brk.b has been a great flight to safety for me.

11/13/2007 11:25:40 AM

Disappointed I didn't buy when it hit bottom. I was hoping it would stay flat for a day or two, signaling it was leveling out. Instead, it bounced back up so there was no time for me to buy.
...not that I had money to buy with...

11/13/2007 3:46:49 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BunSFHfL4d0

11/13/2007 4:00:07 PM

Speaking of bonds from the last page, looking at my 401k, I noticed that 1 yr. and 3 yr average annual returns for Fid. Inv. Grade Bond Fund was 2.28 and 3.15 respectively while INST. Money Mkt was 5.36 and 4.30 respectively...

That really sucks if you expect bonds to do better than cash for your "risk".

11/14/2007 10:58:28 AM

take a closer look at the fund's holding. i found something interesting as well: a money market fund with Fidelity actually had one third of its holdings in corporate debt in financial companies. i had no clue they did that -- i thought anything money market/near cash was either in pure cash or treasuries.

11/14/2007 11:09:06 AM

^ interesting, although it's clear as mud exactly what's behind those DOs.

Also, I almost dumped VMW yesterday after the 11% runup to reload on MDR, which had a nice pullback, but got busy and didn't get to it.

today it's MDR's turn to have a double digit gain.

11/14/2007 2:19:56 PM

^^ everyone is trying to beat the indices these days. There's so much readily available information online that most funds will take risks just to position themselves in the morningstar rankings. Thats all the average investor looks at.

11/14/2007 8:45:53 PM

^ yup. and it seems fund managers are taking a bit more risk right now, trying to better their numbers before the year ends.

11/14/2007 11:21:57 PM

got some Dec 116 calls on RIMM

11/15/2007 11:51:34 AM

How much did those run you?

11/15/2007 12:00:00 PM

7.15

11/15/2007 2:47:03 PM

and each option is worth 100 shares of stock?

11/15/2007 2:50:09 PM

you buy in blocks of 100 - so each contract costs $715

11/15/2007 3:06:03 PM

So, you make $100 for every dollar it goes about 116?

11/15/2007 3:34:10 PM

Quote :

"brk.b has been a great flight to safety for me."

yeah, i wanted in on that, too, but when the price was depressed, i had all of my money tied up in other stuff (and i'm not sure how much sense it makes to have a single ~$4000 position in a portfolio the size of mine).

11/15/2007 8:17:23 PM

^^ i gain whatever the option gains in value. right now i'm getting killed, but hopefully it swings back to the upside.

i sux at the options

11/16/2007 10:27:45 AM

^ Is there any reason for it to jump that much by Dec?

11/16/2007 3:56:39 PM

11/19/2007 11:46:08 AM

Anyone think 13k was a psycho barrier we just broke through, now destined to head quite a bit lower because of it?

11/19/2007 1:32:59 PM

^^^ any single catalyst? i don't know. hoping it snaps back and a 4Q rally begins.

[Edited on November 19, 2007 at 2:22 PM. Reason : ]

11/19/2007 2:21:52 PM

^^ Last time it did this I said 13,000 was the barrier that everyone would start re-buying at and it was pretty accurate.

This time, I'm not as sure but I think earnings will be pretty strong this quarter because I just don't see anything stopping the American consumer.

Unemployment is still low and there are just too many positives to be overlooked right now.

I've been waiting sell ~18k until Jan 1... trying to avoid those cap gains for '07 so I'm praying it heads back up... Or else I won't be getting a new car for Christmas

[Edited on November 19, 2007 at 8:41 PM. Reason : a]

11/19/2007 8:41:33 PM

think i might snatch up some VWO (Vanguard emerging market ETF) tomorrow

11/20/2007 1:37:31 AM

...those DEC 116 calls on RIMM looking a-okay right now.

and yes, the psycho barrier seems to be 12.9k-13k right now, and the resistance barrier seems to be 14k. if we break the 14k barrier by end of December, we'll approach 15k by end of January and into February before we see another pullback.

remember to take some gains in January, so you can buy shit again when the next dip comes.

embrace this volatility and make it work for you -- either that or buy and hold a well diversified portfolio and don't obsess about it.



[Edited on November 20, 2007 at 10:08 AM. Reason : hjkghkjkgkgjk]

11/20/2007 10:00:13 AM

buy and hold, fuck trying to time gains

11/20/2007 11:03:12 AM

FNM and FRE are down 25-35% today. <3 subprime.

11/20/2007 1:59:09 PM

Quote :

"either that or buy and hold a well diversified portfolio and don't obsess about it"

This is something the majority of Americans will never be able to do.

Quote :

"if we break the 14k barrier by end of December, we'll approach 15k by end of January and into February before we see another pullback"

There will be singing in the streets if we get to 14K by year's end, I don't see it, even though the fundamentals are there as Rally mentioned.

11/21/2007 3:48:34 PM

just bought 8 shares of VWO (Vanguard's emerging markets ETF)

11/21/2007 4:30:05 PM

VWO has been very good to me. I got in around $55 18 months ago.

I also played with EWZ quite a bit.

11/21/2007 5:07:50 PM

any thoughts on the liberty dollar? i'm indecisive as to whether this is capitalism at it's finest or just a crank...

11/21/2007 7:36:34 PM

fag

11/21/2007 8:01:17 PM

nice user name lameass

11/22/2007 10:04:42 AM

I got in on VMW at ~$110 I think. Down to $75. Got 30 shares.
*jumps out the window*

11/26/2007 10:40:35 AM

i keep piling into VMW as it goes lower and betting it snaps back.

RIMM Dec 116 worked out well.

CSCO keeps getting beatup - shit don;t make no sense


...also, Saudis will increasing production as we speak



[Edited on November 26, 2007 at 11:02 AM. Reason : d]

11/26/2007 11:00:41 AM

well we hit the 10% mark today.

Ugh this timing sucks I've been trying to patiently hold until Jan 1st for the tax break.

I'm going to need a damn good tax break to make up for the losses. Not to mention anything i cant use for the downpayment will end up costing me interest

11/26/2007 7:43:17 PM

no last hour selloff + dow transports up on lower oil + increased foreign investment on dollar at a near term bottom and short term distress + consumer not in terrible shape = we back?

it seems so

11/27/2007 3:54:11 PM

It's interesting to me the sell off of the 4 -200 days and the 3 -300 days in the last hour of trading over the last month, you could have made a fortune just shorting the S & P the last hour of each of those days. I'll have more of an opinion of when we bust through when we surpass 14K again

11/27/2007 5:19:19 PM

CHA CHING

11/27/2007 5:45:54 PM

oh we back

11/28/2007 2:31:34 PM

I hope no one here owns stock in Sears.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20071129&id=7872644

11/29/2007 7:42:17 AM

^fund i own shorts it...

http://alphatrends.blogspot.com/2007/11/rallies-in-downtrend.html

11/29/2007 4:39:14 PM

Damn. I had no idea how high QQQQ used to be.

11/29/2007 4:41:55 PM

AAPL is a nice stock.

11/29/2007 10:03:29 PM

Yeah, I've been thinking about getting some of that or RIMM. Is there any way to speed up money transfers in Scottrade, or some way I can buy the stock without having the money and then making the transfer from my bank account?

11/30/2007 11:36:55 AM

drop the check off at their office

11/30/2007 11:51:47 AM

Bleh. How about I just buy on margin?

11/30/2007 12:16:06 PM

I'm looking to diversify my portfolio, and looking into an ETF to buy. I've had good luck with the oil ETF I bought earlier this year. Should I go buy oil ETF again? (I know you're not supposed to put all your eggs into one basket) Any other suggestion?

11/30/2007 1:12:42 PM

a natural resource fund

11/30/2007 1:16:33 PM

^^ haven't watched oil in the last few days, but isn't it near all-time highs? why would you want to buy it right now?

11/30/2007 11:55:47 PM

never mind, didn't realize how much the price had fallen. not saying i plan on buying any, but at least you're not buying in at ~$100/barrel!

Quote :

"Scottrade does not currently offer dividend reinvestment as an account option. Cash dividends which are paid to your account are automatically swept into an interest bearing cash account. You have the option to have the cash dividends mailed from your account. Dividends are mailed twice monthly. "

Just to make sure I understand this correctly: when your stocks pay a dividend, Scottrade just automatically (and invisibly) drops it into some interest bearing account, unless you're old and live off of stock dividends and have them just mail you a check?

I can't find any record on the website showing $ paid as dividends. Where is this "interest bearing account" they sweep my loot into? I always figured it went into "Funds available for trading". I don't own a lot of divident paying stocks, but I want to make sure I'm getting the money I'm due!

[Edited on December 3, 2007 at 4:20 AM. Reason : asfd]

12/3/2007 4:18:35 AM

^ That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

No dividend reinvesment is a huge minus if you are young. It's just a way to get more sales charge out of you.

If you had a big enough portfolio it wouldn't matter all that much but with a small account ( less than ~200k) that's a pretty shitty deal.



[Edited on December 3, 2007 at 7:16 AM. Reason : a]

12/3/2007 7:09:04 AM