Anyone Else In the Stock Market?

[jasonrusso]

F it, I just bought 2 more for $378

 

[thunderdood]

Yep. My 401k is in mutual funds and my general savings fund is in a S&P 500 index fund.

First, don't invest in anything you can't understand. If you can't understand how it works, it's too complicated.

Second, you can invest in the stock market without gambling. Unfortunately, "investor" and "speculator" have sort of become synonymous in the context of investment, especially since 2008. It is very easy to invest in calmer and less volatile mutual funds with the goal of long term grown, with very little risk involved. You're not going to be getting rich quick though. If that's your goal, go to a casino. You can only really have relative safety in the market if you go slow and thing long term.

Third, know that there are ups and downs in the market, and this is not a reason to panic and move to cash. Your investments will go down in value, but if you chose quality mutual funds they will recover. The funds I own lost 50% of their value by the bottom of the crisis in 2009. By the end of 2015, however, the value of these funds was about 60% higher than it was BEFORE the crisis. If you panic sell when the market drops, you lock in your losses. Be patient and wait for the market to recover. We have had several market panics in the past 40 years or so, and in every single case the market has recovered.

Fourth, don't ever relinquish control of your money to someone else. You should seek advice from a financial adviser if you need it, but never surrender control of your account to them. You need to have a complete understanding of how your money is invested. It's your money, after all. It means a lot more to you than it does to a stranger.

If you're just getting started on investing, I would look into mutual funds. Mutual funds contain a hundred or so different stocks from lots of different companies. When you buy a share of a mutual fund, you're buying a small part of all those companies inside the fund. By owning one share of a mutual fund, you've diversified your money over as many as 500 different companies. Go look at some actual funds on Fidelity or Vanguard's website. Look at what stocks are in the fund, the average annual return, what types of companies are in the fund (technology, healthcare, financial, etc). As with reefing, there's a lot to learn, so take it slow.

EDIT: sort of an addendum, invest with a long-term mindset. Don't be jumping in and out of funds or investments. Buy something, hold it, and let it go up in value. Trying to time the market or day trade is very difficult to do.

My 401k is also in an S&P 500 index. I like the low cost index funds vs. the pool of mutual funds that have too much turnover in the portfolio and higher fees. My other accounts are strictly stocks and doing very well on the investments.

+1 on never having someone else manage your money. For years my moms IRA was being managed by a planner and had a 1% return in over 3 years. All gains were lost from excessive commission fees from trading a couple dollars worth of mutual funds every month and maintenance fees. I took over and had a 6% return in the first year.

 

[thunderdood]

I sure hope so. I'm also the guy that bought Amazon a couple years ago at $360, watched it go to $250, and sold it when it got back to $360!!

You can get in now under or around $1k and watch it go to $2k. I started watching from $400 and kept watching it go to $700 until I finally pulled the trigger and started a position at $770. I've been adding to my position every $50-100.

 

[jasonrusso]

You can get in now under or around $1k and watch it go to $2k. I started watching from $400 and kept watching it go to $700 until I finally pulled the trigger and started a position at $770. I've been adding to my position every $50-100.

You think $2K? I watched Chipotle go from $90 to $600 and kept saying "there is no more upside."

 

[thunderdood]

You think $2K? I watched Chipotle go from $90 to $600 and kept saying "there is no more upside."

I think that is very possible within the next 4 years but thats a very conservative forecast in my opinion. It's unfortunate that CMG had the food poisoning which is the reason for their decline along with earnings decline. I think they will come back eventually. Everyone is always saying it's too high, ran too fast too soon, etc... but that is just noise to me as long as you understand the story and know the fundamentals. After NVDA got downgraded by analyst last quarter saying whatever the bogus reason was the stock dropped to $100 from $120 in a couple days and I bought a nice position at $105 because their fundamentals were still strong. Less than half a year later I'm currently up around 50%.

 

[jasonrusso]

I think that is very possible within the next 4 years but thats a very conservative forecast in my opinion. It's unfortunate that CMG had the food poisoning which is the reason for their decline along with earnings decline. I think they will come back eventually. Everyone is always saying it's too high, ran too fast too soon, etc... but that is just noise to me as long as you understand the story and know the fundamentals. After NVDA got downgraded by analyst last quarter saying whatever the bogus reason was the stock dropped to $100 from $120 in a couple days and I bought a nice position at $105 because their fundamentals were still strong. Less than half a year later I'm currently up around 50%.

Nvidia is branching out into the automotive industry. I work for Audi and Nvidia is supplying the GPUs for all the high line infotainment systems.

 

[Goslugsgo]

Nvidia is branching out into the automotive industry. I work for Audi and Nvidia is supplying the GPUs for all the high line infotainment systems.

Good to know, thank you. I love my S5 by the way!

I trade SPX options.

 

[jasonrusso]

2018? The new S5 sportback is one of the sexiest cars Audi has ever made.

 

[Zero Nitrates]

Market has been very quiet for almost a year. It's overdue for some movement.

 

[thunderdood]

Nvidia is branching out into the automotive industry. I work for Audi and Nvidia is supplying the GPUs for all the high line infotainment systems.

Exactly. Their quarterly growth on the last earnings was almost 50% compared to the previous year.

 

[Goslugsgo]

2018? The new S5 sportback is one of the sexiest cars Audi has ever made.

2013 I'm looking forward to checking out the sportback for sure.

Market has been very quiet for almost a year. It's overdue for some movement.

Can't happen soon enough, IMO. Low vol is killing SPX pricing.

 

[palmer]

You can private message me- I am a professional traders in Futures (Indices, oil and a few currencies)

 

[Zero Nitrates]

UVXY

 

[rompininphx]

Be careful about posting how much crypto you buy on a public forum. And always remove your crypto from exchanges. I use a Trezor for safekeeping and a few cold storage wallets for other altcoins

 

[jasonrusso]

I have a separate wallet for the coins.

I'm not liking the news on Ethereum.

 

[jasonrusso]

sigh[emoji22]

 

[thunderdood]

What a great year this has been. My portfolio is up 27% YTD!

How is everyone else's portfolio doing?

 

[LbulletM]

Up around 50% on crypto, was closer to double at one point. But it was only $3k to start, so oh well. A few friends are in with $$$$$ and have doubled their investment.

 

[jasonrusso]

Up around 50% on crypto, was closer to double at one point. But it was only $3k to start, so oh well. A few friends are in with $$$$$ and have doubled their investment.

I'm up about $1500 on crypto but it's a ******* Rollercoaster, lol

 

[jasonrusso]

BTC is blowing up this week