Bought NFLX at $320, closed at $354, and surged to close to $390 during after-hours trading when they announced earning. Think I should take profits or hold on for now?

Really wish i bought 1 contract of Nov-13 $290 options when the price dumped to $300 during all the gov't squabbling 2 weeks ago . Was just a hefty $1,358 for a single contract, which mean traders were expecting it to rebound back to the $340's by Nov, which would be worth close to 10x at opening bell tomorrow........

10/21/2013 9:57:32 PM

What is your expectations for next earnings that will be a catalyst to run it up to 400? Carl Icahn just unloaded more than half of his shares. I'm wondering what some momentum traders will be thinking when a guy like that starts to chip away of his shares.

10/24/2013 2:35:30 AM

the next season of Orange is the New Black

10/24/2013 6:35:29 PM

Any of you guys familiar with FutureAdvisor.com ?

I haven't signed up for it myself, but it's been getting a lot of coverage lately

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-porch/crushing-fees-a-qa-with-f_b_3354695.html

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303506404577448503218010424

10/25/2013 12:14:25 AM

I signed up for the free analysis portion ... does not automatically import most of my IRA/401k info, unfortunately. I went through the full manual process and it gave me some pretty good advice that I would not have acted on otherwise, and so if you like to manage your own money completely, it seems like a good way to do so.

10/25/2013 10:43:30 AM

So you had to manually enter in every single fund from your 401k?

10/25/2013 11:58:38 AM

yes, all 5 of them.

10/25/2013 4:08:19 PM

Are we admitting defeat on INO or is this another buying opportunity?

10/31/2013 11:36:49 AM

What's everyone using for their online trades these days? I'd like to get started but since I don't know what I'm doing I'd like to use someone that has low fees and possibly no minimum amount to open an account. Certainly not more than 500.

11/1/2013 1:45:53 PM

I use Scottrade, however I wouldn't be actively trading with <$500

11/1/2013 3:36:09 PM

Better off to open an IRA with $500 bucks and throw it in there. Either that or make some risky calls on options and try to double up a few times haha

11/1/2013 3:42:50 PM

Well I have plenty of money I *could* use, but like I said, I've not done it before and don't want to lose a bunch.

11/1/2013 3:44:57 PM

The problem with 500 bucks is anything of substance you buy is gonna have to go up a ton just to cancel out the commisions. You are left buying stocks in the 1-2 dollar range and those often end up bankrupt. I would suggest options because you could put 500 to use there, but if you are new you want to avoid those haha.

11/1/2013 3:51:37 PM

Heh shows what I know. Figured I could buy a few share of a few stocks and kinda watch them and only spend a few hundred dollars, to get my feet wet. I'll wait until I'm comfortable with the idea of possibly losing a couple thousand.

11/1/2013 3:58:19 PM

You can get your feet wet, but if you do five $100 trades, you'll spend ~6% to buy and another ~6% to sell, which is relatively a huge amount.

11/1/2013 4:04:34 PM

I have ~$100k in the bank that I could potentially invest but I am 99.9% sure I would lose it all rather than make an money.

11/1/2013 6:28:43 PM

Jesus dude, get that money to work! Letting it sit in a money market account, CDs, or a savings account is quite probably losing you money thanks to the pitiful APY offered now and inflation.

11/1/2013 9:33:46 PM

^^ The stock market has it's ups and downs, but over time always generates a solid return. If you don't feel comfortable investing it, hire someone or just put it in some low cost mutual funds. Anything is better than letting it sit in the bank.

11/2/2013 8:48:42 AM

^^^I was like that until last year. We did both utilize 401ks and Roths to the fullest (so we were investing a lot still), but when it came to investing after-tax cash into the market in a non retirement-type account, I was WAY too conservative. We still did it, just not at a high enough % and we ended up with way too much cash. We used to keep 12 months of living expenses and now I only keep 6 months of true living expenses in cash/MM based on still having 1 income, so it's big swing in the other direction.

We now dump a lot of after-tax dollars into my Vanguard funds (after filling up the Roth IRAs of course) every month. In addition, I took a huge chunk of cash and split it evenly into 4 Vanguard funds (admiral shares) for this year. Instead of earning like $500 in our MM, I am sitting at nearly $12,000 worth of unrealized gains on that amount during the same time period.

At some point I realized I'd rather take my chances in the market to really compound it huge over the years and risk losing a good portion in a meltdown. If everything goes sour (since I just use low-fee index funds), my cash probably didn't keep up with inflation anyway and I'm probably not in a much worse position.


[Edited on November 2, 2013 at 2:30 PM. Reason : ]

11/2/2013 2:28:48 PM

I've got it in a money market account at the state employee credit union, which is at 1.5%. I know that isn't anything compared to the 25% I made in my 401k (managed by Fidelity) but I really have no idea where to start. I looked at the financial services offered by Fidelity and they seem pretty expensive (and their better services require $200k or more invested).

11/2/2013 4:34:59 PM

There are lots of things you can do, and people on here might laugh at how simplistic I've made it, but my after-tax money is split into 4 Vanguard admiral share index funds (total stock market, total int'l stock market, total bond market, and small cap growth). I distribute evenly into those every month and then re-balance once a year. The fees are low, it gives me some diversity, and it is very hands off (auto-investment into those).

I have traded some individual stocks here and there on the same with play money, but my main non-401k and non-Roth stuff is all with Vanguard and I'm sure Fidelity or anyone else has very similar index funds that you could do a hands-off lazy-portfolio with that will end up better than your MM in the long-run.

FWIW, when I first put my huge cash investment into these funds early last year, I lost money for a bit and was frustrated, but since then I've gained it all back and plenty of extra. It's long-term, so I've learned to not be too worried about the ups and downs on a daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly basis going forward.

[Edited on November 2, 2013 at 5:48 PM. Reason : ]

11/2/2013 5:48:03 PM

^^ It only pays 1% and that's up from .75%

11/3/2013 11:25:07 AM

I had a friend at work that has been researching penny stocks. He convinced me to invest money in them and it has paid off both times so far. I took $600 bucks and have doubled it so far. I made some small $100 trades a couple times before I realized how much the commission eats into any profit. Also any gains only makes a few dollars. You really want to trade a minimum of $300 -$500 else its difficult to make any money on short trades.

Honestly though, you probably shouldn't listen to me. Everything I have read says not to gamble on penny stocks. I really don't know jack shit either, I'm just lucky my friend has been right a few times.

11/3/2013 10:05:57 PM

gambling on penny stocks is OK, as long as you realize it's just that...A pure gamble. If you're comfortable taking that $$ to the casino and throwing it all on red or black, investing that same $$ in penny stocks is fine.

11/4/2013 4:28:42 PM

Finally hit it with GTAT:

http://seekingalpha.com/currents/post/1383152

11/4/2013 5:11:17 PM

Quote :

"In the car Friday I heard that a 787 caught fire at Heathrow and BA stock took a big hit as a result. Pulled over and bought Jan 110 and Feb 105 calls. Today they announced that the fire was not battery related and the calls are up 28% and 35% respectively. If the stock breaks 108 again I'll likely sell Feb 110 calls to match the bought 105 calls. 7/15/2013 2:01:36 PM"

BA at $122. Those Jan calls are up 285%.

BA at $133. Those Jan calls are up 550%.

11/4/2013 7:45:35 PM

Great call, still kicking myself for not taking advantage of that as well. Debating a little TSLA gambling this afternoon just weighing risk/reward and seeing how price goes today.

11/5/2013 9:25:39 AM

Damnit forgot scottrade wont allow you to buy options with new deposits. Would already be up 20% too

11/5/2013 9:53:11 AM

Not even on margin?

11/5/2013 11:26:31 AM

My account was basically empty so even my margin buying power was pretty much nothing. Called to see if there was any way to bypass it they told me no. Oh well at least if it goes up after earnings I will feel like I was saved? Which means it will tank and I will be super pissed

11/5/2013 11:35:14 AM

just bought TSLA weeklys: 190.00 NOV 13 WK4 C

11/5/2013 3:56:01 PM

Fuuuccckkkkk nov 160 puts for 3.80 is what I was gonna get this morning god damnit!!!

11/5/2013 4:48:58 PM

Quote :

"Are we admitting defeat on INO or is this another buying opportunity?"

I added more last week in the low 1.80's, then again low 1.70's. Definitely a buying opportunity.

11/5/2013 7:40:42 PM

Take it for what you may:

Quote :

"Since the flurry of Seeking Alpha articles several weeks ago, (with 47 comments each as of this publication), Inovio (INO) has drifted lower, at $1.75 on 11/4, down from $2.20, leaving the company with a market cap of $350mm. I believe the decline offers a compelling entry point here for a long-term play, and has been discussed in prior articles, the company's unique platform of immune therapies & vaccines (using synthetic DNA vaccines) coupled with innovative delivery systems is potentially a big winner, long term. Somewhat unusually for a smaller cap stock, the liquidity profile is compelling as well (1.5mm shares traded, or $3mm notional) for those seeking to amass a more sizeable position."

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1802242-inovio-pullback-post-roche-still-a-compelling-entry-point?source=google_news

11/5/2013 8:40:28 PM

INO shot back up over $2.00 today over a lot of insider buying yesterday and today...big news coming soon?

11/14/2013 3:49:45 PM

Yup, i noticed that too. Somethings going on.

11/14/2013 4:14:37 PM

Thinking about dumping all my IBM stock. Thoughts?

11/14/2013 6:57:12 PM

^ I had a synthetic long that was up in January. Rolled into Jan 2016 at a profit. Hopefully it's above $200 by then.

11/14/2013 7:38:54 PM

^^^^ What's your current +/- on INO stock? How much have you gained or lost?

11/14/2013 11:35:03 PM

I haven't lost anything...the vast majority of my shares were purchased in the $0.50s-0.80s range and then some between $1.50s-1.80s.

Currently up about 25k on the ~17k I've put into it

11/15/2013 11:45:56 AM

11/15/2013 11:50:29 AM

never be too proud to take your gains. Not earning as much as you could have is way better than losing anything.

11/15/2013 12:37:37 PM

$20/share or bust!!!!11

11/15/2013 5:19:13 PM

Purchased some HOLL yesterday...they just settled a lawsuit they brought against AMC Entertainment for breach of agreement, but they did it "quietly." It's speculative, but it should bring some gains once the terms of settlement are released.

11/16/2013 1:49:12 PM

INO making another run today, even more promising preclinical results are out

11/20/2013 8:55:51 AM

PVG up over 90% today on better than expected news of their core sample...nice surprise to wake up to.

I took a chance on some after their shares tanked on news of the original contractor doing the samples quit about a month ago

11/22/2013 10:11:42 AM

made a killing on BIIB friday

11/25/2013 2:43:48 AM

BIIB up almost another $10 today. w00t

11/25/2013 10:44:11 AM

Quote :

"What's everyone using for their online trades these days? I'd like to get started but since I don't know what I'm doing I'd like to use someone that has low fees and possibly no minimum amount to open an account. Certainly not more than 500."

I'm sort of in the same boat and would like suggestions, anyone got any advice for the stock n00b? I already max out a Roth, and i'm willing to gamble some of my extra cash to get my feet wet in the stock game, I'm probably looking to put in ~$2000 initially.

[Edited on November 25, 2013 at 4:59 PM. Reason : $$$]

11/25/2013 4:53:42 PM

I use Vanguard for my mutual funds (90% of my investing is funds, whether it's 401ks, Roth IRAs, or our after-tax accounts). The remaining investments are through e-trade for any individual stocks I invest in here or there.

Honestly, unless you are really wanting to get into individual stocks and enjoy that, mutual funds or ETFs are a good way to go even in after-tax accounts. I utilize Vanguard's Admiral Shares and have super low fees on my funds there. That + Auto investing each month make it a very easy and cheap hands-off approach for me.

11/25/2013 4:59:02 PM