Stock market thread.

[Mr. Guru]

Figured I'd start this for whoever is interested.

Some pretty crazy action over the last 10 days or so with $KBIO.

Same today with $ATV.

I didn't touch either of those but just watching them intraday was fascinating on its own. Not skilled/experienced enough to trade those types of plays, yet.

Shorted $TERP today off it's high of day reject for about 40 cents.

Anyone else trade? I know there's some investors in here but any traders?

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Wrong forum...move to general lounge please/thanks

[forumname]

Damn, those are some good jumps. Woulda coulda shoulda. $1000 to $40000 in a week would sure be nice.

I'm a passive investor, but plan to eventually play around more with individual securities - mostly for fun, but also to see if it's something I might be good at. One of the biggest barriers for me so far has been where to find news, track information, etc. Can you (or anyone else here) recommend some good (non-sensationalist) online resources for following news, updates, quotes, charts, etc?

[Axeman33]

Moved to The Lounge for you.

I know diddly about the stock market and stocks in general but it's something that has interested me for some time. I have just never taken the time to really get to figure it out. I think it's the fact that if I put some in and can hopefully get MORE out, I'd be a happy camper.

[Mr. Guru]

Damn, those are some good jumps. Woulda coulda shoulda. $1000 to $40000 in a week would sure be nice.

I'm a passive investor, but plan to eventually play around more with individual securities - mostly for fun, but also to see if it's something I might be good at. One of the biggest barriers for me so far has been where to find news, track information, etc. Can you (or anyone else here) recommend some good (non-sensationalist) online resources for following news, updates, quotes, charts, etc?

Honestly, the best place for me is Twitter. And depending on the type of trader/investor you are....it's all about following the right people. But before that it's figuring out what your style is.

I use finviz.com for their screener. That helps me pick out potential plays the night before.

[Big Ev]

All about index funds bruh

[Jason_Banks]

Axeman, I was in the same place you are 4 years ago... I took a year to learn all the terms, types of investing, what there is to invest in, how to do it ect... then started making lists of what I liked... then jumped in... and ****ed up a bunch and learned more...

I now have put in $63,000 into the markets approx $8K in US, $41K in TFSA and $14K in a taxable account... I'm down about $9K due to putting lots into oil companies (TBE, CPG, BNE long term plays) at 60-50 per barrel... but I also own BCE, MKP and VSN where I am up good amounts $1-3K each... I use Finvis, Seeking Alpha and BNN TV and a few other things here and there... My preference is towards dividend players above 5% yield and I currently earn about $350/month in dividends for doing NOTHING. I'm just starting to have enough to notice compounding happening in my accounts which is awesome!

its actually alotta of fun and is much like playing fantasy hockey, doing research, short lists, looking for what stats you want, you learn a bunch of things about stuff you dont know about the world...

But yes I'm an investor not a trader...

Index Funds are like a wife, Stock Picking is like going to the strippers!

Index funds are too hands off and all encompassing... Stock picking is more exciting and you pick what you like...

[Jason_Banks]

If your an apple user the game Stock Wars, is decent for currency plays, US stocks and news on all companies.

My biggest Shoulda, was Chipolte when it was at just over $200... I was going back and forth for 6 months if it should be my first stock and kept delaying my choice to
buy, but a balked because $200/share seemed expensive and didnt pay a dividend... I woulda put $5K in... and it went up north of $700/share but is back to 580 now... still would over tripled my $$$ in 3-4 years...

I jumped in as i got laid off at work and needed something to waist my time on day to day... I bought PSEC (which Ive lost on value, but am almost even from dividends) and CODI (which I screwed up and bought on Margin, not understanding how the system worked, and had to sell 70% of my position 4 days later after a dividend record date and small sell off... Ive made $$$ on it... but my screw up put me down $800 right off the bat and took 2 years to get to even)...

[forumname]

Index Funds are like a wife, Stock Picking is like going to the strippers!

Index funds are too hands off and all encompassing... Stock picking is more exciting and you pick what you like...

This is why I'm committed to indexing the majority of my portfolio. I'm working on maxing out my TFSA/RRSP (all in Vanguard ETF's), at which point I'll start to wade into individual stocks a little bit. Looking forward to it, but I still have a lot to learn.

Thanks for the site tips, I'll check them out.

[StuntMan12]

I've always thought about investing into stocks but when I'm back working I probably will try 1 or 2 stocks. I just remember always being told to diversify your investments. Don't put all your eggs in one basket basically.

[blayze]

I'm all about buy-and-hold. Mainly ETFs, but some select growth or dividend stocks if a value-play presents itself.

Short-term trading is a losing strategy for 99% of the population.

[forumname]

I've always thought about investing into stocks but when I'm back working I probably will try 1 or 2 stocks.

My advice would be to NOT do what you said you might do Jumping into a stock or 2 blindly is very likely going to leave you with less money than you started with. At the very least you should read a few of the fundamental books first if you want to give yourself a fighting chance at breaking even.

If you don't invest at all currently, I would really advise getting started with ETF's first. Boring, but you will rule out the likelihood of making rookie mistakes, and they trade on the exchanges the same way individual stocks do, so you can get a handle on how buying and selling works. A great place to start and get your toes wet, and one that won't leave you poorer and with a bad taste in your mouth from the evil stock market.

So many people jump into stocks, lose, then jump out forever, which is crippling to their finances in the long term. Losing $1000 now might not be a big deal, but if it turns you off of investing forever because you got stung, it's going to cost you a fortune later on in missed opportunities. You want to get started by wading in slowly, like and old man easing into the pool. Not by doing a sweet jackknife off the high-dive.

[Jason_Banks]

I've always thought about investing into stocks but when I'm back working I probably will try 1 or 2 stocks. I just remember always being told to diversify your investments. Don't put all your eggs in one basket basically.

Need to consider your portfolio size when thinking diversification... If you have $2000 and buy 4 stocks, 500 a piece isn't much... sure its a good idea, but you dont move anywhere... If you have $2000 hit one stock... then when you get another 2, hit another stock, diversify as you add... Normally when they talk about diversification, they are referring to not throwing $50,000 in one company and gambleing...

My normal amount is $5-10,000 per stock until I have a nice basket, so in my TFSA it means 1 stock added per year... I did get a rights offering and loaded up on MKP cheaper so I broke that idea, but it was a rare opportunity in my opinion... I've also added to BCE before when it became over sold, my rule for BCE is if the yield is above 5% I buy, but not until, its happened twice in 4 years for very short periods and i had $$$ on the side both times...

One of the more brilliant ideas I heard for new investors is to pick 4 high profile stocks in different areas, 1 Utility, 1 commodity, 1 Bank and 1 telecomunication, that way you get used to reports and how everything works...

the ETF idea is good too, but you should have an understanding of everything that is in an ETF and how its managed... Most ETFs are electronically traded and weighted, I don't like a computer arrhythmical calculation deciding how much of my money is where... I rather a hands on money manager running my money able to make snap decisions... (and I prefer to be my money manager so all I can blame is me)

Investing is a very opinion based world, and there are so many right and wrong strategy... As was also stated before, go with what you can handle, you don't want a loss soiling your experience, cause in the end it is a worthwhile use of time to know how and what to do with your $$$ and you can earn much more than the GICS, Bonds, and Savings account rates offer...

[forumname]

the ETF idea is good too, but you should have an understanding of everything that is in an ETF and how its managed... Most ETFs are electronically traded and weighted, I don't like a computer arrhythmical calculation deciding how much of my money is where... I rather a hands on money manager running my money able to make snap decisions... (and I prefer to be my money manager so all I can blame is me)

This is akin to saying a person is smarter than a computer. Are you sure about that? Not to say your method is wrong, but have you tracked your earnings/losses against the indexes that these ETF's are designed to mimic? If you can beat the market, great. But be careful when advising newbies to try to play too.

For the record, I'm not talking about obscure ETF's, but general index followers like VXC, VCN, VUN, etc...

[Mr. Guru]

All about index funds bruh

Meh, not my style of trading. I think investing is riskier than day trading.

[Bra]

I don't get what you mean Guru. How is holding an index fund, containing stocks of the top 1,000 U.S. Companies and holding them long risky? I guess if you are flipping them daily, it would not be as attractive as say holding OGI the day after Trudeau was elected. Boom...

If if you don't have a portfolio of a mill, don't buy individual stocks if you are planning to invest. Otherwise, penny stocks are fun to gamble on, but it's certainly not investing. You hit some, you lose some. If you don't know what you're doing, you will lose a lot. Think of Daily Fantasy. Much better to buy and hold Canadian, U.S., Euro/World growth, with preferreds, bonds and some REITS. Hold them in a TFSA, max yearly and you'll be a millionaire in about 30yrs. Simple and no stress.

A vanguard stock VTI is a beast and in 10 years it will nearly double. Just buy and hold.