Need Investment Advice | The Coffeehouse

fdisk

Hi...I'm thinking of jumping into the stock market. I've heard the phrase "buy low, sell high" given frequently as advice. I was doing some light reading and I found this:

news site wrote:
As if all these legal problems weren't bad enough, on Dec. 1, SCO's stock plummeted 38 percent on very heavy trading, hitting a new low of $1.22 per share. Leading up to Friday's plunge, the company's stock had been gradually declining since June, when it was around $5.

I'm thinking of picking up this stock in the hopes that it will rise from here on out...what do you all think?

shreyasonline
Push The Limits !

Bad idea.

From my 4 years experience in stock market, I would say that if you buy stock of good company which grows steadily, you would earn more.

If you dream to invest in a dollar stock and dream that one day my money would double or triple, then this would be betting and not investing. Moreover if you plan to get in and get out of a stock just in days, its not investing but trading.

So, buy a company which had good fundamentals and forget about the stock for another 3-5 years. You will get good returns. Believe me!

Shreyas Zare

Larsenal
ready to give an answer

fdisk wrote:
I'm thinking of picking up this stock in the hopes that it will rise from here on out...what do you all think?

I wouldn't touch it. This stock has NO strength. The sellers are dominating. Anyone who thought they were getting a deal by buying Friday's weakness is down 11.5%... IN ONE DAY!

If you do have the courage to buy this thing, make sure you put in a hard stop... a set point where you will throw in the towel if it continues lower.

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

Larsenal
ready to give an answer

shreyasonline wrote:
So, buy a company which had good fundamentals and forget about the stock for another 3-5 years. You will get good returns. Believe me!

Not as generally true as we woud like. There are countless counter examples.

shreyasonline
Push The Limits !

You can even invest in companies which are investing in emerging markets around the world like in Asia. Or simply get into mutual funds.

Shreyas Zare

shreyasonline
Push The Limits !

Larsenal wrote:

shreyasonline wrote:So, buy a company which had good fundamentals and forget about the stock for another 3-5 years. You will get good returns. Believe me!

Not as generally true as we woud like. There are countless counter examples.

Absolutely true though ... nobody can predict what happens in markets anyways. But this strategy has paid me at least when I invested in some good Indian companies.

When I was new in markets, I was just dreaming to do day trading and make huge profits. I would buy 1000 stocks at a time and sell it just in minutes. This was fun initially until I suffered huge losses when markets started correcting. So I am into long term investing since then.

Shreyas Zare

Cybermagellan
Live for nothing, or die for everything

Buy Microsoft stock.

Larsenal
ready to give an answer

At some point, I plan to do more trading. At this point, I'm only doing paper trades since I'm undercapitalized for real trading. I made 101 trades in Oct. and Nov. with an overall return of 10.2%. I'm taking December off since it's too busy to keep up with. My plan requires approximately 1 hr. per day of preparation.

Even making fake money is tough work!

Larsenal
ready to give an answer

Cybermagellan wrote:
Buy Microsoft stock.

It's right near a level of resistance at $30. I would either a) wait for it to pull back or b) wait to buy on strength above $30. If you were to buy right now, there's a strong chance it could bounce back down to $24 like it has been doing for several years.

fdisk

Larsenal wrote:

Cybermagellan wrote: Buy Microsoft stock.
It's right near a level of resistance at $30. I would either a) wait for it to pull back or b) wait to buy on strength above $30. If you were to buy right now, there's a strong chance it could bounce back down to $24 like it has been doing for several years.

What do you call a stock trading at $1.08?

Right now, SCO is trading at $1.08. Down 11.48 percent today alone. I don't want to wait much longer guys. I think I should scoop up a thousand shares pronto.

fdisk

Larsenal wrote:

fdisk wrote:

Larsenal wrote:

Cybermagellan wrote: Buy Microsoft stock.
It's right near a level of resistance at $30. I would either a) wait for it to pull back or b) wait to buy on strength above $30. If you were to buy right now, there's a strong chance it could bounce back down to $24 like it has been doing for several years.
What do you call a stock trading at $1.08?

I'll be frank. I call it junk. Same as Microsoft, don't buy unless you see strength. You won't make money unless a lot of buyers show up to the game. Right now, all the buyers are leaving.

Go ahead and scoop up a few thousand shares if you like. Best of luck.

But I like tech stocks. I think its fun to invest in the future.

I get the sense that people are going to give me errant advice no matter what because they are jealous. It's not my fault that I may have discovered a natural gift at picking winners in the markets.

Larsenal
ready to give an answer

fdisk wrote:

Larsenal wrote:

Cybermagellan wrote: Buy Microsoft stock.
It's right near a level of resistance at $30. I would either a) wait for it to pull back or b) wait to buy on strength above $30. If you were to buy right now, there's a strong chance it could bounce back down to $24 like it has been doing for several years.
What do you call a stock trading at $1.08?

I'll be frank. I call it junk. Same as Microsoft, don't buy unless you see strength. You won't make money unless a lot of buyers show up to the game. Right now, all the buyers are leaving.

As much as you think the market should come back and buy this, that may never happen. Or it may happen after you leave.

Go ahead and scoop up a few thousand shares if you like. Best of luck. Hopefully you're not trying to catch a falling knife.

Maybe read this to temper your excitement. Maybe only buy half of the shares now. Perhaps you can buy more in a few days at a better price.

Several edits made

Larsenal
ready to give an answer

Be sure to let us know how it goes.

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fdisk wrote:
But I like tech stocks. I think its fun to invest in the future.

I get the sense that people are going to give me errant advice no matter what because they are jealous. It's not my fault that I may have discovered a natural gift at picking winners in the markets.

I wouldn't brag yet. As far as anyone can tell, SCO might go bust tomorrow.

dlambert

IMO, as an ameteur investor, you should be sure you know something about a company, including its products and its market before you consider investing in it.

I'm not talking about insider info or anything like that, but you should have some reason to believe that a stock is going up. I'll give you two examples.

UPS - I've liked them for quite a while (http://appdev.info/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26). I like the company, and there's no denying that all the ebay trash being bought and sold has got to get shipped around the country somehow. Same goes for amazon, newegg, etc. So I watched them for a while, and at one point earlier this year, they had a bad week. High gas prices, some bad news, etc. Anyway - stock went down. I bought at $70 in early Sept, and it's now at $78, up 14%.

BA - In this case, I jumped on weakness in Boeing's competitor, Airbus. I'd been hearing all sorts of news about Airbus not being able to get their act together on their new A380, and again, BA had an off day. I scooped some up at $79, and it's $89 now, up 12.5% since late October.

Despite these successes (both of the yeilds above are for just a couple months), I've got 85% of my $$$ in mutual funds, and 15% in stocks I've picked. There's a reason why the professional fund managers are professional fund managers and I'm in software....

PaoloM
Hypermediocrity

fdisk wrote:
But I like tech stocks. I think its fun to invest in the future.

Then do not invest in SCO. It's not a tech stock, more of a capital/financial one (and a crappy one at that too).

fdisk wrote:
I get the sense that people are going to give me errant advice no matter what because they are jealous.

Jealous of what? Expressionless

fdisk wrote:
It's not my fault that I may have discovered a natural gift at picking winners in the markets.

Heh. I need some picks for next year Smiley

fdisk

PaoloM wrote:

fdisk wrote: But I like tech stocks. I think its fun to invest in the future.

Then do not invest in SCO. It's not a tech stock, more of a capital/financial one (and a crappy one at that too).

So because it's a crappy capital/financial company I should avoid it? I thought they were involved in tech. I figured at the least, you'd recommend them. But now you want nothing to do with them?

Perplexed

PaoloM wrote:

fdisk wrote: I get the sense that people are going to give me errant advice no matter what because they are jealous.
Jealous of what?

Of my financial talents. I see a winner here. But I want to do a little more homework instead of going on instinct alone. Is there anyplace I can find out more out about this company?

PaoloM
Hypermediocrity

fdisk wrote:

PaoloM wrote:

fdisk wrote: But I like tech stocks. I think its fun to invest in the future.

Then do not invest in SCO. It's not a tech stock, more of a capital/financial one (and a crappy one at that too).
So because it's a crappy capital/financial company I should avoid it?

Yes, exactly because they are a crappy capital/financial company.

fdisk wrote:
I thought they were involved in tech.

They once were. Today their offering is outdated and pretty much irrelevant.

fdisk wrote:
I figured at the least, you'd recommend them.

Why?! I mean, if you want to throw money down the toilet, I guess they're fine, but for actually wanting a ROI? Buy anything else but.

fdisk wrote:
But now you want nothing to do with them?

I don't understand what you mean..

fdisk wrote:
Of my financial talents. I see a winner here. But I want to do a little more homework instead of going on instinct alone. Is there anyplace I can find out more out about this company?

If you want to do something else other than trolling, there's plenty of information about SCO available at your local fund manager.

harumscarum
out of memory

I have always thought that if you are seeking advice for investing on a forum then you probably should not invest at all.

Larsenal I am guessing you dabble a bit in the market?

Larsenal
ready to give an answer

harumscarum wrote:
Larsenal I am guessing you dabble a bit in the market?

You guessed right! Investing is fascinating on a number of levels.

How about you?

harumscarum
out of memory

Larsenal wrote:

harumscarum wrote: Larsenal I am guessing you dabble a bit in the market?

You guessed right! Investing is fascinating on a number of levels.

How about you?

Not too much. However if I find something that I feel is going to jump I am all over it.

Rd_Falcon

Personally, I just put some money into New York Stock Exchange group. The symbol is NYX. Right now, they are coming off of a minor correction after much anticipation about there possible merger with Euronext, a Netherlands based exchange. There are also talks of a Dutch exchange wanted to consider a partnership with NYSE. I believe there is great potential in this stock, and right now it is a bargin.

Please do your own analysis of this company as well.

Edit: Also, I would suggest going to http://finance.yahoo.com to do your research. Great site to gather a variety of opinions and financial statments.

John Galt

Why in God's name would you ever invest in a company who's entire business model revolves around suing someone and hoping to win? They have essentially no other revenue at this time.

Further, why would you ever invest in the stock market when a ressession is right around the corner (look at all of the leading indicators that say this is true, not the least of which is the manufacturing numbers out just a few days ago)

You might find some bargins out there but for the most part the stock market is seriously over valued right now and will be reset.

Massif
aim stupidly high, expect to fail often.

I'm having difficulty deciding who's being serious and who isn't here.

Still, it made me laugh. (Last time I said that on this forum I upset someone... )

fdisk

Massif wrote:
I'm having difficulty deciding who's being serious and who isn't here.

Still, it made me laugh. (Last time I said that on this forum I upset someone... )

Have you checked out the price today? Currently, it's trading at $.99 a share. 99 cents...that's a bargain if I ever saw one and that's no joke!

SCO stock price watch

Last: 0.99	Change: -0.03	Open: 1.03	High: 1.0322	Low: 0.98	Volume: 564,973
Last: 0.99	Percent Change: -2.94%	Yield: n/a	P/E Ratio: n/a	52 Week Range: 1.00 to 5.23

Source: BigCharts