The Stock Market

Also had a mutual fund for a while - I'd call every night to get the latest updates (and this was only a few years ago). Again, though, itchiness & money troubles "forced" me to cash that in, which turned out to be very smart, since the dotcom fallout was just around the bend.

I also have a 401K plan - I shudder to think how much money I've lost on THAT.

Please note that my family has a history of stock mismanagement - my dad shares of Compaq at $7 (RIGHT BEFORE they got their schwerve on). Sold at $14 - smart move, sez he. Then watches as it rockets up to $86ish; it might've split a few times, too. Either way, he lost tens of thousands of dollars. D'oh.

I've been trading in small oil E&P companies this afternoon (that SO makes me sound less tiny and irrlevant than I am).

But, see, my glass is half-empty & leaking.

I don't pay any close attention to any of this, though. I've never made a "transaction" or whatever. My father was an economist, and sees himself as some sort of expert manager, so I can't sell everything and buy an xBox and whatever other crap I could get if liquidated the investments. And I barely have any money after hitting the boozer and paying rent, so there's no surplus to invest.

Of course most of my friends who were wealthy on paper during the internet stock bubble are now nearly as broke as me, or worse yet are in debt to some great extent having bought a place to live on expectation of future earnings. It's enough to make me want to hide money in my mattress.

(Obviously I only write about this shit every day and wouldn't claim to UNDERSTAND it and would never even think about putting my money where my mouth is but hey...)

I don't actually own shares of Glaxo, that was a joke.

Most of Google's revenue comes from small text ads that Google sells on its own site, as well as the Web pages of other companies. Advertisers bid for the right to have ads appear each time a user searches for certain keywords or those words appear on the Web site of a Google partner. Across the search industry, advertisers agree to pay an average of roughly 40 cents each time a user clicks on an ad. Rates for some much sought-after terms can go much higher: Google caps them at $50. It says it has more than 150,000 advertisers to such services, ranging from Ford Motor Co. to online retailer drugstore.com Inc.

The advertising is lucrative. Google began selling the ads in 2000, adapting a practice commercialized by Overture Services Inc., now part of Yahoo Inc. Google quickly grabbed a commanding position in search ad sales because of the popularity of its search engine. As a result, the company has been profitable since 2001, company executives say.

Advertisers spent $2.5 billion on ads targeting key search words in 2003, nearly triple the $927 million of ads sold the year before, estimates eMarketer Inc., a New York research firm. Analysts and Web moguls are optimistic about the future of these online ads, because they're focused on users interested in a subject, and so are considered much more effective than banner ads, which are strips of ads appearing alongside the content of Web pages not tied to a specific search.

But many of these same analysts have been wrong before. In the late 1990s, they predicted exponential growth in online advertising, centered on those very banner ads. Instead, amid a broad downturn in ad spending, advertisers turned against banners because of declining consumer response. Online advertising plunged to $6 billion in 2002, from $8.2 billion in 2000, according to eMarketer

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/bizfinance/columns/bottomline/n_10178//index.html

(basically, what broheems said)

(Disclaimer: All I know about the Motley Fool is that I tried to get a job there last year.)

I really like Ken Kurson's book. I think it was the first book I read on the subject. Although it's, what, a good 6 years old now. I don't know if it's been revised or anything. But it's a good intro to a lot of financial type stuff (also has lots of info on home-buying and so forth), written in a style definitely geared towards young people without being patronizing.

And of course, the Peter Lynch books are widely regarded as investing classics, though I've never read them.

Brilliant.

jesus christ, the era of 24-hour news and twitchily updated newspaper 'front pages' online has really found its level with this crash. a couple of hours ago the guardian main story was "FTSE rebounds after blah blah blah". i went to the opticians, came back, and now its "FTSE dips in red". what is the fucking point of this minute-by-minute analysis, especially for a non-specialist paper.

Surely there's more point in minute-by-minute analysis for things that are acutely time-sensitive like this? As opposed to, say, 'factory blows up in Stoke, police still don't know anything'.

Not that the Guardian website would exactly be the first point of call for anyone seeking up to date financial information but still...

horse track betting is not a perfect analogy but much closer to the stock market than casino gambling, in that there is a knowledge base and experience that can help you be more successful than the people who come out once a year to the track

Bought stock last week for the first time in my life (outside of a 401k from a past job)

Were you actively managing the 401k holdings ... or was it just one of those things where the company just did it for you? Granted there are certain things you can do in a regular brokerage account that you can't do in a retirement account but ... it's pretty much the same.

i love having a perishingly small value of stocks and looking at the app and seeing "today's return $0.50"

the second best thing i did all year, after Gamestop, was shorting the shit out of TSLA last Friday.

Were you actively managing the 401k holdings ... or was it just one of those things where the company just did it for you?

I set up the allocations while I was still at the job and have pretty much left it alone. I also used to copy-edit both equity research and bond-ratings research but never invested outside of setting up that allocation (Gen X artist values, lol).

Meanwhile, with those stocks above I’ve gained 10% so far, thanks mostly to Sonos being 30% of my portfolio), even with today’s correction. Two of the four report tomorrow (TJX and Redfin).

I generally stay away from retail companies -- "consumer discretionary" -- e.g. TJX -- because of how the economy and capitalism has "evolved" over the past 30+ years, but maybe it's undervalued? idk ... I'm sitting on some commercial real estate companies that at the time I thought were a solid investment, but that was pre-covid.

TJX was based on going into HomeGoods for the first time last year, and literally anytime I’m in there — no matter the hour or day — at least 10 people are in line for the registers. And Marshall’s as well: never seen one without a line. Which makes me think there might be something about the thrift-store-like scavenging that is an in-person experience that isn’t the same online. (None of this has to do with its current value, and I did read some research, but that was the instinct behind it.)

xp to self: but for now, I'm going to hold onto them with the rationale that rich property speculators and the people that make money off of them (e.g. mortgage holding companies) are going to get rewarded by the US Government because our country sucks like that.

Commercial real estate seems like such an unknown now, as far as how office life is going to change, but assuming the rewards are coming either way makes sense.

i love having a perishingly small value of stocks and looking at the app and seeing "today's return $0.50"

― himpathy with the devil (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, February 23, 2021 9:44 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

up another $2 since this.

https://i2-prod.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article10126257.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/MDthen-2.jpg

being flat is better than being down.

though I had a few stocks/funds that I had been holding for 5 years or so that were always down that in the past year have gone up for idk law of averages, who knows ... I have no idea what best practices are for when to cut your losses and sell at a loss. Most of my investments have gone up since I purchased them, and I have probably "sold too early" according to people more knowledgeable than me. However, I felt like, "I made enough on this" when I decided to sell.

Which companies do you have the least respect for management's competency that you are bullish on and which companies are you bearish on despite management being on the ball?

xpost generally if you are investing, as opposed to trading, in single name stocks or sector funds you should have an idea of why you bought it, what you expect from it and during what time frame. If you have held something for awhile and it hasn't made any gains, would that money be better moved to another opportunity. Like, AAPL has kind of been maxed out since it split but people like it being slow + dividends and are happy to just hold it forever.

If i have sizeable gains and still like the company, I sell enough to cover my cost basis and let the rest ride so at least I don't lose the money I put into it if there is a correction or it just completely dumps. You can always buys it back on a dip if you miss it. There are lots of ways to invest depending on how active you want to be.

If i have sizeable gains and still like the company, I sell enough to cover my cost basis and let the rest ride so at least I don't lose the money I put into it if there is a correction or it just completely dumps. You can always buys it back on a dip if you miss it.

Yeah! that's kinda been my philosophy ... I forget what I bought back ... might have been Intuit. I got nervous about a bubble and about the odds of beating the market so I sold big chunks of some of my profitable stock holdings and put the money in index funds, like everyone on here has in their 401(k)s, and caek demonstrated via complex math that that's where I should put my money.

If you know which stocks are going to go up you should buy those stocks. That’s my ... two cents.

I don't buy anything that I don't understand what it is and how they make money. Like a lot of the derivatives and complex stuff and anything related to calls, puts, shorts, margin stuff -- I am not touching that because it's way too easy to fuck it up, and also I see it as "too easy money"

Like buying Apple or Microsoft and holding it and getting dividends reinvested ... that's like, chill, bro

During the GME frenzy I was like “maybe I’ll buy a stock” and I bought some Nintendo stock bc I like Nintendo. And I also bought Vanguard’s tech sector ETF bc I was like I might as well get some extra exposure to that nonsense and a biotech ETF bc companies like Illumina and Thermo acquire like everything remotely promising and it’s all expensive as shit. But that’s like basically my only foray into anything other than the Vanguard target retirement fund.

i bought stock in a company awhile back because I thought their abbrev was funny ... like it was an inside joke between me and a few friends ... it's done pretty well!

like, i trade a lot of garbage companies (note: i don't consider GME a garbage company) because most of the market is now full of garbage companies that do stupid price swings because of what happened to the options market last year. I would not recommend that unless you are really bored.

It actually had a decent rating by Schwab and Morningstar -- DOOR

because we used to have a DIY space together, and there was a room, off to the side of the main space that served as a sound booth/gear storage area. One of the members of our co-op felt that it was necessary to write in sharpie in all caps "DOOR" on the door to the room, which was very obviously a door, and did not need additional signage or explanation as to its door-like nature.

basically this guy was really into getting high and labeling things with sharpie in all caps

a pot etf has a stupid ticker, YOLO

lol omg

ILX:
Ilex Medical Ltd. engages in the import and marketing of medical laboratory equipment and in the development of medical information management software. It operates through the following segments: Medical Laboratory Equipment and Diagnostics Materials, Medical Equipment, and Inhalation Devices. The Medical Laboratory Equipment and Diagnostics Materials segment engages in the marketing, distribution, and sale of laboratory medical equipment and diagnostics products, diagnostics systems, and kits and consumables for the examination of medical laboratories in hospitals. The Medical Equipment segment engages in the import, marketing and distribution of medical equipment and devices in Israel. The Inhalation Devices segment development, manufacture, and marketing of mobile inhalation devices. The company was founded by Moshe Ben Shaul in 1977 and is headquartered in Petach-Tikva, Israel.

we could literally invest in ILX

i have a really dumbass question about the stock market, if the ilx braintrust will induldge me.

i don't do stock market gambling in the wallstreetbets type of vein. i have a few etfs that i put money into and hope will grow in the next 20 or 30 years. but i have looked at penny stocks often and wondered the following: if i see a penny stock that is habitually going up and down, say between 0.40 and 0.60, on a daily/weekly basis, the company looks fine, as in not about to go bankrupt, books look fine, no big news coming out imminently that you can tell that might tank the stock etc. what is to stop someone just doing an order to buy the stock at 0.40 (or below) and then an order to sell at 0.60? i mean other than it not being all that profitable. i guess slippage, your order to sell might not be executed at a profitable price/you might even lose money?

yes, people do that regularly as their trading method. It's called scalping. But you have to be certain of the volume (liquidity) esp if there is a huge spread between the bid and ask.

GAMESTONKS

Also, always set limit order if you do this, never market.

good to know! will maybe do it with some disposable money for a bit and see how it goes

or just do paper trades. i think there are programs, or literally just write it on paper when you would have executed (no cheating) and figure out if you are good at it.

also, none of this is financial advice, it's just generally what people do when they are figuring out trading before they use real money.

that's a good idea. will try the paper method for a bit and see how i get on. even if that goes well i will literally only be spending very little money on the scalping endeavour, if i bother to do it at all

Anyone have any thoughts on Berkshire Hathaway? It absolutely trounced the S&P for most of its history but over the last 5 years or so has been kind of blah. Is it because Buffet is old and people assume he's the business?

apparently I cannot purchase shares of ILX online through Schwab.com ... oh well. I did look into other ILX-adjacent stocks, and found ILATF -- not that we have a subboard for I Love Alcohol Tobacco (and) Firearms

xp. friendship ended with warren buffet

now cathie wood is my best friend

oh no. Cathie is already over. Just kidding, i don't give opinions about whether a stock/etf is good or not but she got a lot of backlash recently for being a trump supporter weirdo biblethumper (the reason it's named ARK).

If her fund becomes full of illiquid tickers, just know it is the lord's path that he chose for her. They did really well last year!

i don't know enough about markets to judge but personally i am kind of weary about anyone with as much faith in tsla

Didn't Musk himself come out like 6 months ago and say "Hey guys, our future earnings can't possibly match these valuations!"

Or maybe it was longer ago

this is not an endorsement at all just an entertaining observation, today Gamestop went from $45 to $169 right now. I love this.

So I became an investing Maxxinista (TJX) and their stock is flat/up a little after reporting below-expected earnings (thanks, snow and cold), while Redfin (RDFN) beats whisper numbers and doesn’t have any glaring new downsides but is down a few bucks after hours, and Shopify (SHOP) did a similar thing last week. Learn in’ by the day!

I haven't actually picked an individual stock in years. I used to come up with really good ideas and then not hold them for long enough - I'd always panic and sell too early.

I now have $4.75 of unrealized gains on ILATF

ILBets

most stocks dump after earnings these days. People play the run up and buy short term options and the volatility on the options goes way up and the day after earnings is a let down or just random and options' volatility gets crushed.

The positive thing about that is, if it’s meant to be a medium/long-term investment, there’s an opportunity to buy more at a lower price, if pre-earnings doesn’t end up being an unrepeatable high.

listening to a podcast with the ARK head of research, pretty damn interesting tbh. Def taking with a grain of salt as to whether I'm listening to someone who generally has discovered some kind of unconventional thinking secret sauce or just a gladwell-esque storyteller