hi, maybe i'm wrong but i think i read that the indexe grows 10%/year on average .could the indexe grow infinetely?

10% per year is what the stock market has historically returned. Could it grow indefinitely? There really is no reason why not. The index isn't an actual stock. Individual stocks come to a point where they simply can't grow at high rates anymore else they 'become' the economy.

If Berkshire Hathaway continues to grow at the same pace over the next 50 years that it has over the last 50 years...eventually Berkshire would be the economy of the entire world multiple times over.

hi ,

i want to invest 200-300k with small risk i know nothing about investing but my bank told me i could invest in their investing programe i should win 7-10% year if i can wait 7years( i dont mind to wait 10 years)


here are their 2007 http://groupe.bcge.ch/pdf/performanc...of-BCGE-fr.pdf

and 2008 results http://groupe.bcge.ch/pdf/performanc...of-BCGE-fr.pdf

2007 seems ok but for 2008 i dont know, they did worse than the indice.

does it seem ok ?

Those links are no good. But if you have that much money, you should leave it in a money market account or a high yield savings account and learn about investing before putting your money in anything else. Read the stickies in this forum for starters.

What is going on with my stock. I have lost my profits for past month, now i sound like a real noooob..

Anyone really dislike these energy/drilling stocks. NE and ATW

you can lose money in stocks? i never knew!

Hi everyone,

Little background on myself: I'm a 20 years old student (engineering) and I am from Europe. Basically 100% of my income comes from online poker. I have $50k sitting on my Stars account that I do not use and plan on changing that. I know NOTHING about investing and want to change that also.

Where should I start looking in order to best educate myself on the different alternatives there are available for me to play with the cash?

Also, I am hugely against putting the money in a bank account and just letting it take in the 5% or w/e yearly rate. I've been playing midstakes headsup for a few months so I am fairly familiar with the term "variance" and I know how to deal with the ups and downs. Please take that into account.

Now, where should I start?

could anyone answer my question about working on the nymex trading floor? i may do this for the summer

Kind of a stupid question and may not be anything...

I bought stock in a company 2 weeks ago and have been watching it. The quote on Yahoo Finance and everywhere else I look is showing one price, but my account in my IRA is showing it almost $5 lower than what it is actually trading at. I looked at the quote screen from my IRA provider and there was no volume so I don't see how the price could have changed.

Any ideas?

What do you want to use the money for?

Retirement? An emergency fund? To buy a house?

Do you have any debt?

also, if you find a bank account that pays 5%, let us know!

stickied threads on this board

My stock ATW, has been taking a dump. I own 2 stocks in the same field, ATW and NE.

ATW swings like %4 a day and it usually goes down, although I am only down a bit, since when I first bought it, it went up. But it lately has been on a downward rollercoaster. When NE is in the same field, but swings are less risky.

I have owned this stocks for a month, and so far it is not looking good. Is it to early in the game to say, well these are bad, i am going to sell? or should I do what everyone says, and HOLD ON to them.

If you can't handle the ups and downs you shouldn't be selecting individual stocks. I haven't looked at the companies you referenced so I can't give you an opinion based on what you should do, but I can say that you should stop looking at the current prices every 5 minutes.

hah I know but i just get so frusterated..

But let me ask. with the market this low, and such rock bottom, the stocks I have are about half of what they were from last year, which is nothing unusual. So with that said, everything is down, is it safe to say, over the next year, just any random stocks should be going up. Or do you think, some stocks may never get back to where they were.

Is the cat on its way back to the ground?

The market is nowhere near its bottom any more. It's already rallied around 40% and prices are now relatively high. At some point you have to expect a period of consolidation and a testing of some lower support levels.

It's definitely not "safe" to assume that, although it's possible. It's also possible that we will go all the way back down to test March's lows or worse. Anyone who has the correct answers to these questions will make a ton of money, but it's very difficult to predict. I think the best advice you can get is to have some sort of plan for those stocks you're holding. You need some kind of exit strategy. Don't just sit back and watch all of your money evaporate if your stocks are sinking lower and lower.

Ok back to the tax questions. I have put on a document all my buy prices, share # and sell prices, +/- profit.

So when tax day comes, is this what i have to show the tax man. I dont really understand, why i have to show all this, when i should just show how much I made or lost, its not like he is going to look at every trade, because there would be no point.

My friend works at a large public company. He has reason to believe that this company will fail to meet expectations over the next two years. He currently holds some stock options at 25.15. This company's stock is currently trading at 27.40. What is the best way for him to capitalize on his situation? Should he just short the stock? Should he buy some puts? If so, how many should he buy and at what price, equal to or above his option price?

Thanks for your input,
C.

It's very hard to answer because we don't know what company you're talking about. As a result we don't know if it's better to buy puts or short the stock outright. What he could do though is sell $25 calls to lock in some money he has in the calls (assuming he can't sell or exercise the calls right now).

Hi Brons,

Thank you for the response. What about the company matters? Meaning, what information about the company would lend towards buying puts vs. shorting? It's a global tech company that employs >10,000 people.

If he were to sell $25 calls, then if those calls are exercised, he should then exercise his options... is that right?

Thanks again,
C.

A question on the mechanics of stock markets:

Saying I'm putting in a market order to buy a stock, which has a bid/ask of say 10.00/10.05

And say there's like 5 dudes somewhere out there each with a limit sell order of 100 @ $10.05

If I am buying 100, how is it determined who's limit order gets filled?

Apologies if this isn't written very clearly

Afaik the person who's first in line gets to sell first.

Well, the price of options depends, among other things, on the volatility. So if the price of the stock jumps around all the time options will be more expensive. In that case it might be better to just short the stock. Options will be (99,9% of the time) only excercised at the end of the life of the option. In that case he should match the calls he sells with calls he has in his portfolio.

I think you can tell your friend to short the stock and sell matching calls. But the best advice you can give him is not to do anything at all as it's fairly dangerous to short a company as a speculation novice.

Okay, thanks. Best of luck in your trading/investing.

I guess it's ok to post a link to my online business, correct?

AKO 100 option

"This investment has a term of between one and five years; it will mature on the first anniversary where the Anniversary Index Level (the closing level of the Index on any one of the Anniversary Dates) is equal to or higher than the Initial Index Level. Should this happen, the Plan will come to an end and you will receive your capital back plus a return of 10% multiplied by the number of
years the Plan has been in force. You will not receive any return if by the fifth
anniversary the Plan is still in force and the Anniversary Index Level closes below the Initial Index Level. You will get your capital back provided that the Index has not closed at a level more than 50% below the Initial
Index Level. If the Index closes at a level more than 50% below the Initial Index Level, your capital repayment will be reduced by the percentage amount, by which the Anniversary Index Level on the fifth anniversary, is lower than the Initial Index Level."

To me this seems a good deal - likely 10% p.a, however many years it runs for, with a v small chance of losing capital, 50% is a long way considering how far its already gone down right? But I'm obv missing something.

Any standard pros/cons with these types of plans?