Investing 102

[XLexusTech]

Watched the market all week.. yesterday was a 52 week low I believe... anyone buying? thinking thier may be some bargains around..?

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by XLexusTech

Watched the market all week.. yesterday was a 52 week low I believe... anyone buying? thinking thier may be some bargains around..?

I'd tend to wait a bit -- the market ALWAYS goes down in the summer months.... and even worse now maybe with the Euro issues.

You never have to rush to catch a falling knife.

Many times it pays to wait just a bit more.... until you have some clarity.

If you do decide to buy - nibble.


Ciao!

[XLexusTech]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

I'd tend to wait a bit -- the market ALWAYS goes down in the summer months.... and even worse now maybe with the Euro issues.

You never have to rush to catch a falling knife.

Many times it pays to wait just a bit more.... until you have some clarity.

If you do decide to buy - nibble.


Ciao!

Awesome advice as usual

[glassman]

"you never have to rush to catch a falling knife", now thats great quote, the first time i've heard that, but won't be the last!

[Woody]

Originally Posted by XLexusTech

Watched the market all week.. yesterday was a 52 week low I believe... anyone buying? thinking thier may be some bargains around..?

I have been buying some small new posiions and making small additions to the positions i aready had. I try to keep adding to my positions when there are corrections like this. i usually look back a year later and say I wish I bought more. i had set prices that i wanted to buy at and several stocks hit those prices recently. I have new prices now for those stocks and will buy more if those prices are hit.

[67pro-street]

Little update since i last posted on here. I got a little busy with life and work and just now had a chance to buy some stocks. I started off with 5k which i felt comfortable investing right now and bought:

STD (Banco Santander): they pay great dividends and the price is very low right now. Plus since i am only 26 i can ride this out longterm to see where it takes me. I have a feeling that overtime as European contries work out their debt crisis this stock will rebound...hopefully! i tried to have dividends reinvested but they said i cant for this stock. I will just have to reinvest manually...

KMP (Kinder Morgan Partners): Since i work for bp up here in washington i am very familiar with this company and their operating philosophy and so i feel comfortable keeping this company as my long-term investment, with dividends reinvested.

PM (Philips Morse): not a smoker but its a strong well established company and i agree with Greg's take on it...

BREW (Craft Brewing Alliance): Small cap company that has shown great growth over the past 3 years or so. This is a long term gamble (if there is such a thing??). I guess i am looking at this through rose colored glasses hoping it will follow suit with Samuel Adams...That and i remember this smart investor on this site who said to invest in companies you trust and buy products from. And i must say i do love my Red Hook

Long term i plan to put another 5k in by the end of the year and buy 4-6 different stocks. This is a brokerage account. I already have a 401k through the company and at the end of the year when tax time comes and i can determine what the max amount i can put into a Roth IRA is, i will open one of those accounts and put the max amount for the 2012 year (again i will invest in different companies from what i currently have to diversify).

Thoughts/suggestions/critiques are always welcome.

[GregWeld]

All good buys Aman!


Banco Santander (STD) could turn out to be the buy of the decade if europe can get their act together. This is a world class bank and is finding itself in the "baby and the bathwater" with all european banks getting hammered.

Keep up the good work!

[GregWeld]

Just a reminder to "newbs" --- like today when everything opens "green" --- and then you see you have "A" stock that is red.... Why? What is wrong?

Remember to check to see if the stock is going "ex-dividend"... meaning that as of today it pays a dividend out so typically will trade down around par to the dividend payment (per share).

Kimberly Clark (KMB) is one of those today (I own so saw this "red" number on a green day) thus the reminder... and just to use this example because newbs might forget about checking this kind of thing. I always use the oddities in a market to look into "why" so that I'm not blindsided by some news that I might have missed.

[GregWeld]

Just for fun ---- any of you own SNAP-ON?? (SNA)


It's worth a good look if you need a steady eddie name.

[67pro-street]

Thanks Greg! I started reading this book called The Elements of Investing last night. It is a short read that anyone can easily finish in a few days, but i like the way it is written. The authors wrote it in a manner much like this investing 102 thread where someone who has minimal knowledge of the stock market can pick it up and understand what sound investing is all about. The book is oriented towards investing long term into index funds as opposed to buying individual stocks...but even if you aren't that kind of investor i would suggest it to everyone as there is a lot of good information in there that is easy to read and understand. Also, its a fairly current book written after the '08 crisis so the stuff they talk about is relative to our current market...

So speaking of which, Greg i am sure you are invested into index funds as well. What would your thoughts be on a guy like myself using my Roth IRA to invest into index funds and my brokerage account to invest into individual stocks. At least for the next 3-5 years as i am just getting started out? I want to be diversified but at the same time i am worried about trying to get too diversified too quickly to the point where i have spread my money out too thin amongst different investments and in doing so i never really take advantage of the market swings...or would you say there is no such thing as doing that as long as i am in it for the long term and not trying to make a quick buck??