I had promised that I was going to start my own thread regarding stock investments and the markets. So many things have happened since last time I was here and I really do not feel like sharing my knowledge. But a promise is a promise and there have been few people that have emailed me and supported me.

This thread will deal with investing in the stock markets. I will not discuss individual stocks but discuss ETFs like SPY, DIA, IWM and QQQQ. The one good thing about trading ETFs compared to individual stocks is the the ETFs provide instant diversification among similar companies within the same sector.

I will post more as we go along, regarding entry-price, profit-target and stop-losses. I do not think that any ETF is good or bad. It is good only if I'm making money and bad if I'm losig money.

If you have not been in the market so far, please read this as an information piece only rather than my recommendations. There is risk involved and you should know how much risk to take on any position.

Any suggestations, comments and criticisms are welcome as long as it is market related. If this thread gets out of hand and we start discussing off-topics, I'll stop posting.

Have a happy new year!!!! May 2007 bring you and your family lots of joys and riches.

India's sensex and nifty index plunged 10% today at the start of the week long dusain festival and diwali.The crash of October 1987 is repeating again..If the Chinese stock markets decline by 5-10% by thursday, it could trigger a global sell off and a disaster similar to the crash of 1987 on Friday. So sell all your share holdings and get out of the markets.

didnt happen.

 

it's just profit taking.

 

 

Hi trading experts,

I am thinking of investing about $5,000 in stock to start with. I don't even know the basics of investment. Is there a good source of information available for a starter like me? I see some ads on tv which seem lucrative but not sure if they are worth trying.

How do you buy and sale stocks?

Any suggestion/info will be appreciated.

Fed Rate cut: Is it gonna happen next week?  

most likely yes

I hope you guys followed the rules if so,you should have been out last week. Subprime is a major problem but tech stocks are going to lead us higher. Look for 1450 in S&P before we go higher. I'm trading commodities these days so I haven't spent a lot of time with stocks but if I see something big unfolding, I'll let you know.

Doesn't look like tech stocks will be the good choice for next few weeks. Most of the tech stocks are beaten badly, Highy techy Nasdaq is hammered worse than Dow since last few days. Financial stocks were also one of the hardest hit this week.

Seems like we need to wait and watch. Definately need to see what would be the next catalyst to drive stocks higher.

 

WELCOME BACK!!!

Ha! You are like me when it comes to facebook. Everytime I say I'm gone, I always end up coming back.

I'm outta the markets for now. Tooo much uncertainty.

I just remembered that I had started this thread exactly a year ago. Nice ride though!!!!

I feel that the correction has ended and it is time to buy. Here are some of my picks. Buy it when it comes around 65 dma.

LDK, JASO, EJ, GA, ICFI, SIGM, AMCN, ACH, RIG, XLP.

 

Happy New Year.

Indeed.

It has been quite the ride.

My trading account's almost empty right now. I probably won't be trading as much but don't you think it's a bit too early to call the selloff?

How about waiting till Hillary secures her new salary as President? (not that I'm supporting her)

But given how shitty the market's been, with all the upheavals and CEOs resigning and blah blah blah, I would like to expect some investor confidence kick back in.

HAPPY NEW YEAR OF INVESTING EVERYONE!!!

 

Good to see this thread back. This is one of the most educative thread that I found here in Sajha. I had started trading since April 2007 and had quite a wild ride. But over all this year turn out to be good for me($$$$$).

Happy New Year and Good Luck in Trading!!!!

 

TP

   

 

Well today was a crazy day. I still believe we are within few points from the end of correction. 1420 in S&P should bring lots of buyers. Out of all the picks from yesterday LDK, JASO and RIG did pretty good, being up on a down day. Rest of the picks were not that bad either considering the overall market was weak. When the market rebounds, these should outperform the overall market.

 

 

you're right tp,

this is an excellent thread. im hoping the bad blood's gone for now. we should see signs of improvement soon.

INTC and MSFT are reaching impressive levels. ORCL also seems good. Hopefully this will be a good year for those giants. I'm sick of not seeing the green tick bars.

....maybe not....

Well S&P broke through 1420. Usually, a weak Friday is followed by a weak Monday. If we do not see a rebound next week, we are officially in a bear market (according to my analysis). If anyone had cut their positions after each 1% true selling day, you would have been in cash few weeks ago. I was buying at 1420 but when we closed below 1420, I got out. I will look for 1 more opportunity to buy, if that does not work, then there will be no buying for months to years.

I was inspired to trade after reading this post and when I started trading, this posting lulls. Well I made some and lost some. Good experience till now. Bought INTC and DELL.  after selling ABX with nice profit but you know the profit is evaporated.

Hey Aman, I was also inspired to trade after reading this post too. Whenever I come to sajha, I expect to see some updates on this thread. I think lot of people do that but only few people bother to write. Since we all had leared a lot from this thread, how about sharing some experience too.

I am not a professional trader however since I started, I am totally into this. I have been reading every financial news and articles, watching every shows, and reading every blogs. I go to wsj or cnn money rather than Hi5 or facebook these days( I'm internet sabby can't stay out of my laptop).

I started trading with list of 6/8 stocks at a time. From the risk balance perspective, it worked pretty ok for me but overall it was kinda loss due to broker fees. Then I changed my strategy and put all my money in 1. I lost quite a lot on that. Then came to 3 stocks. One tech,One finance and One international. It worked preety well for me.Sold all last week and with some nice profit.

I am trying a new strategy now. I put 25% of my money in one. It went down 5% on friday and I added another 25% on it. I am still holding 50% cash. If it goes down then I will probably add another 50%. I am not a day trader but at the same time I'm not planning to hold it for long time either. What do you guys think? The ticker is aapl.

Should I get out or stay tight?

Cheers,

Team Player

Aman: Not sure why you bought INTC and DELL and sold ABX. Since ABX was showing you profits, I'd have added more of it than selling it.

Team Player: Please take my advise. Never average down. If you buy a stock and it goes down, do NOT buy more. There are times when the market will come back up and you'll make money but in the long-run it leads to disaster. If you are going to buy 1 stock only, I'd rather buy QQQQ than AAPL. AAPL is very volatile. I hope that you are risking only what you can afford to lose. If we head into a recession like many have predicted, AAPL could lose more than 50% of it's value. Right now if I were you, I'll give the market some time to stabalize and only buy after that. Our main goal should always be the preservation of capital and then capital appreciation.

90% of the stocks move with the market, so it is necessary to understand whether the market is going up or down. When the market is going down, you can buy the best companies but still lose money, similarly when it is going up you can buy a dog and it still goes up. Right now, the market is going down. We do not know whether it is the begining of a down-trend or a correction in an up-trend. Wait for a week and we'll know. By next week if the market doesn't go below 1400, I'll start buying otherwise it could be months before this market will go up.

I'm glad to know that there are people that were inspired by this thread but please do not assume that it is easy to make money. I've lost my share too. Please read some of the books that I have mentioned here.

Good Luck.

Emini:   I am one of the beneficiaries of this thread too and my deep appreciation to eminitrader is long overdue. Thank you emini for starting out this thread. It was quite a bumpy ride in wall street this year but what i have learnt is a valuable asset for me. I hope to reading u in this thread in future too.

Timetraveller:   Good to see u back in the thread. Hope to see u regularly.

Aman, Team Player....lets keep the discussion alive......

Market looks like Six's Flag's Free-Fall.......hope it won't dive below 1390.

Good Luck

 

I'll start buying now. I believe that we are done with this correction. I'll get out if we close below 1400 in S&P.