nice little thread here

2/20/2006 2:31:19 AM

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[Edited on February 20, 2006 at 2:34 AM. Reason : .]

2/20/2006 2:33:00 AM

I hope this isn't too off-topic, but what brokers do most of you guys use for trading stocks in 2006?

I've got an account with Scottrade, but am wondering if there are better options. I've heard of some brokers (IB trading, iirc) that have a $5k or $10k minimum, but then you only pay $1 or so for commissions on trades.

My apologies if there's a dedicated thread on this topic.

2/20/2006 2:33:43 PM

not sure about those, but I like Scottrade a lot

2/20/2006 11:25:21 PM

How do you guys typically work your speculative trades?

I find myself making speculative small-cap buys(short sells) off margin from my large-caps and putting the proceeds into a ROTH or large-cap buys.

2/23/2006 8:38:17 AM

Schwab to insure against account losses

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BF9C7AAAC%2D2B62%2D458D%2D92BD%2D8E4452F339C0%7D&source=blq%2Fyhoo&dist=yhoo&siteid=yhoo

This is good marketing.... Charles Schwab has announced it will fully cover losses in customers' online accounts that stemmed from unauthorized activity. A public promise just might strike a chord with consumers who have grown more aware of financial cyberthreats. In some ways, it is following E*Trade, which announced a similar policy in January. To some, such marketing reflects a quiet confidence about their systems' ability to keep intruders out, since in many cases, it's the customer's own actions that lead to fraud (e.g. installing that Trojan key-stroke logger).

I don't think Scottrade has such a guarantee, at least not yet.

2/23/2006 11:08:22 AM

Lots of big houses, goldman, merrill, etc. are buying the april may 1325-1350 call style, first time we have seen allot of pressure to the buy side up their, they could just not have that area in their positions, they could be making bets to the upside. Seeing some aggressive put buying/call selling (buy the market, buy protective put- finance it with selling call) It looks warm to good that we are going up. will be interesting if we get above the s&p 1300 line. we hit 1301.75 before i expect a shit show if we crack it, 10 handles to the upside. Oh, and the equity guys would like to thank all of you who are playing the cramers picks game, thank you for the entertainment and the free money.

2/23/2006 9:39:57 PM

^ i love you

2/23/2006 11:28:35 PM

^^ how common is the key logger bug?

2/23/2006 11:37:05 PM

hedgestreet.com check it, i wish they had this when i was in school

2/24/2006 5:48:16 PM

CELG split...yes!!!!

2/27/2006 11:38:15 AM

Quote :

"Lots of big houses, goldman, merrill, etc. are buying the april may 1325-1350 call style, first time we have seen allot of pressure to the buy side up their, they could just not have that area in their positions, they could be making bets to the upside. Seeing some aggressive put buying/call selling (buy the market, buy protective put- finance it with selling call) It looks warm to good that we are going up. will be interesting if we get above the s&p 1300 line. we hit 1301.75 before i expect a shit show if we crack it, 10 handles to the upside. Oh, and the equity guys would like to thank all of you who are playing the cramers picks game, thank you for the entertainment and the free money."

no, thank you for writing what reads like discarded dialogue from Boiler Room

2/27/2006 12:06:52 PM

yeah, people who bash Cramer are the same type of personalities (albeit on oppostie sides) as people who follow him religiously

sources like Cramer are for lead generation, not to act as your financial advisor

you hear what he has to say, you hear the word on the street, and then do your homework before buying anything

CELG & CTSH were Cramer reccos, and I've already made $

there are times when you do contrary to what he says. he said to buy INFY instead of SIFY...i bought SIFY and am doing better than i would have otherwise.

Cramer also said buy PAAS, I bought CDE instead and am doing well

remember, if you don't do your HW, you'll have noone to blame but yourself

2/27/2006 12:58:04 PM

regardless of whatever was said about Jim Cramer (I don't even have cable), I just was commenting about this person using ridiculous "financial ebonics", the post itself apropos of nothing

2/27/2006 1:17:31 PM

she's basically saying that the major players/big i-banks have confidence that the market is going up for most of the first half of the year, and it would probably be a good idea to get in now...

...actually it would've been best to get in sometime over the last week & half

2/27/2006 1:24:15 PM

Yo SSJ...Just an FYI, Last week I put ~$3k of fake money into each of your stock picks on pg.1 using an investing simulator and they are all doing remarkably well. Your "gambler" picks would have netted me $665 in less than a week if I had used real money.

I'll probably start researching them after I close on my house (early April) and might consider investing real money into some of them at that time.

gg on the solid stock picks.

2/27/2006 1:27:26 PM

be careful though...easy come easy go is usually how it works

have a selling strategy in mind before you get in...know what you want out of each relationship. some of them may be one night stands, some of them you might screw around with for a couple of months.

also, only gamble with beer money, never with rent money.

2/27/2006 1:31:42 PM

Yeah definately. As well as those "gambler" stocks are doing I don't think I'll touch them.

2/27/2006 1:36:33 PM

I'm going to pick up some MO and HON over the next week or two. HON is expected to buy back a huge chunk of stock this year.

2/27/2006 1:44:32 PM

hey wolftrap

you riding CRGN because of this?

http://www.curagen.com/rnd/454tech.asp

or this?

http://www.curagen.com/pipeline/products.asp

2/27/2006 2:08:51 PM

The Curagen drug pipeline is irrelevant to me. I know almost nothing about it.

The 454 technology, which involves sequencing individual segments of DNA using phosphorence, is a major breakthrough. More importantly, I can tell you from our experience with 454 that their machine actually works.

2/27/2006 3:21:22 PM

i used to sequence on the ABI 3700, back in my past life as a bench scientist--do you know how that compares to the 454?

i used to dilute the BDT reagents with a Tris-Buffer, and i had incredibly efficient results without dye blobs forming at the primer ends. i blended protocols from a guy at Harvard and a guy at Wash St Louis, and put out a remixed version of my own. when done right, it cut sequencing costs ny 87.5%.


and upon reading more about the Curagen oncology R&D, I began to reminisce my undergrad days. i used to intern at NIEHS working on inducing Apoptosis in carcinomas in cell culture...ah the memories...

2/27/2006 3:38:29 PM

Quote :

"The apparatus uses a novel fibre-optic slide of individual wells and is able to sequence 25 million bases, at 99% or better accuracy, in one four-hour run. To achieve an approximately 100-fold increase in throughput over current Sanger sequencing technology"

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nature03959.html
there are a lot of caveats to this comparison, b/c to get the accuracy of 454's product to match the machine you mention, it becomes a more expensive proposition. So it all comes down to what you are trying to sequence.

In our case, there is no comparison. What took us 5 years to do is growing by 10X with one run.

2/27/2006 3:59:43 PM

ok, i will pm you any scientific questions i have...btw i don't have access to that journal

2/27/2006 4:25:16 PM

BIIB baby. glad i waited (didn't sell) before earnings report on 2/14. got in @ $36

[Edited on February 27, 2006 at 5:21 PM. Reason : ]

2/27/2006 5:20:49 PM

^ got it at 41.9 back in August

2/27/2006 5:37:25 PM

watching VPHM this morning

2/28/2006 9:15:55 AM

I'm putting a "strong buy" on HGSI

& a "buy" on VPHM

& initiating coverage of "GNTA"

3/1/2006 11:10:57 AM

I am wondering if there is an application that will parse Ameritrade/Scottrade/etc.. confirmations and publish them as a web page. That way we could see your trades instead of hearing about them later.

I bet this would become a very popular website if enough people were willing to reveal their trades.

3/1/2006 11:28:36 AM

^^ I saw Cramer going nuts over VPHM yesterday.

[Edited on March 1, 2006 at 1:09 PM. Reason : so of course its up 7% today]

3/1/2006 1:08:38 PM

^^ok, but why would most people want you to see their trades?

3/1/2006 1:31:42 PM

I bought into BLK a little over a year ago and cahsed out this week.

It was one of those impulse buys just because a family member works there and I liked what he was saying about his company.

Thats about my best break so far in this game

3/1/2006 2:24:12 PM

holy shit really?

i beat Kramer to the punch

haha


[quote]ssjamind
All American
22367 Posts
user info
edit post watching VPHM this morning

2/28/2006 9:15:55 AM





[Edited on March 1, 2006 at 3:15 PM. Reason : 2/28/2006 9:15:55 AM]

3/1/2006 3:12:52 PM

Quote :

"^^ok, but why would most people want you to see their trades?"

right, most people probably wouldn't but ssjamind and other active traders might, at least for bragging rights

this would just be a good way of cutting out the "oh I made $texas on this" hindsight bullshit, we could see who really knows their shit

3/1/2006 3:13:46 PM

I have lost money on the following:

LOUD
AZMN
ASTM
AFFX
MLNM
SIRI


I have had a roller coaster ride with these, and am net slightly negative of the following:

SOHU
JRJC
CAAS
CTDC



If a discussion is worth having, its worth being honest about. Some of the aforementioned losses have been offset by speculative one off gains. I don't ever say I made bank on something unless I've recommended it before. I think ASTM was the only one of my losers I recommended to others. I would not recommend stuff to others that I would not buy myself, and/or if I don't understand the reason behind the potential upside.

3/1/2006 3:34:48 PM

You didn't have to tell me, I screwed myself with SIRI too.

Do you see CTDC making a comeback?

3/1/2006 3:41:06 PM

its hard to figure CTDC out

i have a small amount and am waiting for a pop

3/1/2006 3:44:01 PM

sorry ssjamind I wasn't trying to single you out

but if anyone knows of a "completed orders" or "stock trade confirmation email" parser pls lemme know

3/1/2006 3:46:48 PM

Quote :

"right, most people probably wouldn't but ssjamind and other active traders might, at least for bragging rights this would just be a good way of cutting out the "oh I made $texas on this" hindsight bullshit, we could see who really knows their shit "

My point is that you wouldn't necessarily want to reveal your position immediately. However, maybe you could use something that would log trades for an extended period of time, and then you could compare results after a specified time period.

3/1/2006 3:50:01 PM

if i have time enough to place a trade during a given workday, i'll usually give a heads up in this thread

from time to time i will say something pre-market, and then only have time/opportunity to execute the trade sometime in the trading day...i did that with BIDU (as evidenced in the old thread)

3/1/2006 4:09:45 PM

I wish I had the foresight to spot MYOG & ADLR

alas, no


i might be a buyer of IMCL soon

3/2/2006 3:46:41 PM

what do you guys think of hydrogen stocks? i'm more of the long-term trader, and automobiles seem to be moving in that direction.

Ballard seems to hold a ton of patents on hydrogen, and their stock is around $6.

http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/FuelCellToday/FCTFiles/FCTArticleFiles/Article_846_Patents0804.pdf

any opinions?

3/2/2006 4:02:53 PM

Cashed out on GNW today as well.

Got that at the IPO around $19


I am still a GE kinda guy.
Just hold on and sit and wait.


Im all closed out at the moment except for some in DOW and BHK.

I have no idea what to put any money into at the moment.

3/2/2006 4:07:33 PM

haha you guys just saw vphm viropharma, that was like one of the first stocks i ever bought years ago, now they have made me lots of money....

i have great gains this year in my portfolio, thank you RHAT and LOW

3/2/2006 4:55:50 PM

^^^ i'm not too familiar with that space, but i did dabble in it for a short gain via statements, back during pres elections. i recall how that worked out.

JP Morgan called FCEL a "barnacle" in early December, meaning that its near its 5 yr lows, and could come up in the next 12 months because it might have devalued too much in the last 5 yrs.

FCEL was at 8.45 then and is at 11.2 now

not sure how to play it right now because i haven't spent much time looking at the space

3/3/2006 11:15:40 AM

earlier i said i was watching IMCL

Citi says IMCL is overvalued, SGCowen says its "unattractive", and BMY is losing confidence in Erbitux

but MorgStan is pitching it because it owns the stock and has a banking relationship with it

the only reasons it would pop to the upside is if earnings unexpectedly beat the street, or if it becomes an acquisition target

i am staying away from it

3/3/2006 11:43:22 AM

Quote :

"That way we could see your trades..."

I was actually kinda hoping that this thread would turn into something along those lines. I can't really think of any reason why people wouldn't be willing to share their stocks and % performance, except perhaps embarassment. Though I certainly understand people not sharing cash amounts. Maybe people would be willing to share on a weekly/monthly basis?????

As for me, I currently own

PFE VZ MRK GE JOYG TNB GILD MRVL SNDK

On the year,

Me: +8.2 %
DOW: +3.1 %
NASDAQ: +4.6 %
S&P: +3.5 %

3/3/2006 12:34:21 PM

SNDK's stock dropped a low after successive losses to UNC and BC

3/3/2006 12:36:55 PM

^^

Previous holdings

Quote :

"WTM, SPHRY, NNVC, USU, TLT, MVIS, GNBT, PYTO, NSOL, INSM, ABLDF, CSCO, SYMC, TTM"

Holdings now:

WTM, SPHRY, NNVC, PTEC, MVIS, GNBT, PYTO, NSOL, INSM, ABLDF, NHPI, TTM, SFE, XSNX, QCOM, CHAR

Quote :

"DOW: +3.1 % NASDAQ: +4.6 % S&P: +3.5 %"

Me: +18.76 %

3/3/2006 2:02:59 PM

overall, i'm up a little over 33% in the last 12 months, and up about 6% in 2006


i would post the performance of everything, but that aritmetic takes a bunch of time...i would rather spend that time doing new research, and i think some of you would also i rather spend time doing new research


i don't take it any of you bought RNAI back when i first talked about it? i offset my losses on ASTM and then some with RNAI

3/3/2006 2:42:01 PM