***Official*** 2018 Stock Market Thread

[dasherHampton]

Anyone want to buy some APA stock? I got a new shipment in, lightly used.

Today could have been worse. So much worse.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I just got this HUGE booklet from one of the companies I have stocks in, and a form to vote for the board of directors (or at least a leader, or something, did not go through all of it yet). How important is it to do that, is it important at all or just something I can throw out? I guess it's cool to know I could have a tiny amount of influence on who is the board of directors or whatever but not like I really follow the company enough to really know who's best. I figure I should leave it to the people who do.

 

[Red Squirrel]

As a side note I finally sold off my Bombardier shares. I made around $100 in profit. If I had bought way more I would have held on to them but I only had bought like $200 worth, so was not really worth trying to play the market further and just sold them now while I was ahead.

Might be a good time to buy in Canadian steel companies right now... have not really checked into any though.

 

[Charmonium]

Not when it's this overpriced. Earnings shouldn't be affected.

OTOH if there's any actual signs of a recession I imagine they will stop the hikes, if not loosen. Which might save the market.

That's the way it's supposed to work. Tighten to head off any legit inflation fears, pump out the liquidity when things start to go south. I don't know who Donald dumb as a stump Trump appointed as fed chair but even under the direction of supremely qualified people like Yellen and Bernanke that has always been difficult dance. One based partly on data and partly black magic.

I just got this HUGE booklet from one of the companies I have stocks in, and a form to vote for the board of directors (or at least a leader, or something, did not go through all of it yet). How important is it to do that, is it important at all or just something I can throw out? I guess it's cool to know I could have a tiny amount of influence on who is the board of directors or whatever but not like I really follow the company enough to really know who's best. I figure I should leave it to the people who do.

I don't even look at that sh**. The most I do is rip off the plastic covering so I don't sully the recycling stream. And I remove the cover sheet with my address. That's it. Unless you own enough of the stock that you have to report to the SEC, screw it.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Good to know, kinda what I figured.

 

[Charmonium]

I've alluded to this before in relation to the Jan-Feb pull back but if you think that the recent market swings are based on fundamentals rather than liquidity issues, guess again.

We were having a perfectly nice low-volatility uptrend until Jan. 26, and everyone was happy. Since then, the inverse VIX ETN known as XIV has blown up (a great case of a “burning LOH” marker), and traders are starting to remember that stock prices actually can go down. So why now?

As with most bear markets and recessions, the blame goes to the Federal Reserve, which decided last year that it would start unwinding all of the QE buying of T-Bonds and Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) that it had bought up from 2009-14. Last year, the Federal Reserve under Janet Yellen announced plans to start liquidating those bond and MBS holdings, starting at a rate of $10 billion per month in Q4 of 2017, and ramping up that rate by an additional $10 billion in every quarter to follow. So the target rate of sales for Q1 2018 is $20 billion per month, and it is supposed to ramp up to $30 billion per month in Q2, then $40 billion per month in Q3, eventually peaking at a $50 billion per month rate in Q4 and beyond.

https://www.mcoscillator.com/learning_center/weekly_chart/its_the_fed_yanking_the_punchbowl/

Take a couple minutes and read the whole article. It's well worth it.

 

[FelixDeCat]

As a side note I finally sold off my Bombardier shares. I made around $100 in profit. If I had bought way more I would have held on to them but I only had bought like $200 worth, so was not really worth trying to play the market further and just sold them now while I was ahead.

Might be a good time to buy in Canadian steel companies right now... have not really checked into any though.

Congrats! I laugh at no amount of profit, because its always nice to come out ahead and losses are much easier to make.

As far as buying Canadian steel companies I think the proper thing is to either avoid them or sell them short since profits will decline.

 

[dasherHampton]

Congrats! I laugh at no amount of profit, because its always nice to come out ahead and losses are much easier to make.

Absolutely. When I was day trading I took anything I could get ($50, $70, $80, $120 etc). Often I could have secured bigger gains had I waited but a profit is a profit is a profit.

The surest way to madness in the market is to obsess over gains you could have had.

 

[dasherHampton]

I just got this HUGE booklet from one of the companies I have stocks in, and a form to vote for the board of directors (or at least a leader, or something, did not go through all of it yet). How important is it to do that, is it important at all or just something I can throw out? I guess it's cool to know I could have a tiny amount of influence on who is the board of directors or whatever but not like I really follow the company enough to really know who's best. I figure I should leave it to the people who do.

Yeah, just shred whatever has personal info on it and toss the rest. You woudn't believe the volume of paper I get. I could build my own skyscraper. Half of it is asking me to vote on something. As far as I know me not voting never changed a thing.

Do you get phone messages? I get at least robocalls 10 a week urging me to vote a certain way.

 

[DietDrThunder]

I just got this HUGE booklet from one of the companies I have stocks in, and a form to vote for the board of directors (or at least a leader, or something, did not go through all of it yet). How important is it to do that, is it important at all or just something I can throw out? I guess it's cool to know I could have a tiny amount of influence on who is the board of directors or whatever but not like I really follow the company enough to really know who's best. I figure I should leave it to the people who do.

Through your brokerage account there should be a way to change the proxy statement option and elect to receive them via email. This will save you from disposal of all the paperwork. This also makes it extremely easy for you to vote online.

Even though you may not have very many shares (most of us don’t), your vote does count. This is especially true on executive compensation and proposals which the vote is near 50/50 split.

On the executive compensation, if there are around 30% of the vote going against this proposal, the board will take notice, and I have seen the compensation package changed even though it had the clear majority vote.

On the 50/50 split vote situation, I’ve had a person from corporate actually call and plead with me to vote my 83 shares. They didn’t ask me to vote any certain way, but the proposal was a merger with another company where a simple majority ruled the decision.

I vote every proxy just to keep informed on what is going on. I typically scan the list of the board of directors, if there is some eco terrorist on the list, I’ll vote against them, otherwise I just obstain.

Then the are the shareholder proposals, which can be quite entertaining at times, but can influence the board with only 2% of shareholders voting for them. This is especially true when a proposal is asking for full disclosure on corporate lobbying. One other note, it is my understanding that you only need to own $2,000 worth of shares in a publicly traded company to make a shareholder proposal, which must by law be voted on.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Hmm good to know. If I own $2000 is that like what I paid for, or if the price goes up? I do have one company where I could potentially get that high.

And yeah I'll have to see if there is a setting to get all this online so it's a huge waste of paper.

 

[Red Squirrel]

As far as buying Canadian steel companies I think the proper thing is to either avoid them or sell them short since profits will decline.

My train of thought is the shares might go down because of the recent news, then once it's settled they'll go back up (say in years from now). I could be very wrong though.

 

[Charmonium]

Through your brokerage account there should be a way to change the proxy statement option and elect to receive them via email. This will save you from disposal of all the paperwork. This also makes it extremely easy for you to vote online.

Even though you may not have very many shares (most of us don’t), your vote does count. This is especially true on executive compensation and proposals which the vote is near 50/50 split.

On the executive compensation, if there are around 30% of the vote going against this proposal, the board will take notice, and I have seen the compensation package changed even though it had the clear majority vote.

On the 50/50 split vote situation, I’ve had a person from corporate actually call and plead with me to vote my 83 shares. They didn’t ask me to vote any certain way, but the proposal was a merger with another company where a simple majority ruled the decision.

I vote every proxy just to keep informed on what is going on. I typically scan the list of the board of directors, if there is some eco terrorist on the list, I’ll vote against them, otherwise I just obstain.

Then the are the shareholder proposals, which can be quite entertaining at times, but can influence the board with only 2% of shareholders voting for them. This is especially true when a proposal is asking for full disclosure on corporate lobbying. One other note, it is my understanding that you only need to own $2,000 worth of shares in a publicly traded company to make a shareholder proposal, which must by law be voted on.

You're right of course. That IS what you should do. But it requires a significant amount of time to be that well informed. At least it would for me. When I weigh that against the .001% of the company that I own, I don't think it's the best use of my limited energy since if I do that then there's something else that I don't do as a result. And that something has more value to me.

I do admire your focus and resolve though. I just don't share those abilities.

 

[dasherHampton]

I know guys who are worth more than all of us put together who don't bother with that stuff.

I'm pretty sure it's all legal obligation on behalf of the corporation. If you're not extremely long on a stock (I'm talking retirement long) its just not going to matter.

 

[DietDrThunder]

I know guys who are worth more than all of us put together who don't bother with that stuff.

I'm pretty sure it's all legal obligation on behalf of the corporation. If you're not extremely long on a stock (I'm talking retirement long) its just not going to matter.

Well, I’m VERY long on pretty much everything. I don’t spent that much time on any one proxy, I skim through them unless I find anything interesting. Most proxies you’re usually just voting on the board of directors, and on the accounting company. BUT, unless this isn’t important to you, you should always read the share holder proposals. These can greatly effect dividends and stock price if they win, and they can cause a company to waste millions on stupidity.

 

[dasherHampton]

APA calls at 36.5 fairly lucrative.

 

[dasherHampton]

I'm such an idiot. I bought back in to MU around 46 and sold it at 48. Why didn't I trust my instincts?

If you want a long stock with huge growth potential MU is it. They own over 80% of the patents to tech that will be coming to the forefront over the next two or three years. If everything falls their way it could challenge 100 in a few years.

 

[FelixDeCat]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-did-micron-mu-stock-234711075.html

Holy crap Micron (MU), $54+. A high not seen since the year 2000!

.....so tonight Im going to party like its 1999!!

 

[woodman1999]

Tempted on MU. Lack of a dividend hurts, but still intrigued.

 

[dasherHampton]

I don't have a crystal ball but IMO it's about as sure of of thing as you can buy right now.

As soon as my APA is resolved I'm going back it.

So for right now - dive MU, dive! lol

 

[DietDrThunder]

I know guys who are worth more than all of us put together who don't bother with that stuff.

I'm pretty sure it's all legal obligation on behalf of the corporation. If you're not extremely long on a stock (I'm talking retirement long) its just not going to matter.

One other item of note is if you read through the proxy you can also decide if you plan on hanging on to a stock for the long run. For instance, I own Aetna (AET) stock, and watching the news I saw that CVS is planning to merge/buyout AET for $68 Billion dollars. One item on Aetna's proxy statement is to vote for/against the CVS/Aetna merger. Doing some research it seems that CVS is having to issue $40 Billion of additional debt (third largest bond sale in history of senior unsecured Baa1 rated notes which may be downgraded) to make this merger happen. Needless to say I voted against this merger. If the vote for the merger passes, I will sell my Aetna stock shortly there after.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

So.. who's buying the dip tomorrow? LoL..

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/06/news/companies/dow-stock-futures-gary-cohn/index.html

 

[FelixDeCat]

Holy crap - futures crashing! Dow down 400 and counting.....

https://www.investing.com/news/econ...e-economic-adviser-cohn-stepping-down-1328338

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, said on Tuesday he was resigning, a decision that came after he lost a fight within the White House over plans to impose hefty steel and aluminum tariffs.

White House officials said the dispute over tariffs contributed to Cohn’s decision to resign but was not the only reason. One official said there had been several issues that led to the parting, but noted: "His biggest mission was on the tax cut bill, which he got passed."

The White House said the timing of Cohn's departure from his role as director of the National Economic Council had not been finalized but was still a few weeks away. It was the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the White House.

 

[repoman0]

I had terrible timing on the first part of my Roth contribution this year Whatever, I hope Dump brings it all crashing down so I can get some discounts.

 

[FelixDeCat]

So.. who's buying the dip tomorrow? LoL..

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/06/news/companies/dow-stock-futures-gary-cohn/index.html

me!

(maybe)