Now is a good time to jump into the stock market

[DeAnna]

... and buy some penny stock!! whoo hooo!

BTW, where does one find penny stocks?

 

[jw7]

... and buy some penny stock!! whoo hooo!

BTW, where does one find penny stocks?

Just google "OTCBB" and you will be overwhelmed.

Penny stocks really suck and suffer from corrupt owners and deliberate misinformation to pimp the stock instead of an actual product or service, IMHO.

 

[DeAnna]

Just google "OTCBB" and you will be overwhelmed.

Penny stocks really suck and suffer from corrupt owners and deliberate misinformation to pimp the stock instead of an actual product or service, IMHO.

You're not giving me a warm/fuzzy feeling about this

My budget doesn't allow for "real" stocks.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Fools gold Deanna... Stay away. Seriously, I don't know anyone who has ever done well in penny stocks, and I know a ton of people who have lost large portions and in many cases, 100% of their investment in penny stocks.

You'd be better off doing some research and finding an undervalued stock of a solid company - of which there are many.

 

[Jersey Girl]

I'd recommend checking out NAIC (National Association of Investors Corp) or Motley Fool. They offer a lot of sound advice on how to research and purchase individual stocks. Yes, it is good to buy low, but only if the indicators say the stock has the likelihood to rebound.

I worked with NAIC for a while when I was in PR. Learned a ton working on that account.

 

[D-Dogg]

Forget penny stocks. Buy strong, solid companies with good fundamentals when the market is undervaluing them. Watch technicals and move in and out if you want, or hold for awhile.

Look for companies with long term sustained positive growth (at least double digit percentages) in earnings per share, return on invested capital, equity, sales. And make sure they have a lot of cash. Those are signs of a company being run well. That's only half the battle though - once you have target companies, you will need to set a value for them (many ways to do this, and google can give you all kinds of strategies). Once you have a value of what you feel it should be worth today and they are below that value, pull the trigger.

My strategy has me buy anytime my targets are between 30%-50% below my calculated "worth" of the stock. I roll in technical trends on top of that to determine when to move in and out after that as well. I also sit in cash a lot, because honestly there aren't that many really good companies out there and my criteria for buying is pretty narrow so I'll only see one or two at a time I want to be in. Sometimes many will be popping at once, but that is kind of rare for the ones I track.

Read "The Intelligent Investor" and look for strong value companies.

Oh, and real stocks, not penny ones, don't have to be $100 plus. I pop in and out of CKSW, which is a VERY fundamentally sound corp, and have been in from the low $5 range. It's coming up on a buying opportunity soon when the market corrects after this panic attack.

 

[Russ Smith]

yep the problem with penny stocks is they can be so volatile and it can be VERY hard to get out because of the low volumes. Even if you make a profit you can't realize it without selling and it's not alway easy to sell.

And with low volumes they're fairly easy to manipulate.

It's tempting because you can own more shares but it's just much less safe.

This market really sucks right now I'm about 60% cash in my IRA's and kicking myself I nearly went 100% 2 weeks ago but didn't. There will eventually be a tremendous buying opportunity but I think things are way too unstable to buy right now unless it's a specific stock you have good reasons to value.

With all the downgrades today any company that has ANY exposure is being hit and a lot who have no exposure are getting carried down with them.

Very tough day.

 

[DeAnna]

hmmm... I think I'll just buy more shares of our existing mutual funds. Individual stocks take up way too much time with all the researching, etc.

 

[D-Dogg]

hmmm... I think I'll just buy more shares of our existing mutual funds. Individual stocks take up way too much time with all the researching, etc.

I used to think that way too.

 

[DeAnna]

I used to think that way too.

but now .... not?

Don't have the time to spend on doing all that research and reading financial statements, etc. Unless there's somewhere I can go to that does all the work for you and gives you recommendations

 

[Gaddabout]

QQQ, Chevron, American Express, Public Storage, IGD. These are either large companies that are currently down in spite of value or companies/funds that have a track record of doing well in down markets. Check them out.

 

[D-Dogg]

but now .... not?

Don't have the time to spend on doing all that research and reading financial statements, etc. Unless there's somewhere I can go to that does all the work for you and gives you recommendations

No, there's nowhere that gives you the key to the castle, not for free anyway for sure.

But as i went along and read a lot, I realized that I could sit in funds and bonds and be ok, but realized that depending on the market and when I was born, I could be ok, or SOL. You don't control anything there.

I researched and decided that it was better to understand the market and start investing cautiously and intelligently, aiming for 10%-20% return per year, year over year..even if it meant to sit in cash for a long while, rather than have my money sit in a fund that follows the market up and down. The market fluctuates...really, really good and fundamentally sound stocks fluctuate. The thing is, you can see much more clearly when a stock will move than you will the market, and the gains are much larger for stocks than mutuals.

The book that set me off on my course, that I now have adapted and since expanded into a total strategy, was Rule #1 investing.

It squared my head on stocks, and I started really looking into the market then. I read The Intelligent Investor which was one of the best books I've read on investing. Between those two, I made my own hybrid strategy. In a year, I gained 40% on my daughters education fund, 35% on my 401K, 2% on my old IRA and lost 12% on my wife's IRA (the latter two were because of off-strategy experiments).

I'm sitting in cash now, as my tracking stocks were all showing decline prior to the big drop, and am looking feverishly towards the uptick to get some more gains.

If you do go the Rule Number One investing route, I'd avoid his follow up book's, payback time, strategies. It makes sense, but RNO is much more fundamentally sound and tied more to the strategies that Buffett uses.

 

[D-Dogg]

QQQ, Chevron, American Express, Public Storage, IGD. These are either large companies that are currently down in spite of value or companies/funds that have a track record of doing well in down markets. Check them out.

Today there are a TON of value companies worth grabbing.

Looking at matt's list: Chevron is not something you want to be caught holding 3 years out at today's prices..American Express is better but not a ton. Lower entry, but poor EPS growth and D/E ratio. IGD...aka ING financial...my personal opinion is to steer clear of banking for a few years as there likely will be a credit hit on them, and IGD isn't all that attractive anyway.

Public storage is worth a look or three though.



If you are really down on the economy, I'd look at GG (goldcorp) right now. They are slumping even themselves, but on an uptick. IF the economy stays very wishy washy, GG is a good stock to own. A bull market, let them go and then pick them up when the bears come out again.

Here's about half of the stocks I'm watching for the past year or so (and I'm only REALLY tracking 7 or so, and investing in 2 or 3.)

AAPL; AFAM; BWLD; CKSW; CMG; CRUS; CSTR; DECK; DV; EBAY; ESI; GG; GILD; GMCR; GNVC; GOOG; HANS; LRCX; PETS; SHFL; TRLG; WMS;

 

[conraddobler]

Have any of you looked at the freaking charts a year out?

That's a classic freaking waterfall pattern, does anyone read any history?

A lot of people who were not wiped out in the first crash of the first GD, were wiped out later on chasing bounces that they were sure looked like the bottom.

This is NOT IMO an investors market yet, that'll come when all of you are so disgusted with stocks you'll never consider owning one again, at THAT time it should be the buy of the century.

Unless we get a currency collapse first, then you'll hit the jackpot only to find out money is relatively worthless.

I shouldn't be amazed that this thread is cropping up now but did you look at the timing of this thing, when it started?

OMG you couldn't ask for a better indicator.

This thing could bounce hard at any time, because it's techincally oversold to all heck but that's for traders not investors, and don't think you can just buy something and check it weekly or daily now, this thing when it does go, probably later this year, is going to redefine shock and awe.

Now if you simply want to trade this and you know what you're doing going in and out based on technicals, have fun, you wait a whole lifetime for this.

It's NOT really time for value investing, JMO.

Bottoms don't come when the market swings hundreds of points a day, that's pre crash stuff, it's liable to recover into the fall somewhat, and fool more people, it always does.

When you see a company posting strong earnings into the teeth of an economic hurricane blowing full force, that's a GD buy right there, they're doing something right.

Don't mistake this for that yet, when she's going full gale you'll know, that's when you find values of a lifetime.

 

[D-Dogg]

Now if you simply want to trade this and you know what you're doing going in and out based on technicals, have fun, you wait a whole lifetime for this.

It's NOT really time for value investing, JMO.

I trade technicals on value companies. The swings are fun. I expect a few more peaks and valleys before the wheels fall off. I hope to score some profits there and to be sitting in cash for the large dumpoff, waiting for the gnashing and wailing to end with lots of ammo in the guns.

 

[Gaddabout]

I wouldn't want to be holding Apple this time next year if bought at their current price.

 

[D-Dogg]

I wouldn't want to be holding Apple this time next year if bought at their current price.

Oh heck no. Apple was a good buy back at sub $200. Those are stocks I watch, not necessarily buy/own. I buy them when they are 30%-50% off the value I target them as, and only when their technicals show a bump coming..and then sell them when the technicals say they are heading for a downtrend. Then buy them again based on technicals.

Apple hasn't been a buy on the critiera I have for a long, long time now. Unfortunately, I missed the right time for them as I was in another couple of stocks that were rising. My buying range for Apple was $170-$200, but that was last year and I've not recalculated it again. I'm positive they are not remotely close to recalculated numbers right now, so I'm not wasting my time doing the math.

Good clarification though...

 

[DeAnna]

AAPL today is at $373/share
GOOG is $563

 

[82CardsGrad]

AAPL today is at $373/share
GOOG is $563

CMG up $12 to $300 per share!!

 

[D-Dogg]

AAPL today is at $373/share
GOOG is $563

If you want to play technicals and have a ton of cash lying around, Google is a whipsaw. Problem is, the technicals usually trail in my experience and it's falling quick before you can get out.

It swings between high 400s and low 600s fairly regularly.

And if you ever buy high priced stocks like that, my advice is to not think about them as 500 dollars, and gaining 10 dollars or losing 20 dollars. It's about percentage gain/loss.

I think of them in dollars and cents...so $563 mentally becomes $5.63 so a 20 dollar drop is akin to a $0.20 drop on a five buck stock. Not fun, but not mentally twenty bucks. Now, when it drops a hundred bucks you would freak out, because you're talking a loss of 20% of value. Goog does that a lot. I watch it, but rarely, rarely, rarely buy any of it. Too volatile. But every once in a while I'll nibble off a corner and get out after it gains a nice amount.

 

[82CardsGrad]

If you want to play technicals and have a ton of cash lying around, Google is a whipsaw. Problem is, the technicals usually trail in my experience and it's falling quick before you can get out.

It swings between high 400s and low 600s fairly regularly.

And if you ever buy high priced stocks like that, my advice is to not think about them as 500 dollars, and gaining 10 dollars or losing 20 dollars. It's about percentage gain/loss.

I think of them in dollars and cents...so $563 mentally becomes $5.63 so a 20 dollar drop is akin to a $0.20 drop on a five buck stock. Not fun, but not mentally twenty bucks. Now, when it drops a hundred bucks you would freak out, because you're talking a loss of 20% of value. Goog does that a lot. I watch it, but rarely, rarely, rarely buy any of it. Too volatile. But every once in a while I'll nibble off a corner and get out after it gains a nice amount.

You should pay serious attention to ISRG. It literally goes up and down by double digits on a daily basis. It's like clockwork! It has made a lot of people a ton of money over the past 2 years!
You need to have a traders' mindset and stomach... but, if you do - this stock will pay off handsomely for you!!!

 

[D-Dogg]

You should pay serious attention to ISRG. It literally goes up and down by double digits on a daily basis. It's like clockwork! It has made a lot of people a ton of money over the past 2 years!
You need to have a traders' mindset and stomach... but, if you do - this stock will pay off handsomely for you!!!

Interesting - I hadn't found that one but it passes the eyeball test on the fundamentals. I swing trade, so daily changes don't bug me if they are trending within my limits and haven't triggered any sell signals. I'm usually in a trade for 4-12 weeks.

Looking back over the past 6 months, I see two times I would have bought in and got out, and would have gained a total of $60 share...18% profit is definitely where I want to be.

I'll continue to track this one and dig deeper on it; thanks for the tip on it.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Interesting - I hadn't found that one but it passes the eyeball test on the fundamentals. I swing trade, so daily changes don't bug me if they are trending within my limits and haven't triggered any sell signals. I'm usually in a trade for 4-12 weeks.

Looking back over the past 6 months, I see two times I would have bought in and got out, and would have gained a total of $60 share...18% profit is definitely where I want to be.

I'll continue to track this one and dig deeper on it; thanks for the tip on it.

Cool...Based on experience, this stock hardly ever, I mean never moves down two days in a row...If all you did was buy on the down day and sell the very next day - you will have made out extremely well!!! Great company. They are actually a client of mine. Extremely well positioned and loaded with CASH! Strong growth with plenty more to come... they are truly just scratching the surface. Great company. Even better stock!!!!

 

[D-Dogg]

GNVC

Warning - this is not a good stock - but it is a sentimental one that I track. I would not recommend anyone buy this, but I track it because I was holding the bag on some shares of it and I'm still waiting for it to get to a point I can recover. One of my early experiments in trading that backfired big time. Company is run like a lemonade stand in the winter.

 

[Russ Smith]

Interesting - I hadn't found that one but it passes the eyeball test on the fundamentals. I swing trade, so daily changes don't bug me if they are trending within my limits and haven't triggered any sell signals. I'm usually in a trade for 4-12 weeks.

Looking back over the past 6 months, I see two times I would have bought in and got out, and would have gained a total of $60 share...18% profit is definitely where I want to be.

I'll continue to track this one and dig deeper on it; thanks for the tip on it.

Intuitive surgical is one of those stocks that breaks my heart. Back after the downfall it was below 100 bucks and I had it on a list of about 8 stocks I wanted to buy. I'd interviewed there and was quite surprised when I didn't get the job several years earlier and I just knew it was a good company.

I didn't have enough money to buy all 8, was out of work at the time so wasn't investing too aggressively, so I didn't buy ISRG. It's at 340 right now, not claiming I would have held all that way but I could made a ton more money on it than the ones I did buy. Just kills me.

I should add, making any critiques of one's trading method based on the last few years is dicey because the market has been so unusual. At the time I was buying those stocks I could have almost thrown darts at a board and made money because everything was down. That's why I know I don't know enough to trade frequently, if I did, I would have bought ISRG.