darts at the board, then correct, you have about as much chance as all the other monkeys out there. But if you follow the market, look at historical data, and utilize the trading tools that are available, there's nothing lucky about it. You can still be wrong sometimes, but more times than not, if you follow the rules, you will be right, not because you got lucky but because you knew that's what was going to happen.
I agree that it's not easy and it requires daily attention. This is the reason I sat out while I was occupied with other things. You can get most things right, but it only takes one or two small things that you overlooked, and the whole deal has gone South.
 

jackri

Active Member
I don't have the stomach for day trading.. maybe when I retire though for something to pay attention to and with a relatively small amount of my overall investments.
 

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by ReefForBrains http:///forum/post/2962518
I am curious who else lives close to the stock market(s)?
Where are YOUR eggs?
May 4th 2003 I sold all stock I had and bought silver bullion (US Silver Eagles mostly). All Stocks were liquidated.
My broker told me I'm part of the problem

High risk pinky Financial sections?
Nope, metals
Blue Chip/Conglomerates as the safe bet to weather the storm?
Precious Metal
IPO's.......Pulling out all together?
No IPOs in the near future for me. I currently have ZERO stocks.
 

jerthunter

Active Member
My plan is to invest in companies that I feel have a solid business structure and provide a quality product or service.
I think it is rather difficult to find 'deals' because generally stocks that are sold really cheap are cheap for a reason.
 

reefraff

Active Member
Buying any bank stock right now is about the same as flying to vegas and shooting craps except you don't get free drinks served by scantily clad waitresses
Sounds like you nailed it Bang. I moved what I could last fall but got sucked back in too soon on some of it. I had one chunk with a broker who wants to be Warren Buffet when he grows up so he wont hardly sell anything. I am still nearly even money on that account which was opened Sept. 20 2001 so it isn't doing all that bad but if he would have sold even 6 months ago it would have been a nice gain. I fired the guy and have control of my account now. No sense in paying him for riding stocks up and down.
 
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