EKKC
Diamond Member
- May 31, 2005
- 5,895
- 0
- 0
my babies:
NTDOY, GME, AAPL, CSCO
other good ones:
CG, MO, RAI, DEO, CHL, JCG
my buy list:
EMC (or the VMware IPO), C, GS, IBM, S
avoid like the plague:
SIRI (damn you FCC let them merge already!)
then again don't trust me i'm down 1-2k for the year. (out of 100k invested, and depending on the where the stinkin drop ends today)
NTDOY, GME, AAPL, CSCO
other good ones:
CG, MO, RAI, DEO, CHL, JCG
my buy list:
EMC (or the VMware IPO), C, GS, IBM, S
avoid like the plague:
SIRI (damn you FCC let them merge already!)
then again don't trust me i'm down 1-2k for the year. (out of 100k invested, and depending on the where the stinkin drop ends today)
Very bad moment to start buying stock. Take one year to seriously educate yourself on the subject, and very likely you'll see indexes lower than today in 12 months.
BrokenVisage
Lifer
- Jan 29, 2005
- 24,771
- 14
- 81
Miramonti
Lifer
- Aug 26, 2000
- 28,653
- 100
- 106
You can take less risk and have a better chance a more profitability over the long run with good mutual funds, statistically speaking. And buying them with the market on a down turn like it has been lately adds to the statistical advantage.
I guess it depends on who you ask for investment advice...the people who have won the lottery, or the people who haven't.
Erwin, you're obviously a person of few words. What it boils down to, and I believe many/most of the other investors that responded will agree (I'm a network tech weenie, not a "stocks person," but these are some general things to consider)
First, you need to decide on your time horizon. If you plan on putting in some money over time for five - ten (or more) years, then stocks are generally a decent investment, if you choose decent stocks. If you are planning on buying into the IPO, make jillion bucks, then getting out (armed with your current exhibited knowledge) then don't do it. Don't even think of doing it. Your best course, as previously suggested, would be to study for a while.
Some interesting educational places to visit are places like www.fool.com (The Motley Fool). Among other things. they have their "CAPS" community, which are basically investors preseting their opinion to other investors in front of other investors. Bullsh*tters are called out pretty quickly, and they have topics ranging from "How do I get started," reviews of virtually every stock by investors (past, present, and future) of that stock, to "how do dig yourself out of debt."
They also have articles and positon papers available.
PLEASE NOTE: they are just one of gawd-knows-how-many places willing to render information according to their investing philosophy. Personally, I like them; other people don't. Other places like morningstar.com, the street.com ... google around or ask people you trust .
The market is generally good for the long term, if you have a reasonably good stock. But, as you saw last week, it's pretty wild right now and for (probably) the next few weeks to months.
If you're looking for someplace "safe" consider a good money market. Some of the Internet banks, Pentagon Federal Credit Union ("PenFed") have some good rates.
Mutual funds are OK, if you get a good one. If you're looking for a good one, seek the advise of someone that "does" mutual funds. Morningstar generally has some good info on mutual funds, and they have some advertisers that may be able to help you. The issue with many mutual funds is that they tend to require a minimum investment (which varies by fund from ~US$500.00 to (more typical) $1000 - $2500.00, to hundreds of thousands. They also tend to hit you with penalties if you pull the money out "too soon."
A compromise between Mutual funds and stocks are Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). ETFs trade like stocks; you can buy and sell them just like a stock, and they are taxed like stock transactions (i.e., cap gains), but each share represents a piece of a "basket" of a particular type or sector of the stock or bond markets.
So, with ETFs, you are buying a diversified investment with every share. There are ETFs for pretty much every sector (like semiconductors, real estate, utilities, money, bonds ...) so you can buy the spread for whatever your favorite interest is (there are even "green" ETFs for the tree huggers).
I have a couple ETFs that have been good to me for a while: EWA (Austrailian market), PHO (Water Utilities), PWO (over the counter companies), EWS (Singapore market) ... and some others. To see the range of ETFs, check out iShares.com or vanguard.com or google on Exchange Traded Funds.
ETFs are a little safer than a single stock, but because they are safer, don't have the returns that a (good) single stock would have.... but they're still generally above the index they track. You also need to pay attention to the administrative fees (usually ~0.5% neighborhood).
The Theme you'll catch at some point is Risk/Reward; genarally anything that is likey to give you an amazingly high return also carries amazingly high risk. Lower risk things tend to have lower returns. Anything that requires a lot of management will have higher management fees.
One of the things I like about Morningstar is their rating system, which presents the item of interest (stock, MF, or ETF) in terms of risk/return. If you can find something with low risk and (relatively high) return, it's "probably" a good thing to get into.
If you decide that you just have to get into something right away, then jump on in, but don't bet the rent. Start small and add to the position as you gain comfort in it. Look into something like ShareBuilder.com, wheere you can buy pretty much any stock in any increment you want, even fractional shares.
(READ ALL THE DETAILS BEFORE JOINING ANY ONLINE INVESTMENT GROUP: ALL OF THEM HAVE SOME "GOTCHAS")
Finally, if you can provide some details, like about how much money you're talking about, to be invested for about how long, and what you "risk tolerance" looks like, some of the smarter folks can jump in and give you some better, substantial advice.
Good Luck
Scott
First, you need to decide on your time horizon. If you plan on putting in some money over time for five - ten (or more) years, then stocks are generally a decent investment, if you choose decent stocks. If you are planning on buying into the IPO, make jillion bucks, then getting out (armed with your current exhibited knowledge) then don't do it. Don't even think of doing it. Your best course, as previously suggested, would be to study for a while.
Some interesting educational places to visit are places like www.fool.com (The Motley Fool). Among other things. they have their "CAPS" community, which are basically investors preseting their opinion to other investors in front of other investors. Bullsh*tters are called out pretty quickly, and they have topics ranging from "How do I get started," reviews of virtually every stock by investors (past, present, and future) of that stock, to "how do dig yourself out of debt."
They also have articles and positon papers available.
PLEASE NOTE: they are just one of gawd-knows-how-many places willing to render information according to their investing philosophy. Personally, I like them; other people don't. Other places like morningstar.com, the street.com ... google around or ask people you trust .
The market is generally good for the long term, if you have a reasonably good stock. But, as you saw last week, it's pretty wild right now and for (probably) the next few weeks to months.
If you're looking for someplace "safe" consider a good money market. Some of the Internet banks, Pentagon Federal Credit Union ("PenFed") have some good rates.
Mutual funds are OK, if you get a good one. If you're looking for a good one, seek the advise of someone that "does" mutual funds. Morningstar generally has some good info on mutual funds, and they have some advertisers that may be able to help you. The issue with many mutual funds is that they tend to require a minimum investment (which varies by fund from ~US$500.00 to (more typical) $1000 - $2500.00, to hundreds of thousands. They also tend to hit you with penalties if you pull the money out "too soon."
A compromise between Mutual funds and stocks are Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). ETFs trade like stocks; you can buy and sell them just like a stock, and they are taxed like stock transactions (i.e., cap gains), but each share represents a piece of a "basket" of a particular type or sector of the stock or bond markets.
So, with ETFs, you are buying a diversified investment with every share. There are ETFs for pretty much every sector (like semiconductors, real estate, utilities, money, bonds ...) so you can buy the spread for whatever your favorite interest is (there are even "green" ETFs for the tree huggers).
I have a couple ETFs that have been good to me for a while: EWA (Austrailian market), PHO (Water Utilities), PWO (over the counter companies), EWS (Singapore market) ... and some others. To see the range of ETFs, check out iShares.com or vanguard.com or google on Exchange Traded Funds.
ETFs are a little safer than a single stock, but because they are safer, don't have the returns that a (good) single stock would have.... but they're still generally above the index they track. You also need to pay attention to the administrative fees (usually ~0.5% neighborhood).
The Theme you'll catch at some point is Risk/Reward; genarally anything that is likey to give you an amazingly high return also carries amazingly high risk. Lower risk things tend to have lower returns. Anything that requires a lot of management will have higher management fees.
One of the things I like about Morningstar is their rating system, which presents the item of interest (stock, MF, or ETF) in terms of risk/return. If you can find something with low risk and (relatively high) return, it's "probably" a good thing to get into.
If you decide that you just have to get into something right away, then jump on in, but don't bet the rent. Start small and add to the position as you gain comfort in it. Look into something like ShareBuilder.com, wheere you can buy pretty much any stock in any increment you want, even fractional shares.
(READ ALL THE DETAILS BEFORE JOINING ANY ONLINE INVESTMENT GROUP: ALL OF THEM HAVE SOME "GOTCHAS")
Finally, if you can provide some details, like about how much money you're talking about, to be invested for about how long, and what you "risk tolerance" looks like, some of the smarter folks can jump in and give you some better, substantial advice.
Good Luck
Scott
Ugg, let me guess you are basing your opinion on VMware server right? Server is a hosted product, the proper product to compare to is ESX. ESX and Xen run stuff equally well. ESX has much better management tools.
Intel has invested $250M and Cisco has invested $150M, I really doubt those 2 companies would be putting that much money into a product that is "junk".
Miramonti
Lifer
- Aug 26, 2000
- 28,653
- 100
- 106
Google is where they are at because they are so much better than anyone else who tries to do the same thing, and has a very loyal customer base. Is VMware so much better than anyone else, muchless have a very loyal following like Google? If not I wouldn't bet on them in the long run to be a major stock performer because competition will inevitably catch up and compete hard for the same customer base, and perhaps even do it better.
I'm feeling dangerously adventurous. I live my life on the edge. If there's a line to cross I cross it and erase the line.
I'm looking to trade and hold for a few months. Hell, if I get 100% return in an hour I'd sell it right away. I'm looking to make a quick buck as easy as possible. I'm lazy like that. I'm willing to risk my fortunes so that's no problem. Mutual funds doesn't sound like it will be suitable. If I had a billion dollars then may be I'd keep it there. As it is I'm really tempted to put all my eggs in vmware next week. I have 3000 eggs to play with by the way.
What are the chances I'd get to buy vmware next week? Do you think zecco will sell me some?
Even AMD is so tempting.
I read Jim Cramers book Mad Money. Super easy read. I don't like to read books and this one was a breeze. I'll probably get The Intelligent Investor next. Is that the holy grail of investing books? Will that book give me advice on short term trading or is that more for long term investments?
I'm looking to trade and hold for a few months. Hell, if I get 100% return in an hour I'd sell it right away. I'm looking to make a quick buck as easy as possible. I'm lazy like that. I'm willing to risk my fortunes so that's no problem. Mutual funds doesn't sound like it will be suitable. If I had a billion dollars then may be I'd keep it there. As it is I'm really tempted to put all my eggs in vmware next week. I have 3000 eggs to play with by the way.
What are the chances I'd get to buy vmware next week? Do you think zecco will sell me some?
Even AMD is so tempting.
I read Jim Cramers book Mad Money. Super easy read. I don't like to read books and this one was a breeze. I'll probably get The Intelligent Investor next. Is that the holy grail of investing books? Will that book give me advice on short term trading or is that more for long term investments?
Miramonti
Lifer
- Aug 26, 2000
- 28,653
- 100
- 106
If that's your perspective, you won't find anything in a trading or investing book that will affirm your approach.
Trade only with money that you can afford to lose, but never with money that you are willing to lose, because its almost a guarantee that you will lose it. Even people that live on the edge take calculated risks.
The VMware IPO is not a great thing or a bad thing in itself, it completely depends on what price you get in on it and what value you get for your money. The overall market is in a down cycles, which actually is potentially a plus because it may bring down the IPO price quite a bit. Many companies postpone their IPO dates if the market conditions are unfavorable tho.
No, I don't think it's such a junk program. I think this IPO will be a nice one, but will there be a sustained hype with this stock just like with Google? I highly doubt it. I have no doubt this will be an excellent buy in the short term, but we will have to see in the long term. I'm gradually shifting away from a mostly tech portfolio.
OP, you sound extremely adventurous yet extremely impatient. I don't get it. You seem to treat Jim Cramer's Mad Money book like the Holy Grail and with it I get the impression that you feel like you're ready to take on the whole market. It's just like when I read Doyle Brunson's Super System. Hell no I wasn't ready to make big bucks in casinos and it took a while to learn before I could actually make money in a consistent manner in poker.
With that said yes I do watch Mad Money frequently and Fast Money too. I wake up to CNBC in the mornings and I return home to watch the recordings of Fast Money. No way do I feel ready to jump in and lose money fast.
3000 eggs. Each egg is worth.... Hmm... 1.99 for 12 eggs at Safeway... Jkjk. Anyways, if you're ready to throw your money into the pool, I suggest you ease into the game before you start shorting like mad.
Alrighty, so we at least have a starting point.
The next thing(s) I'd suggest you'd look into before doing a quick "jump in, {a miricle occurs} , you exit with significant wealth" maneuver:
Check out "short term capital gains" versus "long term capital gains" relating to how much you will lose on the short term in / out.
Investigate a typical IPO profile. The stock usually comes out, gets a rise, then drops below IPO price and crawls up from there. So, at the least, you may want to wait for the nearly inevitable drop before buying.
AMD's financials (still) kinda suck. There are many other $13.00 stocks in better growth positions.
I like VM Ware a lot. Even with the longer-term hype that "virtualization" has gotten over the last year or two, I don't think they have enough of a "moat" to make a Google-like leap in value. Xen is essentially free, or at least extremely cheap, and Microsoft can buy whatever market is left over. In cash.
Whatever money you put into it, plan on keeping it there for a couple years (whether that's the plan or not), because the market can surprise you. Your alternative (to leaving it in) might be to lose $500 or $1000 and get whatever's left out.
You're likely to be doing something stupid, and you probably know that, but $3000 at this stage in your life is a pretty cheap lesson.
Good Luck
Scott
The next thing(s) I'd suggest you'd look into before doing a quick "jump in, {a miricle occurs} , you exit with significant wealth" maneuver:
Check out "short term capital gains" versus "long term capital gains" relating to how much you will lose on the short term in / out.
Investigate a typical IPO profile. The stock usually comes out, gets a rise, then drops below IPO price and crawls up from there. So, at the least, you may want to wait for the nearly inevitable drop before buying.
AMD's financials (still) kinda suck. There are many other $13.00 stocks in better growth positions.
I like VM Ware a lot. Even with the longer-term hype that "virtualization" has gotten over the last year or two, I don't think they have enough of a "moat" to make a Google-like leap in value. Xen is essentially free, or at least extremely cheap, and Microsoft can buy whatever market is left over. In cash.
Whatever money you put into it, plan on keeping it there for a couple years (whether that's the plan or not), because the market can surprise you. Your alternative (to leaving it in) might be to lose $500 or $1000 and get whatever's left out.
You're likely to be doing something stupid, and you probably know that, but $3000 at this stage in your life is a pretty cheap lesson.
Good Luck
Scott
Miramonti
Lifer
- Aug 26, 2000
- 28,653
- 100
- 106
I placed a limit order at $31 before the market opened. I got rejected. I should've placed $50.01 coz that's the opening bid.
If I read the stats correctly roughly 5 million shares were being bought and resold. That tells me most people are holding on to it. I'll wait for the price to come down and then I'll snatch it and make a million in 6 months when Microsoft buys out VMware. I know they will.
I did some lite reading and came across, "EMC is selling 33 million shares of VMware, which will have about 375 million shares outstanding." Where did the 375 millions figure come from?
If I read the stats correctly roughly 5 million shares were being bought and resold. That tells me most people are holding on to it. I'll wait for the price to come down and then I'll snatch it and make a million in 6 months when Microsoft buys out VMware. I know they will.
I did some lite reading and came across, "EMC is selling 33 million shares of VMware, which will have about 375 million shares outstanding." Where did the 375 millions figure come from?
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