|
Post by MMAJim on Feb 16, 2017 17:15:02 GMT -5
I've been thinking about a thread like this for a bit and the investment talk in the Trump thread spurred this. I'd love to talk investment ideas with the great people of this board. I'm barely above beginner level at investing. I'd say this thread would include retirement investment tool conversations (401K, Roth IRA, HSA as retirement savings, Simple Plans for self-employed) as well as individual stocks, ETFs, etc.
It has been a pleasant couple of months for those with something in the game. The only downside I have is that I keep pretty strict on filling up tax advantaged investing first so I haven't had as much to invest in my other accounts yet this year. Therefore, while my stocks are mostly up, there is a healthy dose of individual stocks and ETFs on my as yet to invest in Watch List. That list includes Aerospace funds, I think that is intuitively pretty straight forward based on increase defense spending by the USA (and hopefully our NATO friends start to pull their weight).
One move I did make was purchasing some ICLN. I believed that it was a little depressed based on the impression some people may have about "Green Energy" being in big trouble under Trump. I don't think that will prove to be the case in the long run and measured investments in this arena could prove to be a value right now.
**Again, my investment thoughts are just above idle rambling, so take with caution and feel free to destroy. I wouldn't say we should get heavily in to stock story telling about the winners we picked (not that its a bad thing) but I'd like to hear ideas that other people have on here.
Pump it up.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2017 17:40:00 GMT -5
For the past 18 years I've slowly bought multifamily income properties. I fix them, rent them and sit on them. It's worked very well for me.
But right now, the market is high, inventory is low and it's just not what I want it to be for investing. So I'm all ears in here...I know very little about stocks and would love to learn more.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2017 18:27:32 GMT -5
I am a firm believer in staying diversified and only investing in companies that have proven track records. I reinvest all dividends, and stay away from IPO's and companies with emerging technology. I got my ass handed to me in 2009, so I have since pulled back and stuck with a more conservative approach.
I have had a ROTH and Traditional IRA since I was 18. I have maxed out those when possible (ROTH has income limitations for contributions), and started both for my wife when we got married 11 years ago. Right now every stock I own is something I know about and either am a patron to (Apple) or have a general understanding of their position in our economy (BofA). I have always had better luck with companies that are the ones you see on T.V. or driving around as opposed to the tech companies or social media type platforms.
For the most part I am happy getting a 4% - 10% return on my investment over the long haul. If you have 20 - 30 years on your side, you can take a little and make it in to a lot with a 7% return over it's life.
Who knows what is going to be the winning sector going forward... it seems like the market is much more emotion driven than fundamentally driven compared to 10 years ago. I do know that I can't go through another 2009 crash again, so I am willing to trade upside for stability.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2017 18:32:47 GMT -5
I've been giving some thought to getting into a few insurance companies. Nothing concrete yet but I'm thinking that with Trump's overhaul of the ACA, there are definitely going to be some big winners in the insurance industry. I'm probably going to start doing some more reading about that in the next few days. Probably still way too early to tell who's going to pick the ball up and run with it most effectively, but even just a nice bounce in the price could lead to strong short term gains. I wouldn't think of the insurance industry as a long term hold, because all this uncertainty could come back and cause an over correction of the market.
My long term hold is Solar City, which is stagnant in the water right now at about $20 a share. The thing about Solar City is that they are directly tied to Tesla now, and Tesla's stock continues to climb. I have some TSLA stock but the buy in price is so high that you can't see any significant return without a huge initial investment. I believe that Musk is going to steer Tesla away from the car industry and eventually focus on just batteries, and those batteries are going to be tied in with Solar City's solar panels to create 24 hour power supplies. So I think that Solar City is a good buy for a long term hold.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2017 19:13:01 GMT -5
I think a lot of people avoid the market because they think they need more money to start. You can open an account and start very small and do much better with your returns than you can do elsewhere. The best thing about an investment account is it is hard to get the money out quickly, so it forces you to leave it alone and save.
For those people in their 20s, if you can save $10k and add $1k to it every year... you will have $300k when you are 60 years old with average returns.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 0:41:39 GMT -5
I'm very green with this so here come some likely eye rolling questions for some of you:
When it comes to purchasing stock, what site do you guys recommend?
Is there any kind of minimum to start purchasing stock?
Is there any type of inital or annual fee to start?
Any advice or links to an article with some sound advice would be appreciated.
|
|
|
Post by agrappleaday on Feb 17, 2017 0:56:40 GMT -5
I'm very green with this so here come some likely eye rolling questions for some of you: When it comes to purchasing stock, what site do you guys recommend? Is there any kind of minimum to start purchasing stock? Is there any type of inital or annual fee to start? Any advice or links to an article with some sound advice would be appreciated. As to what site, you're likely to get different answers from different people, it's very much a preference. I am with Fidelity through work and use Scottrade for my primary trading platform at the moment. Fees can vary from site to site, support as well, etc. Most sites will have a minimum initial deposit into your account, like $500 or something petty. I have never run into a minimum that I can think of as far as having to purchase X number of shares from a company. I have never paid any kind of annual fee that I am aware of but you do typically pay a fee any time you buy or sell a share of stocks, which is why you typically don't want to make tiny trades just for fun, your profit percentage will be eaten into immediately in such cases. Usually 3-8 bucks from my experience each way. Hope that starts to answer some of your initial questions.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 1:09:40 GMT -5
I have in the past had accounts with Schwab and Etrade online. The upsides are ease and lower fees, the downsides are you often making impulse decisions as it's very easy to sell/buy and you don't have someone else to bounce ideas off.
The accounts need almost nothing to start, typically it's something like $1k. I would get charged per trade with no annual fee. You can get some generic advice through the sites, but it's nothing to count on.
For the last 10 years or so, I have been with Wells Fargo Advisers. My broker charges me 1% annually on my account balance, and there is no limit/fees on transactions, draws or trades. I talk to him about every month to reinforce the plan and bounce ideas off each other. I do not actively follow individual investments, so I have come to greatly appreciate the advice of someone who eats and breaths the market. Since the disaster of 2008/2009, I have seen an average of 8%- 9% returns on my accounts, which I could never have done on my own.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 1:10:32 GMT -5
It does, thank you. Since this post I've started looking into it in the form of scanning basic wikihow, wsj and a couple other articles.
My goal as of now, would be long term investments. I'd prefer to only pay a fee when I do purchase or sell. I don't see myself bouncing around from stock to stock, I'm more of a "find old faithful and sit on it" kind of a person.
The way I see it, the money I use for an investment is better than just sitting in a bank account with some laughable % rate. And if it tanks for a bit and I lose my ass (which of course I'd never want to but it is a reality) then so be it.
And when I say long term, I'm willing to wait until I'm old and grey. That's perfectly fine by me.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 1:17:33 GMT -5
I have in the past had accounts with Schwab and Etrade online. The upsides are ease and lower fees, the downsides are you often making impulse decisions as it's very easy to sell/buy and you don't have someone else to bounce ideas off. The accounts need almost nothing to start, typically it's something like $1k. I would get charged per trade with no annual fee. You can get some generic advice through the sites, but it's nothing to count on. For the last 10 years or so, I have been with Wells Fargo Advisers. My broker charges me 1% annually on my account balance, and there is no limit/fees on transactions, draws or trades. I talk to him about every month to reinforce the plan and bounce ideas off each other. I do not actively follow individual investments, so I have come to greatly appreciate the advice of someone who eats and breaths the market. Since the disaster of 2008/2009, I have seen an average of 8%- 9% returns on my accounts, which I could never have done on my own. I think that sounds like something for me. I'm not going to go in too much and I just want a little taste of it for now. In an ideal setting, I'd like to just purchase stock in something like you said in your earlier post; companies you are a patron of, understand the role of in our economy. I think that sounds like a very solid way to base investments like this. If I do decide to get more serious about it, say the 5 figure mark, I'll start to look into a broker. If you don't mind me asking, is that an annual average or overall since the crash?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 1:36:20 GMT -5
Since the market bottomed out my accounts average about 8-9% over that 7-8 year span.
I am probably going to buy some more kinder Morgan (Kmi) tomorrow... I like its long term upside especially with trump.
|
|
|
Post by Angelo on Feb 17, 2017 2:41:35 GMT -5
Since the market bottomed out my accounts average about 8-9% over that 7-8 year span. I am probably going to buy some more kinder Morgan (Kmi) tomorrow... I like its long term upside especially with trump. Following the trend and dumping Samsung short-term, and shorting Toshiba? Looking like Toshiba gonna file bankruptcy and restructure.
|
|
|
Post by jamesod on Feb 17, 2017 9:30:49 GMT -5
For the last 10 years or so, I have been with Wells Fargo Advisers. My broker charges me 1% annually on my account balance, and there is no limit/fees on transactions, draws or trades. I talk to him about every month to reinforce the plan and bounce ideas off each other. I do not actively follow individual investments, so I have come to greatly appreciate the advice of someone who eats and breaths the market. Since the disaster of 2008/2009, I have seen an average of 8%- 9% returns on my accounts, which I could never have done on my own.I'm a simpleton when it comes to investing, so please correct any errors you see in this post. Just wondering Kyle, does your financial guy give you reports on how you're doing in your investments versus how the market is doing as a whole? The Market was at 6600 in March of 2009. At 8.5% return, you'd expect to about double your money in the 8 years since then. By contrast, the market has more than tripled since then. So, it would seem perhaps you could have done much better than that on your own? Or am I missing something? My guy gives me a quarterly report that shows how my investments are doing against how the market is doing overall, and also how my investments, net his fee, are doing against the Market. In my mind, that helps me to understand whether or not he's really value added.
|
|
|
Post by MMAJim on Feb 17, 2017 10:01:41 GMT -5
RE: Starting Up
I still think the bulk of people's initial investment focus should be on tax-advantaged ways to save for retirement. Kyle mentioned Roth's if you can (I believe income limit is currently 183K, but you can do a Roth inside a 401K). Anyway, max out Roth's in any form you can (current max on normal Roth is 5,500 per year) and your 401K, first whatever your company matches if you're lucky enough to get a match, and then up to the current $18K limit.
The other most interesting tool for me is my HSA. Essentially your HSA functions exactly like an additional 401K at retirement age. The limit on how much you can put in per yer varies depending on if you are single or married. One line I saw in information that Paul Ryan is sharing on the replacement of Obamacare is increased HSA's. So keep eyes on that.
Investment Accounts I use Scottrade, generally with the intent to hold onto stocks. It is a pretty straight foward $7 per trade fee. Even if you're not filling up your retirement accounts I still view investing some money in this type of trade account is worth the education. I'll buy small amounts of a stock or fund, just to have a more concrete way of measuring the results of my own investment ideas.
Believe me, if you start looking at a ton of stuff it can get fuzzy but if you buy $500 of Avon stock because you believe that the people freaked out by Zika are going to dose up on mosquito repellents like "Skin so Soft" instead of the stuff hardcore campers would already have on hand, then you actually keep track of it. (stock did go up a couple of bucks after Zika last year, but it Avon actually did some reorganizing too, so I honestly have no idea if my hunch was validated)
Since we have this going, I'll try to post links to interesting articles that I read as I come across them. Still tons to learn though, I use the term ETF, but I'd have to look it up again to try to explain it more.
ValeTudo: Your example is a great example. Housing market is tougher to buy and turn a profit in now. New construction may be cooking more now. I'm sure (without specific examples) there are funds that are focused on groups of stocks related to new residential construction that might be easier and less risky to invest in than it would be to try to directly invest in a single construction company. (I actually had the inverse conversation with a friend that knows more about investing than I do. I am interested in setting aside money to buy properties when/if the market turns down or levels out for an extended period of time. His advice was to at that time, consider investing in funds or companies that thrive in times when there is less new construction and more renovation, flipping, and renting)
Regarding Advisers: I'm mixed. RBC handles our 401K through John Hancock, so they have a guy we can talk to and the John Hancock website has tools, personal accounts and 529 plan etc are through Edward Jones. I like the Edward Jones guy, but I had to bring up the HSA stuff with him before he brought it up with me. Life Insurance is through Northwestern Mutual and like I said I use Scottrade. I haven't worked with one that has giving me any real 'actionable' stock tips or anything like that. However, each has an area of expertise that you can learn from. I certainly don't even know how to maximize the tools on all the websites yet either.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 10:12:36 GMT -5
There is one industry that is also in the beginning stages of one of the largest booms in the history of the free world.
There are a lot of companies in the weed industry that are trying to get themselves listed, and there are some that already have. Explosive growth is going to happen, and I'm certain that the stock market will play a role in some of it. But with this industry still in its infancy, I think it's a real big risk. However the rewards for taking big risks are always higher if the risk is overcome.
The weed industry is also going to be a small driver in the alternative energy sector. Just looking at my own company, a lot of the places that bring our costs down are related to energy efficiency and alternative methods to accessing electricity.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 10:43:21 GMT -5
I'll try to make this story short. My next door neighbor sells by the pound, so he's always got quite a bit of product. About 2 weeks ago, he asked my girlfriend to cook some brownies and lemon cookies. She had never cooked pot before, so he helped her make the butter or whatever. Anyhow, I think he said he gave her like 300 bucks worth of weed to cook with. He's a bullshitter though, so maybe it was less. That's beside the point. Anyhow, everyone liked the brownies and cookies so much that she is being tapped to cook shit for people basically every day. I can't cook anything other than eggs, but my girlfriend is a culinary whiz. She really seems to enjoy cooking with it, and was asking me if I thought there could be a market for something like that. This is not my wheelhouse, so I told her I'd ask around.
|
|
|
Post by PotHeadDeathMetal on Feb 17, 2017 10:54:51 GMT -5
I'll try to make this story short. My next door neighbor sells by the pound, so he's always got quite a bit of product. About 2 weeks ago, he asked my girlfriend to cook some brownies and lemon cookies. She had never cooked pot before, so he helped her make the butter or whatever. Anyhow, I think he said he gave her like 300 bucks worth of weed to cook with. He's a bullshitter though, so maybe it was less. That's beside the point. Anyhow, everyone liked the brownies and cookies so much that she is being tapped to cook shit for people basically every day. I can't cook anything other than eggs, but my girlfriend is a culinary whiz. She really seems to enjoy cooking with it, and was asking me if I thought there could be a market for something like that. This is not my wheelhouse, so I told her I'd ask around. There DEFINITELY is a market for that. Check this guy out: www.jeffthe420chef.com/Florida has medical now, correct? She could make a killing doing this Duval, and she can do it legally (from the state's perspective). Edibles are the next big thing, especially for the very health conscious who don't want to smoke anything. Look into how the guy above makes his weed butter. He eliminates the weed flavor by blanching it prior to using it to make butter. Allows him to infuse pretty much any food with the stuff without the powerful weed flavor that quite frankly, is a gross flavor unless mixed with the correct flavors.
|
|
|
Post by MMAJim on Feb 17, 2017 11:10:21 GMT -5
Duval, sounds like a niche in the culinary field/ if she has a culinary background it could be marketable like a private chef. If she lives near a board member in Maine, maybe it could be a very marketable partnership on a larger scale (or if your neighbor or someone else nearby is legal and legit she could develop a network or partnership there). Huge scale view, like SGM3000 alluded to, major corporations are going to be working hard to get aligned with the industry, which I would think would include some food giants or their subsidiaries. Real early to pick winners or even whether or not big corps can move in an make it work over small-to-medium regional groups.
Throwback to SGM3000 on Solar City. Elon Musk is playing ball wisely right now, working with an administration that many thought would be a natural enemy with. Regarding alternative energy, I mentioned ICLN as an interesting green energy fund in the OP. SGM3000 comments make me think that a more focused green energy fund, especially regional focus on areas where legal growing is going to boom, might be even more interesting.
When I say 'fund' in this sense I'm thinking of both formal funds like ICLN, but the same time we could actually form an informal fund. Take a couple alternative energy stocks from New England, maybe some other ag-related stocks in states that may boom, a big blue chip company that seems to be especially focused on this area. Basically a group of stocks that you spread your investment $'s in based on perception or knowledge we share.
Another example is the "I-believe-that-Soccer-MLS-Will-Boom-Someday-Here"-Fund, I highly doubt this fund exists. However, I believe with enough research I could identify 10-12 public companies that are affiliated, geared towards or already aligned with soccer growth and buy those 10-12 stocks. Couple blue chip title sponsors to keep it stable and then more small-mid sized companies with more upside. (or I learn that this idea is foolish, and not enough public companies are solely focused for soccer to matter, then I just get a better idea) - not to drag on about soccer, but if Under Armour for example strikes a 10 year sponsor deal with MLS on the cheap now, it could really pay dividends for UA down the road (under the belief that the value of an MLS partnership will increase and UA locked in on the low end) - this is a made up example
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 11:37:50 GMT -5
For the last 10 years or so, I have been with Wells Fargo Advisers. My broker charges me 1% annually on my account balance, and there is no limit/fees on transactions, draws or trades. I talk to him about every month to reinforce the plan and bounce ideas off each other. I do not actively follow individual investments, so I have come to greatly appreciate the advice of someone who eats and breaths the market. Since the disaster of 2008/2009, I have seen an average of 8%- 9% returns on my accounts, which I could never have done on my own.I'm a simpleton when it comes to investing, so please correct any errors you see in this post. Just wondering Kyle, does your financial guy give you reports on how you're doing in your investments versus how the market is doing as a whole? The Market was at 6600 in March of 2009. At 8.5% return, you'd expect to about double your money in the 8 years since then. By contrast, the market has more than tripled since then. So, it would seem perhaps you could have done much better than that on your own? Or am I missing something? My guy gives me a quarterly report that shows how my investments are doing against how the market is doing overall, and also how my investments, net his fee, are doing against the Market. In my mind, that helps me to understand whether or not he's really value added. I get those same types of reports monthly on performance vs the DOW, S&P and some other larger funds that tend to mirror the whole market. They are very helpful as you mentioned, and I think do a lot to keep the brokers honest about their individual success. I have about 10 different accounts that are all managed by the same guy. I have my 4 IRA's in boiler plate tax free mutual funds that literally just get 5% +/- with hardly any deviation that I consider 30 year holds so I am perfectly happy with 5% and hardly any downside. My kids accounts are in UIT's that have historical returns (6 years and 3 years) of 7.4% as of today... these are basically college funds for the kids, so I am looking at them as 18 year holds. I have 4 separate brokerage accounts that since sometime during 2009 have averaged 15.1%, 17.2%, 14.5% and 18.3% or 16% average. I switched brokers in 2011 as the past person was old and not up to date with the times. He retired last year, and my biggest complaint with him was he treated me (32 at the time) like I was one of his 75 year old clients that needed income paying investments. The guy I am currently using is great, and I would guess he has outperformed the market by 10% - 15% over the 5 or so years I have been with him. I personally see great advantage in brokers as I would not be able to accurately follow the number of individual investments the way he does. My problem with Etrade or others was I would log in at night, see that a stock had dropped, read some news on it that scared me even more and I would emotionally sell it for fear of losing more. I was not good at riding out the highs and the lows when I had instant control of things like that... just wasn't for me.
|
|
EmotionalVolatilityDeathMetal
Guest
|
Post by EmotionalVolatilityDeathMetal on Feb 17, 2017 11:43:49 GMT -5
Emotions are certainly never your friend when investing in the market.
|
|
|
Post by jamesod on Feb 17, 2017 11:45:26 GMT -5
Makes sense Kyle, thanks.
I'm with you on using a financial guy. If finance is your very strong interest, by all means, invest on your own. But if you're more of a casual observer, like I am... Well, it's good I use a guy, that's for sure.
I also use TD Ameritrade to make some little buys on my own. I signed up for that a year or so ago and have made just a few $1000-$1500 buys. I thought maybe that would spur me into following the market more closely and becoming more interested in finance. So far that's not happened. But sheer luck, plus a "rising tide raises all boats" kind of thing in the market over the last year has made each of those buys solid winners for me. Beginner's luck, I guess.
|
|
|
Post by MMAJim on Feb 17, 2017 12:37:50 GMT -5
I might have to think more seriously about Wells Fargo, it is my primary bank anyway and I'm certainly not against some advice and monitoring expertise.
|
|
|
Post by Baph on Feb 17, 2017 13:38:23 GMT -5
I use Schwab.com
I have three accounts.
I have specific purposes for each account.
One is for my kids, it's low risk, low yield, safe plays, and I won't touch it for 15-18 years unless the shit absolutely hits the fan. It will allow me to put them through school, start a small business, or invest in some other appropriate way when the time comes. I actually keep this one with Wells Fargo and have a personal friend there handle this account.
One is for my retirement, it's similar, but even more so slanted in the low/low, index fund, mutual fund, dividends sort of way, and I won't touch it for 25-35 years. The schwab adviser largely handles this one for me but we will discuss strategies and make adjustments a couple times a year. This is largely hands off.
One if for gun slinger bullshit. Short term projects. Picking winners and losers. High risk, high reward, swing for the fences shit. This is used to finance trips, vehicles, toys, etc. I monitor this one almost daily and make trades when appropriate. Sometimes quite often, sometimes not for months. This is my baby.
Each account is roughly 1/3 of the total investment value, though it may fluctuate over time. If things are going well I will gradually contribute to the various accounts when possible. This may be as minimal as just a few hundred $$ a month or maybe nothing at all, but over the course of a year I'll definitely make serious effort to feed them, including dividend reinvestment and also direct contribution.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 16:28:35 GMT -5
Anything more than a targeted retirement fund with vanguard or schwab and I'd probably give you a blank stare with some drool coming out of my mouth. It's funny, for being such a numbers guy I can't stand finance. I tune that shit out, much to my dismay.
|
|
|
Post by maillesdad on Feb 17, 2017 22:35:48 GMT -5
I use Schwab.com I have three accounts. I have specific purposes for each account. One is for my kids, it's low risk, low yield, safe plays, and I won't touch it for 15-18 years unless the shit absolutely hits the fan. It will allow me to put them through school, start a small business, or invest in some other appropriate way when the time comes. I actually keep this one with Wells Fargo and have a personal friend there handle this account. One is for my retirement, it's similar, but even more so slanted in the low/low, index fund, mutual fund, dividends sort of way, and I won't touch it for 25-35 years. The schwab adviser largely handles this one for me but we will discuss strategies and make adjustments a couple times a year. This is largely hands off. One if for gun slinger bullshit. Short term projects. Picking winners and losers. High risk, high reward, swing for the fences shit. This is used to finance trips, vehicles, toys, etc. I monitor this one almost daily and make trades when appropriate. Sometimes quite often, sometimes not for months. This is my baby. Each account is roughly 1/3 of the total investment value, though it may fluctuate over time. If things are going well I will gradually contribute to the various accounts when possible. This may be as minimal as just a few hundred $$ a month or maybe nothing at all, but over the course of a year I'll definitely make serious effort to feed them, including dividend reinvestment and also direct contribution. I am the exact opposite - any account with a horizon of more than 7 to 10 years goes into higher risk / reward categories as you have time to recover from market slumps and tend to get a higher rate of return. Short horizon investments get played safer as you don't have time to recover. My daughter's 529 account is in timeline based index funds to automatically adjust the holdings to safer as she gets closer to 18. My 401K is half in the same type timeline based index funds, except they extend past my expected retirement a bit to get greater return as I have enough total assets to cover a market dip, and a mix of assets for the rest, with a bias towards mid-cap equities. I happen to have a recent statement handy that showed last 4 years and have averaged around 12% a year. If I had records back to the market low in 2009, it is probably much higher. My E-trade account is all index fund ETFs on mid-cap and emerging markets. I like the index portion for the automatic diversity and the combination with ETF for minimal oversight expense. For anything real short term - trips, toys - i get real safe with a basic interest bearing savings account. Then it is available for the recommended cash on hand if there are employment issues. The one rule I break is for not diversifying the stock I receive in bonuses in the Fortune 100 company I work for. There is an ownership incentive I receive on top of my annual bonus of around 3%, it has between 2.5 to 3% dividend income on top of market gains. I have averaged over 17% on that since 2009.
|
|
|
Post by MMAJim on Feb 22, 2017 9:31:00 GMT -5
Truth in action time. I sold a stock called FFMGF at .82 yesterday that I had bought at .58. Feels good now, but naturally I'll watch it and cringe if it keeps climbing. I realize that you have to try to minimize emotion reaction. This is part of the play around with and learn about individual stocks and funds account so anything is fair game. I will likely look to buy some aerospace ETFs I was eyeing earlier this year, ITA, XAR or PPA, or more ICLN. Those would be more of a long term hold. If I get loose I may look at Chinese Solar with SOL, HQCL, or YGE.
If I made the right moves, I'm sure I'll bring it up. If not, pretend this post never happened right?
|
|
|
Post by MMAJim on Feb 22, 2017 9:41:37 GMT -5
...dramatic update, put in the trade at an ask of .82, hasn't gone through yet. Not exactly sure how this works, currently at .814, I assume we need to get that up to .82 to trigger the sale.
|
|
PumpNDumpDeathMetal
Guest
|
Post by PumpNDumpDeathMetal on Feb 22, 2017 11:09:21 GMT -5
...dramatic update, put in the trade at an ask of .82, hasn't gone through yet. Not exactly sure how this works, currently at .814, I assume we need to get that up to .82 to trigger the sale. Dude...I would advise staying away from the penny stocks. Straight up foolish, especially considering you seem to be very green and still unsure as to how the bids/asks work. Anything is possible but if you are really expecting a bounce back, well, best of luck.
|
|
|
Post by neonjesusfreak on Feb 22, 2017 11:49:50 GMT -5
I look at my investments as tools to retire early. Therefore, it's nothing but index funds through Vanguard. While Schwab and Fidelity have comparable funds with comparable expense ratios, Vanguard is owned by the funds themselves. What this means is there are no outside owners. I can dig that because then there are no conflicting loyalties between turning a profit and doing what's best for the client (me/you). Expense ratios and fees are commonly overlooked and are a massive drain against the bottom line. Financial advisors are routinely charging 1% or more on fees, and many funds have expense rations near or above 1% as well. That is 2% of your balance coming off every year. Folks say "yeah, but my guy made me 20% this year so it was worth it". OK, what about the years he made you nothing, or a few %'s? Guess what...that 2% of your ENTIRE BALANCE went into others pockets. That's real money. The 20% he made you (really 18 because he and the fund took 2) isn't real until you pull money out and could disappear on paper very quickly. If you just want to gamble and play around, by all means day trade. Investing is not hard. It's made to seem that way so advisors and crazy funds can get more of your money. I wish this short read was around when I was in my 20's, I'd be retired by now. Take 45 minutes to read this and you'll wonder why you ever paid an advisor. www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf
|
|
|
Post by MMAJim on Feb 22, 2017 12:33:50 GMT -5
OK, got the trade through at .80, put money back into HQCL, Chinese Renewable energy related company on NASDAQ. What led me to them was still the idea that renewable energy is being wrongly undervalued in the long run bc of over-trepidation for Trump policies. Another thing I try to do is read old articles, like this one www.zacks.com/stock/news/221257/3-solar-stocks-to-buy-as-tesla-looks-to-take-over-solarcity . It's kind of like delayed reaction to overreaction. Some of the logic in 'predicting' this stock as a good buy back in Q2 of 2016 still make sense, they just haven't realized that uptick yet (I hope).
|
|