Anyone interested in Talking Stocks?

[Manedwolf]

I will likely pick up some iRobot if it drops to around 12 again. Just a few, no big investment, as I've seen too many Good Idea dotcoms fail due to horrible management.

iRobot makes the PackBot much loved by troops. Military contracts = $$$$, and they're going to likely scale up production in that area. If they don't fail due to bad decisions, it would seem like a good long-term.

As for other things, my CGM mutual funds have done quite well, and my palladium maple leaves just busted $500. Go go go!

[Werewolf]

Also, if you are open to more than "buy-and-hold", look into options trading - the risks are generally bigger, but the potential rewards are scandalous.

Sorry man but that's really bad advice. Good advice 20 years ago but not now.

The every day average guy can't compete with the big boys, their Black-Scholes real time pricing models and programmed trading. Those boys do arbitrage and trade on 1/10 th of a cent out of balance prices a 100,000,000 bucks at a time.

Options trading truly is gambling and shouldn't be done by regular folks. I suppose if you're willing to take all your money, toss it into a garbage can, add gasoline and a match and truly enjoy the blaze then options might be ok.

But not in these days - nope - not these days.

Commodities trading thru futures though is something a regular guy can get into and make big bucks if you do all your homework before opening a position.

[CAnnoneer]

Sorry man but that's really bad advice. Good advice 20 years ago but not now.

The every day average guy can't compete with the big boys, their Black-Scholes real time pricing models and programmed trading. Those boys do arbitrage and trade on 1/10 th of a cent out of balance prices a 100,000,000 bucks at a time.

Options trading truly is gambling and shouldn't be done by regular folks.

That has not been my experience, and I trade options for profit. Then again, I am not a day-trader. You may be right in the case of day-trading with options, but things are certainly very different for traders working with larger timescales, e.g. a month inside a good position.

Check out Optionetics and the related technical analysis software packages, most importantly ProfitSource. It is more difficult than trading stocks and there are many more ways to get horribly burnt, but if you do it right, you make good money. Also, you don't need to be one of the big boys either. Options have inherent leverage, which means far greater ROI than stock, so you can build a fortune from a very small starting account.

[K Frame]

I've made decent money in the options market in the past.

I've also had runs where I got spanked hard.

I decided to stick with mutual funds for the long haul.

[Ben]

Thought I would resurrect my old thread, mostly because I was told, "not to quit my day job". 

Not that I'm still not doing these individual stocks only for fun versus long term investment, but they turned out to be pretty good picks after all:

Gushan Environmental -  Bought at $8.66, currently 13.90. A couple of little dips, but steady riser overall, and poised to go much higher I think.

Silicon Image - Bought at $4.03, currently $7.00. This one seems to be really following analysts predictions. A slow steady rise since I bought it. Still hoping for a surge after this Christmas and the switch to digital TV.

Sirius - Bought at $2.98, currently $2.56. My only stinker. I did buy this on the highly speculative theory that the merger with XM would go through. Hasn't happened yet.

Tidewater -- Ended up getting too scared by what's going on with oil to pull the trigger on this one.

Yahoo -- Sold half, kept half, which worked out okay given the current status of the Microsoft buyout (or lack thereof).

[K Frame]

I'm continuing to do OK with my limited portfolio.

I bought several hundred shares of Citigroup at $20 and change a few weeks ago. It's going to take them some time to recover from the mortgage issue, but I have no doubt that within the next two years they'll have recovered nicely and I'll have a nice profit.

[WayneConrad]

Here's Wayne's (probably stupid) guide to stocks.

There are two ways to do stocks.  Speculating, otherwise known as "gambling," and investing, otherwise known as "investing."  Speculating is guessing what's going to go up or down, and buying (or selling, or shorting, or whatever).  Investing is not worrying about what's going to go up or down, but buying for the long term, figuring that over the long term, everything's going to go up, and buying what's most likely to capture that long term trend well.

To invest, buy only stocks in companies that, among other things, are:

• Profitable
• Carry no debt
• Have as broad a market as possible (worldwide vs. Seattle)
• Are used by as many people as possible (toilet paper vs. left-handed scissors)

You then leave it alone.  Don't sit by the virtual ticker and watch it go up and down.  That is what speculators do.  If you need that kind of excitement, go to Vegas.

Once you've found a good investment stock, find out if they have a DRIP.  It's a nifty way for you to buy the stock on the cheap directly from the company, sometimes at a very low cost (as in, way lower than the usual brokerage fees), and in smaller quantities than you might have to if you were buying in the usual way.  Great for us small guys.

[280plus]

Recent developments make it appear that whiskey, glass beads, iron pots and FEMA trailers will be seeing a surge.