Tuan85

What are everyone's thoughts on SOMX?

fishfryer

bought Foster Wheeler @ $24.71, Nucor @$40.67, and AMT @ $41.94 this morning.

We make money next week!

ace123

I just started investing. We've got a load of debt from med school that will come due in a few years, but after that we'll invest heavily, so now I'm doing some token investing. Hopefully I can make most of my mistakes now while it's cheap!

I started with $500 in a scottrade account a few weeks ago; I'm adding $100/month for now. I bought 5 shares of Berkshire Hathaway's class B (brk/b). It's up 8.3% vs the S&P up 4.5% over the same timeframe. Also picked up 7 shares of GE hoping they're a little undervalued (we'll see), and I'm up 2.9% on that. Not as good, but as long as I'm not in the red life is grand I suppose.

aklucsarits

^^^ If you are going to invest in individual stocks with a small amount of money, those two (Berkshire and GE) are both great choices as they give you ownership in solid companies with excellent leadership, instant diversification, and a dividend.

You might also want to look at some ETFs. Pay attention to costs and fees though with the ETFs. Just like with mutual funds, some ETFs have high fees. And the lower fee offerings tend to be the index-based ones.

Andrew

ace123

/\/\
Thanks, that's something I've been thinking as the next move. I was thinking of something like vanguard's no load S&P 500 fund as it has low management fees for small investments. If I can get to where I make a reasonable rate of return on these small investments I'll be much more confident with the larger ones and know what I'm getting into. We're a young couple (27 and 26), so we've got plenty of time to build a portfolio, provided we just make the effort to start now. Getting started and having a good plan is a big mental step, and that's really all I'm trying to do.

Also, since it's only $100/month right now, I'll probably only make my purchases every 3-4 months. That way I reduce the $7 trading fees from 7%, but at the same point, I don't leave my "invested" money out of the market for too long.

trainwreck

if you want to reduce your fees, i would look into opening up a special brokerage account with wells fargo. if you have over 25k in assets, they will give you 100 trades a year for free. i am sure other banks offer something similar.

Scot

[QUOTE=trainwreck,Feb 22 2010, 07:45 PM] thoughts on PZZA?

wifeb123

bought almost 1000 shares of EGY a few days ago. Already up 8%. Its near a low and I really expect it to rise as oil prices rise again.

trainwreck

i just bought a house, so i wont have any money till june

best advice. buy quality. dont get lured into trying to make a quick buck, unless you know the company inside and out.

if you are looking to park your money. i would advise the usual safe picks...kft, mo, pg, jnj, pm, but i really like pzza.

fishfryer

I sold out of a few positions bought in the past few weeks (BP,AMT, NUE) I still have foster wheeler. I've become happy making 2% on a boring stock in a few weeks. No more tech or spec plays.


I bought a PILE of Verizon call options and some stock. Bought Monsanto Calls the other day. Also bought General Electric calls and ADM stock.