Any stock traders out there?

Goldy

I have started dabbling in the stock market and was wondering if anyone here trades. I just started so I really dont know much other than how to buy and sell. Its pretty fun though.

illinoisgolf99

I trade a bit, nothing huge but I think it's fun, whos your broker?

Goldy

Scotttrade. I mostly trade things I know which are metals and mining companies. Who do you use?

Matt Marvel

I've put some thought into it. It's something that I've wanted to try and get into for quite some time, I just never have.

illinoisgolf99

Goldy:

Scotttrade. I mostly trade things I know which are metals and mining companies. Who do you use?

ING Sharebuilder. I do a lot of research on upcoming IPOs and ETFs, Mutual Funds that sort of thing.

clearlysuspect

I manage my own Portfolio, do quite a few purchases each month, and I use buyandhold.com to execute my trades for me. I pay 14.99 per month for unlimited transactions.

Hays

clearlysuspect:

I pay 14.99 per month for unlimited transactions.

Whoa... that's awesome. What's the qualification for an account with them?

Luko

All my money is currently tied up in credit cards.

urbino

lol

clearlysuspect

Hays:

clearlysuspect:

I pay 14.99 per month for unlimited transactions.

Whoa... that's awesome. What's the qualification for an account with them?

Sign up. Start buying. Some basics is that there is a minimum of $20 per trade and there are some stocks that you cannot buy through them (they have a list of all available stocks on their front page). They have several educational studies on their site, but I'd rate their research tools rather low. I keep a mock portfolio that mirrors my actual portfolio on smartmoney.com because their research and tracking tools are far superior. They really try to teach the "buy and hold" method of "cost averaging." My first goal was to build enough dividend stocks to pay my $45.00 per quarter cost to trade through buyandhold.com, so now I essentially trade for free.

Crusader1545

I dabble in stock made a ton on spng a while back I use etrade check out owvi and cbai I have high hopes for them also if you are just getting into stocks go to investorshub ( google it it has a weird adress) I flip penny stocks if you wanna know more Lennie know

lilwing88

Crusader1545:

I dabble in stock made a ton on spng a while back I use etrade check out owvi and cbai I have high hopes for them also if you are just getting into stocks go to investorshub ( google it it has a weird adress) I flip penny stocks if you wanna know more Lennie know

I've been wanting to buy a few penny stocks....... Anything look good lately?

sightunseen

I started buying when the market tanked last March. Up about 30% so far. I'm a buy and hold guy and I've missed out on some opportunities in the past couple of months.

xmacro

Same with me ^ I use a buy & hold strategy (don't like the risks of day-trading/flipping, and besides - buy/hold worked for Warren Buffet), and I started buying in December through March - now I'm up by $2-3k; mostly just bought blue chips like GE, Wal-mart. I use scottrade - can't beat $7 trades since I only buy every few months or so

Rob1110

another one for sharebuilder. I dabble in different areas, but have done fairly well with a few biotech companies. Oh and pier one. Never would have thought that would jump as high as it has. Wish I bought more.

clearlysuspect

Big winners for me last year that I'm looking forward to continued growth and excellent dividends:

DRE (Duke Realty Company - REIT) up 21%
EEP (Enbridge Energy Partnership) up 65%
EPD (Enterprise Products Partnership) up 43%
FRE (Freddy Mac) up 26%
TROW (T. Rowe Price) up 58%
BKE (Buckle) up 18%

One really good long term investment that isn't going anywhere anytime soon and offers good dividents:

WTR (Aqua America)

Theedge

To be fair....it wasn't hard to pick stocks that went up last year. I had a mutual fund go up 77%. I use Vanguard and had a brokerage account for a while. Between my gains and losses I wasn't doing any better than my mutuals.

Goldy

Crusader1545:

I dabble in stock made a ton on spng a while back I use etrade check out owvi and cbai I have high hopes for them also if you are just getting into stocks go to investorshub ( google it it has a weird adress) I flip penny stocks if you wanna know more Lennie know

I have been interested in trading pennies but I have no idea how to look for them. Any good advice or links?

illinoisgolf99

yea same here I dont know where to look, any advice?

illinoisgolf99

also wondering what kind of volume you guys deal in if you feel cool postin it

clearlysuspect

I was trading several hundered dollars, sometimes as much as a thousand, a month when the market hit rock bottom. That was only for a few months. I usually allow myself $60-100/mo to invest in stocks with. Pretty conservative really, but I don't claim to be an expert. This is more of a hobby than anything.

clearlysuspect

Theedge:

To be fair....it wasn't hard to pick stocks that went up last year. I had a mutual fund go up 77%. I use Vanguard and had a brokerage account for a while. Between my gains and losses I wasn't doing any better than my mutuals.

This is true. The beauty of it is that in a buy and hold strategy, the object is to double your money every 5 years. Last year was a huge help to beginner investors like myself as I almost reached my 5 year goal in 1 year.

Crusader1545

lilwing88:

Crusader1545:

I dabble in stock made a ton on spng a while back I use etrade check out owvi and cbai I have high hopes for them also if you are just getting into stocks go to investorshub ( google it it has a weird adress) I flip penny stocks if you wanna know more Lennie know

I've been wanting to buy a few penny stocks....... Anything look good lately?

Go look at CBAI its cord blood of america they store cord blood samples from children and store it so in the future organs and such or even blood can be created from the samples (similar to stem cells) they just built a HUGE state of the art lab to store these samples and sighned with another company to store their samples. so not only do they research and store there own but they store others samples in the spare space of the warehouse for profit....very good buisness model.....only downside is when they built the place they went about 9million in debt and inturn diluted shares to pay the debt (thats what stock is for anyway) so they went down a bit but they are on the bounce back and I dont see any R/S in their future. and OWVI (one word ventures INC) is a holding company whos largest holding is a company who just linked up with visa to bring pre paid debit cards to china, korea, phillipines and japan they also have a good company that makes solar panels .

check out http://investorshub.advfn.com/

OWVI http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=squote&symbol=owvi

CBAI http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=squote&symbol=cbai

PLEASE DISREGARD THE COMPANY SYMBOLS BELOW CBAI AND OWVI THEY ARE DEAD COMPANIES!



and please do you own due diligence dont take what I say as anymore than my own opinion : )



Sorry for quality took a pic of my monitor at work with my Iphone lol

illinoisgolf99

wow those numbers are pretty impressive, how do you find the penny stocks?

Crusader1545

I normally find them on the site I posted above. in the top 10 forums I also go with what the public is trending toward. I found CBAI from an article on forbes.com about obamas health care plan funneling money to companies in cord blood comapnies in hopes that it would be viable in the fututre to grow your own kidney or liver instead of relying on donors and such. currently the hospital gives the option at birth but you have to pay it out of pocket....under obama care it will be covered.so HUGE gains if obama care goes through (I dont support obama care) and good gains if it doesent win win in my opinion. and ill pass on this tidbit....A wise man once told me....buy stock in jacket companies in the middle of summer and buy stock in bathingsuit companies in the dead of winter.....then sell them as they come in season.

clearlysuspect

Crusader1545:

I normally find them on the site I posted above. in the top 10 forums I also go with what the public is trending toward. I found CBAI from an article on forbes.com about obamas health care plan funneling money to companies in cord blood comapnies in hopes that it would be viable in the fututre to grow your own kidney or liver instead of relying on donors and such. currently the hospital gives the option at birth but you have to pay it out of pocket....under obama care it will be covered.so HUGE gains if obama care goes through (I dont support obama care) and good gains if it doesent win win in my opinion. and ill pass on this tidbit....A wise man once told me....buy stock in jacket companies in the middle of summer and buy stock in bathingsuit companies in the dead of winter.....then sell them as they come in season.

My mentor taught me "don't invest in trends or products, invest in management."

Crusader1545

clearlysuspect:

Crusader1545:

I normally find them on the site I posted above. in the top 10 forums I also go with what the public is trending toward. I found CBAI from an article on forbes.com about obamas health care plan funneling money to companies in cord blood comapnies in hopes that it would be viable in the fututre to grow your own kidney or liver instead of relying on donors and such. currently the hospital gives the option at birth but you have to pay it out of pocket....under obama care it will be covered.so HUGE gains if obama care goes through (I dont support obama care) and good gains if it doesent win win in my opinion. and ill pass on this tidbit....A wise man once told me....buy stock in jacket companies in the middle of summer and buy stock in bathingsuit companies in the dead of winter.....then sell them as they come in season.

My mentor taught me "don't invest in trends or products, invest in management."

It is a strategy that I find works but I also mix in the management aspect of which you speak. I never invest in the "IN" thing but if money is flowing in that direction I find a micro stock to invest in that is in the same area. also your mentor is teaching for long term investors with penny stocks you should not hold for more than about 4 months dependant on companies. my results are good with my plan but everyone has their own ways. and my way would not work with large cap stocks or blue chips.

Goldy

I follow metals pretty closely but I can not figure out what is going on with them right now. Copper has a long history of being about a dollar a pound and had a huge surge around 2006-2008 where it was around 3-4 bucks a pound largely due to the Chinese industrial boom. What I cant figure out is why copper is back up to 3.25 now when there is very little building going on. What is driving these metals up? Its not just copper, Nickel is nearing 10 bucks a pound, Lead is high, Aluminum is high, gold, silver, the list goes on and on. Inflation is low, mines are online, and consumption is down.

Am I missing something? Either metal is going to reach all time highs again once the economy recovers OR there is a sharp correction coming up with metals. Any thoughts?

xmacro

If you follow commodities that closely, you really oughta get a subscription to the Wall Street Journal or Barron's

From Jan. 28, 2010

NEW YORK--Copper futures continued to plummet Thursday, settling at their lowest point in seven weeks, on mounting concerns about the pace of global economic recovery and demand for the metal. The U.S. reported worse-than-expected data on jobless claims and orders for durable goods, helping to put major U.S. stock indexes on track for their worst monthly performance since February 2009. Also weighing are concerns over the health of government finances in some European countries and worries about Chinese lending practices that could curb demand from a major user of copper, a metal widely used in construction, electronics and automobiles "The (economic) recovery we have is extremely fragile," said Sterling Smith, analyst with Country Hedging. The front-month contract for February delivery fell 12.50 cents, or 3.9%, to settle at $3.0900 per pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, its lowest settlement since Dec. 10. It was the largest one-day percentage decline in nearly five months and part of an 8.9% slide over the last three sessions. A worker walks inside the copper cathodes plant at Chile's Radomiro Tomic copper mine. Most-active March copper fell 12.45 cents, or 3.86%, to settle at $3.0980 per pound. It fell as far as $3.0915, the contract's lowest point since Dec. 10. In London, three-month copper fell $332 in afternoon kerb trading on the London Metal Exchange to $6,898 per metric ton. It traded as low as $6,821 per ton, the lowest since Dec. 18. Copper has been trading as a risk play in recent months, but with economic uncertainty swirling Thursday, investors preferred the perceived safety of the U.S. dollar, further undercutting copper. Since the metal is priced in dollars, it becomes more expensive for users of other currencies when the greenback gains ground. Analysts are again highlighting that China is well-stocked of metal. Last year a buying spree from China for stockpile purposes was a major contributor to jump-starting the recovery in metal prices. Much of that metal hasn't been consumed and Chinese buying is likely to slow this year as a result, said analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland. Inventories of copper stored in London Metal Exchange warehouses rose 1,575 metric tons Thursday, leaving them at 540,175 tons. The most recent Comex inventory data, released late Wednesday afternoon, were up 412 short tons at 103,160 short tons.

From Feb 9, 2010

Metals prices gained, recouping some of last week's losses, as investors seized the opportunity to buy at bargain prices and as weakness in the U.S. dollar helped provide support to dollar-denominated commodities. Thinly traded February gold gained $13.50, or 1.3%, to $1,065.70 a troy ounce, on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Most-active April gold rose $13.40, or 1.3%, to settle at $1,066.20. Silver and platinum also gained on bargain hunting. Gold's rebound came as the April contract lost more than $65 over the previous three sessions, hitting its lowest point since October on Friday. Despite the recent break in prices, gold's price still is historically high; the metal hasn't been below $1,000 an ounce since October. "The market's entitled to these breaks," said Stephen Platt, analyst with Archer Financial Services. Gold and platinum necklaces at a jewelry shop in Tokyo last year. Investors went bargain hunting after last week's drop in metals prices, pushing up gold 1.3%, to $1,065.70 a troy ounce. Platinum and silver also gained. Further support came from weakness in the U.S. dollar, making dollar-denominated assets cheaper for purchasers using other currencies. The market also is expecting some possible physical buying ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations. MF Global analyst Tom Pawlicki also chalked up the bounce in gold prices to bargain hunting. The stage for gains on Monday could have been set Friday. He said the world's largest physically backed gold exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Shares, saw its first inflow Friday since the end of December. Although euro-zone debt concerns continue to fester, potentially bearish for gold and other metals because they have been trading as a risk play with stocks and high-yielding currencies in recent months, there are perceptions in the market that the break in gold's price was too much too fast. Other precious metals benefited from bargain hunting. Silver prices gained with gold. Comex silver for February delivery rose 25.50 cents, or 1.7%, to $15.078 a troy ounce. Industrial users were buying up platinum-group metals after a selloff last week. Nymex February platinum rose $5.90 to settle at $1,477.20 a troy ounce. Copper, meantime, rose as traders bought back previously sold positions. The price of the red metal more than doubled last year, but has seen declines in prices lately on economic worries. "Like many of the other commodities, copper was oversold," said Spencer Patton, founder and chief investment officer with Steel Vine Investments. Nearby February copper gained 5.55 cents, or 1.9% to $2.9095 a pound. In other commodity markets: NATURAL GAS: Prices declined as traders weighed forecasts for cold weather against the approach of spring and ample inventories of the fuel. Natural gas for March delivery on the Nymex settled down 11.4 cents, or 2.1%, at $5.401 a million British thermal units.

Goldy

Thanks for that! It pretty much sums up what I was thinking. I only follow metal that close because it pretty much determines if I have a job or not.