Stock Market Chat

[Jack Straw]

The U.S. had good figures on unemployment, inflation, GDP growth, manufacturing, retail sales, trade, etc. until COVID-19. The fundamentals are strong. Once we have a vaccine, the economy will start to recover soon after that. Investors are easily spooked due to day trading, etc. so I would not pay too much attention to short term market fluctuations (lasting a few weeks or several months, or so; I doubt this will happen). Wall Street is not in investments for the long haul. The U.S. markets have already regained most of their losses so far.

People who invest on regular intervals such as through 401ks, etc. should not worry due to dollar-cost averaging.

Dollar cost averaging is king!

 

[Juan]

U.S. States Face Biggest Cash Crisis Since the Great Depression

The drop in income and sales tax revenue has created a historic crisis for states, with a total shortfall expected in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The projected gaps are greater than 2019's K-12 education budget for every state combined, or more than twice the amount spent that year on state roads and other transportation infrastructure.

 

[Christiaan]

Seems like a highly risky proposition. One influenced by emotional thinking, because of their child's suffering?

If your parents are extremely wealthy (multi millionaires), and they don't mind the prospect of losing the 100-200K, then why not. They will make millions and millions if these treatments work out.

Partly yes and no. My parents understand that regenerative treatments have a lot of potential, especially in markets where there are not a lot of options. My parents aren't very wealthy, just upper middle class. They have sold some houses and thought it would be wise to invest in stock of companies that not only has a lot of potential (financial wise), but also does a great service for as many people as possible.

 

[Christiaan]

I would wait for the next Bitcoin retrace and then buy a position in that. It's almost certainly going to go above $20k and beyond with the money that's pouring into it.

You could then take some of your profits from there and buy a position in one of those biotechs.

This is not financial advice, though. It's what I would do. You should never base investment decisions on what strangers tell you to do online. Always do your own research, and learn how the markets work before putting your money into anything.

You often find people who are new to investing freaking out about price fluctuations. Never put yourself in a position where you will lose sleep over the money you've put in, as that's a clear sign that you've over-invested. Only put in what you can afford to lose, that's rule number one. Then you need to be clear about what your objectives are: are you trading or are you holding longterm? If you're confused about this then you're likely to lose money. Have a plan and stick to it. I know of people who say they aren't trading but are investing, and yet they still look at the charts at all hours of the day. The money you see on your screen is meaningless until you crystallise it by selling, and that's whether it's up or down.

As Mr Miyagi once said: if you stand on the left side of the road, it's safe. If you stand on the right side of the road, that's also safe. Stand in the middle, however, and sooner or later you're gonna get knocked down. Think of the right and left side of the road as trading and investing. Standing in the middle is the equivalence of the confused state that newer investors can get themselves into which allows for their emotional state to force mistakes.

I have no idea what your experience is, but I just thought I'd throw that out there. You should also try and buy stocks that you at least have an understanding of, and do proper due diligence and research, and not just a quick google.

I deeply appreciate your advice @Ed209. You've put a lot of research into this, I gather. I especially like your #1 rule. That is one solid principle and I will ask my parents if they would be willing to risk putting a certain amount if they are going for it.

I've heard of the Bitcoin mania, but I'm a total sucker when it comes to its use and potential. A lot of young people that I know are convinced that Bitcoin has the future. On the other hand, my parents are pretty conservative, so I hardly imagine that they would invest in a thing like alternative currency.

My parents are, of course, concerned with me. But they are not the type of people who just invest things on a whim. They have a private banker who does analyses and research of companies that my parents are interested and informes them about risks and if investments have potential high returns or not. They just commissioned the same banker to do the same for Astellas, Otonomy and Frequency Therapeutics. It's a matter of weeks before they know if it's their moneys worth or not.

 

[Ed209]

I deeply appreciate your advice @Ed209. You've put a lot of research into this, I gather. I especially like your #1 rule. That is one solid principle and I will ask my parents if they would be willing to risk putting a certain amount if they are going for it.

I've heard of the Bitcoin mania, but I'm a total sucker when it comes to its use and potential. A lot of young people that I know are convinced that Bitcoin has the future. On the other hand, my parents are pretty conservative, so I hardly imagine that they would invest in a thing like alternative currency.

My parents are, of course, concerned with me. But they are not the type of people who just invest things on a whim. They have a private banker who does analyses and research of companies that my parents are interested and informes them about risks and if investments have potential high returns or not. They just commissioned the same banker to do the same for Astellas, Otonomy and Frequency Therapeutics. It's a matter of weeks before they know if it's their moneys worth or not.

I've been investing most of my life and I've made a lot of money doing it. In the early days, when there was an up and coming stock that I liked, that was really high risk, I'd go and meet the board of directors before putting my money in. I liked to grill them first-hand on the financials and direction of the company. That was on the occasions that it was a possibility to do so. A friend and I did this a lot and made quite a few contacts along the way.

I used to be known as The General on the old iii boards. I was a top 50 investor on there and was often quoted in their news articles. Back then I used to target various mining and exploratory oil stocks, but I had plenty of everything including financial stocks, biotechs, newspapers, insurance companies, etc, etc. You name a sector and I probably owned a stock in it at one point or another.

I can't stress enough how important it is to understand what you are investing in, and what the potential risk-to-reward ratio is. As others have said, average into a position. Don't blow your load in one go. Buy in tranches.

Bitcoin is like digital gold for the younger generation and it's no longer viewed as a fringe asset. Many institutions and billionaires are putting their money into it to hedge against inflation. I have a crypto Visa card, for example, which means I can spend bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies wherever I like. Even PayPal have come onboard. In my opinion, it's going to keep rising in the longterm.

Always DYOR (do your own research). Make a plan and stick to it.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

The US markets should be up on Thursday, but an American is testing positive every 1.2 seconds. Even when we do get a vaccine, we don't have enough clinical laboratory refrigerators for storage.

 

[linearb]

Even PayPal have come onboard. In my opinion, it's going to keep rising in the longterm.

I mined 10-15 coins a long time ago and sold them when BTC hit $35

It would be nice to still have that and pay off a lot of my mortgage, on the other hand, I spent the money to buy a new alternator that I desperately needed at the time to keep my car running, and it was just... free money I spun out of the ether with math, so, no real regrets, I just think it's funny.

 

[Mathew Gould]

The US markets should be up on Thursday, but an American is testing positive every 1.2 seconds. Even when we do get a vaccine, we don't have enough clinical laboratory refrigerators for storage.

Where do you see the market going by year's end in the next month?

 

[Mathew Gould]

I've been investing most of my life and I've made a lot of money doing it. In the early days, when there was an up and coming stock that I liked, that was really high risk, I'd go and meet the board of directors before putting my money in. I liked to grill them first-hand on the financials and direction of the company. That was on the occasions that it was a possibility to do so. A friend and I did this a lot and made quite a few contacts along the way.

I used to be known as The General on the old iii boards. I was a top 50 investor on there and was often quoted in their news articles. Back then I used to target various mining and exploratory oil stocks, but I had plenty of everything including financial stocks, biotechs, newspapers, insurance companies, etc, etc. You name a sector and I probably owned a stock in it at one point or another.

I can't stress enough how important it is to understand what you are investing in, and what the potential risk-to-reward ratio is. As others have said, average into a position. Don't blow your load in one go. Buy in tranches.

Bitcoin is like digital gold for the younger generation and it's no longer viewed as a fringe asset. Many institutions and billionaires are putting their money into it to hedge against inflation. I have a crypto Visa card, for example, which means I can spend bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies wherever I like. Even PayPal have come onboard. In my opinion, it's going to keep rising in the longterm.

Always DYOR (do your own research). Make a plan and stick to it.

Obviously you can make money in the stock market, but it's the biggest ponzi scheme going...

 

[Ed209]

Obviously you can make money in the stock market, but it's the biggest Ponzi scheme going...

If Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme then what is FIAT currency?

A Ponzi scheme is where money from newer investors is needed to pay older investors, and as it continues, more and more money is required from newer investors to keep the whole thing propped up. This scales exponentially, so at some point, it will fail. Think of Bernie Madoff, he ran the largest Ponzi scheme of all time and made billions.

Bitcoin on the other hand is a fixed asset that won't ever inflate. It is as much a Ponzi as buying gold is a Ponzi, in other words, it's not, as thinking this way makes no sense. It could be considered a bubble, however.

Michael Saylor, the CEO of Microstrategy - which is a NASDAQ listed company that you can buy shares in - put $425m of their cash into Bitcoin, and they have set the company up to become a full node on the network. Before this could happen, he had to put it to vote amongst their shareholders. He also put $235m of his personal wealth into it.

Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Square, also put $50m into Bitcoin. This is becoming a more frequent occurrence as companies with large cash holdings look for a safe haven. As Michael Saylor pointed out, the company's cash pile was analogous to a pile of melting ice cubes in the current financial market.

Bitcoin is nothing more than a store of value, and if enough people believe in the concept, then it will succeed in the same way that FIAT currencies have. There is no intrinsic value to either. Your paper dollars are worth the amount that is printed on the front because you believe they are. It's actually just a piece of worthless paper or data on a screen. Governments can print more money whenever they want and this leads to inflation. The downside of doing too much quantitative easing is that it devalues everyone's money, and this is why gold, historically speaking, becomes more valuable during hard times. Bitcoin is essentially digital gold.

Whether it can retain this status is another story, but if you look at what's currently happening, you'll see lots of money flowing into it, and this includes big institutions and hedge fund managers. To begin with it was ridiculed, even by Michael Saylor who I mentioned above, but now you have big financial institutions trading it. Even PayPal can no longer ignore it as it will soon be accepted on their platform as well.

I can spend Bitcoin in any place that accepts Visa via the card I have, which means the value is as real as my English pounds or any other international currency.

 

[BigNick]

I've been investing most of my life and I've made a lot of money doing it. In the early days, when there was an up and coming stock that I liked, that was really high risk, I'd go and meet the board of directors before putting my money in. I liked to grill them first-hand on the financials and direction of the company. That was on the occasions that it was a possibility to do so. A friend and I did this a lot and made quite a few contacts along the way.

I used to be known as The General on the old iii boards. I was a top 50 investor on there and was often quoted in their news articles. Back then I used to target various mining and exploratory oil stocks, but I had plenty of everything including financial stocks, biotechs, newspapers, insurance companies, etc, etc. You name a sector and I probably owned a stock in it at one point or another.

I can't stress enough how important it is to understand what you are investing in, and what the potential risk-to-reward ratio is. As others have said, average into a position. Don't blow your load in one go. Buy in tranches.

Bitcoin is like digital gold for the younger generation and it's no longer viewed as a fringe asset. Many institutions and billionaires are putting their money into it to hedge against inflation. I have a crypto Visa card, for example, which means I can spend bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies wherever I like. Even PayPal have come onboard. In my opinion, it's going to keep rising in the longterm.

Always DYOR (do your own research). Make a plan and stick to it.

Hi Ed

Have you got any AIM companies?

 

[Ed209]

Hi Ed

Have you got any AIM companies?

Not at the moment, but that's where I made most of my money.

 

[BigNick]

Not at the moment, but that's where I made most of my money.

Me too. Love those multi baggers.

 

[Ed209]

Me too. Love those multi baggers.

They are the best! You take on a lot of risk, but the upside is amazing.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

Where do you see the market going by year's end in the next month?

Not investing long in US markets. There's only one company - a Chinese blue chip that I trust will do a multi-bagger over the next few years. The company is JD.com - a china Amazon. JD trades in the low 80's with heavy volume, while Amazon trades near 3000. JD has a better and wider model than Amazon and has 450 million consumer users. They now have 700 warehouses within 89 large China cities where growth should capture well over 1 billion consumers with much higher order sales volume. It doesn't matter who the President is in the US, or concern with the virus when it comes to China online consumer growth, but I would wait until after the US election to buy.

 

[Mathew Gould]

Not investing long in US markets. There's only one company - a Chinese blue chip that I trust will do a multi-bagger over the next few years. The company is JD.com - a china Amazon. JD trades in the low 80's with heavy volume, while Amazon trades near 3000. JD has a better and wider model than Amazon and has 450 million consumer users. They now have 700 warehouses within 89 large China cities where growth should capture well over 1 billion consumers with much higher order sales volume. It doesn't matter who the President is in the US, or concern with the virus when it comes to China online consumer growth, but I would wait until after the US election to buy.

Is this JD company the biggest company in China like Amazon or is there another company in China that is bigger?? I don't like how it's basically at its all time high, but what do I know, not much.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

Is this JD company the biggest company in China like Amazon or is there another company in China that is bigger?? I don't like how it's basically at its all time high, but what do I know, not much.

I sold JD today that I bought last week for a 15% profit. On Monday I loaded trust money into high tech, silver - gold stocks, medical and market options - but I also sold all today of 5 days of holding for over a 35% overall profit.

Over last weekend it was a given that Biden would win on mail in votes. Rich Democrat funds and hedgers bought heavy into tech and gold and silver. To make money in options, stocks and real estate, it's needed to think like a greedy Democrat and avoid personal political views.

 

[ajc]

I sold JD today that I bought last week for a 15% profit. On Monday I loaded trust money into high tech, silver - gold stocks, medical and market options - but I also sold all today of 5 days of holding for over a 35% overall profit.

Over last weekend it was a given that Biden would win on mail in votes. Rich Democrat funds and hedgers bought heavy into tech and gold and silver. To make money in options, stocks and real estate, it's needed to think like a greedy Democrat and avoid personal political views.

No offense but you're a hypocrite, you do exactly the same things as Democrats, but you do this while badmouthing them.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

No offense but you're a hypocrite, you do exactly the same things as Democrats, but you do this while badmouthing them.

I bad mouth all Presidents. Our trust fund money is going to special needs - dogs, cats, children, the disabled and elderly.

 

[Ed209]

A friend of mine, who I used to trade and invest with back in the day, switched to crypto's in 2017 and hasn't looked back. In that time he must have amassed around $500,000, easily.

Many still think it's all a scam, and believe me the crypto world is rife with scams, it is like the Wild West. However, if you know what you're doing the gains can be mind-blowing.

This gives you an idea of how well Bitcoin has performed, and continues to perform:

This image is a year old. Your $100 would be worth a lot more now. Fact is, for the last decade, nothing has come close to Bitcoin.

A student of mine asked me about 3 weeks ago what he should invest in. I said Bitcoin as it sat around the $10.5k area. Today it almost hit $16k. He's already up nearly 60%. He bought 0.6 BTC

There is going to be a financial revolution, and it is happening right now. Cryptocurrencies will eventually become regulated and mass adoption will very slowly start to happen. Blockchain technology is not just about currencies either. There are companies out there utilising this technology for all sorts of applications.

The problem is the image it has. People see all the scams and rarely look beneath the surface because of this. More than 95% of cryptocurrencies will fail. Most of them are worthless. There are some gems hidden amongst the crap, however.

PS: this is not financial advice! Always do your own research and pick your own stocks/assets.

 

[Mathew Gould]

Not investing long in US markets. There's only one company - a Chinese blue chip that I trust will do a multi-bagger over the next few years. The company is JD.com - a china Amazon. JD trades in the low 80's with heavy volume, while Amazon trades near 3000. JD has a better and wider model than Amazon and has 450 million consumer users. They now have 700 warehouses within 89 large China cities where growth should capture well over 1 billion consumers with much higher order sales volume. It doesn't matter who the President is in the US, or concern with the virus when it comes to China online consumer growth, but I would wait until after the US election to buy.

Are you still long on JD.com even though China doesn't want monopolies or whatever they said a few days ago?

 

[Greg Sacramento]

Are you still long on JD.com even though China doesn't want monopolies or whatever they said a few days ago?

NO - sold - see my post above #47 - Friday.

 

[Jack Straw]

I hope you guys didn't sell last week! We had a great Monday and now a correction for the over hype.

 

[Mathew Gould]

NO - sold - see my post above #47 - Friday.

It makes no sense that the market is this high with lockdowns, layoffs, etc just around the corner... What do you think? What are you trading now?

 

[Juan]

It makes no sense that the market is this high with lockdowns, layoffs, etc just around the corner... What do you think? What are you trading now?

I think the same. The stock market right now makes no sense at all.

The debate should be centered on why the stock markets and the real economy are world's apart. Central banks are de facto bailing out the stock markets while small companies and a part of the population are suffering the consequences of the pandemic without any help.

 

[patorjk]

Anyone have any stock picks? I have some money I'm liquidating from another account of mine and am looking to re-invest. I used around half of it to get some AT&T ($T) stock last month ($26.91 a share). My reasoning was the AT&T dividend was pretty nice (7%), and the company seemed undervalued based on what they have in the pipeline.

I'm not really sure what to do with the other half though. I looked briefly into airliners, but it looks like they've seen a bit of a bounce in the past month or so and I'm not really convinced they're going to see better times until a year or so from now when COVID-19 is more cleaned up.

Somehow I wandered into the world of private prison stocks, and while the dividends are pretty crazy (14 to 22%), I'm not really comfortable buying a stock that makes its money like those do.

Dividends aren't make or break for me, just a plus. Anyway, figured I'd see if anyone had any recommendations for stocks to look into.

 

[Christiaan]

I've invested 2.392 dollars (2000 euros) in stock. Here's my current investment stack:

-Ahold/Delhaize (huge food retailer concern with stable A rating; stable growth, wide range of products and focus on a wide, diverse audience)

-Unilever (Multinational consumer goods concern with A rating; develops products in multiple sectors, also wants to invest more in more sustainable products (vegan, less impact on environment, etc.)

-Sirius XM Holdings (American broadcasting concern with A rating; stable rising subscription rate and they have made plans to expand + improve their business)

-Exelixis (Pharmaceutical company with C rating; promising cancer drugs with high potential. Cabozantinib is one of the most promising drugs in the pipeline that can treat many types of cancers)

-Etsy (Online market place for vintage and hand made products, has a C rating; high potential short and long term, especially valuable for artists and starter entrepreneurs who want to kick start their career)

-Qorvo (American semiconductor company with C rating. The company designs, manufactures, and supplies radio-frequency systems for applications that drive wireless and broadband communications. High potential given their expertise in supplying chipsets to enable 5G networks)

Maybe one of these companies are of interest to you @patorjk

 

[patorjk]

I've invested 2.392 dollars (2000 euros) in stock. Here's my current investment stack:

-Ahold/Delhaize (huge food retailer concern with stable A rating; stable growth, wide range of products and focus on a wide, diverse audience)

-Unilever (Multinational consumer goods concern with A rating; develops products in multiple sectors, also wants to invest more in more sustainable products (vegan, less impact on environment, etc.)

-Sirius XM Holdings (American broadcasting concern with A rating; stable rising subscription rate and they have made plans to expand + improve their business)

-Exelixis (Pharmaceutical company with C rating; promising cancer drugs with high potential. Cabozantinib is one of the most promising drugs in the pipeline that can treat many types of cancers)

-Etsy (Online market place for vintage and hand made products, has a C rating; high potential short and long term, especially valuable for artists and starter entrepreneurs who want to kick start their career)

-Qorvo (American semiconductor company with C rating. The company designs, manufactures, and supplies radio-frequency systems for applications that drive wireless and broadband communications. High potential given their expertise in supplying chipsets to enable 5G networks)

Maybe one of these companies are of interest to you @patorjk

I looked at ETSY, however, it's tripled this year, so I'd hate to get it after it's been run up so much. However, I remember thinking the same thing about Apple a decade ago (finally wound up getting some Apple in 2013). I think Etsy is a good company, but the recent surge has given me some pause. If it were to pull back some I'd definitely pick it up.

I don't really know much about the others but will definitely take a look. Thanks for the recommendations!

 

[Ed209]

S&P Dow Jones (S&P Global inc) will be launching two cryptocurrency indices next year. Trillions will eventually trickle into this sector as this is just the beginning of what will eventually become a financial revolution. Since my last post Bitcoin hit $20k.

MicroStrategy bought another $50m in Bitcoin recently taking their total holdings to half a billion. My student has already more than doubled his money as he also bought XRP two days before it tripled. I think 2021 will be a good year for the crypto space.

VeChain has also doubled since my last post.

 

[Juan]

two cryptocurrency indices next year.

This is what Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's partner, has labelled "a toxic product", the cryptocurrencies...