Nobody I know does. Maybe their husbands but not the women. Hoping someone in Cyberland does so we can relate. I bought a few hundred dollars of stocks about 10 years ago with no experience other than buying what I liked. It turned out really well. Since I keep up with related stuff and can typically spot upcoming trends ahead I think it is time for me to go in again. But with more investment. Anyone with recommendations for resources or who they trade through?
Eta: referring to active trades
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This has ALWAYS interested me, but I've never had really any extra money to use to invest in.
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I do! I do! Most of our stuff goes into 401k and 403b, but I put a small amount into my "play money" account each month. In the early 2000's I did some day trading, but now I always look for long term solid investments. I've gotten some pretty neat results and my tiny pot of play money is now a real part of our portfolio!
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We have a stock/bond portfolio. Its more of a passive thing for me though.
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Yes I do. I have been with Fidelity for many years and am very happy with them. Trading fees are relatively low and the tools they provide are also good for planning retirement and reviewing information about funds and stocks.
Many brokerages have incentives to open accounts with them and if you fund the accounts with a certain amount of money they will give you a cash bonus or a set # of free trades. They usually start around $20k+ for the lowest threshold bonus and go up to $200k for the largest bonuses.
We are in the process of opening up a Merrill Edge account and linking to BoA to get 30 free trades a month and extra cash back through their credit card.
https://www.bankofamerica.com/preferred-rewards/
I am a buy and hold investor. I don't really follow the market close enough to be an active trader. Each month we invest money into a set of ETFs so the free trades will be helpful for that.
I recently did an analysis of whether or not my individual stock picks were beating the market over the same time period and I was either flat or only very slightly above which is not commensurate with the risk of owning an individual security. So in short, I suck at stock picking so I think I'm going to stick with index ETFs instead.
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We use Schwab and the Yacktman fund has served us well. My IRA is invested there as well as a regular stock account that serves as our main rainy day savings.
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@sunny: we do a lot of ETF's too. My performance is 29.5% for the year, so I'm outperforming the market, but I tend to cluster my investments in sectors that I know well and am fairly comfortable with and understand the company news and the ramifications of that news. Needless to say that means I have a lot of tech and biotech which are performing really well.
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@Mrs. Jacks: yes this is exactly what I am aiming to do.
I sold some old Whole Foods stock earlier this month and bought the Ebola vaccine company. It went up a bit but then I chickened out and jumped ship. :I also sold Whole foods because I was mad that they price gouged us during the disaster prep time. That was an emotional decision. Since I am just getting in again, I need a little grounding before I jump in. When I get closer to another I will message u! I also do etfs for retirement and all that but I am going for support playing with my discretionary though.
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@808love: fun! Let's do this. I work really hard to make no emotional decisions (though whole foods would have gotten to me too!). My husband on the other hand is a very emotional trader. He tried to sell his Google stock a couple of years ago because it went down a little bit, and I wouldn't let him. Thank god I stopped him!
I scored big in 08-09 because I was buying when everyone else was too skittish to get back in the market.
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@Mrs. Jacks: yay! Sounds like u know. I am excited. My husband is supportive but still not ready for it. Yes, good thing your husband listened to you!kept my Google from way back when but it was only a little bite to get my feet wet. Too bad I didn't have the big guns. And very smart move to get in 08!
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@808love: @Mrs. Jacks: oh yes it is so hard to keep emotions out. I have held onto companies far longer than I should have "because they might go back up" rather than "because they are a solid company" (it wasn't and I sold at a big loss!). Clearly that is not reasoning a rational investor uses
I have found that I am much better about it as I've gotten older and more experienced.
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My DH does our investing in the stocks. He started when he was 21 and had a lot of good buys, but ended up selling all his shares. He recently started back into it and we use sharebuilder. We are only invested on one stock, which is performing well. We are at about a 75% increase on our initial buy-in since January. We have continually bought more shares since. We are starting to look into ETF's as an additional stock option. DH never makes emotional decisions when he choses his stock. He does a lot of research before choosing which stock to invest in, so he usually doesn't react emotionally.
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@sunny: thanks for that B of A info. I will check it out. Currently I am paying a flat commission on a buy and a sell and I don't like it.
@eko I am very familiar with share builder -
@808love: my account has me mostly commission free... But I think there are certain requirements you have to meet. (Direct deposit, certain minimum).
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Here's a round up of new account bonuses:
http://thefinancebuff.com/huge-bonus-offers-from-brokers-fidelity-schwab-td-ameritrade-etrade-merrill-edge.htmlThe Merrill Edge one that is linked is better than the offer than is currently on their website.
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@sunny: ooh thanks for the resource Sunny! Hey, while we're talking money, I wanted to make sure you guys are using credit unions to your best advantage. One of our home credit unions offered 4.25% on 25k as long as you do 10 transactions a month and have direct deposit. Another pays us 6% but only on $1000 if you have direct deposit. So we've been using those a lot while the market has been overvalued and then jumping back into the market when it has little corrections. It's been a nice addition to our portfolio to keep our money working for us, even while it is waiting for it's "real job".
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@Mrs. Jacks: Nice! I have looked into different CUs but nobody is offering anything better than 5% on the first $500. I do love my CU though. Way less fees and better service than most banks.
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I have 401K, and get shares and options through work. I sell stocks but I don't buy stock. Not quite comfortable picking something to invest in. I'll leave that to the 401k.
My work uses Etrade (for ESPP) and Fidelity for 401k.
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@sunny: we do indexed ETFs too through self directed investing account. I don't have the time to be an active trader!
@Mrs. Jacks: I think everyone has done really well this and last year because the markets have been strong. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed it continues!
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I wish I knew something about this, but I know nothing! I have my own little secret stash and it would be fun to play with it and make it grow.
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Yes. I've had Fidelity funds since I was 18, though I rarely look at them and have only switched them up a handful of times.
DH does stocks and shares...I'd love to, but don't have the time at the moment to regularly keep up with them!
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DH and I got into it together right around the crash in 2008 and kept at it until we bought our out end of 2010. Then I had to sell most of it to put toward the house. I got super lucky with it during that time though and made almost 40k to put into the house! I traded through Bofa since I had my bank accounts and retirement account there and had 50 free trades (which was more than enough) per month.
We now don't bother with individual company stock, it's just too risky and requires too much to time/research. And we've learned that no matter how much you analyze and notice past trends, that it only takes one wrong guess to wipe out all your gains. We focus on index funds with options for downside protection and it's a much more relaxed sit back method with less risk, and almost all the gains. -
I would live to follow for ideas for my Roth.
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DH and I used to do this. I'm now a finance atty so I can't because the risk of insider trading is too high (we have to use a blind trust for everything), but we used Schwab and a combo of WSJ/economist/Financial Times when we played in the market. I think It's absolutely worth learning about if only to understand how your retirement/pension is likely to work in the long run.
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@Freckles: the market has been so good that I've had a hard time finding undervalued stocks that are likely to outperform the market. I just keep the money on the sidelines and put in orders to buy when the stock or fund hits a number low enough that I'm going to make a profit. That worked really well for the last ETF that I bought, because there was some short term news that made it look like not such a good investment. Then, economic projections changed after second quarter figures were revised and suddenly that pick looked really, really good.
@Mrs. Detour: sorry you have to sit on the side-lines, but way more ethical
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@Mrs. Jacks: You might like the Motley Fool Hidden Gems subscription service. It is pricey but if you have the time to devote to it, their picks can be good (though they have had some real duds too).
I used to be a subscriber when I had time for it, but I don't anymore. One thing I noticed though was that I never got the returns they did because I didn't have enough money back then to put some $$$s into each stock they recommended. So by only putting money into such a select few, when 1 bombed it was pretty disastrous. It is a good starting point for stock *ideas* though.
I regret not buying CMG and MIDD when they recommended those in 05-06.
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I don't, though it would be interesting to learn.
DH's grandmother did. She liked to gamble. Literally. She liked to go to casinos, and the stock market was an extension of that. Worked out well for her - she bought Apple at $8 a share!
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@jedeve: yes I bought apple and google back then....just a little sliver of the pie though! Too bad I didn't have more to go in back then!
I agree that it is timing and now is the time to stash and wait for the right thing and time to come along.
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@808love: @Mrs. Jacks: Bumping!
I need some ideas how to research some companies. I'm interested in some tech and meds.
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My husband does and he has made quite a bit of money through it. I would like to but I wouldn't even know where to start!
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@T.H.O.U.: I found the Ebola vaccine company from some random non stock article I was reading. To me that's where the good stuff is, before the masses find it. The other day PBS mentioned the Ebola stock I dropped last time I posted and sure enough the stock jumped up. I like to read Kickstarter and Techcrunch and things that revolve around emerging technology so that keeps me ahead of the times in that market. I used to buy what I liked -Google, Apple and it worked out really well so I stuck with that and recently got some Disney. When I have time I will research more in depth ...in the meantime...saving what I can and trying really hard not to blow it on clothes!
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@808love: Right now I'm buying what I like, but checking the company a bit first. We just bought a Honda, so I looked at Honda stock, and I wasn't really comfortable with where it was at, but I looked at Toyota and it looked much better so thats what I bought.
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@T.H.O.U.: If you are targeting a sector, start reading their trade mags. I'm in healthcare and mr jacks is in tech, so I feel like we have a leg up on those sectors just by keeping current in our fields.
The key is looking for good values. I always look carefully at price to earnings ratios.
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I used to do a fair amount of trading via Fidelity during graduate school when I had more time. I have been meaning to reallocate a portion of the funds in my 401k to more active trading. Everything is in lifecycle funds right now.
My dad is retired but spends about 8 hrs per day day trading... he does really well.
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I think this article gives a decent overview of different strategies:
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/investing/common-investment-strategies-of-fund-managers-1.aspxIf you are the type of person who likes to "buy what they know", check out this book: http://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417630215&sr=8-1&keywords=peter+lynch+one+up+on+wall+street
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@T.H.O.U.: I could see myself doing that. Picking a related stock based on research. I am thinking Toyota is devalued right now bc of the bad press.
@mrs.jacks: I will watch out for that specific characteristic.Right now I am looking for a place to trade with very low or no commission and fees.
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For anyone interested, Investopedia often has really good (plain language but accurate) investing definitions.
http://www.investopedia.com/university/ratios/investment-valuation/ratio4.asp - Price/Earnings Ratio defined
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@808love: Merrill Edge has $6.95 trades. If you have $50k in assets + a Bank of America checking account, you get 30 free trades every month. Once you're at the $50k level, the bank accounts have no fees either--you just need to have one open. There are a few other bonuses that BoA throws in once you're a preferred customer to keep you hooked into their ecosystem.
Fidelity has $7.95 trades.
Both brokerages give you access to stock screeners, research reports, etc.
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So there's a new mobile app for easy U.S. trading called Robinhood. It's been generating a big buzz so I signed up yesterday. I'm like 1,500 on the waiting list. Here's the draw:
$0 trading fees. Yes, zero!! I'm keeping an eye on it though I can't really really recommend it firsthand. Oh and zero minimum. Sounds too good to be true but looks legit so far... -
@808love: I'll have to check it out. Thanks for that.
It's dividend time, everyone!
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