Hey, sorry if this doesn't belong here, but I'm an ex-online US player with extra cash to burn, where should I go to learn more? I wanna invest like 1-2k and go from there....any ideas on what i should do?

i like the motley fool's introductory articles:
http://www.fool.com/how-to-invest/th...eps/index.aspx

there's also a ton of all-over-the-board advice in the "i have xx to invest" thread:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/30...thread-511295/

with 1-2k, i'd be looking to eliminate bad debt, establish an emergency fund, and establish an IRA (probably Roth IRA). if you've got those nailed down, you'll want to figure out what your investment goals, timeline, and risk tolerance are. you'll need this info to figure out what to do with your remaining money.

hth. good luck!

When running a DCF, if I estimate free cash flow as cash from operating activites - Capex (and discounting at WACC), am I running a FCFF or FCFE valuation? In other words, do I need to back out net debt at the end? I am thinking the answer is yes but want to confirm.

Favorite tech. analysis books?

What do you guys think of investing in LTD or SKS after black friday? try to get in early this week and trade hopefully in a few weeks?

Just a thought i had with a friend, wondering if we are totally investment fish or not.

Someone tell me whats wrong with this idea please:

Using a variation of martingale trading the market:

Say you make a random decision at any point in time, that a currency pair is going to go long by 10 pips for example betting $1/pip. You have a 1-1 ratio for stoploss.
If you win, great. If you lose, then your next 10 pip trade is made at $3/pip etc.

So its martingale, except with a 3-1 ratio. Its a true 50/50 gamble and the market will always take the trade.

Why wont this work?

actually..if you started on $0.10/pip it would only take 8-9 losses in a row before those losses where getting insane..although the chances of losing 9 times in a 500-1.
so if you were to quit after the 9th loss and start from scratch, there must be a maths way to solve this

if martingale doesn't work for blackjack (and it doesn't, mostly for the reasons you alluded to), why would it work for "investing" (though what you describe is some kind of currency trading)?

Kinda fishy imo. The retailers have already moved up a ton.



By the way by "Location: Mason" you wouldn't happen to mean GMU would you?

if I understand u correctly, ur talking about martingaling a neutral gamble rather than a negative gamble (blackjack).

it wont work for 2 reasons:

1. the obv one is the practical fact that your bankroll is never big enough

2. transaction costs

I have a few questions relating to private equity/venture capital.

What kind of managerial assistance is typically provided in addition to capital by "private equity funds?

"Venture capital" firms are defined in federal regulations as private firms that invest in private companies.

"Business development companies" are publicly registered firms that invest in public companies.

Both of those must offer "significant managerial assistance" to their portfolio companies, and if a group of them invest in a "portfolio company," they all must have the right to give significant management assistance or to acquire control.

The term control is defined as any % higher than 25% which allows them "controlling influence" over the portfolio company. I would like to know how "private equity" firms compare (I think they often buy over 50% or even 100%).

Can they provide their service through a consulting firm or by a combination of service offered directly by the fund, and indirectly by consulting firms? And what do they charge to the portfolio company for the services that are provided?

Just curious if someone knows of a site where you can look at every single company on the TSX or the Venture ? Would be nice to have a site where it breaks down oil/gas companies, silver, gold into different sections and you can scroll through to see dividends etc ...

So im just a student but I get alot of money on the side playing poker, and yesterday the bank called me because I had 30k in my chequing account. This is CIBC in Canada and I ended up getting set up with a savings account that pays 1.2% on balances over 5k and they have a promotion for another 0.30% bonus interest running until the end of the year. Is this a good deal or pretty standard as far as interest rates go. Its important that I can access the cash if I need it so Savings account is the best I can do right?

Quite new to trading/stocks etc.

I want to invest a little bit of money in some stock maybe 25kish or so and just see what happens

Is there something I should start reading into on maybe what is a good option? Maybe investing into an etf or mutual fund is also in option.

Any advice/ideas/anything in particular I should read or look into would be great.

Thank you.

When you say "quick access" to the money, what timeframe is quick? You could do better in some sort of bond fund, but the turnaround time may be 3-5 days.

If I buy an options contract(in the money) that expires 6mo out, can I sell the contract before it expires if the value of the contract has gone up?

Might sound dumb, but I'm sure someone has a yes/no answer for me.

yes

I need something to help organize my finances as it is becoming a nuisance to track everything myself in Excel. Mostly I need to keep tabs on multiple accounts (checking, savings, investment, retirement, college fund) and secondarily I might put some effort into budgeting/monitoring expenses.

I've been looking at mint.com or Quicken Premier.

They both look like they would do what I need, but I am leaning toward Quicken.

Any strong feelings one way or the other or alternative suggestion?

i don't know anything about quicken (other than when i gave it a spin on my pentium 100 back in 1996) but my bf really likes mint and uses it to manage his handful of financial accounts.

is this standard for investing? i never invested in bankruptcy/real estate outside of buying my house, but this year i ended up buying an unfinished development for 40% of debt owed

got some certified letter thing from a bankruptcy firm who wants to buy it for 90% of value, but only have until dec 28. is this a scam? will they steal all my info?

Use google and a phone

i use mint and use it for what you describe and it works great.

I've heard great things about Mint.


I could use some help about the buying/renting an apartment decision (specifically, the apartment I'm currently renting and like a lot). I'm in Chicago with a stable well-paying job, very likely will be here for the next 5 years or so. 4-5 years is when I'd like to have some definite flexibility about where I live. I currently pay just shy of 20k/year in rent and would see buying mostly as a way to not pay 100k with nothing to show for it five years from now, not as a long term living plan beyond that time frame. I currently have about 200k in some Vanguard index funds (thanks to the stickied "where should I put my money" thread!) plus some spare cash. I'm not sure how much the apartment would be but I suspect something like 220-300k.

I know that with buying you get stuck with things like property taxes, fees/costs, mortgage interest, lack of flexibility, real estate risk, and all that, so it's not like I can just buy and "save 100k". I don't know much else about the buying/renting decision and what to be thinking about. Any advice?

Can someone direct me to a type of spreadsheet/formula for this situation:

Friend is getting a loan from me for $400. I am going to charge 4% interest. The longer he takes to pay the more interest he pays per payment. It's not a fixed loan but I'm guessing I would use the standard 360 day period of the interest rate?

I'm probably saying random crap but hopefully one of you can direct me to the exact formula so I can email it to him and keep a spreadsheet going.

Thanks

PC Bank is 1.5% and they increase it every year with a small loyalty bonus. YOu can use CIBC debit machines no charge as well.

Ally is 2% but I think it's an online only bank.