Support NeoGAF

[Gallbaro]

i would like to make money in the stock market. i've got more money left over after paying for what i need than i know what to do with, and i think it's time i got into the market..

where can i go to learn?! books, websites, anything?

You do not make money in the stock market and traditionally "retail investors" aka amateur hour, getting into the market is usually a good sign of a bear market.

Play that game the others are playing, see yourself get beat with fake money and then think it over.

As to being a successful investor.

1. You need a strong base in understanding financial statements before you start anything. Go to your Library and grab every accounting book.
2. You need to understand business, for investing you need to be confident enough to buy the entire company if you could. Read plenty of business strategy and managerial books.
3. Then and only then do you start reading investing books to try and create your investing strategy. This is really only for applying your knowledge to your interactions with the idiotic and unpredictable mob that is the "market." And the vast majority of the market are just computers trading against each other using statistical algorithms and their faster connections to data. So do not bother trying to beat those bubble machines in the short term.

 

[DiddyBop]

i would like to make money in the stock market. i've got more money left over after paying for what i need than i know what to do with, and i think it's time i got into the market..

where can i go to learn?! books, websites, anything?

Too late now to learn, luckily I know all the tricks of the trade, 10% annual return guaranteed. Paypal me all your monies

 

[Slayer-33]

I'm getting reamed at this market game, but I am actually learning a lot. Good this is fake money.

Man a full blown meltdown might be eminent... I don't want to sound like a dick but after that happens if it does (I hope it doesn't happen) wouldn't most stocks be down and be set for massive buying?

 

[dudeworld]

But it says it will go through when markets open...

for some reason investopedia has this stupid bug where trades are ordered but not executed. It doesn't happen very often, but it's happened to me once in my school competition, and it's happened to me once in the GAF competition.

Just try again, I guess.

 

[exwallst]

Graham is great. However, most people would do well not to try to replicate his 'buying cheap.' Not that that isn't smart but most people are better off limiting themselves to 12 investments in a lifetime. COOL would never clear that hurdle, for example. Lots of trading is going to kill the returns for most people.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Yeah I'm learning too from playing the game and watching others' moves.

I think it might be more interesting to play with larger sums, in fewer companies, keeping your money until markets go down significantly.

I've been doing pretty good picking stocks, more recently than in the past, but I could do with picking fewer. At some point it just becomes too much to track.

I just wish I had sold when I started posting here recently about how I felt things were going rather high considering the state of the economy and the ME situation. I would have had my down payment safely in my pocket, no worry in my mind. Now I'm hoping markets will recover by the time I need to pull the cash out for the purchase. At worst, I will have lost no money over three years (made enough to cover all commissions and my few losing stocks).

At best, markets recover and I make some 10%

 

[Ether_Snake]

The investopedia game is bugged. My CAD stocks are all at 0.00% today, and I have two orders in limbo.

 

[Kinitari]

I'm having a ridiculously good day. People keeping track, I've lost thousands, about 1,500 a day on average the last few days, today is surprising. keep in mind after this screenshot, I am up nearly another 500 bucks, and have nothing else in the red. Also keep in mind when I bought these stocks I had no idea what I was doing. Now I have a smidgen more than that.

Watch in the last hour, everything drops back down to red :/

 

[mike23]

SSN is recovering nicely after it dropped from $4.66 to <$3 in the span of a few days. Going to bail out soon I think. Going to need the money so I don't have to work this summer. :lol

 

[Ether_Snake]

Guys what do you think of Mega Brands? Canadian-based toy maker, making stuff for some big brands (Halo, Need for Speed, Hello Kitty, and their own brands too).

They announced some good earnings, the company is turning around, they got good brands and international sales are going up quickly. The reason the stock tanked big time some time ago was because a kid died choking on one of their toys. But the company seems to be really turning around.

I'm thinking of buying some when I get a chance.

 

[Gallbaro]

Graham is great. However, most people would do well not to try to replicate his 'buying cheap.' Not that that isn't smart but most people are better off limiting themselves to 12 investments in a lifetime. COOL would never clear that hurdle, for example. Lots of trading is going to kill the returns for most people.

Buying and holding a basket of value stocks will outperform a basket of growth stocks. So ignorant newbies will do well to buy cheap. Even though replicating his cheaper than current book value is very difficult now. Value on the fama french model is defined as a low p/e.

 

[Biff]

This thread is so confusing now.. I have no idea if you guys are talking about the game or about real-life money?

And yes the distinction is very important when offering advice ITT

In most-well-known-business-in-the-world news, LOL

Buying and holding a basket of value stocks will outperform a basket of growth stocks. So ignorant newbies will do well to buy cheap. Even though replicating his cheaper than current book value is very difficult now. Value on the fama french model is defined as a low p/e.

No offense to anyone else here, but Gallbaro - you consistently offer the best advice IMO.

Mind if I ask what you do for a living? I'm guessing some form of funds management

 

[dudeworld]

I'm having a ridiculously good day. People keeping track, I've lost thousands, about 1,500 a day on average the last few days, today is surprising. keep in mind after this screenshot, I am up nearly another 500 bucks, and have nothing else in the red. Also keep in mind when I bought these stocks I had no idea what I was doing. Now I have a smidgen more than that.

Watch in the last hour, everything drops back down to red :/

You did pretty good today. Better than I did with US stocks. I did really good in the Canadian stocks today, and meant to sell some natural gas but I forgot lol. I just hope it doesn't tank tomorrow.

BTW, everyone in the competition can view your portfolio, so don't worry about blocking out what you've got. I originally set it up so it was blocked, but ether and I decided to make it viewable. Makes it easier to learn and talk about this way.

 

[Ether_Snake]

But damnit the game is so buggy with after-market orders I placed an order yesterday for an oil sands ETF and it never did go through. It went up 3.54% over the course of the day. I don't have time during the day to check things out much:|

edit: Gonna try to do the trading during the day. I can win!!

 

[dudeworld]

But damnit the game is so buggy with after-market orders I placed an order yesterday for an oil sands ETF and it never did go through. It went up 3.54% over the course of the day. I don't have time during the day to check things out much:|

when I was doing it with my school, where it actually counted towards a prize, I lost out on a 15% gain on one stock because it didn't process my order. I was pretty pissed

 

[LegoDad]

when I was doing it with my school, where it actually counted towards a prize, I lost out on a 15% gain on one stock because it didn't process my order. I was pretty pissed

Alright I joined this little game, did this in Middle School and was really good, we will see if I still have the touch or not.

 

[Gallbaro]

This thread is so confusing now.. I have no idea if you guys are talking about the game or about real-life money?

And yes the distinction is very important when offering advice ITT

In most-well-known-business-in-the-world news, LOL


No offense to anyone else here, but Gallbaro - you consistently offer the best advice IMO.

Mind if I ask what you do for a living? I'm guessing some form of funds management

I do manage some funds, but not for a living yet. About to start my own private investment/entrepreneurship company.

Currently looking at CLTC and SB. SB may need to wait for a Greek Default.

But damnit the game is so buggy with after-market orders I placed an order yesterday for an oil sands ETF and it never did go through. It went up 3.54% over the course of the day. I don't have time during the day to check things out much:|

edit: Gonna try to do the trading during the day. I can win!!

Those games are bullshit, anyone with access to a Bloomberg Machine will be able to trade off of the time lag of those games. But tomorrow for the hell of it I will create a basket of smid value stocks and short a basket of large growth stocks and check back in a few weeks. How do you get into the GAF game?

Well, as a country with minimal resource and massive capital loss, the amount of new capital they will need to import with a dramatic drop in exports should devalue the Yen significantly.

Well, I was dead wrong, forgot to take into account the repatriation of dollar based investments. Thought the BOJ was gonna fund it all by printing.

 

[Ether_Snake]

to join the game: http://simulator.investopedia.com/Game/ListGames.aspx?type=Search&item=NeoGAF&sc=1&scur=Both

Yen is dropping btw, Yen Drops on G-7 Intervention

Oil prices to go back up, as predicted. I don't like this, fucking thing will plunge us back into a recession very quickly, and since we are already not doing well we cannot afford as much of a steep rise in oil prices as last time, so no one should expect the price of oil to go back up as high as it was before it crashed. I'm guessing it can go up to 120$ a barrel before tanking and dragging us down with it again, but over a slower time frame than last time.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Dudeworld, why are you both short and long on the S&P in the game?

BTW I'm looking at GOOG. Seems to be on a down trend, might be a decent buy opportunity in the near future.

 

[dudeworld]

Dudeworld, why are you both short and long on the S&P in the game?

BTW I'm looking at GOOG. Seems to be on a down trend, might be a decent buy opportunity in the near future.

one is based on the TSX and one is based on the S&P500

 

[Plasmid]

Rich-GAF makes me sad.

 

[Kinitari]

Dudeworld, why are you both short and long on the S&P in the game?

BTW I'm looking at GOOG. Seems to be on a down trend, might be a decent buy opportunity in the near future.

I have some GOOG - it's dropped consistently until about 2 days ago. It's probably done dropping, or at least at any rapid rate.

And the game is entirely open now? Well that's good, now I can see what the fuck smart people are doing. Although my stocks are on a ridiculous upswing, last three days have been good to me, one more day in the same direction and I am in the black.

 

[Ether_Snake]

one is based on the TSX and one is based on the S&P500

Oh right I don't know why I read it twice as S&P.

Rich-GAF makes me sad.

I am definitly not rich, I don't even own an apartment or house or anything.

 

[dudeworld]

Oh right I don't know why I read it twice as S&P.

Well it's TSX/S&P 60, biggest companies on the toronto stock exchange. The other one is S&P 500.

BTW, to whoever recommended GLUU a while back:
I bought some in my investment comp with my school and it did really well. So well, in fact, that it caught the attention of my dad, a professional portfolio manager, and he bought some shares recently and sold before the big drop. So... yeah, just thought I'd let you know lol.

 

[RumblingRosco]

to join the game: http://simulator.investopedia.com/Game/ListGames.aspx?type=Search&item=NeoGAF&sc=1&scur=Both

I am so excited. Gonna start this up this weekend.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Guys I have a question about rising oil prices. Usually, if oil prices rise, share price rises for oil companies. But if oil supply becomes increasingly limited in the future, doesn't it mean more competition for access to oil will occur and chances that some oil companies will go bust will rise? Obviously if resources are limited, so can the number of players end up being limited as well.

 

[Doc Evils]

Hey Gaf, after following the stocks discussions for a few years now, I decided at the end of last month to start investing. Scary experience at first, and a bit confusing, but I finally got the hang of it. Feels great to be a capitalist pig.

 

[Biff]

Hey Gaf, after following the stocks discussions for a few years now, I decided at the end of last month to start investing. Scary experience at first, and a bit confusing, but I finally got the hang of it. Feels great to be a capitalist pig.

Some very basic advice I wish I had at the very start of my investing career:

1. Buy long-term stocks about companies whose business you are familiar with. Trust your gut, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do research before buying anything.
2. Dividends are your friend.
3. Diversify.
4. Don't check your stocks more than twice a day. Very tempting but it has the ability to eat you up and control your life in a very bad way.
5. ****DO NOT INVEST WHAT YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO LOSE****

Once you've been doing it for a while ("a while" is different for everyone) with real money and have successfully detached yourself emotionally from your stocks when you both make AND LOSE money, then you can move on to the fun stuff like shorting, options, derivatives, etc.

gl hf

 

[Doc Evils]

Some very basic advice I wish I had at the very start of my investing career:

1. Buy long-term stocks about companies whose business you are familiar with. Trust your gut, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do research before buying anything.
2. Dividends are your friend.
3. Diversify.
4. Don't check your stocks more than twice a day. Very tempting but it has the ability to eat you up and control your life in a very bad way.
5. ****DO NOT INVEST WHAT YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO LOSE****

Once you've been doing it for a while ("a while" is different for everyone) with real money and have successfully detached yourself emotionally from your stocks when you both make AND LOSE money, then you can move on to the fun stuff like shorting, options, derivatives, etc.

gl hf

Hehe, yeah I know what you mean by some of those points. I'm in for the long term rather than quick buck.

Thanks.

 

[Scarecrow]

Guys I have a question about rising oil prices. Usually, if oil prices rise, share price rises for oil companies. But if oil supply becomes increasingly limited in the future, doesn't it mean more competition for access to oil will occur and chances that some oil companies will go bust will rise? Obviously if resources are limited, so can the number of players end up being limited as well.

Survival of the fittest. Do research on which company has the best business track record and invest in them. However, I doubt the oil is going to run out soon, and it can only get more profitable with emerging industrious countries like China and India sucking up more crude. If you're really worried, you could probably put in a stop loss order in for those stocks, bailing you out if their prices start to drop precipitously (at least, that's what this Stocks for Dummies book is recommending me).

 

[Ether_Snake]

Survival of the fittest. Do research on which company has the best business track record and invest in them. However, I doubt the oil is going to run out soon, and it can only get more profitable with emerging industrious countries like China and India sucking up more crude. If you're really worried, you could probably put in a stop loss order in for those stocks, bailing you out if their prices start to drop precipitously (at least, that's what this Stocks for Dummies book is recommending me).

Yeah that's not a bad idea I guess. The thing is, any of the stocks I own that have appreciated a lot I don't mind keeping them until I need the money for a down-payment on a condo, and I'm thinking that AT WORST they will drop back down to 0% gain (most pay dividends to transaction costs are covered already), which isn't the end of the world to me. I just have no way of knowing if my 30% gain on BHI is close to being too much to keep holding the stock. Last all time high for the company was $96 a share but that was at a highly volatile period, so I see the last actual high at $75 and it is now trading at $68. I have no actual reason to think it might not go much higher, but not reason to believe it will either. Might sell this week. I still have XOM which I haven't held for as long as BHI and for which I'm up 8% so I might just keep that one.

 

[Slayer-33]

What do you guys think of http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ELTP.OB ?


Oxy drug in phase III

 

[Scarecrow]

Yeah that's not a bad idea I guess. The thing is, any of the stocks I own that have appreciated a lot I don't mind keeping them until I need the money for a down-payment on a condo, and I'm thinking that AT WORST they will drop back down to 0% gain (most pay dividends to transaction costs are covered already), which isn't the end of the world to me. I just have no way of knowing if my 30% gain on BHI is close to being too much to keep holding the stock. Last all time high for the company was $96 a share but that was at a highly volatile period, so I see the last actual high at $75 and it is now trading at $68. I have no actual reason to think it might not go much higher, but not reason to believe it will either. Might sell this week. I still have XOM which I haven't held for as long as BHI and for which I'm up 8% so I might just keep that one.

(Keep in mind I haven't started investing yet, but am actively researching it, hence the Dummies book)

You can leave now with a small profit[bird in the hand...] or keep going and see how much you can squeeze out of it. Try to fight the human nature of always wanting more, though. Sometimes you have to know when to leave the card table so to speak.

I have a dumb question for all the veteran stock peeps here: what's to stop someone from investing a sum of cash into a company when you know the price is about to inflate temporarily, then immediately sell off the stock after the bump? Say I invest lots in Apple right before one of their events, then try to sell off my stock right after their price increases due to a gadget announcement?

 

[Ether_Snake]

Actually before any purchase I have a set goal. I usually hope for returns of 25% to 30%, so I guess I reached my goal with BHI and should sell.

Sometimes I have no goal other than expecting a buyout such as with TTWO (I'm up 46%, but my goal with this one is a buyout of the company, which I think Activision would be a more likely candidate for than EA), or I purchase a stock with no goal in my mind at all just because I'm 100% confident in the company's growth (like CAE).

I'm still wondering if I should sell TTWO. I already made money on them when EA offered 25$ a share, and I'm uncertain about ATVI's ability to make a 2B buyout offer for TTWO without major backlash from its shareholders at this point.

 

[Anno]

Curious whether T is going to rally or get crushed tomorrow following the T-Mobile news. If it does get hammered I might take a look at it around the 25-25.50 mark.

 

[Gallbaro]

Curious whether T is going to rally or get crushed tomorrow following the T-Mobile news. If it does get hammered I might take a look at it around the 25-25.50 mark.

Even though they will be paying a premium thusly instantly destroying shareholder value, the market will recognize "Ma" coming back. A great stock to buy that the street may not recognize as an immediate beneficiary could be the GSM chip makers. To use t-mobile spectrum they will have to add another band to the radios.

I have a dumb question for all the veteran stock peeps here: what's to stop someone from investing a sum of cash into a company when you know the price is about to inflate temporarily, then immediately sell off the stock after the bump? Say I invest lots in Apple right before one of their events, then try to sell off my stock right after their price increases due to a gadget announcement?

As long as it is not insider information or a pump and dump, nothing. But if you look at the charts of AAPL it does not actually happen like that.

 

[Ether_Snake]

I'm gonna beat you all tomorrow in the game as far as earnings for the day will be concerned!

edit: btw is there anyway to use some sort of general rule on the investopedia game to sell ANY stocks I own if they return a minimum of let's say 15%? I'm guessing outside of placing individual stop orders there would be no way to do it.

 

[dudeworld]

I'm gonna beat you all tomorrow in the game as far as earnings for the day will be concerned!

edit: btw is there anyway to use some sort of general rule on the investopedia game to sell ANY stocks I own if they return a minimum of let's say 15%? I'm guessing outside of placing individual stop orders there would be no way to do it.

yeah other than stop orders I can't think of any. I guess you could just do the percentage calculations yourself to know when to make the stop order.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Ok, well I placed a bunch of orders since I'm guessing I'll be too busy to place any tomorrow morning. I hate placing an order before markets open at market price but whatever, it's just a game.

I went through a list of stock looking for shares that had fallen at least 15% in the last 13 weeks using Google Finance's stock screener (a bit lackluster in some aspects, you can't save presets for the stock screener, but I prefer it to Yahoo), and looked for the ones that had dropped sharply. Lots of insurance companies, some Japanese and nuclear companies. Bought some among those.

 

[dudeworld]

It should be an interesting week, considering everything that's going on right now.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Damnit stupid bugs in the game, I placed an order for KMPLF last night, at market price, and it's still there in limbo and not going through, it's up 6.09% today. Better just be a lag.

Next time we need to use another site than Investopedia. Too many bugs.

 

[Gallbaro]

Damnit stupid bugs in the game, I placed an order for KMPLF last night, at market price, and it's still there in limbo and not going through, it's up 6.09% today. Better just be a lag.

Your stock does not have enough volume to trade in.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Your stock does not have enough volume to trade in.

Oh really? Damnit

 

[spiderman123]

Damnit stupid bugs in the game, I placed an order for KMPLF last night, at market price, and it's still there in limbo and not going through, it's up 6.09% today. Better just be a lag.

Next time we need to use another site than Investopedia. Too many bugs.

whats the volume?!

 

[Ovid]

Damn, that guy on CNBC must have been really pissed. He yelled the F-bomb as he went on the air, then pulled his earpiece out. That was some funny shit.

 

[Fatghost]

Damn, that guy on CNBC must have been really pissed. He yelled the F-bomb as he went on the air, then pulled his earpiece out. That was some funny shit.

what happened?

 

[Ovid]

I don't know. It was at 11am EST. They were gonna talk to him and Bob Pasani. They had a split screen up and they went to that guy first. First thing out of his mouth was the F-word. It was totally unexpected.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Stornoway up 12% today on news that the government is going forward with its "North Plan" to develop northen Quebec, which is interesting for mining projects in development there.

 

[dudeworld]

T-Mobile, dayum http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=DTEGY:US

 

[dudeworld]

Damnit stupid bugs in the game, I placed an order for KMPLF last night, at market price, and it's still there in limbo and not going through, it's up 6.09% today. Better just be a lag.

Next time we need to use another site than Investopedia. Too many bugs.

check http://simulator.investopedia.com/Trade/ShowFailedTrades.aspx to see if something happened to the trade