January 19, 2006
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I am either watching TV (Bloomberg or Mad Money or Squawk Box) or I’m reading Bob or I’m talking to my broker, or I’m combing the Internet, reading about stocks. This has been going on for days. Today I bought Williams (WTU) which pays 8%, or at least it does now. It’s a natural gas company in Texas and what I’ve purchased is an interest which expires in 2012. One half hour after I bought it I saw on Bloomberg where there’s more than enough natural gas and what with the warm temperatures this winter, interest in gas is waning. Yipes.
And I sold Intel. I had been holding onto it because everyone said tech stocks were finally going to do their thing. And it had started going up. But my broker said, at our last meeting, that software stocks were going to do better than semiconductors (I’m pretty sure that translates as chips) and so I was keeping an eye on it but I sold it a day too late. That’s what greed will get you; an 11% loss, just on the day I mean, but still. Serves me right for sleeping in. No more of that.
I know it sounds like I am losing money all over the place but I am making money, too. The learning curve is so steep and there’s no way around these initial losses if you want to get in there and do the trades. Unless you just follow Bob’s advice. I went back tonight, and made a list of all the stocks he reviewed and bought or wanted to buy. Now I will go check and see how they’ve performed since the market fell back.
Now that you’re bored stiff I will remind you of my scary coffee date tomorrow with my estranged friend, the realtor. Wish me luck.
Comments (24)
I admire your guts.
It’s not boring, but it is scary! Scarier than your coffee date, but I’ll definitely be back for the update on that. I’m imagining connecting with an old estranged friend of mine….yes, scary too.
I wish you luck. I have a sense that you will need it tomorrow. Be you Xanga self and it will go better and maybe even well. Cheers.
Good luck. And I read that with a lot more interest than I thought I would. Now, if I only had a couple of grand I was willing to worth with
I think I need it all explained to me (stocks etc.) like I was a two-year-old.
Dun dun dun…..
Oh, and not bored.
Could I comment anymore???
RYC: I was at the gym.
nice to know you can handle the steep learning curve! and if you keep it up, you’ll be the one ppl go to for advice!
Prudy this day trading scares the PaJesus out of me…be careful with that learning curve would ya?…marilyn-
we had Intel back when tech stocks were booming- Makes me want to check out stocks again- NOT day trade tho…
I admit I have no idea what you’re talking about, but good luck. all I know is that we bought Google and that was a good thing.
RYC: thanks for your anniversary greetings.
Lynn
luck wished!
ryc: it wasn’t supposed to be easy to decifer- and knowledge of manga or bible might not have helped…
Thank you Prudence for your continued enthusiasm for my writing. I am just a fellow amateur with the gift of gab. The goals of investing for all of you newbies is to pick stocks and then know which to pick, when to buy, and when to sell. Everything else is just practice
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Bob
RYC: I decided after talking to Jennifer that I will make whatever the hell I want for dinner and she along with Scott can either eat or not..I’m tired of the evasive answers I get when I mention one meal or another…pisses me off..spoiled brat…there I ranted now I gotta stick to it…marilyn
Good luck with the meeting! :>)
Stocks scare me…I don’t think I’m enough of a risk-taker to enjoy the stock market. But I do enjoy reading about your adventures in trading.
Boring? You’re kidding, right? It’s fun to watch someone else doing something you’ve only considered doing. And safe! (I had to add that.) Actually, I think this is exciting. Hell, I go to http://www.bidz.com just to watch the last 3 minutes of the auctions! lol! They’re just so exciting…getting down the last 10 seconds, when you get to see if So-And-So is going to get the item or if Some-Other-Body is going to bump the price up, again.
And, yes, I’ve jumped right in there, too. lol! I just prefer to take my risks in very small $ amounts. (When it comes to gambling, I’m the person who fills the slot machines so someone else can come along and win.
)
I love you…GFW
Thanks very much for signing my guest book. You’re the only one.
A couple of comments about the market; I’m not trying to give you advice, here, but maybe some topics to discuss with your advisors (and it all boils down to the long term view):
1) Why aren’t you looking a year out, rather than next week? The tax consequences of short-term vs. long-term capital gains are significant. If you can’t buy and hold for a year, you should really be doubly sure of your deal.
2) What’s wrong with 8% for the next six years? That looks like a steady guaranteed return, even with interest rates rising a bit over that time. Chances are, it will beat 3/4ths of the mutual funds out there.
3) Dumping Intel might not have been a bad thing. AMD is kicking butt, and Microsoft has languhished for the last few years (it’s been in th 20′s since 2000, although there has been a nice dividend recently). The 1990s winners aren’t necessarily the winners for the next decade.
4) And not least: buy companies you’d want to own. I bough Google because I liked what they were doing. I like Google. Lynn likes Target, so we picked up a chunk of that and have done well. Don’t rely so much on the “investment” advisors, but rather on the trends you see in society. And yes, sadly, that means buying oil stocks for the next two yars…..
Take care,
brad
All I can say is good luck! I try to buy long, in funds, and then ignore them for years. So far so good.
I just spent the $ 16 something I won last week at a casino on my business trip. It felt so good! Heh heh.Good luck tomorrow!
Ooooh, much luck on that. I can’t wait to read about it and also to hear of Bob’s strategies are winners. It would be cool if they were, but double checking doesn’t hurt I suppose.
And ryc: Thank you very much, that was very significant to me.
I sent you an e-mail. I wanted to tell you because sometimes they get shipped to the bulk/spam files. and RYC: I don’t think I have much of a choice anyway. But point taken!