Talking stocks, trading, and investing in general

[GreenFrog]

The gtat ceo and cfo are absolute fools. No **** they were going to get investigated by the SEC.

When I read the article mentioning how they sold their shares, I ******* knew it was going to get probed. So shady.

 

[guyver00]

No ****, selling their shares right before the Apple announcement. Even with SEC investigations, the mom-n-pop's, if they're lucky, will get probably get less than 20 cents back on the dollar.

Index ETF's with 5% speculative money for me.

 

[GreenFrog]

How old is everyone here and when did you first start investing? It seems few people here have risk tolerances as high as mine, which would make sense, assuming everyone here is older.

 

[RedLeg]

How old is everyone here and when did you first start investing? It seems few people here have risk tolerances as high as mine, which would make sense, assuming everyone here is older.

I'm 25. Bought my 1st stock when I was in 5th grade with paper route money. Curse you Dell!

I have a high risk tolerance, but recognize the benefit of long term yield plays given my age.

 

[Texasmade]

31. First started investing at 22.

 

[otc]

28, opened a Roth IRA sometime in fall 2008 if I recall correctly.
Bought Apple, Sunpower, Vestas, and a S&P500 index fund.

Apple multiplied (until it hit its stop order in the flash crash and I didn't feel confident enough to re-buy).
Sunpower did ok for a bit and then went to ****. Ended up tendering my shares when Total bought 60% since that drove the price up and seemed like a better deal than continued ownership.
Vestas had some trouble through 2011 and it was only a couple of months ago when those original shares worth money again...but I bought a bunch more in 2012 that are now worth multiples, so overall they have returned well.
S&P 500 did great

 

[jbarwick]

29 on Saturday. Investing since 2011-ish in a Scottrade account then Roth IRA. 80% equities / 20% bonds for me. My wife is more conservative than me so we are going this route. She is 29 as well.

 

[Medwed]

47, started in 1998 during .com IPO boom. Invested through Witcapital which was set up by GS to offer IPO shares to everyone on a lottery basis. E-trade and then finally TDAmeritrade.

 

[gettoasty]

I cannot find the GTAT article about those investors in the forum true

Do people really take their life savings so carelessly?

I think most of the posters on that forum who bought GTAT are trolling and exaggerating their portion of of net worth that was actually invested.

 

[idfnl]

You'll never see a dime for GTAT thru any investigation or settlement or whatever.

The only hope is the company is acquired or rescued and that the price bounces where you get back .20 on the dollar.

 

[guyver00]

The GTAT stories sound implausible, but I think there are some truth in them. I think back to people who bet the life savings on Enron and Lehman before their collapse, it doesn't seem so far fetch.

I'm 34, started investing at 32. Bought AAPL, BNS and CNR first, dipping my toes in. Then in 2013 sold all my individual holdings and went into index ETF's. I'm 100% equities, 95% ETF's and 5% individual stocks for speculative play.

 

[UnFacconable]

Just because someone has an appetite for risk And makes speculative plays oesn't mean they will generate better returns. I've been investing since I was 18 in the late 90's and started with junk bonds. I've done fine over the years but going to guess I would have been better off financially had I always rolled into index funds. Most of my new invested capital goes into index funds and private funds and private investments at this point.

The main reason I invest in anything other than funds is because it's a huge interest for my father and gives us something to talk about.

People have to decide if they want to play or maximize returns as their primary goal.

 

[idfnl]



People have to decide if they want to play or maximize returns as their primary goal.

One speculative play that hits a home run is enough to tip the balance. It may not happen, but some might find it worth the risk so a better way to put it is to stay as close to the averages as possible or try and outperform them.

If you made a speculative play on 100 shares of REGN in Jan 2011 @ $32 a share, your $3200 would be worth $41,000, quite a gain on a widely held stock so I'm not taking about some penny stock that went crazy.

Look at 2 scenarios: 100% of your money was in vanguard index 500 since that date. Your overall return would be about 100%, more or less for arguments sake.

Now: Lets say that the $3,200 represented 1% of your portfolio, and the rest of your money was in Vanguard 500, your return in the same period would be 112%.

A 1% portfolio risk can generate that kind of a bump on an overall return and there are many individual stocks that have shown a similar trajectory.

 

[GreenFrog]



31. First started investing at 22.

Interested to hear how the market has treated you since you first started. I also began investing at 22.

What's your investing style?

 

[Texasmade]



Interested to hear how the market has treated you since you first started. I also began investing at 22.

What's your investing style?

The first couple of years I focused too much on the FS sector and lost like $5k+ my first 2-3 years. After that I started focusing more on blue chip stocks that paid dividends and have done reasonably well due to good timing (dumping a bunch of money into the market from 2008-2011) and reinvesting dividends.