Stock Market

I bought FB at 42.56 at IPO the first day and have held it since

Done a lot of Swing Trading over the years and futures trading

Made huge profits in and out of APPL

Not a scam. But it can be unpredictable at times. You can invest in a great company and a great preforming stock but if the economy plummets so will your Stock. Or if a major tragedy occurs it can also nosedive

Don't invest what you can't afford to lose

Yes money can be made if ypou approach it with the right perspective.

When you buy shares you are becoming a part owner of a business. If you do due diligence before buying, as you would if you were buying any business

The reason most people lose money in the market is because they treat it as a casino.

On the other hand, Warren Buffet has made himself extremely rich by buying stakes in businesses and holding onto them forever.

From my own perspective, the first shares I ever bought was in the Commonwealth Bank Of Australia *CBA.AX). I bought 1,000 shares at $5.40 in its IPO in 1992. Today the price plumetted by over 1% to close at $74.78. During the time I've held them, they've paid out around $50 per share in dividends. In the last financial year, they paid out $5.33 per share as a dividend. In other words they've paid for themselves many, many times over.

On the other side of the coin, whereas I paid $5.40 a share in 1992, at he end of 1993 they were trading at around $4.20. My only regret is not buying some more when they trading at that price. If the market crashes and they trade below $50, I WILL buy some more.

I should add that CBA is by no means the best preforming member of my portfolio. That belongs to a company called Blackmore's (BKL.AX). They manufacture health supplements and vitamins. I bough them at $2.10 a share in 1995. Last financial year they paid a dividend of $4.70 a share. If the dividend remains the same forever, I'm being paid more than $2 for every $1 I put into it. Every year. Oh, and BKL closed today at $166.40 a share.

So if you approach it with a long term perspective, you can definitely make money. If you approach it as a get rich quick scheme you'll find that the market is very efficient at separating fools from their money

Here's 3 steps for how to get in on a false drop for a high performing stock.

1) Make a list of the top 10 performing stocks over the last 6 months.

2) Sit back & wait for the entire stock market to crash.

3) The day everyone else goes into panic mode check your list of 10 stocks with a history of performing well. If those stocks with a good history dropped on the same day the market as a whole went to hell check each of the 10 stocks latest news on Google News. If the 10 stocks don't have any negative publicity (Enron style) then BUY!

What happens is, when the stock market as a whole panics & sells out, a well performing business never changes, the business itself doesn't fail, it's the stockholders that fail by following the herd (market crash). Markets only crash when people panic, which is a good thing If you're looking for a bargain on a well performing stock.

Example, notice the Amazon [AMZN] screenshot below, Aug 24 2015 the stock market crashed, Amazon stock dropped the same day. Notice the well performing stock history before and after Aug 24th. Business as usual for Amazon and the stock is +95% for the year. Amazon rebounded in 2 days with a +5% gain.

Do your own research.

Here's another example, same setup as my last comment.

This stock is Cintas [CTAS], exact same day the market crashed another high performing stock dropped for no reason other than mass panic, which again had nothing to do with the business. Again, a +5% gain in 2 days during the rebound.

There's 100s of other examples out there where high performing stocks with a good history drop because of global panic in the streets only to rebound when everyone snaps back to reality a week later.

Been trading bitcoins, would not recommend.

Here's one long term strategy.

Do your research and determine which of the major two U.S. pol parties has the stock market performed better when they held the potus - since 1900AD.

Then keep your money in the market when the historically better performing one has the potus and take it out when the other has the potus. Keep repeating this.

Historically, the differences are mind boggling.

Will the future be like the past? Only time will tell.

Money can ALWAYS be made! To get back SOME money, after 2008, I invested in one ETF that did HORRIBLY before 2008! In 2008 it SKYROCKETED, and whenever the market declined like 3%, it shot up like 6%. The FLIP side is that, when the stock market generally recovered, it went down. So it can ALWAYS be lost also!

For now, I have just been on the sidelines. What drives the market is that there are a few common algorithms, that the average person doesn't have, using input and details, that the average person doesn't have, that try to determine how the market is going to go. If they say the market is going down, almost all of the users, which tend to be large corporations and funds, SELL!!!!!!!! That causes the stocks to drop. OTHERS follow the market, other info, or what the groups I just mentioned do, and they may sell based on THAT.

Of course ONE such piece of info is the perception of how people will react to the value of the dollar. One of the main things driving that is the perception of what the perception will be if the fed changes strategies. They tend to change strategies if the market, or dollar, is doing TOO well, and SOMETIMES if they are doing too well. The "fed" is grated a license by congress, and congress LOVES to get easy money, so they DEMAND to be told of what is going on, AHEAD OF TIME. They have ALSO "legalized" insider trading for themselves! Anyway, all this means that when the "fed" speaks, the perception of what he or she will say will affect the market. THIS is why they talk about it so much, and why a lot of moves happen around then.

Interesting read: Why the economy performs better under Democratic presidents - Fortune

Of course you have to take into account REAL inflation, and REAL unemployment. In this "potus admin", for example, a lot of people saw real unemployment. Unemployment described as people that can work not being fully employed at or above their previous income relative to inflation. You see, the "unemployment numbers" claim that *****ALL***** unemployed people are no longer unemployed after a certain period of time, EVEN if they never worked, or were paid for, a single day of that period! ALSO, "unemployment numbers" claim that an extra JOB is one more person working EVEN if IT and THREE OTHERS were cut back 27.5% to "create" it. The former happens ALL THE TIME, and the later is a standard business practice that came into being in late 2013 because of a new rule specified in a VERY famous law! OH YEAH, that new rule ALSO means that MANY people originally classed as PART TIME workers are now "FULL TIME" workers! Aren't statistics GREAT!?!?!?(SARC) How else do you pay less, and hurt THREE jobs/people and say it is great because it supposedly helps ONE? BTW this ALSO HURTS minimum income, even if the minimum wage is RAISED!

And DON'T forget what nancy pelosi said!


Steve

Just remember that Q.E. has made the stock market fake.

You can make unfathomable sums money, but the more you understand how it works, the better.

Hint: don't follow the advice of mainstream financial pundits.

Considering 99% of people won't beat the market index, it's a bit surprising that nobody has talked about index funds.

There has never been a 20 year period in which the market index has had a negative return. If you are investing for the long-term and you're not trading, it's a lot safer than you probably think.

A portfolio of alternative energy stocks should do well going into the future. You can invest in sector funds.


Are there any other industries that should do well going into the future?

Get enough education to protect yourself.

If you are not going to do it yourself, then ask people you respect for someone local who has a good track record and will help you invest according to how much risk you are comfortable with.

I do like the work of Dave Ramsey.

Dan

BTW, if you hear the head of the federal reserve say something like there's too much irrational exuberance in the market - it's time to get out.

Also, If the bell hop, shoe shine boy and the cab drivers are giving out tips, I hear it may be a great time to get out of the market. LOL!