Investing 102

[GregWeld]

Here's exactly what I was just posting about!!


Check out the move in Sturm Ruger (RGR) the gun company.


The earnings and profit and sales just reported were absolutely off the charts good.... the Stock however is selling off $5


Would ANYONE think that if a company grew 40% - that their stock would sell off. Go figure.


Again - we are NOT using names to discuss their particular merits of ownership - it just happens to be a perfect EXAMPLE of the market and the thinking etc. I DO NOT own this but know that other readers do. It's been a terrific growth stock.

[SSLance]

Well, her stock came out with terrible earnings...and is up 4% on the day.

[GregWeld]

So she bought Target (TGT)....


Probably a good buy in time since the news is worse than the long term growth of the company. It just doesn't pay enough dividend % for me but the growth has been stellar!

[SSLance]

It fits into the buy what you know theory perfectly.

I told her while she was looking at it to pay attention to this...Do you still like shopping at the store, do they still offer everything they offered before, are the registers all staffed and the store kept clean and shopping experience good?

If so, pay no attention to the new cycle items in regard to the breach...that will pass and the stock should come back as long as the shopping experiences stay the same as they were before.

There are other factors also involved of course, but it's a company that she knows and will keep an eye on from the customer's perspective.

[GregWeld]

And that is the PROPER way to invest!!!

Originally Posted by SSLance

It fits into the buy what you know theory perfectly.

I told her while she was looking at it to pay attention to this...Do you still like shopping at the store, do they still offer everything they offered before, are the registers all staffed and the store kept clean and shopping experience good?

If so, pay no attention to the new cycle items in regard to the breach...that will pass and the stock should come back as long as the shopping experiences stay the same as they were before.

There are other factors also involved of course, but it's a company that she knows and will keep an eye on from the customer's perspective.

[GregWeld]

Here's something else for "newbs" or for those that have some money and just can't find somewhere to put those employees to work.

Blackrock runs several publicly traded ETF's... Exchange Traded Funds.


They're basically Funds set up to do particular "work" - Dividends - Volatility (or lack thereof) - Gold - etc.


Here's Blackrocks website -- and there's a TON of information about their various funds.

http://us.ishares.com/home.htm


I have used their Corporate High Yield (HYG) fund for a long time to park cash.


So here's the way I THINK about this type of "investment" (an ETF) -- I use them for a purpose. i.e., I use JNK and HYG to place cash in and either pick up the MONTHLY dividend ---- or if they go up enough before the dividend - I might just take the gain (taxed differently!) - and sometimes I get the dividend AND the gain. But either way -- I do not think of them as investments. They're just placeholders. They're not buy and forget.

SOME of the iShares ETF's COULD BE investments...

[GregWeld]

I just hope none of you were in Bitcoin... and I hope you all understand WHY I was against this kind of speculation. While it's fun to be cutting edge - it's fun to be "the guy" that's into the hot new deal on the internet.... I totally get that.

What IS NOT FUN is losing 40% in a month! In ANYTHING. While this might come crawling back - and frankly - I can't even speculate whether it will or not - because nobody knows what it's going to do. Does the bankruptcy filing of MTGOX exchange cause a domino affect? Who knows. Nobody knows how strong the underlying exchanges are - they're unregulated private entities.

This has - for me at least - been a great example for INVESTING 102. The Facebook IPO was another good example... as EVERYONE (including me) expected this IPO to go straight to the moon.

Here's what the take-away should be from these. Sometimes the "sure thing" isn't.

There's nothing wrong with getting into this stuff --- as long as you understand and can afford the consequences when things don't go your way. That's the take away.

It's like a guy that hawks everything his can - to build a $40,000 twin turbo whiz bang motor --- and at the dyno - it goes FIZ BANG.... It would have been great when it made 2000 hp at 5000 rpms --- but not so great when the rod opened a window in the block. THIS GUY SHOULD HAVE BUILT A $10,000 motor and lived to play another day.

That's all.....

[GregWeld]

A really well written "history" of how bubbles grow and then pop... Always worth reading - so that you can recognize one in advance or know when it's time to be a pig and not a hog?



http://www.marketwatch.com/story/are...8?pagenumber=1

[XLexusTech]

So I am looking to try something new I have a good breath of funds in a portfolio
A chunk of individual really solid (as in 25 or more years on the div champs list) stocks that I drip
A chunk of looking for lightning stocks ("facey book" has doubled plus for me for example)

Now I am considering peer to peer lending. Google just dropped a ton into the lending club for example.

Interested in any feedback on peer to peer lending pros cons Ect ...

go.

[SSLance]

I don't have any insight into peer to peer lending, but I do have a good friend that has dabbled in high risk loans for a long time.

He is now also a Bed and Breakfast operator in Colorado...and not by choice either.