Oh no, I'll show when I'm going down as well. I'm in this for long term gains. I'm not educated enough to try any get rich quick schemes other than work hard and watch how I spend my money.

Sorry --- I couldn't! GD 1%'r


:D

Good -- this will be fun!

....everytime I check this thread it has 30 new posts! All good stuff...:thumbsup:

Makes me want to vomit when I think of the three years I spent "daytrading"....my hair turned white, I had massive heart burn AND I got my ass handed to me. What a waste of time...I got REALLY good at fractions though..:lol:

Greg.....big thanks to you for sharing your wealth of knowledge on this subject!! I need to find my password for my online account and look at some good names for long term holds, thanks for lighting a fire under my backside.....:yes:

Edward Jones is one of THE WORST "investment houses" in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE.... you hit the nail right on the head -- these basterds only buy front end loaded funds! Their commissions are like 5% UP FRONT -- but you never see that on a statement -- you have to do the math to figure out they screwed you... and they buy "mutual funds" that are hard to find and figure out what the f is in them... and then you check the "EXPENSE RATIO" of the fund and find out it's 1 1/2%.... so by the time you pay these AHoles 5% up front - and then pay the fund management another 1 and a half percent - and the "fund" has a 1.25% "dividend" --- do the math --- YOU'RE GOING BACKWARDS with inflation factored in!

I so hate those kind of people! They've ruined more retirement funds than the law should allow!

I just looked at someone else's "professionally managed" funds.... every one of them was a front end loaded mutual fund... OMG -- I just want to go postal on those kinds of firms!

FOLKS -- there is NO REASON WHATSOEVER to invest with an Edwards Jones or any outfit like that!

Investing is so easy a caveman can do it! Just buy big good companies that have paid an increasing dividend over a long period of time... and with charts that go from low to high over a long period of time. If you know the name - look 'em up! Check 'em out! This ain't rocket science! Pick a drug company - go to your medicine cabinet and see who makes the stuff -- then go to Google or Yahoo Finance - - and search the name -- the go to your food cupboard - gather some food names - go look 'em up and do some comparisons -- then drive down the street around town -- what's the biggest retailers -- write 'em down and look 'em up...

If you did that -- you'd own FOOD -- RETAIL -- PHARMACEUTICALS - GAS and OIL - so if you owned 5 stocks you'd already start to be DIVERSIFIED! THE key to this is to own what known as "BEST OF CLASS".... so when the name surfaces -- now start to compare this against other names you know in the same "industry"... so if you're thinking "retailers" -- then compare COSTCO - WALMART - TARGET - HOME DEPOT - LOWES etc.... if it's "drugs"/pharmaceuticals -- then look at MERCK - PFIZER - JOHNSTON and JOHNSON (not really a drug company).... If you need Food -- there's a ton of great names - just open your cupboard or refrigerator...

OR -- If you poke around in a Schwab account -- there is a RESEARCH function and you can use it to search for all the companies in an industry/sector.... and then you can sort 'em by their size - or by their growth over a period - or by the dividend they pay.

Does this take some work? Yeah.... but isn't it worth it? It takes some work to build a car too...

When you find some names that look good to you in your research --- WRITE THEM DOWN -- and Write WHY you like them -- and what they look like on paper i.e., Growth % over 5 or 10 years -- dividend payment - the sector they're in (retail - gas - manufacturing etc) so you can then not overlap. Get two or three names in each sector and then go back and compare them. I like Coke - I don't drink Pepsi - they're so similar on "paper" that I just prefer to own Coke. It's as simple as that. I use AT&T -- I used to own AT&T and VERIZON -- but I wanted more diversification - and I wanted a bigger position in another couple of companies so I sold the VZ and bought MORE AT&T and another couple of stocks in different sectors.

I own TWO "terbacky" stocks -- PM and MO -- I HATE smoking -- it kills people -- but as long as people want to smoke - and the companies pay great dividends and have great growth -- I'm going to own 'em. It's kinda like "guns don't kill people - people kill people" - kinda the same with smoking... :unibrow:

People are going to use -- food - drugs - smoke - buy gas - and talk on their cell phones... So I'm going to own the BEST OF THESE COMPANIES in these sectors... as long as they meet the other 'requirements' -- capital growth and dividend payers... and have that nice sweet chart.

:woot:

Welcome!!

I used to day trade BUT -- HUGE BUTT -- I NEVER EVER day traded with my "regular funds" -- I only traded a separate account that if it went to zero wouldn't have been anything to me. BIG DIFFERENCE from that and what many people are doing! I think I mentioned it in one of these posts.... It was fun - it was 'easy' - and I was good at it. BUT it was also during a record breaking BULL market. Anybody could do it. Just like the first guys that started flipping houses... it was so easy they made TV shows about it... but day traders and house flippers - usually lose in the end. It only takes a couple bad deals and, bang, you're out. ME -- I'd prefer to stay in the game and win long term. What kills me is that the names I traded in - had I just bought and held - would have made me SO MUCH MORE! OMG -- as in 10's of millions MORE. Thank god I came to my senses!

I have a very long list of woulda/shoulda/couldas....

Just a funny story -- because we need to keep all of this fun - even if it's at my own expense....

I'm really conservative - as in really when it comes to financial stuff. We owned a LOT of Microsoft stock back in the mid 90's.... and we wanted to buy a boat. SO -- I sold enough stock to pay cash for it. Okay -- we're talking "Yacht" to most here - but I always just called it "the boat".... by the time I paid the taxes - paid for the "options" price on the shares and got enough to pay for the boat - I'd sold over a million bucks worth.... SIX MONTHS LATER - the stock splits 2 for 1 -- and in another 6 months it splits 2:1 again - and a year later splits 2 for 1 again! I figure I paid around 20 million for "the boat"... it was the smallest 20 million dollar boat in the history of the UNIVERSE (thanks AL!).

BUT Hindsight is 20/20 and at the time -- there was no f'n way I was going to borrow money to buy a boat! What if the whole world fell apart?!?! At least I'd go down not owing anyone for anything! That is just the way I roll.... but man I wish I hadn't done that!

Thanks a lot! I just about pissed myself :rofl: A good friend of mine who is an employee "incentives" manager for MS just bought a boat (dingy) last month and I've been harassing him a "little" bit about his personal wealth wealth. :rofl: :rofl:

This thread is truly a priceless lesson in life!

Hey Greg- I have a story as well... I sold some of my apple options back in 2002 to help pay for my wedding/honeymoon/house down payment. The shares were trading for a split adjusted ~$7.40, we now trade close to $400. I don't refer to her as an anchor. :_paranoid But man do I wish I had hindsight!

Know what you mean on the day trading, Total waste of time...This thread has got me rethinking about how I handle the investing ideas

I love the idea of starting a kind of investment club where we share ideas and stock picks. Think we could buy enough of a stock to force the price up? :lateral:

One I thought of but didn't buy was Ford in 2008-09 when it was like at $2. It was pretty clear they weren't headed for bankruptcy or a bail-out and if you look at it's chart it went to like $18 or so in 2 years, 'bout 450% annual return but there's that hindsight again. Where's that opportunity out there now? Greg, you da man, c'mon now