Investing 102

[GregWeld]

All you have to do is read what I've already written -- that is INVESTING FOR DUMMIES 102 right there!

Can't make it much simpler...

Open an account - with a discount brokerage.... put some money in it.

Buy some big name big cap stocks that pay you a dividend.

Get more money - add to your account -- and repeat the above.

Whether you have a little money, or a boat load, the principles still apply... buy good names - diversify - don't get greedy - keep your investments to 5 ish percent so no single investment can hurt you in the event it goes down and or is a loss (think ENRON -- Too big too fail - BS!)

I have a Schwab account - it has a boat load of dough in it - but I still only own 21 stocks in the account. I don't need a lot of stocks - I just need good ones. I take a bit more risk because I can afford to. SO while I have McDonalds - I also own JNK - HYG - and NLY. That is an entirely different level of investing and not suitable for most on here if you're asking these basic questions. I live off my dividends and bond income. I raise my dividend income "average" by taking some positions that are riskier - therefore they pay higher dividends. SO my COKE (KO) is offset with some Annaly Capital Management (NLY).

My biggest gainers so far this year ---

Phillip Morse -- cigarettes! = Symbol PM - pays approx 4.7%

Altria -- more smoke... symbol is MO - pays approx 6.4%

Kinder Morgan Partners - oil and gas pipelines -- symbol KMP - pays 6.2%

McDonalds - junk food - symbol MCD - pays 3.3%

Con Edison - power - symbol ED - pays 4.8%

I offset the 3% stuff with the high risk as mentioned above - Annaly pays like 14%... I can afford to play that game I'm not trying to build capital or increase my retirement account... so don't you guys go there.

Just go to YAHOO finance -- or Google finance -- and put in those symbols -- then go to a chart and look at 5 year or 10 year or whatever they'll let you choose for time -- and look at the chart for each one. You'll see all manor of ups and downs in the squiggly line -- but the basic course over time is UP... so if you can train yourself to IGNORE the "noise" = hold steady - don't freak out - collect those dividends -- add to your account when its down the most and buy MORE stock when it's DOWN... YOU WILL BE REWARDED in time.

[billscamaros]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Just go to YAHOO finance -- or Google finance -- and put in those symbols -- then go to a chart and look at 5 year or 10 year or whatever they'll let you choose for time -- and look at the chart for each one. You'll see all manor of ups and downs in the squiggly line -- but the basic course over time is UP... so if you can train yourself to IGNORE the "noise" = hold steady - don't freak out - collect those dividends -- add to your account when its down the most and buy MORE stock when it's DOWN... YOU WILL BE REWARDED in time.

So let me ask another question about the Google Finance charts. Looking at Duke Power (DUK) on the chart, I toggle the 10 year view and notice that in around mid 2006, the price went from $33.21 on 10.37M (shares?) to $18.74 on 34.68M (shares?). Does this indicate that the stock "split"? This would be a good thing? On the 5 year chart, it looks as though the price has remained steady .... I assume that this isn't the good growth that you're looking for?

I do have to say that I'm getting a little hooked on checking various stocks out on Google Finance.

[PDXFactory]

Originally Posted by billscamaros

So let me ask another question about the Google Finance charts. Looking at Duke Power (DUK) on the chart, I toggle the 10 year view and notice that in around mid 2006, the price went from $33.21 on 10.37M (shares?) to $18.74 on 34.68M (shares?). Does this indicate that the stock "split"? This would be a good thing? On the 5 year chart, it looks as though the price has remained steady .... I assume that this isn't the good growth that you're looking for?

I do have to say that I'm getting a little hooked on checking various stocks out on Google Finance.

What you are looking at there isn't a stock split - it's a dramatic drop in stock price! The other number is the volume of shares traded - I'm not familiar with DUK, but there was obviously a reason (rational, or not) that the price dropped so far and the market reacted with a lot of people trading a lot of shares. (One thing to always remember is that for every share sold, there has to be a buyer somewhere - while half of the traders were freaking out and selling, the other half was buying!) Charts are generally 'split adjusted' meaning it shows the graph as though the splits never happened to keep the chart easier to read.

(EDIT - you got me curious, and a quick search showed that in January 2007 Duke Energy spun off part of its business (forming a new seperate company called Spectra Energy, NYSE:SE) and gave each shareholder 1 share in SE for every 2 shares they held in DUK. This means that if you previously owned DUK, you now owned shares in both DUK and SE. The drop in the stock price would be the market response to this. It makes sense when you think about it - DUK should be worth less money now that the company is smaller, and the market reflected that. This is kind of a special case and isn't something that happens everyday!)

If you click on the 'settings' button below the graph you can turn a lot of the indicators on and off. Take a look at NKE or SBUX and run it out to 5 or 10 years and you'll see at least one split in there.

Make sense?

Marcus