5 replies to this topic

[caliban]

About half of all Americans are invested in the stock market, most indirectly through mutual or pension funds.

[Mark Hamalainen]

I put some money in Alteon about 4 years ago, have been checking on it infrequently.

[Da55id]

Sold all stocks as of 12/99. Stayed out.

[rillastate]

I only buy stocks that are under 4 or 5 dollars. I made a ton of money on GTE back when it was still in the pennies. Then I sold and at 300% profit and carelessly dump my profit into some crappy companies and lost all my profit in months. If I would have kept my money in GTE like a patient investor, I would have had about a 2000% profit by now!

I am now out of the stock market and don't plan on putting any money into it until I can afford to lose some money.

[stephen]

I played the game back in HS and college with my limited funds from internships. I read all the books: both on fundamental and technical analysis. I made some money... and lost some money. And made some money...

In the end, you've got to ask yourself: If the majority of mutual funds end up returning less than the average market return (as gauged by the S&P500), then can you really beat the market? After all, these are controlled by professional money managers who devote their lives to making the best stock market choices. Is it rational to believe that you can make better choices than them?

I don't know... maybe some areas of the market are inefficient: perhaps penny stocks, perhaps unknown international endeavors, perhaps some commodities. But it seems that the majority of the market is approaching efficiency: aside from having insider knowledge, most everything out there is already reflected by the prices.

But hanging out on IRC and swinging penny stocks with my volume sure was a rush. [lol]

[JMorgan]

I have traded regularly in the past and I'm looking forward to getting back into trading when my cash flow begins, uh flowing more.

My personal hero of a stock is Sirius Satellite (SIRI) which I acquired at less than $2.00 and is once again nearing $7.00.

I also had great success with Stemcells Inc (STEM) which I acquired at a fairly low price (I forget now) and sold 2 days before the Presidential election, believing that Bush would win, resulting in a STEM drop. I then repurchased the stock after it went down and was able to make a profit on the second run partly because of all the publicity around Scwarzenegger's stem cell initiative.

Is it rational to believe that you can make better choices than them?

I love low-cost technology stocks in fields I understand. If you stick to what you know, you will do fine. Some hits, some misses, but generally you won't get hurt badly. If you know computers, don't go investing in health care for instance. You know more than you think and trust certain companies for their ability to deliver great products. Go on those instincts.