I had promised that I was going to start my own thread regarding stock investments and the markets. So many things have happened since last time I was here and I really do not feel like sharing my knowledge. But a promise is a promise and there have been few people that have emailed me and supported me.

This thread will deal with investing in the stock markets. I will not discuss individual stocks but discuss ETFs like SPY, DIA, IWM and QQQQ. The one good thing about trading ETFs compared to individual stocks is the the ETFs provide instant diversification among similar companies within the same sector.

I will post more as we go along, regarding entry-price, profit-target and stop-losses. I do not think that any ETF is good or bad. It is good only if I'm making money and bad if I'm losig money.

If you have not been in the market so far, please read this as an information piece only rather than my recommendations. There is risk involved and you should know how much risk to take on any position.

Any suggestations, comments and criticisms are welcome as long as it is market related. If this thread gets out of hand and we start discussing off-topics, I'll stop posting.

Have a happy new year!!!! May 2007 bring you and your family lots of joys and riches.

emini with regards to Buffet.. what would buffet buy... <br><br> as buffet has retired.. so people should be careful about buying what his fund buys from now on.

Yet another selloff.

I'm enjoying this nonesense.

:P

Lato: Buffett is not retiring anytime soon. I did not post that so that we can buy what Buffett bought but rather identify what he looks for before he buys, this way we can do our own thing.

 

"The way I screen for stocks is not based on value or future expected cash flows or any other thing taught in business school. My idea is that given the amount of securities in the market, on(e) can always find a handful (of stocks) at any given moment to invest/ trade in without all that pain." TimeTraveler

Ouch!!

To me, that is gambling, legalized or not. And it certainly is not investing. Be that it may, I am more inclined to think you are perhaps a day or a short term trader, and if that has worked for you- great. The 5 minutes you spend reading up on the financials would be a waste in this case anyway.

If the above is your sentiment towards investments in equities I would think twice about doing the CFA program, as that may also be a waste of time.

[Disclaimer: JB is now deviating from the topic of this thread...]

CFAs are not dime a dozen- there are NOT enough in the market, and are very expensive. The big banks pay a hefty premium- around 35% for CFAs (read this in some report last year) of equal caliber in a number of finance positions.

Personally, I have been wanting to get into asset/funds management, and for that reason I am currently studying for the CFA exam (Level I)- been doing so for the last month. I find the material to be absolutely invigorating. However, the problem thus far has been, like most professionals who work full time, managing time to get some studying done.

Not to be too instrusive or nosey- what kind of backgrounds do you all have? Finance pros? Academics? Students? Amateurs? Etc..

JB

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can anyone suggest to me if i should buy GLD .. im planning to buy some gold etf and i know the prices are sky high but lot of people seem to think it can still go higher.

If we manage to close up towards the high, I'll be buying here. Any tech stock will be fine.

emini good to see u back in this thread... i bought GLD at $92 and now its $96... do u think i should sell  or should i wait ?

also what do u think of the US Natural Gas sector ?  buy/hold/sell ?

I feel that gold is approaching near a top. If you have other stocks then you can keep it as a hedge but right now I like tech stocks. Gold usually performs better when the dollar is falling but today after the Fed news came out dollar is showing strength, I was thinking that dollar was going to be hammered.

If I were you I'll get out but please don't blame me if this goes to $150.

Hey emini bro, so do you think the market's hit rock bottom here? If I remember well

you said last time that you won't be posting anymore until the good times started ;)

While I think that this is a short term bottom, I think the market is long way from

capitulation. Well to tell you the truth, I am fighting with this notion of market

bottom. My mind tells me that there is still about 700-1000 points downside at least

until 2 next month but my hearts tell me its all okey-dokey!! Its always good to listen

to your mind though, at least in stock markte!!

Latoboy, if I were you I would hold the GLD, of course long term(GLD is over due

for a correction for short term though) There might be much more rocky times ahead for

dollar!!

OO: It is hard to say whether this is the actual bottom, but the last few days I felt that we were approaching a short-term bottom. All the indexes rallied 3-4% today and that is a sign of strength. I buy strength and sell weakness, so I am buying here.

This is similar to 98-99 when the Fed unexpectedly lowered the discount rate and the market was up 3-4% that day and did not look back for a long time. I think techs will outperform S&P because it does not comprise of any financial stocks or housing stocks.

We will likely get to 1420-1440 in S&P. If we get past 1440 then this will go much higher. If we can't break 1440 then 1100 is the likely scenario.

Just watch out for the 1% selling days.

I like ACH, RIG and QQQQ.

Emini, as per our conversation yesterday, you hit the nail on the head bro.  Awesome analysis...looks like the Fed really helped play along with that support level we talked about and bolstered the whole move...Looks like the bulls are raging back.  BTW, Will keep you posted of any new developments here.

There could be some more selling tomorrow and Friday. As long as we stay above 1250 in S&P, we still have a chance to go higher. If we cannot hold 1250, I'll exit and re-evaluate. Yesterday's rally was one of the biggest since early 2003 and we all know what happened after that. Nothing to do than to wait and see how things unfold in the next few days.

Bear Stearns is going to be bought out by JP Morgan. What does this news going to impact tomorrow morning (if it happens)? I thought this will probably lift up its stock but people are saying , there will be blood pouring on the Street tomorrow. I didn't quite understand why?

I was thinking to buy some Goldman Sacs before its earning call. I assume they will probably beat the street's expectation and Fed's rate cut will probably lift up this stock.  

 

Team Player: Bear news came on Friday, they are in a lot of trouble. Stay away from BSC or any financial firm including GS. We are in a bear market, we might see some bounce soon in few days or maybe in few weeks but long-term it does not look good. I am expecting a rally to 1420 soon but I expect the market to decline after that.

Buy SDS after we see a rally to 1420. SDS is an inverse ETF, it moves in the opposite direction of the market. As always, it is for traders only. For long-term investor I would have sold a month ago and stayed in cash.

Latboy: Nice call on the GLD. Hope it works for you.

JPM buying Bear for $236.2 million i.e. $2 per share. BSC closed at $30.!!! Holy Crap..........Bear has real estate that is supposed to be worth more than that. There is some serious stuff going on that we don't even know.

Not trying to show off here but if you go back and read my posts, I always mentioned that we need to know when and where we are going to get out if things don't work out as planned. There are people that are connected that will get the information before we do, so we need to watch how the stocks react when they reach critical level.

Currently futures are taking a beating DOW is down more than 200 points.........

It does not look too good. There will be massive lay-offs, so get to work an hour early and leave 2 hours late.

 

hey all!!

I came online after months (i've been really busy with my classes and all) and this deal just blew me away!!!

I just accidentally clicked on yahoo finance as i was working on some stochastics homework and KABOOM!!!!

Man, Bear Stearn's is in MUCH MORE S#IT than we think it is in. The manhttan building it headquarters it's offices in is prolly more than the 200 million or close to it. This is serious stuff. Dammit, I'm getting just a bit unnerved, not a whole lot- just a bit, abt my job propects.

LOL and Emini's comments. I would totally get to work early.

Nice to be back after a shit load of schoolwork. It is exhausting when you're an undergrad and PhD students enrolled in your class fail midterms

...but makes you feel not so bad abt the failure either. ...not after the prof is unhappy with EVERYONE!!

Have a great start to your week fellas.

Anyone seen Kagbeni yet?

eminitrader, thanks for your comments..

what do you think about this.?

tomorow is the Fed rate cut day.

I was thinking about buying some Tech stocks but i think in this market too risky.. the stocks may not rally much..
so i think i am going to buy QID or SDS on a weakness sometime this week once the market rallies.. and then i will turn it around and sell it within a few days for a quick approx 3% gain.

do you have any suggestions.. also Timetraveller if u have any suggestions.



-latoboy

1250 on S&P was not violated. I expect a rally led by techs. Exit if we close below 1250 in S&P. Target: 1420.

Latoboy: Be careful with GLD.

My strategy is to sit back and see. I wouldn't buy into this latoboy. Just sit back and relax. There will be times (lots actually) when you'll feel like slapping yourself and sayng "dang, i shuda bought that, look how high it went...". But don;t succumb to that.

I want some more blood on the streets. I'm buying a home soon so naturally I want the rates to hit bedrock!

I am a bigoted anti-patriotic moron. Hey, just business as usual.

 

 

Start buying here. We could sell-off after we get to 1420 but there is a chance that we could go higher. Will re-evaluate the situation as things progress.