Stocks I Own!! - (and maybe shouldn't???)

[corpfan1]

God the market has sucked...

I started investing on November 1st, 2007. We all know what has happened since. The DOW was at like 14,000 then...is at 8000 now - almost a 50% drop.

I have owned some decent stocks and some real shitty ones. I am down about 30% with about $50,000 invested. Anyways, enough of the past - on to the present.

Some people I know keep asking, "Why do you keep buying stock?..." My answer continues to be..."Cause this is my one chance to become a millionaire!" I always think of Jeremy's quote about there are a million ways to make a million dollars...

So, here is the list of stocks I own right now...not all are at the same percentage...I will list them in order of greatest percentage of my portfolio to least...but this does change regularly as I like to trade quite a bit!

MSFT (Microsoft)
USB (US Bancorp)
WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment)
XTO (XTO - natural gas and oil)
WMT (Walmart)
PFE (Pfizer - drug company)
MO (Altria - cigarettes - Marlboro, etc...)
PM (Philip Morris Interntional - spin off of Altria - international cigarette division)
PG (Proctor and Gamble - household products)
PEP (Pepsi)
NLY (Annaly - Mortgage trust)
SI (Siemens - electrical diagnostics)
SIRI (Sirius XM Radio)
ATN (Atlas Energy - natural gas)

Feel free to share yours or comment on the group!

[AceHigh Pino]

I had a lot of investments tied up in tech stocks a few years ago, and made a ton of cash buying up Sirius stock at just over a buck and a half when it was almost going under - then turned it all around after getting Howard Stern on the network. I've since sold off a bunch of my portfolio since those times, and have stuck most of my money in mutual funds and a standard Roth IRA.

After reading up on the other Investment thread on here, I definitely need to re-organize and start getting back into it again...

[themike537]

I own a lot of Exxon Mobil stock, and that has performed quite well over the last few years

[Steve]

Hey Corp,

Don't let anyone discourage you from buying now. This is the best time in the last ten years to buy stock. Why, you might ask? Because many of the stocks you own are at ten year lows. Everyone knows the adage, "buy low, sell high", but few actually do. I know this because I was a financial adviser for a number of years and saw it happen everyday.

I started advising back in 2000 when the tech boom reached an all time high and then that bubble burst. I would have clients call me continuously and ask me if they should take their money out of the markets. I told all of them to keep investing. The clients who did made a lot of money.

When investing, you must consider a few things. First, what are your investment goals? Do you want to build a retirement nest egg, to make a monthly income in the short term, etc.? Secondly, what is your time frame for investing? The longer the period you have to invest, the riskier your approach can be. And lastly, what is your risk tolerance? (I wish I would have focused on poker affiliates back then because I would probably be a millionaire today!) If you do not have a tolerance for high risk, you shouldn't be buying stocks.

When investing long-term, you also need to understand economics and the cyclical nature of financial markets. Stocks have followed the same 5-7 year trends of growing to new highs, and then correcting themselves to their actual value for the last 100 years. All good investors buy stock at low points and sell them at higher points. Seems easy doesn't it? Unfortunately, it's much more difficult to do that when you see your investments loose 30% value in one year (see above) That's the primary reason smart people have investment professionals handle their money. Professionals understand their client's time frames and are not hysterical when stocks take a turn for the worse because they know they will rebound.

So Corp...don't give up. Your portfolio looks pretty good and somewhat diverse, so you are already ahead of the game. And definitely don't stop buying if you can afford it. Mark my words...keep buying and you WILL be a millionaire someday.

[corpfan1]

My goal is actually to get down to about 6-10 stocks from the 14 I own.

I am continuing to buy...and sell when the DOW has a big rebound. I am learning every day and think I have good knowledge of the market at this point. It is amazing how much you can learn when you are losing money!

Surprisingly the DOW rebounded today - going from down 300 (when I made the post above) to up 400! What volatility. Great trader's market.

[corpfan1]

Correction - DOW finished up 550!!!

[Steve]

550 points! It has been very volatile lately. I've never seen such huge swings up and down as I've seen in the last month. You are right, this is a great trader's market.

[corpfan1]

It was down over 300 at 1pm.

That is a 850 point swing of about 10.5% in 3 hours.

[JeremyM]

Nice post Steve! I've heard a lot about getting great returns when keeping the money in there for the long term, which is all I have right now (SEP plan).

I've heard about people making a steady income from this, not just from long term investing. In your experience, have you seen this happen much? And does it seem fairly achievable with the right knowledge? I know people who really know what they are doing make some serious cash doing so.

[TheDonk]

I've been playing in penny stocks lately, going for the gusto with a small amount of cash. One thing I like about these pennies is that if you find one that 1/ isn't a scam, that 2/ has a product about to come out, and 3/ isn't run by complete morons, you can find some huge runs to make some money on.

I'm starting to learn some things about charting and watching patterns. When you tie that in with expected PR's, there are some great opportunities to make a pile of cash.

I cashed out my initial investment plus a small profit a few weeks back. Now I'm playing with house money and have started to find resources to find the next runner, which is the real trick isn't it? Another thing I like about these penny stocks is that in many cases, you only need to hold on to them for a few weeks at a time to make a killing. Penny stocks like the ones I'm talking about don't follow the market, they're all based on news. When good news comes out, the stock goes up. If you know that the company is about to launch a cool, new product, you know that news is about to come. If you buy before the news comes out, then wait for it, the stocks usually make a nice run sometimes moving 2-4 times what you paid for it. It was pretty funny a few weeks back when the market was tanking and my 6 week old portfolio was up almost 400%.

There's also something fun about making a pile of cash in one day without doing a damn thing for it, lol.