Good investing forums?

Can anyone recommend good investing forums or sites that you find useful on a regular basis?

I've saved up a decent amount of cash for someone my age, and right now most of it is sitting in mutual funds in an account at Smith Barney, so I'm trying to figure out what is the best thing to do with it. Also there is my situation as an expat, since I can't contribute to 401k or Roth accounts I need to figure out what to do for future investments.

I just started using www.zecco.com It is pretty sweet. It is like an e*trade and forum rolled into one.

If you're interested in index funds, check out http://www.diehards.org/

nk

There are so many options it can really mess with your head lol. I'm a finance major at school and there's already a ton of info. My suggestion would be to hire a financial advisor. That way you have an expert taking care of your money, and he/she will also look over and manage all of your investments.

Mutual funds are a great way to go though. So it looks like your already headed in the right direction. But for safer routes look at bonds and T-notes.

I read somewhere that managed mutual funds suck, since after you net out fees and expenses it ends up being no better (and sometimes worse) than an index fund.

Originally Posted by injung

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I read somewhere that managed mutual funds suck, since after you net out fees and expenses it ends up being no better (and sometimes worse) than an index fund.

Stocks for the Long Run?

Originally Posted by injung

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I read somewhere that managed mutual funds suck, since after you net out fees and expenses it ends up being no better (and sometimes worse) than an index fund.

Not true. Mutual funds are a great way for people to get into investing. There are pros and cons to both mutual funds and indexed funds though. Mutual funds are good for people that don't have $100k or more to dump into stocks. They are also well diversified and if one stock does bad it doesn't matter much compared to your overall return. And like the name implies, you have an expert managing and looking over your fund. But you also have to pay a management fee which will take away from your overall return. Individual stocks are risky because you can't diversify as much unless you have serious cash to spend. And if you have a portfolio with only 3 or 4 stocks in it, and one does bad, it's going to hurt your overall return. And you should really know your stuff if you invest in individual funds, because it can be quite risky.

I don't invest in individual stocks, but fool.com seems to have good picks. The new CAPS "game" also seems very interesting. It's like a social stock picking site with ratings and such. I wonder if anyone could actually make a buck or two by following the highly rated stocks.

Originally Posted by briancl

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I don't invest in individual stocks, but fool.com seems to have good picks. The new CAPS "game" also seems very interesting. It's like a social stock picking site with ratings and such. I wonder if anyone could actually make a buck or two by following the highly rated stocks.

Possibly yes, but it's risky. Stocks are tough, you can't 100% accurately predict them, no matter how good you are. They actually did a little study and they had like 5 brokers pick so many number of stocks, and then 5 fifth graders, and no joke, 5 monkeys. The monkeys and fifth graders picked better stocks than the brokers lol.

Originally Posted by Jbreen1

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Not true. Mutual funds are a great way for people to get into investing. There are pros and cons to both mutual funds and indexed funds though. Mutual funds are good for people that don't have $100k or more to dump into stocks. They are also well diversified and if one stock does bad it doesn't matter much compared to your overall return. And like the name implies, you have an expert managing and looking over your fund. But you also have to pay a management fee which will take away from your overall return. Individual stocks are risky because you can't diversify as much unless you have serious cash to spend. And if you have a portfolio with only 3 or 4 stocks in it, and one does bad, it's going to hurt your overall return. And you should really know your stuff if you invest in individual funds, because it can be quite risky.

I agree. From a diversification perspective, mutual funds can be a useful component of your portfolio allocation.
Stick with index funds, though. The majority of actively managed funds are not worth the higher fees. In fact, most actively manged funds mirror index funds but just hold certain securities in different proportions because they must be tracked to their respective indices.
ishares.com offers a very low management fee through their ETF products. Maybe something worth checking out depending on your comfort level.

Check out www.seekingalpha.com for good reading

+1 on the ETFs -- low MER makes all the difference over time.

Originally Posted by crease

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I agree. From a diversification perspective, mutual funds can be a useful component of your portfolio allocation.
Stick with index funds, though. The majority of actively managed funds are not worth the higher fees. In fact, most actively manged funds mirror index funds but just hold certain securities in different proportions because they must be tracked to their respective indices.
ishares.com offers a very low management fee through their ETF products. Maybe something worth checking out depending on your comfort level.

Check out www.seekingalpha.com for good reading

I've got to come in on the side of index funds as well. I am very skeptical about the ability for mutual fund managers to justify their fees, especially when most of them cannot reliably beat the index after they take their cut.

Not a fan of seeking alpha though, there are a few good articles here and there but most of them are pretty bad.

One good resource for general thinking about investing and risk management is Veryan Allen, if you read through his archive it will elevate your consciousness on good investing. Ironically he has written for Seeking Alpha.

Originally Posted by Jbreen1

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Not true. Mutual funds are a great way for people to get into investing. There are pros and cons to both mutual funds and indexed funds though. Mutual funds are good for people that don't have $100k or more to dump into stocks. They are also well diversified and if one stock does bad it doesn't matter much compared to your overall return. And like the name implies, you have an expert managing and looking over your fund. But you also have to pay a management fee which will take away from your overall return. Individual stocks are risky because you can't diversify as much unless you have serious cash to spend. And if you have a portfolio with only 3 or 4 stocks in it, and one does bad, it's going to hurt your overall return. And you should really know your stuff if you invest in individual funds, because it can be quite risky.

Mutual funds are extremely overpriced, and the incentives for mutual fund managers ruins any real benefit from "expert management." ETF ETF ETF, index index index.

Just because mutual funds are bad doesn't mean that the only alternative is a 4 stock portfolio. I can say with emphasis that I do not think it is smart to invest in mutual funds when there are so many great ETF's out there. It'll take some research to find the right ones, but as far as tactical asset allocation and diversity, ETF's will give you access to a ton of different markets and investment strategies with incredibly low fees. I doubt you have the time or background to invest in individual name stocks.

Let me quickly give you some advice: 1) never trust stock tips, because if someone had a really good tip, they wouldn't be sharing it with you on the internet 2) don't trust sites like fool.com, because if they were really good at what they did, they'd work at a hedge fund and make a lot mroe 3) Have a THESIS when you buy something, and an exit strategy, both upside and down. Ride your winners, but don't take them further than they will go. Also, more importantly, have an EXIT strategy. It's better to cut a small loss and bare the risk that the stock might bounce back rather than ride out a loser hoping to make your money back. THIS IS THE BIGGEST MISTAKE PEOPLE MAKE! 4) Buy for a fundamental reason. Do not buy because "it's the hot thing." Never try to anticipate what other investors will do. You will fail.

Originally Posted by briancl

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I don't invest in individual stocks, but fool.com seems to have good picks. The new CAPS "game" also seems very interesting. It's like a social stock picking site with ratings and such. I wonder if anyone could actually make a buck or two by following the highly rated stocks.

fool.com is terrible, any investment you make shouldn't be based on an article some bum put on a website but rather your own diligence into the fundamentals of the story

Originally Posted by Jbreen1

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Possibly yes, but it's risky. Stocks are tough, you can't 100% accurately predict them, no matter how good you are. They actually did a little study and they had like 5 brokers pick so many number of stocks, and then 5 fifth graders, and no joke, 5 monkeys. The monkeys and fifth graders picked better stocks than the brokers lol.

This study has 2 problems. One is...stock brokers? Lol. Throw Eddie Lampert, Seth Klarman, et al up there and we'll see how they do. the other is time horizon. I'm sure it was too short for any meaningful study.

Originally Posted by Wooh

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fool.com is terrible, any investment you make shouldn't be based on an article some bum put on a website but rather your own diligence into the fundamentals of the story
Are you criticising the whole of fool.com or just the articles and picks? I ask because I quite like their stock screener for finding under valued stocks (I ignore their caps rating, etc. though). Is the screener much good in your opinion? If not, what alternatives would you suggest? The articles on the other hand are definately not much use at all, they're just there to get people to sign up to their newsletters. I'd also like to side with the ETF crowd. They're great because you can apply macroeconomics to your investment strategy. E.g. when the federal reserve was about to start dropping rates it was clear this would have a positive impact on south american companies; you couldn't have taken advantage of this by buying individual stocks.

Originally Posted by JammieDodger

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Are you criticising the whole of fool.com or just the articles and picks? I ask because I quite like their stock screener for finding under valued stocks (I ignore their caps rating, etc. though). Is the screener much good in your opinion? If not, what alternatives would you suggest?

The articles on the other hand are definately not much use at all, they're just there to get people to sign up to their newsletters.

I'd also like to side with the ETF crowd. They're great because you can apply macroeconomics to your investment strategy. E.g. when the federal reserve was about to start dropping rates it was clear this would have a positive impact on south american companies; you couldn't have taken advantage of this by buying individual stocks.

Screeners are fine. They just help you cut down the universe of stocks to look at...as long as you don't say "ooh, a tech stock with a low PE, let's INVEST!" and take time to actually do some fundamental analysis and have a thesis. I think that without the resources of a big firm, however, people are often best served by generating a sense of what exposure they want (bond, equity, whatever), using ETF's to get there, and then only invest in stocks that they weel have an EXTREMELy compelling thesis.