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The Investment Thread


Tani Coyote

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Stocks? Bonds? Real estate? Gold? If there’s anything you like to invest in, and want to share your tips, experiences, successes and failures, by all means, that’s what this thread is for.

 

I’ve been an active stock trader for about 5 years now, managing my father’s money and my own. In the right circumstances, I’ve taken quite a bit of risk, and have had both my delicious returns and my sorrowful losses.

 

So, let me state some of my observations:

 

-Penny stocks are very alluring at first glance. They can easily shoot up 10-20% in one day, and it will appear you could make a fortune; they also have good therapeutic effects due to the sheer number of shares you can buy. But if it was that easy everyone would do it. The stock can just as easily sink, and when it does go up you will run into the problem of dumping it. Let’s say a share is 5 cents and goes up to 6. Chances are high those people will still be bidding on it for 5 cents, so your profit is entirely illusory. By the time they’re willing to pay 6, it could easily go back down to 5. The Bid/Ask spread is a vicious mechanism, and is the main reason one must be careful with these volatile stocks. If you’re able to lose your entire investment, by all means, consider playing it, but just remember how hard it can be to turn these around.

 

-If you’re not in something for the long-term, make sure you only trade with settled money. This allows you to liquidate a profit on the spot without penalty. Otherwise a slew of regulations will hit you that can make things very burdensome. At least, this is the case in the United States.

 

-Telecommunications stocks tend to pay high dividends. I regularly make use of AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) due to their powerful brand names and high dividend rates (alternates between 4-7% depending on how the stock’s doing). You can effectively ignore the price and just let them accumulate steady dividends for you.

 

-Above all, the market’s fickle, inflating in times of greed and deflating in times of fear. Always keep a good stash of cash available in your account so you can buy discount stocks on bad days. After a few bad days dragging all the stocks down, blue chips being 10% off is a massive bargain no retailer could hope to top!

 

These are just some of my stock experiences and suggestions, but obviously different approaches work for different people. How about any of you? How have your investment pursuits been (if you feel comfortable talking about such of course)? What has earned your love, what has earned your ire?

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While it sounds like it could be really interesting to some people, I always found the idea boring. Maaaybe it's just my "how do adult things, D:" state of being for this kinda matter speaking, but IDK. I'm also the guy that just barely got a credit card after everyone nagging me to for credit building and I'm not too interested in gambling either. I bet if I knew how to do investments and stock things efficiently and knew everything I was getting into, I'd give it a shot, but I guess I'm still on that simple level of making money just by putting in some hours at a job every week.

 

The only thing I'd say I even remotely "invested" in because I thought I'd get money in the future was when I bought Pokemon cards and sports cards when I was like 10 years old, thinking I could sell them easily when I was 50 for a hundred gazillion bajillion moneys lawl.

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The only thing I'd say I even remotely "invested" in because I thought I'd get money in the future was when I bought Pokemon cards and sports cards when I was like 10 years old, thinking I could sell them easily when I was 50 for a hundred gazillion bajillion moneys lawl.

 

 

I was going to say that I consider some of my Sonic collectables investments.

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I'm not too interested in gambling either. I bet if I knew how to do investments and stock things efficiently and knew everything I was getting into, I'd give it a shot, but I guess I'm still on that simple level of making money just by putting in some hours at a job every week.

 

Ultimately a job is a wonderful investment in and of itself due to making all others possible. :)

 

As for gambling - while there's risk, it's certainly much easier to win in financial markets than with a slot or poker machine. Though it does take a bit of research: you want to look at past price performance, see what market the company's in, how its earnings have been, etc.

 

My brother (a very active trader) says that it's a good idea to invest in a company that's about to release it's quarterly earnings report. Most of the time, it goes up afterwards due to optimism, allowing one to collect a quick and easy profit.

 

I can't blame you for hesitance though: it takes a lot of practice to get over that fear that one should sell while they can if the stock drops. Fear and greed ultimately are what really guides the prices up and down... and trying not to get caught up in the spiral is very hard.

 

The best way to do it sometimes is to not hands-on manage it, since it keeps one from constantly worrying if it's up or down. If you have income to spare, I'd consider looking into your job's benefits; most let you invest a portion of your pay into the company's stock and will match it to a certain amount. It's a simple way for the person not interested in active trading to build up a portfolio. :)

 

The only thing I'd say I even remotely "invested" in because I thought I'd get money in the future was when I bought Pokemon cards and sports cards when I was like 10 years old, thinking I could sell them easily when I was 50 for a hundred gazillion bajillion moneys lawl.

 

Hahahaha, that happens a lot... collectibles can be immensely lucrative, but it really, really depends on what it is... if it's a fad (as it often is) you'll get saddled with tons of junk products and will be lucky if you can sell them for face value.

 

Provided your cards were in very good condition there probably are some devotees who'd buy them for a good price, but the large demand isn't really there anymore. Just happens I suppose!

 

I was going to say that I consider some of my Sonic collectables investments.

 

As a person who has been willing to pay 100+ USD in some cases for rare Sonic comics or collectibles... I can attest there -is- a demand for it. So in a way it can be an investment if you put it away and keep it in good condition!

 

As for the supply side... I have about 100-200 doubles/triples of Archie issues. I'll keep them for sometime later in life. If nothing else the grandkids will have something to read.

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I'm also the guy that just barely got a credit card after everyone nagging me to for credit building and I'm not too interested in gambling either.

Same here, man. I finally got a credit card last year, and I barely ever use it. I've only ever been inside a casino maybe 2 or 3 times throughout my life so far. And each time that I did go, I was mostly an observer of the gamblers rather than an actual gambler myself.

Anyways, the biggest investment I'm working on right now is earning a diploma at a college. The old idea of earning a major at a university has flopped around 8 years ago, but I am totally determined to make this current idea succeed.

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Well I mentioned gambling in the first place because honestly this feels like a glorified form of gambling. I mean yeah you can research into companies and what-have-you for how they're doing in the world to see who you want to invest in and so forth, but at the end of the day it's just the luck of the draw if it turns out good or not. I mean I guess you can always pull out when it starts getting rough or something, but still, it just doesn't sound up my alley. I like taking chances, just not with my wallet haha.

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Anyways, the biggest investment I'm working on right now is earning a diploma at a college. The old idea of earning a major at a university has flopped around 8 years ago, but I am totally determined to make this current idea succeed.

 

Not all investments are readily made liquid! Your diploma's certainly a good investment choice, for it's an increase in human capital that lasts your entire life. Good choice pursuing one! :)

 

Well I mentioned gambling in the first place because honestly this feels like a glorified form of gambling. I mean yeah you can research into companies and what-have-you for how they're doing in the world to see who you want to invest in and so forth, but at the end of the day it's just the luck of the draw if it turns out good or not. I mean I guess you can always pull out when it starts getting rough or something, but still, it just doesn't sound up my alley. I like taking chances, just not with my wallet haha.

 

In a way, yes this is true. It really all depends on which way the herd goes... if the herd panics the price goes down, if the herd gets greedy it goes up. Staying apart from the herd is key... but so is predicting where they'll go.

 

For example. I once bought about 600 dollars worth of a company that was only worth ...200K or so? From what I could see, that caused a buying frenzy... needless to say mere minutes later I cashed out at a 10% or so profit, at which point the stock immediately reversed direction. However, just a few days later I tried this again; I couldn't stop the selling pressure, though, and it continued to go down until I took a small loss. Really it's self-fulfilling prophecies; if enough people think the company will make them money they invest, which causes others to follow... and same if someone thinks the company's going down as well.

 

It really is hard to predict which way the pack will go. It really is several lucky guesses on whether you think the crowd's buying/selling pressures will outdo the other. Sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong... with risk comes reward though!

 

I don't blame you if it still leaves you a little nervous; taking a loss doesn't exactly bode well for the psyche!

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