Investors - Page 7

Also, years ago while I was still in high school, I had an account on the Virtual Stock Exchange which can be found here. It's a fantastic medium for allowing you to practice trades and get the jist of it. It's limited -- in that you can't trade forex or any derivatives, but it's a great place to start. I think Stockpickr is another game similar to it, but I haven't ever tried it.

Thanks! I just bought the first book and I'll start right on it, it looks really promising from the general reviews on it. Thanks for also giving an idea of the time it takes to really know what you're doing, and for the amount of work it takes. I've always known that it won't be easy, but it's good to hear from someone who's already doing it.

One more question, what are your thoughts on Intrinsic Valuation? I've recently started to learn how to value companies based on discounted cash flows, since I'm of the philosophy that the market isn't right at all times, but that it does correct itself given a long enough time period.

As for the games, I used to play them in high school and my first year of college as well, but there was just a disconnect between what I was doing and the games. I couldn't take them seriously and did speculative things that I would never do with my own money, so I thought it'd be better to just jump in with my own money.

Ah, a value investor I see. Intrinsic value can be relatively different from one investor to another depending on the expected return. It's all relative, in fact, and you have to be careful with the assumptions you make regarding growth. While I do agree that the market isn't efficient as it's made to seem, it does a pretty good job at spotting bargains.

Discounting future cash flows, fair valuing, margin-of-safety, and the plethora of value investing tools are wonderful to use if you have great information. It's more awesome to use if you have an army of analysts at your disposal to throw at one particular company or sector to spot the bargain. It's definitely a fair assessment and definitely a good skill to pick up nonetheless.

I'm starting to peer into the financials a bit more. I know I posted something about Bank of America $BAC a few days back about how its looking cheap in comparison to other financials, but it's mounting woes can really weigh on the stock some more. I'm sitting on this one for now, keeping it in my watchlist.

There has been some talk that lenders are becoming more open to restructuring millions of underwater mortgages. Something to keep an eye on and more reason to give some attention to Wells Fargo $WFC.

I can't count how many people hate him, but Jamie Dimon's management reign is incredible. JP Morgan's position in the financial industry keeps getting stronger and stronger with a healthier balance sheet. I like them for the long run too. They're trading at around a 36% discount from their industry's multiple, and a 60% discount to their 5-year average P/E! AND it has a solid 2.9% dividend. Not bad for a stock in an industry that's been slaughtered for the last 3 years.

Before getting into any financials, I'd still take a lot of precautionary steps to protect my portfolio from a longer-term bear market.

Google to buy Motorola Mobility $MMI for $40/share. Quite a bit of M&A action today! I've been dedicating today to researching; cutting down on cash holdings, increasing equities.

Still hate gold. But it looks like it's going to touch $1400. Can't wait for the fed to hike up interest rates for this crap to go to $650.

Long $NUGT. (short term)
Long $AAPL.

Bump.

Gold is a pure spec play. CPI inched up a few pp last month and everyone rushed into gold.

I am interested in hearing your personal perspective on the recent NASDAQ situation, also do you think the formation of BRIC will weaken the U.S. dollar?

Thanks for the book recommendations!

Have you read The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig, and the man who leads the field Warren Buffett

I just opened my etrade account last month.

I started with 5k but hopefully i wll be able to add 5k more by the end of September.

I like ETFs.

The book is by Mr. Graham. That's it. Zweig and Buffett have added some words to the newer editions, but it's not content pertinent to the book. Yes, I have read it.

You're about 10 years late on the surprise of the BRIC nations' economic developments and how they're affecting our fundamentals. Normally, our dollar strength would be linked to BRIC economics, but right now it's being mostly dictated by monetary policy. During booms, yes. Money will flow out of USD denominated assets and flow into Renminbi/Rupee/Real/Ruble denominated assets. The higher the growth in the respective countries, the higher the yield, the more attractive that currency looks (and the less attractive our currency looks). That is, of course, carrying the status quo (no structural changes to our economic fundamentals).

What I think about the NASDAQ situation is that it's going to be just another minor, non-moving market event for the future. It's a computer, computers glitch. The fact that we didn't Flash Crash 2.0 on it means a tremendous amount. People have come to terms with the reality that technology has its limitations and it's faults. As long as the exchange is transparent and communicates well, we should be able to brush it off in the future.