What are the best online sites for trading for someone that might not trade everyday. I looked into etrade and they appear to charge fees if you dont have a certain balance or dont have activity for a period of time. Scottsdale looks like they dont charge the fees and they have a branch 10 minutes away which would be very convinent. So for not a everyday trader (maybe once a week or month after the intial flurry) which site would be the best?

I am finished with the banks and now will look into emerging markets.

[Edited on May 27, 2009 at 4:33 PM. Reason : w]

5/27/2009 4:31:29 PM

So...
TBT and TMV -- thoughts?

5/27/2009 9:44:29 PM

^^scottsdale is definately good, although if you are going into emerging markets you better know what you are doing, or buy some etf's

you can also by some inverse funds for financials that go up when financials go down

5/27/2009 11:42:13 PM

BYD Auto just announced a partnership with Volkswagon. There is also a partnership with Ford in the works. Wish I had the $$ to invest big in them. They will be the largest battery producer before it is over with. Seems like a sold long term investment.

BYDDF

5/28/2009 11:14:49 AM

http://tinyurl.com/qzlhu4

5/28/2009 11:34:35 AM

FUQI has had unusually high volume the last few days -- got some at 12.19

..also SWI @ 14.06

[Edited on May 28, 2009 at 3:43 PM. Reason : ]

5/28/2009 3:36:03 PM

Im starting a website where i will sell my stock picks,
but you're not supposed to invest in them rather avoid them like the plague
cause i have something akin to the opposite of the Midas touch

5/28/2009 11:16:34 PM

today i pressed the wrong button and bought a stock, i was pissed, but it turned out to be the first good pick i've had in a long time

5/28/2009 11:17:53 PM

Make a board, throw a dart, profit...

5/29/2009 3:43:51 PM

can someone explain this? http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chdet=665442000000&chddm=613043&q=NYSE:XOM&ntsp=0

6/1/2009 10:52:04 AM

^ oil spill??

Also, I love trading today.

6/1/2009 10:57:46 AM

Google finance routinely shits the bed when it comes to displaying stock data. Any time you see something screwy, go to yahoo for a confirmation

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=XOM#chart1:symbol=xom;range=my;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

6/1/2009 10:58:23 AM

Does anyone have any brazil stocks? I was looking at VIV

6/1/2009 11:16:40 AM

Days like today do nothing but convince me that GS and their ilk are manipulating the hell out of this market.

There isn't anything in the world economy that sustains oil at $70. We should all be pissed that they took our tax dollars via TARP and AIG and are now plowing it in to commodities to indirectly tax us.

6/1/2009 2:06:36 PM

^^ EWZ loves me.

6/1/2009 2:36:20 PM

Bought into some FAZ at 4.45 at EOD expecting at least some sort of pullback hopefully tomorrow

Already sitting at 4.60+ AH so looking good so far

[Edited on June 1, 2009 at 4:23 PM. Reason : .]

6/1/2009 4:22:25 PM

Today was a scrooge McDuck day.

had shares in FEED, YGE, ENG, and FREE. My 5% gains in INTC were holding me back

6/1/2009 5:48:30 PM

I sold out of my FREE today 940 on the S&P was my exit point for any stock in the green until I see which way the market heads from there

6/1/2009 5:54:01 PM

yo is it too late to pick up some GM?

6/1/2009 7:34:07 PM

Oddly enough, I kept FAS from a week ago when I bought it at 10.42.. I then bought more shares of it at 9.40 (breaking Fail Boat's 'do not DCA 3x ETF's rule' because I just could not stand having that much of a loss and it the financials looked like they might go back up), and then sold it all at 10.60 today. This is the longest I have ever held a 3x ETF that decays over time.. and probably will not do that again. I finally made a decent gain, though.

6/1/2009 10:03:17 PM

another misclick that will probably cost me several hundred dollars...

just bought some FAZ at $4.67 and tried to put a stop limit order in and accidentally put in a limit sell order which instantly triggered and sold off my whole lot

no more day trades left

fail.

6/2/2009 1:18:06 PM

anyone think BBI is going to jump up with their rental games? Its being hyped so its up a bit already today..

[Edited on June 2, 2009 at 1:21 PM. Reason : .]

6/2/2009 1:21:43 PM

Quote :

"another misclick that will probably cost me several hundred dollars... just bought some FAZ at $4.67 and tried to put a stop limit order in and accidentally put in a limit sell order which instantly triggered and sold off my whole lot no more day trades left fail."

In the past month I've done this enough times (and any more than 0 is just sad) that I am embarrased by it.

Last week I bought a USO call instead of a put at around 1.30 because I wasn't paying attention when both of them were trading at the same level. I noticed it about 10 minutes later, the call had gone down about .05 so I quickly put in a sell order back at 1.30 and bought the put I wanted. Those calls are now trading for 3 and the puts for .45

6/2/2009 1:49:07 PM

^ I've done that.

I do love USO puts.

6/2/2009 2:00:14 PM

I'm down about 2 large on this trade at the moment, not fun. The thing about oil is, the thugs in Wall Street can drive the price higher than most anyone else can stand to stay in on the short side. It's basically a certainty now that this is exactly what they have done with our TARP money. They plowed it into commodities because they knew what effects the QE would have on the economy (destroyed dollar, investors looking for somewhere else to put their money). They can stay in this speculative trade for as long as CNBS and everyone else is still screaming green shoots and the dollar isn't being damaged too much. Then, with the Feds, who is really just GS with a different name, starts to get concerned that the dollar is getting too weak, they can bail on the commodities and buy the dollar at a discount and ride it back up for awhile. Rinse and repeat until the economy and normal levels of liquidity buying and selling returns at which point the cash they are currently using to move the market around now won't be enough to do it with the ease they are doing it.

6/2/2009 2:09:59 PM

please excuse the n00bishness

but if i thought that we have reached the bottom of the housing bust, would a housing ETF be a decent long term play?

i've got some cash sitting in my state employees money market, and i didn't mind it being there when they were paying 4%, but now that it's under 2% I feel like I should be doing something else with at least some of it

any good green ETFs out there?

6/2/2009 4:31:57 PM

^ You sound like me when i first started... (I'm still a noob, btw).

I came in wanted to buy earth friendly companies, or companies with philanthropic management.

I promptly bought some bio fuel and solar stocks and lost most of it. That's isn't to say successful companies that meet these criteria aren't out there, but they are hard to pick in my experience.

6/2/2009 5:21:05 PM

i'm more interested in housing atm

Quote :

"but they are hard to pick in my experience."

thats why i thought an ETF would be a good idea

6/2/2009 5:24:46 PM

URE is the only one I am aware of. You're mildly retarded though if you think housing has hit bottom.

6/2/2009 8:27:23 PM

if you can manage to do it without insulting anybody, would you explain why you think housing has yet to hit bottom?

6/2/2009 8:47:02 PM

I won't argue either way, though I wouldn't touch a housing ETF for a while as I expect that a lot of things will recover faster than that specific market.

Of course, now that I've said that housing will take off.

6/2/2009 8:58:30 PM

^^ Still a ton of inventory waiting in the shadows to come on to the market to hold prices down. Why the shadows? Well, if you remember, there was a moratorium on foreclosures which has just recently ended. As well, banks are so backlogged that there are homes in default that they haven't moved to foreclose on yet. There are also instances where a bank is holding so many properties in the same neighborhood that they don't want to flood it with new foreclosures, driving down the value of other homes they own that are payment current and tempting those owners to walk away as well.

The mid to upper end of the market is soon to implode as these owners were better able to keep making payments longer than the people at the lower end.

All the current "green shoots" data you may be reading about regarding housing is driven by speculative investors buying foreclosed and depressed properties for cash flow now and hopes to sell for profit when the recovery does come, historically^2 low rates (which are now vanishing, putting a firm lid on the current refi boom), and the 8k tax credit at the lowest end of the segment.

As a lot of these sales are foreclosure or short sales, it doesn't trigger a move up buyer which means that the next homes up the chain will continue to fall in price. As this happens, those that are on the edge of walking away because they are underwater will continue to do so, continuing to depress home prices until everything comes back in to historical equilibrium which is on average another 20% (I think, haven't looked lately) below where we are.

It's possible that because the market is forward looking enough that you'll see some momentum up in URE (which is diversified across a basket of REITs and homebuilders <- I think) even as the housing market moves sideways for awhile assuming that it is in fact at or near a bottom.

The "retarded" comment was because it's a bit crazy to jump back into the asset class that just blew up. Even if it is at the bottom, there is a greater likelihood that other asset classes will be the new bubble going forward after everyone got burned by housing.


Random, I just came across this in one of my blogs

http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/06/whitney-tilson-on-housing-mirage.html



[Edited on June 2, 2009 at 10:01 PM. Reason : .]

6/2/2009 9:46:02 PM

thanks. where do you get historical and current housing inventory figures? i've heard the "Still a ton of inventory " claim everywhere, i've been curious what the increase has been relative to say a couple years ago

[Edited on June 2, 2009 at 10:04 PM. Reason : also, are there figures to quantify the speculative buying you stated?]

6/2/2009 10:03:52 PM

If you look at my link, on slide 47 you can see that from 1999-2005 there was on average about a 4.5 month supply of homes and that number is now at 10.2 and certainly to go higher.

I don't think you'll find any real numbers on how much of the current buying is being done by speculators. These guys are renting homes and as folks who were just home owners are now renters (because they lost their home) you would expect rents to increase because demand is going up, however, as the rents tend to stay flat or drop, this would imply that the sales were done with the intent to rent. We won't know for awhile how the rental markets are behaving because this sort of thing takes time to work through (60-120 days for foreclosures I think?)

6/2/2009 10:15:57 PM

Isn't it down considerably to be only at 10 months now?

I still wonder how many homeowners out there who've held off will put theirs up for sale when they think we've hit recovery and will cause a bump in inventory levels. Between that an Fail Boats info, I wouldn't be surprised if we hit a period of oscillation with no real housing recovery for a while.

Quote :

"as the rents tend to stay flat or drop, this would imply that the sales were done with the intent to rent."

Is that true on a national level? I've got a couple of rentals and have seen rent increase substantially over the past 3 years as cost of living has gone up. Though, due to the location I wouldn't be surprised if thats limited to the area.

[Edited on June 2, 2009 at 10:22 PM. Reason : .]

6/2/2009 10:20:37 PM

Quote :

"Isn't it down considerably to be only at 10 months now?"

That is the nationwide average. Keep in mind, the bubble states CA,FL,AZ,NV are making up the bulk of all the problems so the reasonably robust market we see around us isn't the norm. I seem to have a vague recollection of 40 months of supply somewhere, but that could be a wrong memory.

6/2/2009 10:25:29 PM

region financial, its at $4 but there is a buyout rumor going around

6/3/2009 12:10:02 AM

Quote :

"if you can manage to do it without insulting anybody..."

well i assumed he could be civil in a lounge thread but i guess he proved me wrong.

a pile of feces will always stink regardless of what floor it happens to be laying on.

6/3/2009 12:22:34 AM

I was perfectly civil. If you're butt hurt about a general comment that can apply to anyone anywhere in the world then maybe you need some thicker skin.

I mean look at what you're doing...in a lounge thread. You asked for advice and I gave you a mountain of it and all you can do is troll. You're no better than anyone else here.

[Edited on June 3, 2009 at 6:24 AM. Reason : .]

6/3/2009 6:23:57 AM

I think the problem is that you're overly aggressive with your bearish calls and present posts with a know-it-all type attitude; it deters from your value to the thread, because you do have solid knowledge - especially in the technical arena.

I can find numerous "definitive/you must be retarded/market will tank" calls in this thread that have since been proved incorrect

[Edited on June 3, 2009 at 7:28 AM. Reason : g]

6/3/2009 7:27:51 AM

My advice is free. The retarded comment wasn't directly at him personally, but I guess I should have thought about that because he is the type of guy to take it personally.

Quote :

"I can find numerous "definitive/you must be retarded/market will tank" calls in this thread that have since been proved incorrect "

And I imagine I have a handful of them. What no one could imagine but maybe they should have is the unprecedented level GS and JPM in concert with the Fed are manipulating the market. For sure, the lows of March 9 were mostly way overdone, but fundamentals have been pointless for going on months now and it's what most anyone that has made a medium term (weeks-months) prediction has based it on. It's driving some of the sharpest traders nuts. Hell, I got smoked on BBY because I underestimated the 'pump' that was done on this market even though the stock pulled back more than 10% from the retardo highs it hit and if fundamentals return in the nearer term rather than having the market stuck at these artificial levels it will be down another 20%. Correct call, terrible timing.

6/3/2009 8:10:56 AM

more on housing, comments from Toll and HOV

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/06/housing-pluses-and-minuses/


At this point, re-entering the housing trade would be high risk and pure speculation. The downside risk from here is certainly still greater than the upside potential, especially if we continue to purge 500k jobs per month. There are other trades out there to take in the near term that make more sense than housing.

6/3/2009 9:08:45 AM

Quote :

"You asked for advice and I gave you a mountain of it and all you can do is troll"

you call me retarded and I'm the troll? sure thing chance

6/3/2009 9:19:15 AM

Thats 2 posts made completely off topic and with zero anything about the stock market in 2009. If you want to continue this lame crush you have on me I suggest you create a new thread in Chit Chat because you are certainly annoying everyone else here that is interested to discuss stocks.

6/3/2009 9:29:48 AM

Quote :

"Thats 2 posts made completely off topic and with zero anything about the stock market in 2009"

and you have 2 of the same. gg.

6/3/2009 9:37:40 AM

Wow. just...wow. I have 2 posts of the information you asked for in addition to two replies to your faggotry. You have two posts of faggotry. Go away.

6/3/2009 9:42:56 AM

Just curious what are some long term stocks you guys are holding on to.

6/3/2009 9:59:23 AM

GLD

I bought in at 89.50, watched it sit at near those levels for a couple weeks and sold out of it at around 90.50 in time to see it shoot to 94 in a day. I'm about to re-enter it since it doesn't seem like we'll get much pull back from here with all the inflation fears.

Anything else could go either way really.

6/3/2009 10:06:13 AM

Quote :

"You asked for advice and I gave you a mountain of it and all you can do is troll"

please note that i made the "manage to do it without insulting anybody" post and yes you were civil in that response imo, thanks. i'm not sure why you're saying synapse asked for advice

[Edited on June 3, 2009 at 12:40 PM. Reason : v oh i see, you were referring to the housing ETF stuff up above. gotchya]

6/3/2009 11:45:21 AM

Well, he didn't say "I'd like some advice" but he certainly let the thread know he is a noob. I suppose if I was the dick everyone claims I am, I would have just posted URE SPG or TOL and let him go lose money like every other misinformed fool out there.

How many posts we gonna burn talking about this? I created a thread in Chit Chat for this purpose so we don't piss everyone else off.

6/3/2009 11:59:54 AM