Investing/Stock Market/etc - Page 2

On April 20 2011 04:06 happyft wrote:


If you're going to be investing with that kind of style, I highly recommending reading up on asset allocation strategy books too. (Just read one, they're all the same) Let me save you the time and money -- they all say, the best way to enter and play the market is to invest a fixed amount every month. In other words, if you've got a 401k plan, do it. (That's probably the only useful sentence in all of those books)

Let me give you a quick reason why AAPL is actually slightly undervalued. AAPL has $64/shr in cash on its balance sheet alone. Street estimates are at $23.10 for FY11 and $26.70 for FY12 (and Street estimates tend to be conservative on stocks they're bullish on). In other words, AAPL trading at today's price of $335 implies 11.7x FY11 EPS ex-cash. The S&P500 is currently trading at 14.1x forward earnings. So rather than saying AAPL is expensive, you have to either argue that AAPL will grow slower than the overall market (a very poor argument, look at iPhone and iPad sales growth), or that AAPL will see its iPhone margins get cut in half due to price competition from Android or other competitors (which is actually a legit concern in the sense that if this does happen, the stock will take a big hit...but that's a BIG if, very big, and likely very unlikely).

Mm...probably a good spot for me to say the usual disclaimer stuff i.e. I'm not recommending nor soliciting anyone to buy or sell any aforementioned securities, data is not intended as factual, investing in the market is risky, etc. etc.

On April 20 2011 04:13 LaSt)ChAnCe wrote:


started with about $5,000 but increased capital both off of profits and from using more money from outside of the market (total profit was $10,000 but towards the end I was trading about $20,000)

maybe not technically day trading, i'd sometimes hold on to it for as long as a week or two - i started trading (small amounts) of ATVI in '08, but never really went deep until '10

traded based on the market, what i knew about release dates (little), and whim (obviously not a good answer, but it's the truth)

On April 20 2011 04:17 buhhy wrote:


Yeah, I'm mainly reading and learning right now. I'm Canadian, so I'm gonna invest through a TFSA to avoid capital gains, income tax, etc. Dollar cost averaging into an index fund is probably the safest and most stable route, but I wanna at least try stock picking since I'm still quite young.

I personally think AAPL is speculative because it pays no dividends, and the stock price rises and falls with Job's heartbeat. They've fallen since I last looked at the price too. Much of their strength comes from the tablet and handheld market, from which Android will start taking its share. Microsoft won the OS wars because Windows had a much better development kit and was much easier to develop for. Android is open source, so it's even easier to develop for. It's hard to tell whether Apple will be able to hold the market shares. 19 PE doesn't look too bad though.

I'm also an investing noob, so there's that.

On April 20 2011 04:21 Sm3agol wrote:

I personally plan on waiting for Jobs to die before investing in Apple. The Apple price could really drop far despite nothing of importance changing.

On April 20 2011 04:28 chonkyfire wrote:
Did you just make an investing thread and say your portfolio consists of mutual funds?

That kind of screams "I know nothing about investing"

Also penny stocks most certainly do exist, they just need something that is going to end up making them money. There are all kinds of biotech stocks that are penny stocks right now that could very well see a 500% increase in value over the next year.

High yielding stocks are great, if you have a lot of money invested into them. If you don't have any money invested your not going to see any returns worth writing home about.

On April 20 2011 04:08 Sm3agol wrote:
I'll take the current nuclear situation as a great example. Nuclear power isn't going anywhere........noone is cancelling currently-under-construction plants, supply isn't going down, and basically nothing practical has changed, and yet the stocks have completely tanked. It's just too random to be accurately predicted by anything. That is why people do it themselves. With a bit of luck you can do far better than the "professionals", and if you do it wisely, with just about the same amount of risk.

On April 20 2011 04:31 Sm3agol wrote:


You're pretty much exactly right. I started putting money in a whole 4 weeks ago. So obviously I'm not starting by putting $50k into penny stocks and hoping for the best.

And if you noticed I also have money in quite a few stocks.........

On April 20 2011 04:39 Grease wrote:
ITs all a ponzi scheme :-P

On April 20 2011 04:28 chonkyfire wrote:
Did you just make an investing thread and say your portfolio consists of mutual funds?

That kind of screams "I know nothing about investing"

Also penny stocks most certainly do exist, they just need something that is going to end up making them money. There are all kinds of biotech stocks that are penny stocks right now that could very well see a 500% increase in value over the next year.

High yielding stocks are great, if you have a lot of money invested into them. If you don't have any money invested your not going to see any returns worth writing home about.

On April 20 2011 04:17 hoemuffin wrote:
I think the thing that most people overlook before they start investing would honestly be better served by making sure they have an emergency fund (cash!) in place that can cover at least 3 months rent/expenses. Because stuff happens. I think too many people look to their investments to carry them to the promised land, when the reality is you probably get a higher ROI by doing your job better.

Personally, I don't have enough time to really drill down on single stocks, and honestly I doubt I have the risk appetite, especially for larger stocks which are a bear to break down. My job also puts pretty hefty constraints on what I can and cannot invest in.

Also trading is not the same thing as investing.

On April 20 2011 04:17 buhhy wrote:


Yeah, I'm mainly reading and learning right now. I'm Canadian, so I'm gonna invest through a TFSA to avoid capital gains, income tax, etc. Dollar cost averaging into an index fund is probably the safest and most stable route, but I wanna at least try stock picking since I'm still quite young.

I personally think AAPL is speculative because it pays no dividends, and the stock price rises and falls with Job's heartbeat. They've fallen since I last looked at the price too. Much of their strength comes from the tablet and handheld market, from which Android will start taking its share. Microsoft won the OS wars because Windows had a much better development kit and was much easier to develop for. Android is open source, so it's even easier to develop for. It's hard to tell whether Apple will be able to hold the market shares. 19 PE doesn't look too bad though.

I'm also an investing noob, so there's that.

On April 20 2011 04:48 Molybdenum wrote:
I'm looking to invest some money, just to get something better than a savings account or a CD (about 1-2%). I've talked to a financial guy at my bank who recommended a Global Bond Fund and provided some numbers, it's averaged about 8.4% per year for 20 years. I've also talked to my grandparent's financial guy (who works at a large wealth management corporation), who recommended 2 mutual funds what have been averaging 10 and 12% returns for about 20 years as well (despite losses in '08). I'm currently a student, what would be a good way for me to begin investing? I would rather not buy my own stocks because I simply do not have the time for the research. Should I go with either of the two mentioned options, or is there a better way to beat the bank savings account/CD rates?

Or simply (tl;dr) how can a beginner begin investing without putting the time into buying my own stocks? (As an aside, how do you guys go about doing that, computer program? Which one?)

On April 20 2011 04:46 bRuTaL!! wrote:


Oh the irony of saying that mutual funds are for noobs and then advocating penny stocks.

Evolution of invesment knowledge:

"I know I know nothing" Mutual Funds -> "I think I know a lot" (penny) stocks -> "I know I cant reliably beat the market" Sensibly diversified portfolio (ETFs and what not)

On April 20 2011 04:48 Molybdenum wrote:
I'm looking to invest some money, just to get something better than a savings account or a CD (about 1-2%). I've talked to a financial guy at my bank who recommended a Global Bond Fund and provided some numbers, it's averaged about 8.4% per year for 20 years. I've also talked to my grandparent's financial guy (who works at a large wealth management corporation), who recommended 2 mutual funds what have been averaging 10 and 12% returns for about 20 years as well (despite losses in '08). I'm currently a student, what would be a good way for me to begin investing? I would rather not buy my own stocks because I simply do not have the time for the research. Should I go with either of the two mentioned options, or is there a better way to beat the bank savings account/CD rates?

Or simply (tl;dr) how can a beginner begin investing without putting the time into buying my own stocks? (As an aside, how do you guys go about doing that, computer program? Which one?)

Edit: Razith (3 posts below), thanks, I'll go with one of those options then.