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Stock-Age: Stocks, Options and Dividends oh my!
- Thread starter koam
- Start date
Interesting. Apparently stevia though has been around for quite a bit, no? Was talking to my gf about investing in it and she mentioned how she's seen it at natural food expos for years. In fact, she received a bunch of stevia samples from companies there just a few weeks ago. I don't know if they are domestic companies, but yea.
With the plummet today, I'm going to buy asap. Made an account on Merrill Lynch (is this a good company to go through?) and have to connect my bank account now...
edit: noooo takes days to clear my bank account. god dammit
Yeah I read the FDA only approved it for human consumption in 2008 before that it wasn't considered safe but new testing showed it was generally safe for human consumption.
All current Stevia products use plants that are grown either in Asia or South America.
Except STVF correct? With my luck the stock will probably jump to 5$ by Monday when I can finally invest.
STVF is an agricultural company and they are merely growing the first batch of stevia plants in America. I wouldn't worry about short term jumps, it may be a great play to short it but longterm is where it's at.
Considering its safe for diabetics and this country certainly has a problem with it I can see it taking market share from Splenda and Aspartame products.
what companies currently dominate that market and what kind of value do they generally hold? I bought a 1000 shares of STVF today in the plunge. Maybe I'll buy another 1000.
not sure about TD, but etrade i had to do a limit order in order to purchase.
Hmm, I did limit at 1.50
mastershake
Member
Got the same error with TD Ameritrade.
If you search, they tell you that you will be unable to buy certain OTC stocks. I guess STVF is one of the ones you cant buy :/
Tried both ways and it didnt work...
here is what they said about certain OTC stocks
I hope I didn't inspire a bunch of GAFers to lose their money .
So far from my research it seems Tate & Lyle which makes Splenda has a stevia based sweetener and the makers of Sweet N Low are experimenting with a stevia based product as well. Considering Tate & Lyle is a $3 billion company and Coke and Pepsi are experimenting with it in drinks the demand for the plant could grow if the products end up being favored better in the consumer market.
In terms of what that means for the stock performance who really knows? I don't know how much stevia sells for imported into the USA and I have no idea how much the stevia grown by STVF will cut costs from importation. I generally am going a little bit with my gut here as we all know if anybody could predict the future we'd be millionaires already.
Best article I can find for research: http://www.smallcapnetwork.com/How-...STEV-STVF/s/via/3414/blog/view/p/mid/1/id/28/
I hope I didn't inspire a bunch of GAFers to lose their money .
So far from my research it seems Tate & Lyle which makes Splenda has a stevia based sweetener and the makers of Sweet N Low are experimenting with a stevia based product as well. Considering Tate & Lyle is a $3 billion company and Coke and Pepsi are experimenting with it in drinks the demand for the plant could grow if the products end up being favored better in the consumer market.
In terms of what that means for the stock performance who really knows? I don't know how much stevia sells for imported into the USA and I have no idea how much the stevia grown by STVF will cut costs from importation. I generally am going a little bit with my gut here as we all know if anybody could predict the future we'd be millionaires already.
Best article I can find for research: http://www.smallcapnetwork.com/How-...STEV-STVF/s/via/3414/blog/view/p/mid/1/id/28/
the shares I bought were basically profits from another stock sale. no biggie if it starts to dive a bit more. I will hold it long as you intend as well. though now i am considering another 1000 shares
Sounds like a investor game of chicken.
Must stay non-emotional though your spending spree makes me want to double up my position as well.
Ether_Snake
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Well it's up 11% so far.
Nope, been buying it ever since it dropped below $20.
And just got lucky with AVP, bought them in Feb and decided to sell on today's takeover offer, for a nice 25%.
2012 has been great so far
Ether_Snake
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So apparently the gaming industry is getting cuts in subventions in Canada, since pretty much all R&D done by foreign companies here is getting cuts as part of the new budget.
People will be fired, of course, pretty much all big game companies are foreign. But smaller companies are supposedly getting more, so that's good.
Unrelated to this, I sold my ADSK shares (order will go through tomorrow morning) for a 29.5% gain. I'll buy again if it drops enough.
CAE:
Glad to still be holding this stock, I have been pretty confident in them (and anything simulation really, it's the future!). They have trouble going over 10$ but whatever, I can sleep soundly on this one.
Since they are a local company, I think the R&D cuts won't affect them. I hope their health segment will grow.
People will be fired, of course, pretty much all big game companies are foreign. But smaller companies are supposedly getting more, so that's good.
Unrelated to this, I sold my ADSK shares (order will go through tomorrow morning) for a 29.5% gain. I'll buy again if it drops enough.
CAE:
Glad to still be holding this stock, I have been pretty confident in them (and anything simulation really, it's the future!). They have trouble going over 10$ but whatever, I can sleep soundly on this one.
Since they are a local company, I think the R&D cuts won't affect them. I hope their health segment will grow.
Ether_Snake
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Am I the only one who thinks Amazon is under-rated (note, not undervalued) in general?
This was a book-selling company, yet they took bold steps, not like music and movie companies, by going as much digital as they can. Amazon Instant Video (now on PS3), music, Kindle, Prime is their attempt at a subscription service that is all-encompassing, and so on.
I think they have demonstrated a lot of smarts that isn't being talked about much.
On an investment level, P/E is really high though.
This was a book-selling company, yet they took bold steps, not like music and movie companies, by going as much digital as they can. Amazon Instant Video (now on PS3), music, Kindle, Prime is their attempt at a subscription service that is all-encompassing, and so on.
I think they have demonstrated a lot of smarts that isn't being talked about much.
On an investment level, P/E is really high though.
Yeah. The success stories you hear about even are distorted. People naturally have selection bias towards wins and neglect losses.
But the reason why this thread is probably this way is that long term, index/ETF investing just doesn't have as much to talk about. It isn't as hands on. Though I still am on my way to becoming a self made millionaire by age 40. Just keep tossing thousands into diversified index funds, invest more when people are scared and the market drops, and that's about it.
And to be a total broken record, I still don't recommend Apple. While they are surely a great company, no company can sustain what they're doing. The way they get repeat customers, huge margins, huge subsidies from struggling cell providers, little serious competition, good brand image...these things are perfectly aligned. I would be extremely impressed if they sustain it for more than 5 years. Their business model is highly vested into consumer electronics/mobile stuff. Extremely high risk if things get competitive. Apple may do fine, but I am not comfortable with heavily investing in a single company that isn't diversified at all. Index funds and ETFs for me.
Hard to say. I fucking love Amazon. I must do 50-100 orders a year, and I pretty much only go to brick/mortar stores now for groceries and clothes.
P/E isn't a good indicator alone because they're reinvesting and growing. So of course having 1% margins is going to make really high P/E. But what's their competition? Newegg? What else. They seem to have a pretty open market all to themselves. But at the same time that can change, and not everyone is going to shop online like me, so who knows.
Too many variables and unknowns. That's why I do index/ETFs.
Biff
Member
Yup, couldn't agree more.
To drop some investing theory in this thread, curious users may want to have a peek at the Fama-French three-factor model. Unfortunately, Wikipedia isn't nearly enough for this, but whenever you're ready the official Fama-French forums are waiting for your questions.
Why am I posting this in reply to an Apple comment? Because Apple is classified as a 'growth' stock. It is statistically improbable that Apple can maintain it's current growth trajectory. This is in direct contrast with a 'value' stock. A good example is RIM: They were originally a darling of investors all around, but half recently fallen hard out of favour. Speaking in terms of pure statistics, it is more likely that an investor will earn higher returns investing in RIM than in Apple at this point in time. And of course, as with any statistical interpretation, nothing is certain.
But, there is a second tier of knowledge baked into the Fama-French Model, which is market efficiency. In theory, the (sophisticated) market full well knows the above paragraph, and therefore they price the equity accordingly to account for these statistical probabilities. Whether they have priced it correctly is where you, the individual investor, comes in.
Sounds too complicated? It is for the majority of us who don't have a PhD or even a Master's in financial theory. That's what ETFs are for: spread your risk/uncertainty over the entire market to lessen the chance that you make one mistake and lose everything. And yes, that also means you will not hit a homerun either.
Ether_Snake
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One thing I don't like and is IMO potentially revelatory of their position outside the US is the Canadian site. It sucks in terms of selection. There is so much more stuff you can buy on the US store. I can't buy a lawnmower on the Canadian site, only books about lawnmowers
So if the selection sucks this much in Canada, it must suck even more everywhere else, which means competition can beat them on foreign markets.
So if the selection sucks this much in Canada, it must suck even more everywhere else, which means competition can beat them on foreign markets.
One thing I don't like and is IMO potentially revelatory of their position outside the US is the Canadian site. It sucks in terms of selection. There is so much more stuff you can buy on the US store. I can't buy a lawnmower on the Canadian site, only books about lawnmowers
So if the selection sucks this much in Canada, it must suck even more everywhere else, which means competition can beat them on foreign markets.
It's a dog eat dog industry for retailers though, profit margins are razor thin but if any retailer is going to make it I would bet on Amazon.
Good info, thanks.
out0v0rder
Member
Yeah I would recommend google finance. Free and their portfolio management is turning out pretty nice.
Ha, why didn't I think of Google? Of course they have everything. Will check it out now. Just waiting for Merrill Lynch to connect my bank account and I will be investing in Stevia, Zynga and maybe HBAN. Hope I don't fuck up too much
Stevia keeps going up and up...stupid thing needs to go back down to 1.5$
I use a combination of Yahoo! Finance and Google Finance. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, so IMO they complement each other very well.
For example, Google Finance has real-time quotes for US stocks, the ability to mark shares as sold for X price so that your gains/losses from a particular stock you don't hold anymore are still part of the total % gain, that neat portfolio graph at the bottom and the ability to say you have X$ in the portfolio but not invested anywhere (cash). On the other hand, if you want to keep up with the day-to-day news, it sucks.
Yahoo! Finance is terrible for managing an actual portfolio, but it's near unbeatable when it comes to keeping up with the news or analyzing a particular stock.
For example, Google Finance has real-time quotes for US stocks, the ability to mark shares as sold for X price so that your gains/losses from a particular stock you don't hold anymore are still part of the total % gain, that neat portfolio graph at the bottom and the ability to say you have X$ in the portfolio but not invested anywhere (cash). On the other hand, if you want to keep up with the day-to-day news, it sucks.
Yahoo! Finance is terrible for managing an actual portfolio, but it's near unbeatable when it comes to keeping up with the news or analyzing a particular stock.
Ether_Snake
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Apple is the only company I see ALWAYS going up, every day.
Yup but then again they have support by longterm holders I assume. Glad it accounts for most of my portfolio.
TheRagnCajun
Member
Re: Index/ETFs
Garth Turner, a popular Canadian finance guru, believes we're in a range-bound market for the forseeable future.
If memory serves me right, he attributes it to all the overspending and debt-loading we're doing now to save ourselves from stagflation. Eventually it will catch up with us, goverments will cut back spending, increase taxes, interest rates will rise, meaning familys have less money to spend on consumer goods.
To that end, he recommends stock picking rather than buy-and-hold index funds, which he exects to yeild dissapointing results over the next 5 years.
So far, we haven't seen the ceiling, but I think his reasoning is sound.
Thoughts?
Garth Turner, a popular Canadian finance guru, believes we're in a range-bound market for the forseeable future.
If memory serves me right, he attributes it to all the overspending and debt-loading we're doing now to save ourselves from stagflation. Eventually it will catch up with us, goverments will cut back spending, increase taxes, interest rates will rise, meaning familys have less money to spend on consumer goods.
To that end, he recommends stock picking rather than buy-and-hold index funds, which he exects to yeild dissapointing results over the next 5 years.
So far, we haven't seen the ceiling, but I think his reasoning is sound.
Thoughts?
Who knows at this point I'm somewhat defeatist. I figured we would have been over Europe and Greece by now but it just keeps getting put off.
I'm wary and will be sure to set sell limit orders in case I don't wake up in time for the market crash. Basically I'm ready to drop all my stocks at a blink of an eye but at the same time I am cautiously optimistic.
I'm wary and will be sure to set sell limit orders in case I don't wake up in time for the market crash. Basically I'm ready to drop all my stocks at a blink of an eye but at the same time I am cautiously optimistic.
This month should be exciting for me, even though we (the markets) aren't doing that well. Earnings season should be interesting, and I'm really looking forward to following the news surrounding the ConocoPhillips split which is expected to close on April 30. I bought 4 shares last month in anticipation of it, and I'm thinking it'll be worth it if only for the associated dividend increase (but I also think shares will appreciate quite a bit in terms of valuation). The ConocoPhillips dividend remains unchanged, and Phillips 66 will be initiating an 0.80$ a share dividend, which works out to a combined ~4.6% yield on cost at the current price.
Sounds like a reasonable theory. I think the market very close to being fairly valued at current levels, so returns should be diminishing to correlate closely with earnings growth (which is expected to be anemic this quarter, and perhaps for the rest of the year).
I think in the mid-term (next 3-6 months) we're unlikely to see markets continue to rally. We'll either see some kind of correction (think 5-10%) or some consolidation, IMO.
Sounds like a reasonable theory. I think the market very close to being fairly valued at current levels, so returns should be diminishing to correlate closely with earnings growth (which is expected to be anemic this quarter, and perhaps for the rest of the year).
I think in the mid-term (next 3-6 months) we're unlikely to see markets continue to rally. We'll either see some kind of correction (think 5-10%) or some consolidation, IMO.
Half and half
Member
Hey, I have a questions regarding trading the e-mini s&p.
I'm training on the ApexTrader simulator. How close is the simulation to the real thing when using limit orders wrt queues, latency, etc?
edit:
Also, any other trading simulators recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I'm thinking about trying out NinjaTrader using Mirrus Futures.
I'm training on the ApexTrader simulator. How close is the simulation to the real thing when using limit orders wrt queues, latency, etc?
edit:
Also, any other trading simulators recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I'm thinking about trying out NinjaTrader using Mirrus Futures.
out0v0rder
Member
Wow shits suckin watch out yalls
does GAF keep a portofolio? do you guys report how you're doing on a regular basis?
I'm of the mind that while fun short term trading is more gambling than anything else. How many people here have experience in capital investment analysis?
I want you all to make lots of money, because you're GAF and I love you, but the biggest lesson I took out of studying finance for years is that the institutions and program traders will always have access to information sooner than you will, and will always win.
I'm of the mind that while fun short term trading is more gambling than anything else. How many people here have experience in capital investment analysis?
I want you all to make lots of money, because you're GAF and I love you, but the biggest lesson I took out of studying finance for years is that the institutions and program traders will always have access to information sooner than you will, and will always win.
My portfolio is going to tank, no doubt. But it's also an opportunity to reinvest in some titles. I wouldn't mind the indexes going deeper for a while.
Hey what do you guys use to trade? I was about to start using Merrill Edge but the 7$ per transaction is a bit much now that I'm planning on having more fun with this. I remember there was one site that offered like a lot of trades per year for 20$ or something, any idea what that is?
Ether_Snake
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Gold has been my only investment that has remained stable over the past few months. Feels secure.
Apple down for the session?!?!?
Just the short sellers getting off at the new 52 week highs.
In longterm I'm hoping holding out for the earnings report coming up this month. Should be good.