<p>Because…for some reason jym626 did not want to start her own thread…</p>
<p>I will start it…</p>
<p>I am short ANR puts this week…so I hope the stock is stable…because I want to collect the premium…</p>
<p>And I have some PEP puts that are going to expire.</p>
<p>And…I am invested in three private companies that are going bad or are pretty much done…which kind of sucks. :)</p>
<p>On the plus side…I may not have to worry about taxes in 2012. :)</p>
<p>I see volume across asset classes as very poor right now. You people aren’t trading enough. Maybe earnings season will bring some action.</p>
<p>And interest rates are still low…so it is hard to get yield.</p>
<p>I know that investment professionals are pushing dividend stocks…but
when I see yields of 2.5 percent …it is very important that these stocks
have earnings or earnings growth that are high enough so that dividend increases are likely. Because if rates start rising…2.5 percent yields are not going to look good…and these stocks are going to perform poorly.</p>
<p>I do own some dividend stocks because there is a chance interest rates are going to stay low for many years…</p>
<p>And corporate earnings are making new highs. </p>
<p>One reason is labor is getting less of the pie. Is that going to change?</p>
<p>And interest rates are low…financing costs are low…</p>
<p>If interest rates rise…is that going to hurt earnings…or is the growth of the economy going to offset interest rates increasing? Or are interest rates going to stay low…like Japan?</p>
<p>Thanks for starting this, dstark. Slight correction- I didnt start it because its not my topic nor area of expertise and I won’t have much to contribute. But there are several posters who, like you, are quite adept at this and it makes better sense to consolidate the discussion to one thread. So thanks for starting this thread.</p>
<p>I help my mother with her “mad money” investment account. Several months ago, we bought $500 worth of Renren. She keeps wanting to sell it, but I said, no, this is your little flyer in the Chinese internet scene, let’s hold on to it and see what happens. As of Friday I think her gain is about $188 on the initial $500.</p>
<p>Now, if she had only listened to me and held on to her Apple shares… Despite the fact that she calls this her “mad money,” she has a hard time buying anything that doesn’t pay a dividend.</p>
Why does our tax code support these activities?</p>
<p>Naked options, machine-based trading, day trading, shorts, commodities… they serve no purpose other than to ride volatility for your own personal profit, and further increases volatility. </p>
<p>It is gambling, not investing.</p>
<p>Which is fine, it’s your money, except you are gambling with the same things that I am actually invested in. So it affects me.</p>
<p>We should not allow write-offs for losses on these kinds of activities… not even to offset profits. You gamble, you lose, tough cookies.</p>
<p>Investing? LOL Its all gambling as is everything in life. People bought homes thinking it was an investment, no it was a gamble just like everything else. You can gamble in the stock market and win, maybe lose or you can put your money in cd’s etc and have a 100% probability of losing relative to inflation. I prefer the odds in the market.</p>
<p>I’m not in hot stocks - well, maybe AAPL. But I’m mostly in relatively boring stocks. INTC - big-cap semi company, everyone knows about it, okay dividend. PBA - they bought PVX, 5.25% dividend yield, I’ve owned PVX for ages. And some others.</p>
<p>The reason I liked to put things in one thread is that individual threads tend to age out and then you lose them. If the thread is in the top 4 or 5 pages, it’s easy to find and add to later on.</p>
<p>Interesting thread. We rolled my husband’s 401K (he is already retired) over into a self directed IRA back at the end of last year to give us a bit of flexibility - the original 401k was hard to do anything much with.</p>
<p>We have done well on some stocks - bough BAC at around $5 and it is i the $8s right now (down a bit from a week or so ago). Also have THLD which had been doing gangbusters but now not so well. </p>
<p>I find myself more baffled by how the market works as time goes on. Good news comes out and a stock goes down type of stuff just baffles me - i guess it is the “it was already factored into the price” deal. I think I am too “emotional” an investor. I need to set targets and stick with them but I get excited when things are going up and then kick myself for not selling them after they then go down. </p>
<p>Overall I would say we are fairly even over the last few months - maybe a little ahead, our gains have been offset by our losses. My worst attempts have been pharmaceuticals</p>
<p>I am learning fast. There seems to be more market manipulation going on that I would ever have realized. I had never heard the term “pump and dump”, but have certainly seen it in some stocks I have followed the last few months.</p>
<p>“I find myself more baffled by how the market works as time goes on.”</p>
<p>If you listen to enough people, you’ll realize nobody really knows how the market works. The only thing that matters is controlling risk. I saw a study a number of years ago where on a coin toss, you would go either long or short the market. Controlling risk, position sizing etc lead to a positive gain.</p>
<p>Yes, I need to get better at that. My biggest surprise was the pre and after market trading that goes on. Any stops and limits I have don’t kick in in pre and after market trading, and it seems any big announcements for particular stocks are timed to happen after the market closes. </p>
<p>Luckily my learning curve, while steep, has been relatively painless overall as luckily my bad choices have been offset by some good ones. There have been some, though on certain days they have been quite painful, if I hadn’t made the bad choices I’d be sitting pretty! </p>
<p>Anyone have opinions on what will happen with COP after the split? We have some COP shares remaining (that is where my husband worked before retiring) and I have no clue whether the split is going to be a good thing or not and really no one out there seems to be saying it will or will not.</p>
<p>I had cop a few months ago - nice dividend and oil was going up because of Iran and improving economic conditions. I sold it a while ago. Maybe I’ll get back in. What happens with stock splits is anybody’s guess? As far as making money, it only takes a few big winners if you get out of your losers quickly. I usually set a loss amount and position size based on atr. Even though I was positive for last year, I made dumb mistakes which cost me significantly more profit. Its a good idea to keep a log and look back to see your mistakes and understand your emotional response when you did whatever you did. There is some financial behavior term (maybe loss aversion), that shows for most people its harder to get rid of your losing positions then your winning positions. It is very important to control this impulse.</p>
<p>Oh Gosh, that sounds exactly like me. I have had a couple of stocks that were doing well then suddenly went downhill and I did not get out as quick as I should have.</p>
<p>I guess you wouldn’t have liked my short 25,000 shares----short 250 put position I had on last week… :)</p>
<p>A little speculation is good. It creates jobs. Boosts the economy a little.</p>
<p>I did not know that BCEagle91 was such a good tennis player and that he takes on very little risk. We learn new things all the time on this board. :)</p>
<p>On a scale of 1 to 10…with 1 being low risk and 10 the highest…my
portfolio is a 1.</p>
<p>I promise I won’t blow up the system.</p>
<p>And I don’t affect PEP’s stock price…and I doubt I affect ANR’s either. I doubt I am affecting your assets in any negative way.</p>
<p>Consolation…I own 1,000 shares of Renn. I wanted to see how Facebook would affect the stock. I guess Facebook affected Renn in a positive way. :)</p>
<p>I reserve the right to increase my risk from a 1 to a 5. ;).</p>
<p>Doct…some firms and people do
Understand how the stock market works…</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean they know which way the market is going…</p>
<p>But they understand that whoever has the order flow wins…and they try to set themselves up by buying order flow.</p>
<p>When you trade options at Schwab…you might see that you get a better price than you thought. For example the market for an option is 3.0 @ 3.05. You go to sell at 3.0 and you are filled at 3.01. The option doesn’t even trade at .01 increments. What happened?</p>
<p>Some firm bought that order flow for .01. Why would a firm do that? Because that firm can make money by paying an extra .01.</p>
<p>I don’t hold huge positions in anything and I guess I’m mostly in cash especially right now. Friday I got burned in aapl 550 May calls. I sold with a good profit earlier in the week and bought back on Friday those calls. In the morning, the market was down, aapl was holding pretty well so I bought especially with earnings on the 24th. It was down nearly 25 points from its peak. Unfortunately, it then proceeded to drop 17 or so points. It happened so fast that I couldn’t get out. I also figured it will run up next week before earnings. I’m sure I’ll regret this decision especially since it is one of the few times that I didn’t protect myself with a put spread.</p>
<p>That schwab example happened to me last week. I could only put in the order in .05 increments but it sold .02 above the price I was selling it at.</p>
<p>"
That schwab example happened to me last week. I could only put in the order in .05 increments but it sold .02 above the price I was selling it at."</p>
Despite the fact that she calls this her “mad money,” she has a hard time buying anything that doesn’t pay a dividend.</p>