Also, I may have said something along these lines already, but just to reiterate: PCLN can fucking blow me.

9/16/2010 4:25:43 PM

Any thoughts on YHOO? I'm still sitting on a batch I bought a few years back and can't decide if I should sell it or double down.

9/17/2010 3:35:06 PM

Quote :

"i thought you could do "odd lots" that are not multiples of 100."

Are you talking about stocks or options? An option contract on most securities represents the obligation to sell or the right to buy 100 shares of the underlying security. If I sell you a single Put on the SPY at the 100 strike price then I have the obligation to sell you 100 shares of SPY at 100 any time you decide to purchase them. This is how options are structured on the CBOE and similar exchanges operating in the US. Commodities may be different. Equities traded on non-US changes may be different as well. Well, not so much different, but they may allow 10 share lots.

9/17/2010 3:38:59 PM

The only time I've seen contracts that aren't for 100 shares is after a split or merger when the shares get diluted.

9/17/2010 3:43:40 PM

$Adbe just reported and is down nearly 10% after hours. I've been averaging down on my Oct 32 puts for the past week or so. Hoping tomorrow they finally pay off in a big way.

9/21/2010 4:19:12 PM

Talk about gambling.

What was the reason for the pop a couple weeks ago?

9/21/2010 9:24:21 PM

http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/mobile/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227400048

9/21/2010 9:51:52 PM

Oh yeah, I remember now. I'd say you were given a gift that they reported crap numbers. I took several shots in the middle of the bull in '09 trying to short companies on pops just for a day/swing trade and learned the "trend is your friend" lesson with my own hard cash.

The market seems to overreact more on the downside than it does on the upside and I have better look being a bottom feeder than a momo player.

9/21/2010 9:54:52 PM

It was the forward guidance that ADBE reported that disappointed. The last quarter numbers were actually okay - I want to say that they had their highest quarter revenue ever (I think). With the whole AAPL deal, I think people were looking for some crazy good forward guidance, but I think guidance was somewhere in the middle of what people were expecting I believe.

I like to look for stocks to fill gaps (be it up, or down). In this market, I think we are way overbought. I'm looking to short $NFLX into earnings next. We'll see how that goes.

9/21/2010 10:06:59 PM

I've thought about selling NFLX. I don't have the balls to short it...that's a helluva run to bet against.

Bought 300 shares of Apollo Investment Group (AINV) today.

9/21/2010 10:56:47 PM

Any thoughts on TSLA in the future? Getting back into some market stuff here in the next month or so. Finally got out of the broke college student category.

9/22/2010 12:51:10 AM

^^NFLX is a monster, but that run has to come to an end at some point. I think even if they do report a good quarter, there is going to be some profit-taking near term. Of course, I'm also a bear for most of the market at this point. I think this rally is more of a short-covering rally,than a true bull rally. AAPL is hitting new highs today too - another stock I would love to short down to about $225. I don't think I have the balls to do that one quite yet though.

9/22/2010 9:51:28 AM

The dollar is sitting on some fairly important technical targets, see

http://smartmoneytracker.blogspot.com/2010/09/currency-crisis-has-begun.html

and

http://tickerforum.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2180666

This could very well be the start of an intermediate inflationary blow-off like we had in '08 where money pours into hard assets in a reinforcing fashion. Remember, many folks have been herded into bonds with the summer deflation scare. If the dollar tumbles and the stock market gets ignited because of it, pressure will happen on interest rates which will herd folks right out of bonds and finally back into stocks as their fear of missing a big rally (no doubt stoked by all their brokers and the likes of CNBC) overcomes their fear of playing in a rigged market.

They can always remain irrational longer than you can be solvent.

Sadly, I hopped out of GLD at 124.10 (and INB at 11.09 unfortunately) and am a bit skeptical to hop the momentum train now. What I'm not doing is looking to short equitites in the face of a declining dollar. Wait for the crisis to respark in Europe to support the dollar again.

9/22/2010 10:03:39 AM

Ok, I've posted in here before on a few things, but I'm back with a few more questions. I'll probably get laughed at for a few things but let me start. I am extremely busy. Between my normal job, trying to write, music, and playing multiple sports, I really don't desire to spend a lot of time educating myself more about stocks. I'm pretty drained these days and I just don't have the patience right now. However, on the other hand that means I have been very wary of investing because I am one of those people who really like to know as much as they can before they jump into doing something. So I have been kind of stuck in this rut.

My wife and I save quite a large percentage of the money we bring home. She is contract and doesn't get a 401k match so she just maxes out her Roth IRA. I do get a 1:1 401k match up to 5% so I currently put 5% into my 401k and have my Roth IRA maxed for this year as well.

Completely separate from the amount of money we have in our Roth IRAs and my 401k, I keep 3 months worth of living expenses in our bank's savings account for quick easy access if I needed something.

Now the part that people in here will probably laugh at (not the amount, but where it is "saved" or "invested") is that we also have ~$65k sitting in a 1.45% money market account and we contribute to this fund each month as well. I know in a lot of ways that is pretty stupid to have that much cash/earning potential just sitting in an account earning so little, but at the same time, as stated before, I just wasn't comfortable throwing money into the market without research. I am very leery of losses (after all, saving up that money takes some frugality hah) and that also plays into it. The roller coaster ride in my 401k has also contributed to me being cautious with my normal savings also, even though that is much, much more aggressive than I would want my other investments to be.

Anyone have any advice on how to get my feet wet? Any low-risk options that are still better than the money market I am sitting in right now? I've looked at a few different CD options but right now they aren't really earning much more than my MM. My n00b self is thinking maybe some low-earning mutual funds could still be low risk and be worth investing in over the MM at the moment but I wasn't sure.

Thanks a lot.

9/22/2010 12:54:48 PM

I don't think that having $65k making 1.45% is anything to laugh at. It sounds like you are very wary of the market in general. At least that $65k is generating positive cash flow. Putting it in the market could very well mean it dropping significantly depending on where it is, how the economy is, and a host of other reasons. Having lost well over $100k in the market myself (by investing in high risk options), I can tell you that if you're not willing to risk a loss, then you might want to keep it in CDs, even if they are low returns - better a low return than no return (or a loss!).

You're other options to start out with are mutual funds. Of course, there is still risk with mutual funds, but there are many options out there to hedge your risks. One thing I would recommend is to stick to stocks and mutual funds/ETFs - don't look at options or 2x/3x funds. Keep it simple. Once you gain some knowledge (and time to look at them throughout the day), then you can expand into the more aggressive/risky things - depending on your risk tolerance.

Another option may be to look into solid, blue-chip companies that aren't flashy, make money, and continually raise (or at least have) dividends - for instance Microsoft (MSFT). You can always set up a limit order and buy an amount of stock at a certain price if that price is reached. Then set a sell order for it to sell when it reaches maybe 10% above the buy price?

Good luck.

[Edited on September 22, 2010 at 2:05 PM. Reason : more...]

9/22/2010 1:57:14 PM

Quote :

"Anyone have any advice on how to get my feet wet? Any low-risk options that are still better than the money market I am sitting in right now?"

You really just need to jump in the deep end and hope for the best. I'm not saying you should be playing the options market or anything like that but with your age, unless you plan on needing a large chunk of that money asap, you should have almost 100% exposure to equities.

Honestly I'd take the cash and put it in 5 mutual funds maybe 6. A small/mid growth, small/mid value, large growth, large value, international, and maybe a bond fund with some emerging market exposure. If you are really that busy you could get someone at UBS to do this or Golman Sachs. I think the average rate for a managed portfolio is 1.5%

[Edited on September 22, 2010 at 3:18 PM. Reason : Addendum]

9/22/2010 3:10:26 PM

Quote :

"I don't think that having $65k making 1.45% is anything to laugh at. It sounds like you are very wary of the market in general. At least that $65k is generating positive cash flow."

Well, after taxes on the interest earned and inflation, it'll be losing purchasing power.

If you don't need the money in the next 5-10 (At least forseeably), I'd put a good hunk of it in a whole-market etf or mutual fund. Sure, you might lose some in the short term, but left long enough, it's the best place to park money as long as you're diversified (i.e. mutual fund or indexed etf's like 'SPY')

9/22/2010 8:00:25 PM

Quote :

"NFLX is a monster, but that run has to come to an end at some point. I think even if they do report a good quarter, there is going to be some profit-taking near term."

Yeah, I think I'm going to wait until Blockbuster formally declares bankruptcy (supposedly this week), then sell my NFLX. I don't have much, anyway...it was one of the first stocks I ever bought (and I got in at about $20, haha).

Quote :

"My wife and I save quite a large percentage of the money we bring home. She is contract and doesn't get a 401k match so she just maxes out her Roth IRA. I do get a 1:1 401k match up to 5% so I currently put 5% into my 401k and have my Roth IRA maxed for this year as well. Completely separate from the amount of money we have in our Roth IRAs and my 401k, I keep 3 months worth of living expenses in our bank's savings account for quick easy access if I needed something. Now the part that people in here will probably laugh at (not the amount, but where it is "saved" or "invested") is that we also have ~$65k sitting in a 1.45% money market account and we contribute to this fund each month as well. "

OK, here are my thoughts:

1. You are correct in that the priorities should be emergency fund, then 401k up to your match limit, then Roth IRA, then others.

2. Two of you maxing Roths and you contributing 5% into a 401k probably (depending on what you each make) isn't "quite a large" percentage of your combined incomes, though. You should probably be investing 10% of your combined income at a bare minimum, with 15% being better and 20% being really good.

3. As far as I'm concerned, a MMA is plenty safe and stable to serve as an emergency fund. I don't even have a conventional savings account.

4. As far as having $65k in a MMA, that may or may not be good. If you're saving it for something near-term (house DP and a new car or two, for example), that may be the answer. Otherwise, probably not.

I had about that much in a MMA (plus an additional $150/month) until about 6 months ago (while also maxing a Roth IRA, and putting about that much again into stocks in a taxable account...and another $150/month or so into whole life policies--bad idea generally, but dad bought them for me when I was a little kid and it made sense to keep them at this point).

I kept that money in the MMA, though, because I keep it separate from my retirement investing in the IRA and other brokerage account. It's basically money that I've accumulated over the last few years that I haven't spent because I (a) have been deployed about half of the time, spending no money, (b) have exercised pretty good financial restraint when I've been home, because I knew I would be leaving again soon anyway and didn't want to buy a Porsche for it to just sit in my garage, and (c) ended up doing a 100% VA loan when I bought my house, keeping the cash I'd saved up as a DP.

I call that account my "hookers & blow" account, because I feel little need to be responsible with it. I stay on top of investing for retirement separately; if I want to buy a speedboat and an airplane with my H&B account, so be it, as long as I keep enough in it to serve as an emergency fund.

However, about 6 months ago, I opened a 2nd Scottrade account and put most of the H&B money in it, and have been buying fairly stable, dividend paying stocks and ETFs. Some are a little more volatile than others, because it's all money that I don't need tomorrow, but a significant portion of it is in pretty stable stuff (because I will likely want some of the money within a matter of a few months).

Right now, that account holds the following: AINV, BP (bought cheap), FTR, NEE, PGN, SDY, SHY (conservative treasury bond play), SSO (riskier play, but I could always sell the others first and wait it out), VZ, and XOM. It should return a lot more than a MMA, without being TOO risky for relatively short-term money (though money that I have the luxury of not really HAVING to access at any given time...I could always wait an additional year to buy an airplane...)

Stuff like AAPL, NFLX, SLB, CTSH, DLB, GS, etc are in my long-term retirement account (and the Roth IRA is full of mutual/index funds).

[Edited on September 22, 2010 at 8:33 PM. Reason : thinking of buying a REIT...and also still keep some money in cash (MMA)]

9/22/2010 8:30:10 PM

might also consider an income ETF portfolio for some of that money. still pretty conservative, but will yield a lot more than a MMA. prob average 2-3x more, at least.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/160628-construct-a-fixed-income-portfolio-with-5-dividends-using-etfs

http://seekingalpha.com/article/126093-how-about-a-quickie-income-portfolio

9/22/2010 8:42:38 PM

AAPL is in beast mode. ipad is a smashing success

9/22/2010 8:58:43 PM

Thanks for the input. Looks like I'll have to make time for a little bit of reading/catching up this weekend.

Quote :

"2. Two of you maxing Roths and you contributing 5% into a 401k probably (depending on what you each make) isn't "quite a large" percentage of your combined incomes, though. You should probably be investing 10% of your combined income at a bare minimum, with 15% being better and 20% being really good."

I probably should have clarified that a little more. We each max out our own Roth IRA and I am contributing 5% to my 401k + my company contributing 5% to my 401k. I was contributing 15-20% in my 401k + my employer match before but not maxing out a Roth. I dropped my 401k back to the employer match and started maxing out my Roth. I could definitely bump the 401k contribution up more if I need to though.

The portion I didn't clarify however, was that when I stated we saved "quite a large percentage of the money we bring home," I was talking about the non-retirement portion. Beyond the Roths and 401k we do, I am dumping $2000/month or ~30% of our after-tax/take-home pay into that previously mentioned money market each month. I felt that was a pretty healthy amount of money to be saving beyond the retirement stuff.

[Edited on September 23, 2010 at 8:56 AM. Reason : ]

9/23/2010 8:50:05 AM

oh, yeah, that's a shit ton.

unless you're saving for some particular near-term reason, I'd definitely redirect most of that effort to retirement savings in stocks (to include funds). you'll be in fantastic shape, then.

for that matter, if you're putting 20% of your combined gross income into retirement savings (and properly allocating it--i.e., stocks, at your age), with the amount you have saved in cash, I'd maybe keep putting a couple hundred a month or something into conservative holdings, then just enjoy and spend the rest of it. I'm a big believer in saving and investing, but you can't take it with you and go back and relive your younger years.

[Edited on September 23, 2010 at 9:05 AM. Reason : I wouldn't keep 65k in cash, though...at least put some into somewhat more aggressive holdings]

9/23/2010 9:03:24 AM

Quote :

"unless you're saving for some particular near-term reason"

Nope. We bought our house this past April. Both of our cars are about ~120,000 miles so I would'nt be surprised to need to buy a new one soon (planning to drive them until it is not economical to do so though) but I'm not too worried on that front.

And yea, my 401k is definitely in stocks. I stopped trying to micro manage it (since I wasn't doing much better than our stock work portfolios) and have just dumped it into one of those "lifepath portfolios." It is like the 2050 one or whatever the most aggressive one our retirement service offered. I have no worries about letting the definite long-term retirement savings stay in the market; I only get cautious when it comes to my non-retirement stuff it seems.

appreciate the input.

[Edited on September 23, 2010 at 10:07 AM. Reason : ]

9/23/2010 10:05:27 AM

In that case, I'd have each of you go ahead and max out your 401ks.

9/23/2010 10:58:47 AM

Quote :

"Yeah, I think I'm going to wait until Blockbuster formally declares bankruptcy (supposedly this week),"

Done

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-23/blockbuster-video-rental-chain-files-for-bankruptcy-protection.html

9/23/2010 11:32:33 AM

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=167324

An interesting take on things.

Thoughts?

9/23/2010 4:25:20 PM

I don't put much faith in people who have systems for reading charts.

9/23/2010 4:39:51 PM

Lol GM has to IPO at $134 for the govt to get its money back if they were to sell out (they prob won't)

Anyone looking to get in on this? Even after it hits the secondary market I bet this stock will run wild as the retail and momentum investors just pour into it kinda like visa.

I'm sure the valuations will probably get ridiculous but I'm willing to ride the wave and party close to the exit

9/23/2010 4:52:11 PM

Separate post to answer the questions above:

I have a somewhat unconventional way at looking at emergency savings. Please don't follow blindly but this may be applicable for some of you

Typically emergency savings are going to need to be accessed for one of the following: medical or unemployment

I like to keep about a months worth of living expenses liquid in my interest bearing checking account to pay bills but other than that fuck letting my money earn nothing.

If you have a roth ira those contributions are accessible at anytime with no taxes or penalties, so right off the bat I consider those part of my emergrncy savings

If you have medical emergency most 401k plans will allow you to draw a hardship withdraw to cover.

If you get laid off most 401k plans will allow you to withdraw if you need to.

Obviously you need to check your plan rules but in my case these are all applicable.

If some other emergency were to come up I'd just take a 401k loan, home equity loan, etc


The other great benefit is if I were to be sued for nearly any reason then my assets are protected in retirement accounts

Also, if I never have an emergency (knock on wood) my assets are going to be compounding taxfree for 40 years while mmkts are earning next to nothing and getting taxed.

It just seems like a no brainer if you are smart enough to actually save the difference and understand the tax laws

9/23/2010 5:02:35 PM

Quote :

"Done"

Yep, sold today for $160.xx

I think I bought it at about $20, haha

9/23/2010 11:28:11 PM

Quote :

"and have been buying fairly stable, dividend paying stocks and ETFs. "

Such as what etfs

[Edited on September 24, 2010 at 7:07 AM. Reason : ]

9/24/2010 7:03:34 AM

gents,

check out kapitall.com and mess around with their Super Screener -- i find it pretty neat

9/24/2010 4:17:53 PM

https://www.kapitall.com/

9/24/2010 4:22:42 PM

Has anyone tried TradeKing?

TDAmeritrade's 9.99$ is starting to piss me off.

[Edited on September 24, 2010 at 9:42 PM. Reason : ]

[Edited on September 24, 2010 at 9:46 PM. Reason : ]

9/24/2010 9:40:11 PM

TradeKing is solid. I was with them for awhile and ultimately switched because they didn't have a native desktop client. They did tell me at the time they were working on one and this was over a year ago so maybe they have it now. If you are only making a trade every now and then, the web client is fine. If you are a wanna-be day trader you need a desktop client.

9/25/2010 10:27:12 AM

what's the best for tax purposes? scottrade's pissed me off one too many times around tax time. outside of that, scottrade's been super.

9/26/2010 2:44:14 PM

What do you guys think of RIG?

9/29/2010 10:16:29 PM

cot damn i love me some BIDU

9/30/2010 2:21:04 PM

BP has kicked ass the past few days. My synthetic long expires on 10/16 so that works out for me.

9/30/2010 3:47:04 PM

I have a quick beginners question.

Currently I have 13% of my income in my 401K and Max out my roth which saves approximately 20% of my pretax income. On top of this I have 3months living expenses readily available in liquid assets. My question is this, I feel that I am comfortably saving for retirement, but I would like to retire before the age of 65. Many of these programs have penalties for earlier retirement.

What adjustments could I make to better direct me on that path?

9/30/2010 4:09:04 PM

Marry a rich girl.

Only eat beans on toast.

9/30/2010 6:12:08 PM

Start saving and have another account for investment.

9/30/2010 6:43:14 PM

So is everyone here planning on retiring between 60 - 65?

9/30/2010 7:11:54 PM

not necessarily, but in order to retire significantly earlier, you'll need to use other investment vehicles to build up your wealth in order to support yourself during (early) retirement, assuming you are defining retirement as not working at all. Retirement means different things to different people.

So from an investment perspective you will certainly want to maximize your contributions to tax advantaged accounts like 401k and Roth IRA. Are you hitting the $16500 limit for the 401k?

If not do that first.

Of course you won't be able to draw from that until you hit a certain age -- 55 for 401k, and i'm not sure about the Roth.

if you want to retire before that you'll have to use other investment accounts in addition to the others to build up wealth, which will typically be taxable depending on where you're parking your money.

In my case, I married a med student who will eventually make a shit ton of money. This is how I will retire early. I call it the 401w plan.

[Edited on September 30, 2010 at 7:59 PM. Reason : .]

9/30/2010 7:56:11 PM

Fuck retirement.

I was born in this coal mine and I will die in this coal mine.

9/30/2010 10:04:45 PM

I plan to retire at 55 assuming I can keep putting 21500 away each year. Fingers crossed.

9/30/2010 10:36:35 PM

Quote :

"Of course you won't be able to draw from that until you hit a certain age -- 55 for 401k, and i'm not sure about the Roth. "

59.5 for Roth, if I remember correctly.

I'd like to retire before 60, or at least be in a position where I can work only because I want to, where I want to, when I want to.

10/1/2010 1:02:43 AM

Yeah but you can withdraw the principal from the roth before then.

10/1/2010 11:45:52 AM

correct

10/1/2010 11:50:37 AM

Well, turns out that I really screwed the pooch by selling 25 Oct calls on all of my EPI for $.30.

10/1/2010 2:26:46 PM