Talking stocks, trading, and investing in general

[Mesta]

Well, imagine a guy who borrowed shares around $120, sold them, and bought back the shares on friday... that's almost 30pc in a week. Very Roughly.
I'd recommend http://www.khanacademy.org/video/sho...aylist=Finance

 

[javyn]

Originally Posted by GreenFrog

Thanks for that. So, if anyone shorted linkedin, they would have made a lot of money?
Yeah, but be very careful. If you short a stock and end up being wrong about it, your losses can be limitless. At least when you go long you can only lose all of your investment. Short a stock at 20 that pops to like 40 and your broker forces a margin call....you're fucked.

 

[lastlight]

What do you guys think about Sino-Forest Corp as a value buy. TSX: TEF

Muddy Waters has done this lot, and the company is planning tours in July for investors and analysts to come see their timber stocks.

After such a plunge seems hyper-undervalued if their property is legit.

 

[vinouspleasure]

here's a tip from someone that works on wall st. Don't buy individual stocks, instead buy low cost index funds and etf that track the broad index. You may think you can pick stocks but you can't...no one can.

 

[otc]

Originally Posted by vinouspleasure

here's a tip from someone that works on wall st. Don't buy individual stocks, instead buy low cost index funds and etf that track the broad index. You may think you can pick stocks but you can't...no one can.

This is the basic truth of it.

Funds carry the bulk of my portfolio...everything else is just a game.

That being said, I don't think it is impossible to pick stocks...but it is very difficult to do it reliably and frequently on the scale that makes it worthwhile. This shouldn't necessarily dissuade you from making a bet if you think it is worth it--you are going to have trouble doing this every day or even every year but there can be opportunities where you think you have better knowledge than the market where there is no reason not to try. What if you were a usability engineer/interface designer at an mp3 player manufacturer when the ipod came out and everybody was like "it costs $100 more than a nomad and has a quarter of the space...", but you realized that they solved all of the problems that were keeping normal people from picking up mp3 players.

It's not a retirement plan but you can beat vegas odds if you only gamble when you've got a bright idea.

 

[mikeman]

What do you guys think of appl right now? I have some and am up only about $55 a share, and it has been declining frequently. Would now be a good time to sell, especially since the US economy isn't looking so hot? I also hold physical silver, but i'm not worried about that long term.

 

[GHo]

VXX

Market is getting dicey.

I also like TBT - although treasuries might be the play for awhile if this market takes a trip south.

 

[Contingency Plan]

LOL @ LinkedIn's 2k P/E ratio

 

[Slopho]

Originally Posted by otc

You are betting that the price will go down.

Basically, you borrow the shares from someone else and then sell them at the market rate. Then you have a bunch of money but you owe a guy a bunch of shares (plus some interest to make loaning the shares to you worthwhile).

If the stock drops, you can buy shares for less than you sold them for to give back to the guy and you get to keep the difference.
Of course, if you keep waiting and the stock goes up, eventually the guy is going to want his shares back and you will have to buy them back for more than you sold them for.

This is why people are often perfectly comfortable saying "such and such is overvalued and going to crash" but may not be willing to take on a large short position. If the crash doesn't happen for 3 months and it keeps slowly going up in price, you will spend a lot of money covering your short positions.

edit: I should note, this requires an active market for borrowing shares. It is not hard to short a tech darling like apple but you are going to have a lot more trouble shorting a more thinly traded stock (or one where people are less willing to lend shares) is difficult. You may be completely confident that some crappy penny stock is going to fall (especially if it just had a big run up) but it will be impossible to make that bet.

Don't forget, you need to take a few weeks to hop on the Yahoo Message boards to bash the **** out of a stock so it can go down. (See John Mackey of Whole Foods - - Wild Oats)

 

[Slopho]

Prada IPO, anyone getting in?

 

[javyn]

Any thoughts on COOL? Looks like a breakout, may watch it and buy a little bit on a pullback. Looks good to me at 3.50, even better forming a higher low at ~2.75

 

[Slopho]

Originally Posted by javyn

Any thoughts on COOL? Looks like a breakout, may watch it and buy a little bit on a pullback. Looks good to me at 3.50, even better forming a higher low at ~2.75

Did you pre-order Cookin' Mama 6 or something?

 

[GreenFrog]

good time to get in on gold ETFs?

edit: im interested in IAU

 

[javyn]

Originally Posted by Slopho

Did you pre-order Cookin' Mama 6 or something?
I want to play with this **** right now and don't want to wait for IPOs...thinking about messing with COOL and GLUU. Ohh, COOL may be a good buy in a few days, but GLUU is looking good to me right now

 

[GreenFrog]

just bought shares of IAU. my first ever transaction!