An Investment Thread

Nater Potater said:
I bought some Vale SA back in late November when it was around $14.50, then sold it about a month later for around $17.00 when it started a pretty steep drop. Stupid me; it's continued on up to over $19.00 a month later. I really can't complain as I made money off of it.
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Why would you complain? You made a 17% profit in one month. Excellent.

Question, did you have a plan as to when you would sell when you bought it? But as far as being stupid? No way, you were smart to get out. 17% my friend. That's awesome.

Everyone tell me you have not done this. Buy something at $10.00, it goes to $18.00. Your head swells. Feeling good right. For how long? Then drops to $13.00. What do you do? hold on right, you just lost $5.00 a share that you actually really never had. But you are going to get that $5.00 back. Right? Then what happens, drops to $9.00. Now what?
 
Morgan Jane said:
Why would you complain? You made a 17% profit in one month. Excellent.

Question, did you have a plan as to when you would sell when you bought it? But as far as being stupid? No way, you were smart to get out. 17% my friend. That's awesome.

Everyone tell me you have not done this. Buy something at $10.00, it goes to $18.00. Your head swells. Feeling good right. For how long? Then drops to $13.00. What do you do? hold on right, you just lost $5.00 a share that you actually really never had. But you are going to get that $5.00 back. Right? Then what happens, drops to $9.00. Now what?
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You know how it is; you see it continue to climb and feel like you missed out, but you're absolutely right. It's the glass-half-empty syndrome. Many years ago while working at Micron, the stock went public and I bought a chunk of it at $18.00 with the anticipation of it going up fast. Well, it did, and I sold a few weeks later at $28.00, making a cool ten bucks a share. My teammates were giving me grief about selling too soon, and, to their credit, it continued on up to $40.00, then tanked out around $2.50 within a week! Who's laughing now, be-otches?
 
Morgan Jane said:
Another good piece of advise is that you will never buy at the bottom or sell at the top. You just won't. It's impossible. If you happen to, you just go lucky. I try to buy on the way up just past a pre determined low and sell one on the way back down after a recent high. Good luck with that but that's what I'm trying to do. Set your criteria to enter a trade, when it's there, enter the trade. When the criteria to exit is met. Get out. Period. Don't read the headlines, Don't listen to Kramer, Don't use gut instinct, and certainly don't use emotions. It's a numbers game, that's all it is. It's roulette, but you get to decide when you do and don't play.
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A good friend of mind, super smart guy, drives me crazy with this. He is always "waiting" for the next bottom. He has a lot of cash right now and, IMO, is watching good investments go by.

I purchased Square once I "go it". I was seeing it at the local small retailers I went to, my dad's wife started using it to sell her art, I saw the potential and the market for it, plus I work in software development. It grew like crazy for 2 years and I loved it. I was going to name the next boat "Paid 4 By SQ".

It moved down a little, I got anxious, and sold it all. I think for a 150% profit. Well, as luck would have it it continued to go up after I sold and I beat myself up. To @Morgan Jane point, I eventually got over it and began to thinking more like him for my short term investments. And, at this point I am not buying individual stocks to make quick/short term money; everything I buy now is for long term/retirement.
 
Gofirstclass said:
put most of my clients in mutual funds and most of that with American Funds.
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In 1996 I quit a company that I had 55K in a profit sharing plan. I rolled that to a IRA and my advisor put it all into American Funds (Capital World Growth and Income). I have never touched it. All dividends get reinvested back into it. Between my wife and I we are probably 80% in American Funds, quite a few different ones now. My point is, I'm glad my advisor gave me the same advice you gave your clients.... I now have my 2 girls in American Funds....
 
Ezsteps said:
I'm glad my advisor gave me the same advice you gave your clients.... I now have my 2 girls in American Funds....
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Like you, I have 2 girls in American Funds, but in a mix of funds that include
AMCAP fund
Capital World Growth & Income
Growth Fund of America
Investment Company of America
New Economy Fund

These funds are in their 529 College Savings Accounts that lets the money grow tax free and tax free if used for advanced education when they get older. The money remains in my control, so nobody can access it without my permission.

If you guys who have kids still in school and have not yet opened up 529 accounts for them, it's worth your while to check out the 529 accounts. The tax benefits are phenomenal.

If any of you want more information on 529 accounts or American Funds feel free to PM me.
 
Nater Potater said:
You know how it is; you see it continue to climb and feel like you missed out, but you're absolutely right. It's the glass-half-empty syndrome. Many years ago while working at Micron, the stock went public and I bought a chunk of it at $18.00 with the anticipation of it going up fast. Well, it did, and I sold a few weeks later at $28.00, making a cool ten bucks a share. My teammates were giving me grief about selling too soon, and, to their credit, it continued on up to $40.00, then tanked out around $2.50 within a week! Who's laughing now, be-otches?
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Exactly my point over and over. They were giving your grief. Great. But when did they plan to sell? never? I know, they were going to sell at the top. The problem is that you never know when the top is the till several days or weeks later. It's very easy for anyone to look back and say, "you should have done this" or "you should have done that". Very, very, very easy to look at something after the fact. But that's not how it works. You got to make decisions in the middle without knowing the future. buy it, make a plan, then execute. That's it. No what ifs.
 
Gofirstclass said:
Like you, I have 2 girls in American Funds, but in a mix of funds that include
AMCAP fund
Capital World Growth & Income
Growth Fund of America
Investment Company of America
New Economy Fund

These funds are in their 529 College Savings Accounts that lets the money grow tax free and tax free if used for advanced education when they get older. The money remains in my control, so nobody can access it without my permission.

If you guys who have kids still in school and have not yet opened up 529 accounts for them, it's worth your while to check out the 529 accounts. The tax benefits are phenomenal.

If any of you want more information on 529 accounts or American Funds feel free to PM me.
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Great advice GoFirstclass. I sold a business once and knew I was stupid with money. Which I am. But knowing myself, I put the max amount in three 529 College Savings Accounts for my kids. The last one graduates in a few months. Man that really took the pressure off. The plans worked the exact way they said they would. Something I didn't know about our (VA) plan is that if you choose a private (non-State) school, the plan will pay the same amount towards the private school as it would have paid if you had gone to the most expensive state school. This happens to be UVA. But if you go to the least expensive state school, it just pays that schools tuition rate. There are also non State school grants that VA gives you to attend private schools. My middle child went to a private school whose tuition was less than UVA's. That worked out real well financially. He received excess tuition that we applied to housing. And even to off campus housing.
 
My TSLA calls still doing good. Haven't sold any yet. Up about 150%. I was up about 250% a few days ago but my plan is to hold these awhile. Have a sell order in for 1 contract at about $5.05 ($505). Paid $1.27 ($127). Today it was at about $3.50 ($350)
 
Ezsteps said:
In 1996 I quit a company that I had 55K in a profit sharing plan. I rolled that to a IRA and my advisor put it all into American Funds (Capital World Growth and Income). I have never touched it. All dividends get reinvested back into it. Between my wife and I we are probably 80% in American Funds, quite a few different ones now. My point is, I'm glad my advisor gave me the same advice you gave your clients.... I now have my 2 girls in American Funds....
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+1

Did nearly the exact same thing with American funds back in 1999. Very happy.
 
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