Talking stocks, trading, and investing in general

[GreenFrog]

VRX will go down in history as my worst stock pick ever.

Took a peek at FCX -- I pretty much got out at its peak. Yikes if I still was holding it.

 

[tropics]

GF what's the longest you've gone without looking at your portfolio?

 

[GreenFrog]

5 hours, no joke.

 

[Master-Classter]

MNKD, huh.... I originally started buying under $3, then got a little worried for a few days and have been steadily buying down, today it popped like 20% and I think I'll sell half and hang onto the rest for around $3.5 with some luck. Tiny part of my plays but this one is jumpy.


I'm a little pissed that a few of my picks like say WMT dropped and have just been moving sideways for a while with no sign of even any recovery. I was hoping I'd bought on an oversell and bought for a quick flip but so far it's going nowhere.

 

[jbarwick]

Finally finished off our Roth contributions for the year. Our accounts are pretty much flat for the year since we use index funds. No real positive news as of late and everyone seems to be waiting on a Fed move.

Does anyone have any insight into 529 plans? We are expecting in April of next year so I figure I need to set one up. My hesitation though is that college could change over the next 20 years and not be as important unless you are going into specific fields. It just seems like a dated model that will be changed and 20 years is a long enough time horizon for that.

 

[MSchapiro]

VRX will go down in history as my worst stock pick ever.

Took a peek at FCX -- I pretty much got out at its peak. Yikes if I still was holding it.

Oil stocks seem to keep crashing further and further, although I guess that is to be expected. Long term there is probably some very good but very high risk money on the table if you can pick the survivors. CHK is a good example of a company I had high hopes for, but only really had/has only short term liquidity. CORR is a stock/REIT I really like right now.

I'm personally surprised to see VRX going as low as it is, but obviously there is bias there. Putting myself in the shoes of an outside investor I probably would have avoided it without serious research into the potential legal issues. TRN comes to mind as an analog I invested in. I took a beating for a while before making a good profit.
Momentum is a really powerful force which I said to you GreenFrog, my exact words were "Sentiment should scare you, because that can drive the price lower". If you are a long term investor the day price should not matter. If you'd rather day trade the patterns themselves are pretty classic.

 

[GreenFrog]

******* getting slaughtered today.

Friday the 13th indeed.

 

[djblisk]

Its horrible

 

[Master-Classter]

This, it sucks.

 

[GreenFrog]

 

[MSchapiro]

I was actually up about an hour ago, back down again into the negative now though.

 

[brokencycle]

Finally finished off our Roth contributions for the year. Our accounts are pretty much flat for the year since we use index funds. No real positive news as of late and everyone seems to be waiting on a Fed move.

Does anyone have any insight into 529 plans? We are expecting in April of next year so I figure I need to set one up. My hesitation though is that college could change over the next 20 years and not be as important unless you are going into specific fields. It just seems like a dated model that will be changed and 20 years is a long enough time horizon for that.

I'm no expert, but I've read Roth IRAs are better because they don't count for assets for financial aid qualification. I believe you can pay your kid the $5250/yr and contribute it to their Roth. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[lawyerdad]

I'm no expert either. I do have a 529 for my kid, for what that's worth. I believe there are more limitations on contributions to a Roth, so if it's an either/or situation the 529 plan can be good if there are going to be years where you may want to make bigger contributions (your income varies, your or the kid may come into a small inheritance, etc.)

I tend to think most of the "which one is better" articles are somewhere on the continuum from stupid to intellectually dishonest. First off, I don't think there's any reason you can't establish both. And people's circumstances vary widely, so broad generalizations tend to be unreliable. But you don't get clicks for an article that says, "It really depends on your individual circumstances and value trade-offs". You get clicks for articles that say, "OMG THe Eleventy Rules You Must Follow To Make Sure Your Child Will Be Able To Pay For Collage!!!"

I get the concern about college changing, etc. If your child doesn't go to college or gets a fencing scholarship or something, you can withdraw that money for other uses. Yes, you'll have to pay some taxes/penalties on it. In my mind, though, that risk is part of the price I'm willing to pay to have that money stashed away for college. If it turns out that I've over-funded my daughter's future educational expenses and take a bit of a haircut on the resulting refund, I'll be OK with that.

To circle back to my either/or point -- the one piece of general advice is I feel confident giving is that you should establish both. Each type of account can be started with a nominal amount. There's no penalty for contributing less than the maximum. Family circumstances can change, tax laws can change, and the education landscape can change. I'm a big fan of diversifying among strategies. If a Roth seems the better option for your family, you can throw 99% of the available funds that way. But given the opportunity to spread my eggs among several strategic baskets, I'd almost always opt to do so.

 

[jbarwick]

Thanks for the tips. I will have to look into the Roth situation.

 

[chogall]

Oil stocks seem to keep crashing further and further, although I guess that is to be expected. Long term there is probably some very good but very high risk money on the table if you can pick the survivors. CHK is a good example of a company I had high hopes for, but only really had/has only short term liquidity. CORR is a stock/REIT I really like right now.

I'm personally surprised to see VRX going as low as it is, but obviously there is bias there. Putting myself in the shoes of an outside investor I probably would have avoided it without serious research into the potential legal issues. TRN comes to mind as an analog I invested in. I took a beating for a while before making a good profit.
Momentum is a really powerful force which I said to you GreenFrog, my exact words were "Sentiment should scare you, because that can drive the price lower". If you are a long term investor the day price should not matter. If you'd rather day trade the patterns themselves are pretty classic.

momentum works both ways. vrx is being hit on both ackerman situations with both insider trading and fund redemption, on top of the current political backlash against high drug prices.