Investing 102

[toy71camaro]

As mentioned above, timing the market is too risky. Especially with that amount of money. a 1% swing either way isn't going to make much difference. And what happens when that stock you bought today, goes up again tomorrow? Now you missed on the gain, and now your paying even more.

I dont worry about timing the market. I'm only buying in small chunks in general. Which you are hitting in chunks of $500, so that's really small. Now if I were buying $500k worth shares, I'd be a little more conscious of the up/down swing, as now that translates to a couple grand difference.

But either way, if they're long term holds, then it doesn't really make any sense. You'll miss the good days waiting for trying to time the one bad one.

[ErikLS2]

You can say what you want about Jim Cramer on CNBC, I like to listen to him but don't really invest with him. Sometimes he'll praise something I'm familiar with that's right under my nose, such as Snap on (SNA) which I recently bought some of. I do like that he puts his neck out there on a recommendation and owns up to it if he's wrong. He gives a lot of good tips, often, but not always, in line with what Greg's been saying here. I especially like his tip for using the PEG ratio (PE Ratio:Earnings Growth) to determine valuation of a company.

Anyway, his show this past Friday, Halloween, was right up Investing 102's alley and full of valuable tips. You can view it (for a limited time I think) here:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15838459

[Woody]

Originally Posted by ErikLS2

You can say what you want about Jim Cramer on CNBC, I like to listen to him but don't really invest with him. Sometimes he'll praise something I'm familiar with that's right under my nose, such as Snap on (SNA) which I recently bought some of. I do like that he puts his neck out there on a recommendation and owns up to it if he's wrong. He gives a lot of good tips, often, but not always, in line with what Greg's been saying here. I especially like his tip for using the PEG ratio (PE Ratio:Earnings Growth) to determine valuation of a company.

Anyway, his show this past Friday, Halloween, was right up Investing 102's alley and full of valuable tips. You can view it (for a limited time I think) here:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15838459

Jim Cramer sometimes provides some good information, but he contradicts himself all the time on his recommendations. I think you are right that he provides some good information on general topics, but I would never listen to his specific stock recommendations. Did you ever see the John Stewart videos on Cramer. Here is one of them. Watch them all if you want a really good laugh.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkytKDzCEeU

[WSSix]

I said when I started this thread that I'd keep people updated on my progress or lack there of. So today I point to Whole Foods. I've had it for a couple years now, and I'm long on it. If you look at the chart for just this year you can see it took a huge dive. I said it a few pages back that I considered it noise because nothing at WFM had changed to cause the drop. All that happened was the traders, people trying to get rich, didn't like that WFM didn't make as much money as they projected they would. So WFM revised it's projections for the rest of the year and promised to meet those numbers. They beat their projections for the quarter and now have posted a 10% gain as I type this and they are raising the dividend another penny. I'm back to the break even point I believe. I'll see when I get home and access my account.

My point is that you have to be patient and ignore the noise if you're trying to invest. I had no problems leaving my money in WFM and riding the slump out, or selling it if it some how appeared to not recover which is something I was not at all worried about. Hell, if I had this outside of my Roth I would have bought more shares but I max that out at the beginning of each year. So just be patient, invest in quality names that you trust, and ignore the traders.

[captainofiron]

Just got my first 2 dividend payments this week.

Feels pretty good.

Thanks everybody!

[WSSix]

Woot! Congrats Captain!

[toy71camaro]

Originally Posted by captainofiron

Just got my first 2 dividend payments this week.

Feels pretty good.

Thanks everybody!

Congrats!!!

[captainofiron]

Originally Posted by toy71camaro

Congrats!!!

Originally Posted by WSSix

Woot! Congrats Captain!

Thanks!

it was only like 50 bucks, BUT its 50 bucks I didnt have before

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by toy71camaro

As mentioned above, timing the market is too risky. Especially with that amount of money. a 1% swing either way isn't going to make much difference. And what happens when that stock you bought today, goes up again tomorrow? Now you missed on the gain, and now your paying even more.

I dont worry about timing the market. I'm only buying in small chunks in general. Which you are hitting in chunks of $500, so that's really small. Now if I were buying $500k worth shares, I'd be a little more conscious of the up/down swing, as now that translates to a couple grand difference.

But either way, if they're long term holds, then it doesn't really make any sense. You'll miss the good days waiting for trying to time the one bad one.

WHAT HE SAID!!


Even I don't wait for something to come down... to me that's just stupid! If I thought it wasn't a good company and that maybe I'd save a 1.00 per share if I "waited"....why would I invest in it in the first place!!

Now --- I don't buy on UP days.. but there's plenty of days (not weeks and months) of little ups and downs... so since I usually have money on the side I'll buy on a big blowup day... Why not? The stocks I like just went on sale... but I'm not waiting and waiting and waiting for another .10 drop. I buy when I'm ready on the first down tick I see. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish.