Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I have a balanced portfolio of growth, income and speculative positions which has been on a growth trajectory since 2009 which will withstand any turbulence in the markets.

This is meaningless. The entire market has been on a growth trajectory since 2009. You would have really had to work to lose money in the market since 2009.

I had exactly the same thought when I read this. After a crash, it's hard to go anywhere else than up.

Anonymous wrote: I have a balanced portfolio of growth, income and speculative positions which has been on a growth trajectory since 2009 which will withstand any turbulence in the markets.

This is meaningless. The entire market has been on a growth trajectory since 2009. You would have really had to work to lose money in the market since 2009.

There's no doubt that someone wanting to learn "how to invest in to invest in stocks" faces a daunting task. There's no shortage of reading material for that, but I'll provide my quick thoughts as someone who has spent several years in equity research at an investment bank, and is now a senior equity analyst at an institutional asset manager with billions in AUM.

1) Have a diversified portfolio. In general, I would definitely recommend most investors have a balanced portfolio, invest in ETFs or mutual funds, and avoid individual stocks. You need to pay closer attention to individual stocks and most individual investors don't do that.
2) ETFs over mutual funds. Fees are much higher with mutual funds and most mutual funds underperform the broader indices, as they have cash drag (they need to hold cash for redemptions and indices don't) and it's very difficult for large asset managers to outperform since good ideas are scarce and once you hit a certain level of AUM, there aren't enough good ideas to invest in. That's generally why smaller asset managers can outperform firms like Fidelity. It's a lot easier to find good ideas with only $100M to invest versus $50B...you become restricted in the investments that you can actually build a position.
3) You get rich by being concentrated, not diversified - but, as risk-averse investors, most individuals should be diversified.
4) In general, small-cap stocks will outperform large-caps, but volatility will be much higher.
5) You should only invest the $8k in stocks if you already have other investments, but honestly any amount will suffice to get started. Heck, I started investing in college with $3k, before I really knew anything about it.
6) Before you invest any money, you should think about the type of investor you want to be: value, growth, style agnostic, special situations, etc...
7) For most individual investors, I would employ a "buy-and-hold" approach and try to find companies you'd be comfortable owning for years.
8) Read a few investing books before you invest any money into individual stocks. Here are some of my favorites:
Little Blue Book that Still Beats the Markets by Joel Greenblatt
- Very easy read and pretty short
Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
- Classic book that for me was a good introduction to investing and provided a nice history of investing and how investors make the same mistakes. However, it basically recommends sticking to investing in an index.
Margin of Safety by Seth Klarman
- You can find this book in PDF online, as hard copies sell for over $1k on Ebay. It's a must-read for value investing. Klarman is a very successful billionaire value investor.
Finding the Next Starbucks by Michael Moe
- This is a good book on growth investing (of which there aren't as many...much more literature devoted to value investing like Buffet)
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre
- It was written over 80 years ago, but it has timeless rules to live by, even though it was more about trading and speculation than investing. It shows how human nature, fear and greed never really changes. This is a favorite by several hedge fund billionaires like Paul Tudor Jones.
9) Try to read a lot, whether it's WSJ, Economist, Financial Times, etc... You just get a better understanding of how the world works and how things are related.

I personally find investing very exciting and stimulating, but it's not for everyone. Hope this helps.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:just buy a low cost, broad market index. you will do better than about 80% of people in the stock market.

That's one approach, but you'll never grow and evolve as a capitalist and that is really your goal. Index funds are for lazy minded people with no imaginations and who are unwilling to take responsibility for their own financial security and independence.

It's about more than beating the indexes. It's about being active and involved in your own financial future. If you just mindlessly put your money in a vanguard fortune 500 index fund and forget about it, you'll be fine, but you may never attain the status of being independently wealthy.

When you are an active investor you will use and expand your body of knowledge because you're are tuned into the goods or commodities which you can envision growing over time and creating great wealth. Some investments will richly reward you and on others you'll lose money, but win or lose you'll be gaining a valuable education. Gradually, you begin to accumulate more win miners and wealth than losers. These are also valuable skills you'll pass on to your children. Be a CAPITALIST not just one more mindless index fund customer!

Are you the Seeking Alpha day trader? I second the PP who said that anyone can have *one* good year...you don't talk about beating the market for 30 years... because you didn't. Few people do, and the ones that do aren't posting on DCUM, they're off looking at 10 computer screens because the markets never sleep.

I am a so-called capitalist, to use your turn of the last-last-century term, and smart enough to know not to muddle around with real money trying to pick winners in the market. I'm no dummy either. The OP didn't say he wanted to start being a full-time finance guy, I'm sure OP has a day job, he wants to park his money in stocks. Index is the way to go, then.

I'm not lazy. I keep a very good eye on my family's portfolio. I liquidate when I have to. But I don't actively trade, that's for fund managers and fools (which one are you).

My DH is the one who lost $60,000. Bless his heart, he kind of sounded like you at times. Very smart man too. He even had a "plan," and a "theory," he made some good returns, got excited, traded every damn day, researching, researching...then started to lose money, saw his theories were shit, and realized he was nothing but a gambler.

You're a gambler on a winning streak. You totally sound like one, too. Drunk, high and delighted at your own unforeseen good fortune.

I'm just afraid OP is going to drink your cool-aid and lost his little nest egg.

No, you have not described me correctly at all. Sure, I've tried day trading and I got slaughtered. I'm not fast enough, smart enough, or indifferent enough to compete with computerized logarithmic trading of the big boys. However small observate prudent investors with balanced portfolios of growth, income, and speculative positions in the stock market can and do become independently wealthy over a period of years. If an individual's goal is living comfortably and to avoid living in poverty, investing in an index fund is perfectly adequate. However, those who don't ever enter the market never learn how it works and they will never be able to pass those skills on to their children.

Investing in an Index Fund is like being an hourly wage earner and knowing you'll be paid every week, but never being sure about the profitability of the company or from where the money is really coming.

So no, I'm not a gambler on a winning streak. I have a balanced portfolio of growth, income and speculative positions which has been on a growth trajectory since 2009 which will withstand any turbulence in the markets.

If I can be consistanly successful and share these skills with my children anyone else can do the same.

BE A CAPITALIST and never allow anyone else to manage your finances. No one cares more about your money than YOU!!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:just buy a low cost, broad market index. you will do better than about 80% of people in the stock market.

That's one approach, but you'll never grow and evolve as a capitalist and that is really your goal. Index funds are for lazy minded people with no imaginations and who are unwilling to take responsibility for their own financial security and independence.

It's about more than beating the indexes. It's about being active and involved in your own financial future. If you just mindlessly put your money in a vanguard fortune 500 index fund and forget about it, you'll be fine, but you may never attain the status of being independently wealthy.

When you are an active investor you will use and expand your body of knowledge because you're are tuned into the goods or commodities which you can envision growing over time and creating great wealth. Some investments will richly reward you and on others you'll lose money, but win or lose you'll be gaining a valuable education. Gradually, you begin to accumulate more win miners and wealth than losers. These are also valuable skills you'll pass on to your children. Be a CAPITALIST not just one more mindless index fund customer!

Are you the Seeking Alpha day trader? I second the PP who said that anyone can have *one* good year...you don't talk about beating the market for 30 years... because you didn't. Few people do, and the ones that do aren't posting on DCUM, they're off looking at 10 computer screens because the markets never sleep.

I am a so-called capitalist, to use your turn of the last-last-century term, and smart enough to know not to muddle around with real money trying to pick winners in the market. I'm no dummy either. The OP didn't say he wanted to start being a full-time finance guy, I'm sure OP has a day job, he wants to park his money in stocks. Index is the way to go, then.

I'm not lazy. I keep a very good eye on my family's portfolio. I liquidate when I have to. But I don't actively trade, that's for fund managers and fools (which one are you).

My DH is the one who lost $60,000. Bless his heart, he kind of sounded like you at times. Very smart man too. He even had a "plan," and a "theory," he made some good returns, got excited, traded every damn day, researching, researching...then started to lose money, saw his theories were shit, and realized he was nothing but a gambler.

You're a gambler on a winning streak. You totally sound like one, too. Drunk, high and delighted at your own unforeseen good fortune.

I'm just afraid OP is going to drink your cool-aid and lost his little nest egg.

Anonymous wrote:Taking $8000 and investing so astutely that you become independently wealthy is not a realistic goal.

Isn't there someplace else you could go tout your financial good fortune? Someplace that loves words in all caps? Someplace that doesn't mind your sloppy use of the word "capitalism"?

It is possible to spend only a couple of hours a week on your finances and still be secure.

$8k may not be a kings ransom, but it is a place to start. $8k gives you skin in the game and a reason to watch economic trends. $8k gives you personal responsibility your successes and failures, but most importantly it gives you the knowledge you'll need to become an independently wealthy CAPITALIST.

Oh, I do love it when MISGUIDED CAPITAL CAPITALIST pops in! ::claps delightedly:: Tell us more!

OP, don't follow his advice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so what has happened here is a spammer who works for "seeking alpha," whatever that is, has posted numerous times in this thread with very, very bad advice that only an idiot should follow.

+1 I have seen articles on Seeking Alpha with complete misinformation that only an idiot would believe.

Sure, but that can be said about the New York Times and Fox News. No one believes every word they read as gospel. People should never act on only one source of information. Seeking Alpha will give you good ideas, however you must balance those ideas with your own knowledge and other articles as well. If you are fearful of misinformation or being lied too you'd never step foot out the door in the morning. Gather your own information from a variety of sources, hold shares in at least several different companies, never let anyone else manage your money and gradually become an independently wealthy CAPITALIST.

Watch Cramer on Mad Money on CNBC. He's great for small retail investors. Realistically his show revolves around 30-40 of his favorite companies and he is kind full of bombast, but if you are new to investing he can be entertaining and he'll give you a few good ideas from time to time.

It takes time to become an effective and wealthy investor, but if you never start, you'll never get there either.

Are there articles on Seeking Alpha about the wisdom of taking trips to a casino to play roulette as a wise investment strategy?

anybody who thinks s/he can consistently beat the market has a screw loose.......or is among the ~10% of people who can actually pull that off. most people just get shitty returns and pay high fees for the privilege.

I like to imagine Mr Seeking Alpha as off rehearsing a big "Got a Lot of Spamming To Do" dance number. Very Busby Berkeley-ish.

OP--I'm an inexperienced investor myself, who recently entered the market for the first time within the last year.

I'd highly recommend reading "How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street: Golden Rules Any Investor Can Learn" by Allan Roth (http://www.amazon.com/Second-Grader-Beats-Wall-Street/dp/0470919035). I downloaded it for a couple of dollars on my iPad.

The author tells the story of how he taught his 8 year old son the most basic tenets of the stock market, explained in very rudimentary terms. Using these lessons, his son put together a basic index portfolio (actually, the Vanguard Three Fund Portfolio that others have recommended...I also recommend the Bogleheads website) that outperformed some of the top "financial experts" in the world during a three year stretch.

This book really helped me gain the foundational knowledge that made me feel more comfortable putting my money in the market.

Anonymous wrote:so what has happened here is a spammer who works for "seeking alpha," whatever that is, has posted numerous times in this thread with very, very bad advice that only an idiot should follow.

+1 I have seen articles on Seeking Alpha with complete misinformation that only an idiot would believe.

Anonymous wrote:so what has happened here is a spammer who works for "seeking alpha," whatever that is, has posted numerous times in this thread with very, very bad advice that only an idiot should follow.

Or possibly even started this thread!