stock market is more and more rigged. day trading is nothing more than gambling. High profile, high volume stocks are at the mercy of the big houses. To find a good investment, you have to go off the beaten path and really research individual stocks for short to mid term plays. 6-18 months. Or you can buy and hold for years and years. unfortunately, we won't see the returns we've seen over the last 20 years. 8% annualized will be a pipe dream I'm afraid. Its going to be a big issue because the stock market and bond markets are the only place to realistically put your retirement accounts. If they let you invest in real estate (yes I know you can but it's so restricted it's as if you can't), then we'd at least have some options.
When I sold my shares last friday, net of fees and taxes, I made about 15 bucks. Which works out to about a dollar a share. I really thought there were enough dummies in America that there would be a massive 1st day pop. Oh well. Well played most Americans.
I would argue that most of America were dummies. The institutions just knew better and played the other side
One must do both. I have both buy-and-hold stocks and I also speculate with a portion of the portfolio, but I don't try to day-trade. You have to risk some money to make high returns. Just don;t risk it all. It's the only way to beat the S&P. Max your retirement accounts but invest outside of them as well, so that you can do what you want with them. I have more portfolio outside of the tax-deferred accounts than inside. Gold and real estate funda have done me very well in the last 3 years although gold has plateaued, so I took some profits.
Then you are overdue for an education or you will have nothing but the pension to retire on and Jindal The Destroyer is trying to take that away from you, too. You should be contributing to an IRA, deferred compensation, and other investments in addition to the pension and you can double your profits if you manage them well. My goal has been to be able to retire and live indefinitely at my current lifestyle, even if the pension were to disappear. Right now, I can do that and I plan to retire in September. That makes the pension laginappe and if it survives, I can live like a fat cat. But you have to be able to understand the market and make adjustments to make decent profits. If you rely only on advisors, they will make more profit from your money than you do.
I do have a backup plan. I own quite a bit of shares in two banks that I get dividends from annually. That's all I know, I get checks in December. Serious. Also, being very conservative, I've managed to tuck away some in CD's to supplement. I know a lot of people don't like CD's but without going into more detail I feel comfortable with where I am.
That works. I own shares of CLECO for the same reason. But you should always invest in businesses that you know, so I'd stay on top of the banking business because sometimes . . . any business can go south. It pays to diversify some of those profits into investments that do well when banks do not. Being comfortable is all that matters. Having a rich wife helps, I hear. But you'd just as well bury your money in the back yard than invest in CD's at what they are paying right now. They don't even keep up with inflation. My friggin' checking account pays more interest. Bonds and index funds are pretty safe investments. And real estate . . . property, smartly purchased, almost never goes down and it is never worth nothing.
Yeah, now down below 29. The old pump and dump at it's finest. The thing is, it's still rich if you assume the can't sustain growth. However, if they can show some growth over the next 12 months, it will shoot back up. Should be interesting to see what happens.
