Yeah Ive got a few more things to take care of the rest of this year so hopefully come January I will start lookin into more stable long term options. Id just like to take some of the money I have available to me to deal in some normal riskier type investing to get a feel for it, so when I do have more to play with I'm already familiar, and if I blow a grand while learning because I fucked up well then so be it haha. I figure my odds are a lot better of not completely blowing it than tha alternative for this money that would probably end up being football gambling with the season approaching

8/23/2007 2:17:40 PM

Oh, were you the sports better that posted a few months back? If you don't mind losing a grand, you could always try investing in a bunch of penny stocks.

8/23/2007 2:22:18 PM

What do you guys think about Sharebuilder?

Also, what's your opinion on SPY and AGG.

8/23/2007 2:23:17 PM

I did a lot of betting maybe 2 years ago and posted a lot on here, had I stuck to what I knew being football and basketball I would have made good money, unfortunately I blew all my profits along with the bankroll betting on stuff after basketball season because well Im an idiot lol. Penny stocks would be a definite option for this money combined with some other lower cost stocks. Obviously I wont be buying up huge amounts of 50+ bucks a share stocks, but Id like to get a feel for both. Im assuming penny stocks tend to have the highest potential for short term earnings, but also the highest risk as well.

8/23/2007 2:34:01 PM

Yeah, they're pretty volatile to say the least. You can still make money with larger funds though like many people did right before the i-phone came out.

8/23/2007 2:44:03 PM

Doss2k
If you have money that you don't might losing, check out the mortgage companies. There's always one about to fail, then somebody puts out some news and it shoots back up. TMA doubled in a few days. Check out KFN, NFI, CFC and ANH as well. These companies will probably go bankrupt, and their stock will be worth 44 cents like AHM is. But in the meantime their PPS keeps jumping around.

On that note the new worry is that a lot of ARMs will reset in October, causing interest rates to go up and foreclosures because people can't pay their mortgages. It seems better to not give in to the doomsday stories that the media puts out, but its good to take not of at least.

8/23/2007 2:47:37 PM

So what kinda online places would people suggest for trading, I know many have minimum sign-up amounts and obviously price/trade as well as tools available for someone new to investing would be important.

8/23/2007 2:53:14 PM

doss
write some call options at high premiums(low strike price) and hold some call options (same company, but high strike price therefore low premium), creating a credit spread. This is profitable if both contracts expire ( collecting the premiums sold). The max gain would be the premium's sold but the max loss would just be the difference between strike prices net the premiums credited. It takes option contracts 8 months max to expire, in which time you'd make roughly 200-300 bucks on the grand you'd invest speculatively speaking.

8/23/2007 3:04:36 PM

zecco.com

8/23/2007 3:15:26 PM

Doesn't Zecco charge a lot of money to deposit/withdraw funds, though?

8/23/2007 3:17:09 PM

See I have no clue what you just said, but Ill umm look into that Lots of reading ahead of me

8/23/2007 3:27:19 PM

What do you guys think of HPC and PBR? My only worries is that they are around their 52-week highs..

8/24/2007 10:56:57 AM

I had some VWO put to me at $86 last Friday.

As of right now its at $91.32.

yay luck

8/24/2007 2:17:44 PM

do you mean to transfer your stock holdings into/out of zecco?
or do you mean to actually cash fund your account?

cash funding your account is free through ACH

8/24/2007 3:48:37 PM

So, is now the time to sell everything?

8/24/2007 6:14:11 PM

does anyone use zecco? if so how is it?

8/26/2007 1:27:03 PM

Quote :

"doss write some call options at high premiums(low strike price) and hold some call options (same company, but high strike price therefore low premium), creating a credit spread. This is profitable if both contracts expire ( collecting the premiums sold). The max gain would be the premium's sold but the max loss would just be the difference between strike prices net the premiums credited. It takes option contracts 8 months max to expire, in which time you'd make roughly 200-300 bucks on the grand you'd invest speculatively speaking."

= Bear call.......just google "bear call spread" and the other three as well, i think he's trying to tell you to sell a lower strike call, buy a higher strike, collect premium, hope stock never reaches the strike price of the call you sold, both expire worthless, keep premium. the bull put is the other credit spread just exactly opposite in market sentiment as the bear call



[Edited on August 26, 2007 at 8:06 PM. Reason : .]

8/26/2007 8:03:09 PM

Quote :

"So, is now the time to sell everything?"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BXm2r3YndYc

8/26/2007 9:30:03 PM

Quote :

"So, is now the time to sell everything?"

[Edited on August 26, 2007 at 10:14 PM. Reason : /]

8/26/2007 10:14:08 PM

Yes now is the time to sell everything. And I mean everything. I don't think there is any possible way the market will ever be higher than it is today. Get out now while the getting is good and spend the money on frivolous items. The American economy is over as we know it.

8/28/2007 8:02:39 AM

LOL

8/28/2007 12:17:42 PM

Personally I've reinvested all of my cash into lottery tickets and commemorative plates from the Franklin Mint.

8/28/2007 2:26:40 PM

I hide mine under my mattress.

8/28/2007 7:33:28 PM

Sweet, back in black.

Here's an interesting asset allocation I found. It's a little more in depth than most, but I don't understand the increasing exposure to REITs.

8/29/2007 10:51:46 AM

Quote :

" I don't understand the increasing exposure to REITs."

Commercial real estate is booming.

8/29/2007 11:02:36 AM

I still don't get it.

8/29/2007 11:04:39 AM

My guess is that they tend to be more about dividends than ticker price growth, which implies less volatility as you get older.

Certainly all bets are off if down the line we hit a commercial real estate bubble that subsequently pops.

8/29/2007 11:13:19 AM

Ah, I didn't think about dividends. Makes sense now.

8/29/2007 11:15:07 AM

yeah, to qualify for the REIT designation, there's a federal mandate that states that nearly all profits must be paid out as dividends, or something very near to that effect.

EDIT:

"REIT (ret, rhymes with treat) is a tax designation for a corporation investing in real estate that reduces or eliminates corporate income taxes. In return, REITs are required to distribute 90% of their income, which may be taxable in the hands of the investors."

[Edited on August 29, 2007 at 11:28 AM. Reason : wikipedia to the rescue]

8/29/2007 11:27:28 AM

REITs are good.

along the same lines, if you have a healthy appetite for risk, CBG might be a good play at this valuation

8/29/2007 1:30:30 PM

i dunno about that chart? increasing exposure to energy (fairly volatile) and decreasing exp. to healthcare (defensive industry)

8/29/2007 6:52:49 PM

^ ?

8/30/2007 10:53:12 AM

if you use that allocation chart to invest in mutual funds, you have successfully created an index fund with a higher expense ratio

that chart looks like a great way to generate some fees for an adviser or a brokerage

8/30/2007 11:07:36 AM

8/21/2007:

Quote :

"I still own MDR, and am thinking of ramping up my position there. They've been pretty volatile, trading between 69 and 94 in the past month. They're currently at 78 and some change."

Trading at $94 right now. I should have bought more MDR like I almost did instead of buying back into VMW



at least i reaped a good amount of return from MDR already.

8/30/2007 11:26:58 AM

^^^ as you get older...they've got you increasing your % of energy (unless they consider dividend-heavy utilities in that group) and decreasing your % of healthcare...doesn't make much sense...

^^ agreed

8/30/2007 5:33:05 PM

REITS are pretty good but have some drawbacks. They have 13-14% annual returns paid as dividends historically. They are not very liquid though as they start with only a handful of investors and have x number of years to go public. Smaller REITs can be a pain to try to find a buyer for your shares. For an older person who just needs income and not much liquidity they can be a good investments, but should not make up the majority of their portfolio. Certainly something for higher net worth clients in their senior years, keep in mind they need some of their assets to be liquid for some of the expenses that can come up when you get to be that age such as long term care.

9/2/2007 11:04:56 AM

the third leg of the triple bottom may be looming. not sure what to sell right now...

9/4/2007 2:49:13 PM

I just increased my international exposure a little. We'll see how that turns out...

9/4/2007 2:49:51 PM

I just sold the VWO that I had put to me at $86 two and a half weeks ago for $96.02.

9/4/2007 3:33:12 PM

sold some FXI & EWZ as profit-takign.

will rebuy on momentary dip (hopefully tomorrow)

9/4/2007 3:35:18 PM

EWZ calls at 65 this month are selling for ~$1.60/share. Thats what I'm doing.

9/4/2007 3:41:07 PM

alphatrends.blogspot.com

pointed out the inverted h&s pattern on the spy/qqqq that has occured for the last 2 years and has a pretty high price target

i plan to buy a bit more on the next dip as i believe the momentum has returned to the bulls

9/4/2007 7:51:56 PM

i have a ton of QQQQ as long term holds...may focus in on QLD as trades

9/4/2007 9:27:53 PM

^^to clarify i was talking about the h&s pattern that has occurred during the summers of 2006 and 2005 - 2007 appears to be following suite.

^you've got more balls than i do to trade against the trend w/ that QLD

9/4/2007 9:33:32 PM

QLD?

9/4/2007 9:47:37 PM

Qualude, Inc.

9/4/2007 10:44:18 PM

proshares ultra qqqq
twice the daily return of the q's

i was thinking (above) it was twice short the q's which is wrong, the 2x short is QID

oh and about using leveraged etf's, heres a good article which i might have already posted...
http://seekingalpha.com/article/35789-the-case-against-leveraged-etfs
summary: if you hold QLD for a year, you won't get 2x the return of the q's

9/4/2007 10:51:31 PM

i've accumulated a good bit (for me...~$2500) of money in my "available for trading" stash in scottrade

not much stuff i've really been on fire about buying lately

and i've missed the few opportunities i have wanted to get in on

9/5/2007 1:12:53 AM

Quote :

"the third leg of the triple bottom may be looming"

What kind of a drop would you consider a third leg?

9/5/2007 10:16:33 AM

so

how prevalent is the trend of an upswing at the end of month (for what I assume is profit taking)?

seems like every month the market is up for a few days before the ole' 401k contributions go in on the first market day of the new month

9/5/2007 10:19:24 AM