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Don't Deny Subconsciousness
by xander-man
( Male from NY, USA )

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buying/selling stocks
02-01-12 09:59 AM

i made a lot of bad investment moves in 2011... i think i've learned a lot though in that year.... expensive errors though that i'm hoping will correct (or partially correct themselves) so i can break-even or profit from.... the problem is, when your money is tied-up in stinker-stocks, you have to sell to regain some cash-moneys.... instead i'm letting these stocks slowly (hopefully) crawl back from the grave to break-even/profit.... meanwhile though i've found other deals out there (natural gas anyone??) that i want to pounce on... but i don't want to commit more money towards... hmmmm. difficult.

thoughts? anyone out there buy/sell stocks?

~xander-man

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Comments:

by all_mixed_up, 02-01-12 10:26 AM I've been wanting to invest but I've been too scared to actually make a move. It was recommended by a couple of people that I should invest in Exxon and put it into an IRA account but other people have told me not to put money into just one stock. I am not looking to make a huge investment. Just a little something something that I can pretty much forget about it until time comes to cash in (unless something horrendous happens with the company and or ecomony).

by xander-man, 02-01-12 10:52 AM get some books out of the library on investing, or start reading online... exxon's probably a reliable stock since people are going to be using/needing oil for the forseeable future... but their dividend isn't particularly great... i think you'd be better off with reliable stocks that give a higher dividend (especially if you're looking to put money in and leave it for a long time). also, cashing-in if something bad happens to the economy probably isn't the best idea... gotta weather the storm! i'm by no means a person with much financial knowledge. my advice for you right now is to save save save save your money... every bit counts. by the end of 2012, it would be great if you could start an IRA (or Roth IRA) to begin the long journey of saving for retirement.

by all_mixed_up, 02-01-12 11:50 AM Right now I put a percentage of my paycheck into the Thrift Savings Plan which is open for Government workers so it's not as if I am not saving at all but I definitely want to make the most out of it.

by xander-man, 02-01-12 01:07 PM ohhhh... i wonder if that's the same for military etc... find out if you get any interest on the money you save there (and if so, what percentage that is).

by all_mixed_up, 02-02-12 11:54 AM It is the same for military except the military doesn't get contribution matching :/.

by super lametastic, 02-01-12 02:36 PM My dad has had a lot of issues with his stocks. He lost a huge amount during the whole bail out situation. Investing makes me nervous so I steer clear. I would assume big corporations like Amazon would be a good investment. I want to own some Bershire Hathway B stock but it's expensive.

by xander-man, 02-01-12 03:09 PM hopefully your dad didn't sell during the bail-out... see you don't lose money on stocks if you don't sell the shares you own... it's only if you sell when the stock is down that you lose. if he (and my dad) had waited for recovery, chances are he would recouped a lot of his losses (unless say he ONLY owned AIG stock). berk hathaway b stock... funny you mention that as i was just discussing it this morning... is it expensive? if you're just saying 'well the price for one share is over 80 bucks! that's expensive!' that's not really how valuation of stocks/shares go... just because the share price is a high number doesn't mean there isn't strong value (where the share price can increase depending on company earnings, shareholder sentiment etc.). berkshire is owned by billionaire warren buffett... a master investor... however he's very old (when he passes away, you may see a big drop in share-price as people worry if the stock can exist without him... that might be a good time to buy! who knows though!). it's also coincidental that you mention Amazon... amazon just released earnings yesterday and despite everyone and their grandma getting a kindle-fire for christmas, the stock dropped 8% today due to a disappointing 'outlook' to the company... so is it a good investment? who knows! if you are steering clear of investing, what are you doing to help grow your money?

by super lametastic, 02-01-12 06:08 PM My dad has held on to his stocks. I guess his Ford stock dropped but has been rising lately. As for Beshire, from what I've heard the B stock is like $5000 a share while A stock is like $100,000. I know some people who own B stock because I live in the land of Buffet but it also comes with perks on their annual shareholders weekend here in Omaha. Right now, I just have a savings account. I'm going to do some mutual funds or safe investments in the future. Once I'm working, I'm debating on putting money into a 401K but I'm not sure if that's safe right now. What's your opinion on 401ks? Do you have other investment ideas?

by super lametastic, 02-01-12 06:10 PM Also I apologize for my spelling errors. I'm from Omaha so I know all about Berkshire. I have a degree from the same school as Buffet too. Maybe Facebook would be a better investment than Amazon?

by nedlat, 02-02-12 02:22 AM The Berkshire B shares were split fairly recently and trade under 100. Berkshire is much less expensive than Amazon and might be a good choice for a conservative investor. As of right now Facebook is not a publicly traded company so it might be hard to invest in.

by super lametastic, 02-02-12 04:19 AM That's good to know. This is why I don't invest because it's obvious I don't pay enough attention. Why isn't Facebook a public company?

by nedlat, 02-02-12 05:56 AM If a company has enough money and only a few investors it can choose to stay private. The rules and regulations for things like accounting are different. You could read "the little book that beats the market" by joel greenblatt. It is a very short simple book with a lot of good practical advice. Definitely worth the 10 bucks it'd cost off amazon.

by super lametastic, 02-02-12 09:01 AM I will check it out.

by xander-man, 02-02-12 09:18 AM facebook is going through the transition of becoming a public company (which is why you're hearing about it in the news all of the time)... just because it's a big company that's in the news a lot does NOT necessarily mean this is going to be a good long-term investment... your neighbor warren was never big into the 'new and fancy' companies... he is allllllll about companies that are tried & true that have room for growth.

by super lametastic, 02-02-12 12:17 PM This is why I need help before I start investing! I think Buffet is right though. Just because something is popular now doesn't mean it will stay popular. Look at MySpace.

by xander-man, 02-02-12 12:58 PM yup... now you're catching on. as my brother once told me about (nedlaT), warren buffet discussed how many hundreds of opportunities there were to invest in air-plane companies back in the mid-20th century... it was all the rage! guess what though.... all but a few of those companies went out of business/bankrupt.... his goal is to invest in companies with firm-footing that have room to grow in value.

by super lametastic, 02-02-12 01:45 PM I knew DE was good for more than venting!! What do you considering firm footing? Time in business, profit amounts, etc?

by xander-man, 02-02-12 02:25 PM wow good question... i mean take a company like coca-cola for instance... it's been around a long time... people seem to enjoy it... it's recognized/consumed around the world... probbbbbbably a safe bet you know? i don't own any coke stock... i own shares of pepsi and it's also been very stable. i mean, i'm not a financial analyst/planner or ANYTHING really. i have NO background in this stuff... i often talk to my brother and friends about this sort of thing, and we shoot ideas around you know? dont' forget that my first line in this entry is 'i made terrible investing decisions last year' (not pepsi but other riskier stocks... i still own them because i'm hoping (possibly futile) that they'll turn around).

by super lametastic, 02-02-12 02:45 PM You seem to know a lot for not having a background in it. And risk is always involved in investing. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

by xander-man, 02-02-12 05:24 PM nahhh talk is cheap... i have NO KNOWLEDGE of this stuff, i promise. 'a fool and his money are soon parted.' couldn't be more true for me... i don't know if microsoft or apple are good investments... the computer world moves so quickly you know? a few years ago Nokia was like the bessssst cell phone company you know? then the iPhone cam out and Nokia's stock is now worth crap. i dunno... gotta be careful.

by super lametastic, 02-02-12 03:20 PM What about Apple or Microsoft? Do you consider those good investments?

by xander-man, 02-02-12 09:16 AM yeah i also own ford... if he bought in a couple years ago, then he is wayyyy up.... but if he is like me who bought-in a year ago when it was at $13-14 per share... then we're a little bit down right now... no biggie. my employer offers 401K and matches 4%... so if i contribute to the 401K, i will essentially get free-money contributed by my employer (4%). i'm big into 401K, but i also make a decent amount of money so i can afford to put a lot into it... i would recommend trying to push your comfort zone to contribute to the 401K... you aren't supposed to be able to touch this money though until age 59 or 60, sooooooo it's meant to grow over a long period of time.

by super lametastic, 02-02-12 12:21 PM He has has Ford stock for quite some time so he was happy that it's gone up. With your 401k, what happens if that business goes under or something? I'm not sure where you work but it's something I've thought about. Would it be better to do a retirement plan through my bank? And what about mutual funds? All this really confuses me. I know history, I just don't really know money stuff.

by xander-man, 02-02-12 12:56 PM a 401K is a investment plan that your company participates in where you can most likely choose among various investment opportunities (stocks, bonds, index funds etc)... your employer may offer the opportunity to invest in your particular company (for instance if you work for xerox, you could buy xerox-stock or something like that), but i don't think this is necessarily the same as a 401K. you can set up a retirement plan through your bank... in fact, your bank probably would be more than happy to set up a meeting with you to discuss retirement planning. go set up a meeting! it will be worth it (you don't necessarily need to sign up for anything at that time).

by all_mixed_up, 02-02-12 11:57 AM I thought you are supposed to buy low and sell high?

by xander-man, 02-02-12 12:51 PM yeah but sometimes it's difficult to determine if the price is low or high... for instance, apple's stock is work $450 per share... is this considered crazy high, or as some economists have proposed, apple is still a cheap buy.... so therein lies the difficulty.

by nedlat, 02-02-12 06:44 PM if you buy stocks or bonds - you own them. It doesn't matter how you're buying them. If you have a 401k through your employer and your employer goes out of business, you still own those stocks unless there was some fraud. At least that's my understanding.. If you buy mutual funds or index funds, the most important thing to focus on is the fees. Usually Vanguard has pretty low cost funds. Having low costs and reinvesting the dividends are two ways to make more money (instead of trying to pick a winning stock). Also if you buy Berkshire you can almost think of it like a mutual fund, since it is a very diversified company, and it charges nothing year after year. Unlike some mutual funds which will take 1-2% from you each year...

by siliconwafer, 02-02-12 09:24 PM F that, sell high and buy low! play the SHORT SIDE! Hehe.

by xander-man, 02-03-12 08:17 AM 'shorty's like a melody in my headddd...' i've never shorted any stocks thus far...

by nedlat, 02-03-12 08:49 AM tread very carefully. Whitney Tilson had a short on Netflix. If you look at the one year stock chart you'd think - he did well! Unfortunately it rode from 200-300 on a mania before crashing almost to 60. He was burned and had to cover before the price declined. (using options might be safer, I've never traded any options)

by xander-man, 02-03-12 08:54 AM yeah but ranaldi 3:16 = courage wolf... he'll short exxon and go set fire to some gas-stations to help his cause. interesting about tilson... netflix is a friggin rollercoaster.