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[Soybean]

The stock market is great. Not just because it makes you money, but I find following the economy and analyzing companies to be pretty fascinating. Still have a lot to learn, though. I'm reading a book by former Federal Reserve governor Laurence Meyer that will help me better understand the hot behind-the-scenes action at the Fed. I know how to read balance sheets and income statements, but I'm reading up on how to improve my technical analysis skills. I'm also learning some investment strategies, such as the BMW method from the Fool.com boards and the MACD indicator.

Big Fool.com fan. I use that site a lot for research, opinion and discussion.

Some of my favorites:
Marvel (MVL): Up 24% since I bought it in October. Great business model in licensing its characters to studios who take the risk in movie production. The risk is in growth slowing down as people get tired of comic book movies and crappy movies get made.

Starbucks (SBUX): Up 30% since I bought in June. Yeah, I know SBUX gets a lot of crap for being ubiquitous, but their growth is still phenomenal. They want to triple the number of stores they have (mostly in the US in fact), and even though that sounds silly at the outset, I think consumers will snap it up. I know I wouldn't mind one a little closer to home.

Pixar (PIXR): Up 10% since I bought in November. The best animation studio in the world IMHO. Slow production (18 months per film) is a concern, however. New distribution partnership (with Disney or anyone else) will favor them a lot more this time, now that they've shown they're a powerhouse.

Coventry Health (CVH): Bought a few days ago. Very well run company with huge growth potential. Just acquired another health care company. Low P/E. Have high hopes for this one.

Ariel Small-cap Fund (ARGFX): Up 42% since I bought my first batch 2 years ago, and 22% from the batch I got a year ago. It's cool.

I'm also taking some gambles with Sirius (SIRI), Faro Technologies (FARO), Protein Design Labs Inc. (PDLI), and Mechanical Technologies Inc. (MKTY). I have high hopes for all them, but they're kinda volatile. They can be really up or really down from month to month. I'm taking a long term hold strategy with them. No day trading for me!

What do you invest in? Got any pearls of wisdom?

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

I invest in the 401k plan my company offers but, not much more than that. I need to get some debt out of the way first. To me I'm not making money if I'm getting 7% in returns but I have credit cards with 14% APR

 

[Mad Hatter]

Hmmm... I bought a whole bunch of Apple stock @ $61 several years ago.. It is now 88.79!
What sucked is that like, the DAY after I bought the stock, it dropped like a rock and stayed at $13 for quite a while. It's a pity I didn't buy any at that time, as it eventually shot up like a rocket when the iPod caught on.

 

[bionic77]

I used to invest fairly often in the stock market. I did make a lot of money and then proceeded to lose a lot of it as well. Right now I am in school and don't have a lot of income coming in, but once I am back in the work force I think I am going to invest in real estate instead of the market. Though with my luck, the current real estate boom will end a few years after I drop my life savings into it. :lol

 

[open_mouth_]

I started investing right before the post Sep. 11 Stockmarket downturn (what timing, eh?) and now my investments are worth like 65% of their original value. I bought stocks in companies like Microsoft, Marvel, Home Depot, AOL (fucking shit), Netflix, Sony, Midway, Nintendo, etc. Some have done well, though, but not nearly enough to offset the losses.

 

[AirBrian]

I've owned Microsoft, Nortel Networks, MCI-Worldcom, First Scientific, Disney, and Washington Mutual.

I made money on MS, Nortel (although not as much as I should have -- I almost bought more when it went down to $0.50), Disney, and WaMu.

I lost money on Worldcom and First Scientific.

I currently own shares of Dell and shares in a couple of mutual funds (and my 401k). Dell's my baby. I've owned shares since 1998 when I bought a ton of shares at $45 right after the split. I still have those, but fortunately bought a ton more when it dipped to $20 a share. I almost sold last week right before their earnings came out, but decided to wait a little longer (AMD support? ).

 

[marko]

I invest money in various things, but do not invest in individual stocks. Too risky for me overall, although I might eventually put a small percentage of my investments in stock later on. To me though, doing that doesn't seem too much different than gambling (although odds of getting ahead are better)

 

[Deleted member 4784]

I can't believe that Google isn't up there, considering the level of success that stock has seen recently. Not only that, but they are currently in the stages of making the entirety of Yale's library available online. Whatever software they manage to develope to make that plan into a reality is going to revolutionize how information is stored, presented or recorded onto the web in bulk. Anyways, my family has some stocks, but most of it is in either medical, electricity or oil companies.

IMO stocks aren't the best investment out there; real estate is a far more practical investment considering that you can rent it out while you wait to see the value increase. I think that one only needs to take a look at the current state of the market now to confirm this: homes which were once around $50,000 are now selling for around $150,000 or more. Hell, my dad is kicking himself in the ass right now because the house he gave to my sister has literally tripled in price largely in part to the amount of land she has surrounding her home since prices skyrocketed. I'm no real estate expert, but I'd predict that in 10 or 20 years when most of the baby boomers start going into assisted living that most of their homes will be going out on the market and it will be the best time ever to buy. I just hope that I have enough money in my trust fund when the time comes. :lol

 

[Lathentar]

I invest in a number of stocks...

Gamestop GME
Sirius Radio SIRI (Up like 200% since I bought it)
Delphi DPH

Also, I have a number of CDs in ING Direct including a savings account.

Savings Account with 2.35% APY...

 

[McLesterolBeast]

The present value of any given investment already accounts for virtually every bit of information you could potentially have about the stock, the company or upcoming events that may effect the companies net worth.

Some of you probably have success stories of beating the markets return, and for every one of those, there's someone who's lost and probably won't be sharing that story with us. Unless you've got some 'insider information', you'll average the same as the market's average. If you've got anecdotal evidence to support the contrary, fine - believe otherwise and continue making brilliant decisions.

On the plus side, it's hard to screw up badly when making specific decisions (with respect to which stock to purchase) for the same reason that it's virtually impossible to beat the market in the long run.
If you've got a lot to invest and you're asking what to do in a thread at a videogame forum, go see a professional who'll create a portfolio for you. The marginal cut they take will almost certainly be outweighed by the increase in expected return and decrease in volatility (risk) that a properly structured portfolio grants you.

 

[Raven.]

I'm planning on buying some gold, hopefully that's not gonna be fuxxored...(you know the world's markets could suffer badly if Dubya decides is time for more WAR and mad spending...)

 

[Deleted member 4784]

Gold is a horrible investment. The value of gold fluxuates far more than the US economy. Whether you get a return on your investment is entirely dependent upon the time you choose to sell and you will see little if any exponential increase in the value of it. The point of an investment is to turn a (preferrably large) profit and you just don't see that in gold.

 

[bionic77]

Gold hasn't been a good investment for a long ass time. Better to keep it in the bank than buy some gold.

If you want to make a big ass profit (or more likely lose everything in one heroic swoop), buy some options on a stock you think is about to explode.

 

[Outdoor Miner]

I work for a transfer agent for several huge companies (AAPL, GOOG, SJM, etc.) and there are some companies i'd love to invest that have big fat juicy quarterly dividends, but that would probably bring conflict seeing where I work.

Now that I'm making semi-decent buck again, I plan to start investing into ATI, Microsoft, and 1 index (SPY or QQQQ). Sorry that I only go by symbols, i'm just so used to it.

I had people calling today wanting to know how to sell their Apple shares. This is like 2 weeks before the upcoming 2-for-1 stock split. :lol

 

[Fatghost]

The present value of any given investment already accounts for virtually every bit of information you could potentially have about the stock, the company or upcoming events that may effect the companies net worth.

Some of you probably have success stories of beating the markets return, and for every one of those, there's someone who's lost and probably won't be sharing that story with us. Unless you've got some 'insider information', you'll average the same as the market's average. If you've got anecdotal evidence to support the contrary, fine - believe otherwise and continue making brilliant decisions.

On the plus side, it's hard to screw up badly when making specific decisions (with respect to which stock to purchase) for the same reason that it's virtually impossible to beat the market in the long run.
If you've got a lot to invest and you're asking what to do in a thread at a videogame forum, go see a professional who'll create a portfolio for you. The marginal cut they take will almost certainly be outweighed by the increase in expected return and decrease in volatility (risk) that a properly structured portfolio grants you.

IAWTP.

If you are serious about investing, see an investment professional and get a quality portfolio put together.

 

[Raven.]

I want to invest in a financially extremely safe place just in case of a worst case scenario(aka dollar collapse, world market's crash, worse than Big depression, famine disease, etc, basically your average apocalyptic scenario).

 

[Jdw40223]

I've actually been researching some stocks for that past year... and now i have some money to indulge into. So.... considering you all have experience in this part of 'investing' whats the best way to buy a stock?!? Online? Broker? Im speakin small tones. Im not going to be buying 10's of thousands of dollars in stock, so relatively speaking I just need a cheap way of doing it. Im not sure what to do!? recommendations....

 

[WasabiKing]

no stocks, just Mutual Funds, IRAs, and other stuff that can save my ass in taxes... But at the very least, if your company offers matching for a 401K, take advantage of it.

 

[Soybean]

My girlfriend (who I expect to marry) and I kind of mesh well when it comes to investing. She loves real estate. I love the stock market. Between the two we'll be pretty diversified once our merger, er... marriage is complete. She doesn't know it, but I'm in competition with her to try to beat her returns. We shall see!

I don't like full service brokers/financial advisors. They cost money and they can have hidden agendas or influences. If in the future I find that I'm merely average or I underperform the market, I'll just track the market with an S&P 500 Index Fund (which I already do with most of the stuff in my 401(k)).

 

[Celicar]

I like to think I'm a pretty savvy investor. I started investing about 8 years ago when I got my first part time job. Started in mutual funds, but my dad has been putting money in a Roth IRA for me for years. I made decent returns in index funds, and then I started slowly putting some of that money into individual stocks. Overall, I've done pretty well, averaging about 12-14% per year.

Now I'm putting in the max every year for my Roth IRA, but I've taken some of my money out of individual stocks and put them back in mutual funds. I don't have the time to monitor and research stocks anymore.

Also, my company matches 80% of my contribution to my 401k, up to 13% of my income, so I invest the entire 13% of my income in it. Max you can contribute is 25%, and I will probably do that once my girlfriend graduates and gets a job, to take some of the burden off me for bills and such.

I should be pretty set in 30 years. :lol

 

[Ryoni]

I bought lot's of Pharming Group (Biotech) stock , for $1.2 a piece. It's now at around the $4.60 after 1,5 month.

I love to buy cheap stocks hehe

 

[ChumsGum]

I leave my long term investments in real estate and in my 401K. Before I owned property, I contributed 30% of my income into my 401K. Now that I've got 2 (going on 3) properties to pay for, I've dropped my contribution to 6% which is the max that my company will match. With my real estate, sure the equity is great, but the tax shelter will help you keep more of the money that you make. There are so many things that you can deduct; mortgage interest, property tax, car registration, etc. With my rental property, I'm also able to deduct the home owners association dues, all repairs, all maintenance, my gas and mileage when I'm managing my property.

I do play the stock market but I don't hold onto the stocks for too long. I enjoy the high risk/reward stocks and when I'm comfortable with a profit level, I'll sell. I don't have the patience for the wait game, I'll leave the long term stuff to my real estate and 401K. I also don't gamble too much of my money with the stock market; simply enough to pay for a vacation or two.

Picks-

SIRI- Sirius Sattelite Radio. Bought at $3, now it's at $6, and I still thinks it's got growth potential. Partners like Ford and Mercedes, with more to follow, have yet to implement their receivers in all models. However, with realtime GPS, video, and of course, audio, the mobile sattelite service will explode.

ASTM- Aastrom. A stem cell research company that will increase in value as the congress slowly allows more research and funding. Part of the problem is the lack of knowledge, there's a stigma that all stem cell research co's use highly controversial embryonic stem cells, which ASTM does not.

VIAC- Viacell. Another non-embryonic stem research company.

KKD- Krispy Kreme Donuts. They've been in trouble for quite some time, but it looks like they've hit rock bottom and can only go up from here. If only they can come up with a "diet" donut.

AAPL- Apple Computer. I think the upcoming stock split will attract a lot of new investors.