im very cynical about investing

[imported_bingobazza]

Or buy oil stocks maybe? Hold gold in the last 30 years??...its sure pretty...but you'd be crying all the more. WTF are you trying to say...I have so much respect for you in MHNL. Dont destroy my confidence in you now.

Bingo

[FishHooks]

Yea I agree.

[ggbman]

Of course the big difference in real estate is that by having rental properties, your investment can lose ground and you can still break even. Having properties with a high rent/ value ration can make for excellent investments.

Or can hurt you when the rentors trash the place after not renewing their lease (this coming from a person who has seen it happen on multiple occasions with rentors who were very nice people and checked up perfectly).

[Dan Mezick]

At Foxwoods last fall WORLD POKER TOUR World Poker Finals I got to play alot of SnG satellites. There was this fellow next to me, a retired young grandfather about 60 or a little younger. He was on Wall Street his whole career.

He told me he does not get involved at all in stocks or markets generally, after all the stuff he had seen occur in the markets during his long career.

He now drives an ambulance as volunteer part time. he was obviously very well off and echoed alot of these same sentiments about the intangibility of financial assets.

[KaneKungFu123]

im not being serious. mostly just joking. i understand real estate and land revolves around speculation as well.

as a poker player, i like having control. i dont like leaving things to chance. there are so many varibles involved with investing, its sickening.

i guess the key is diversifaction. holla.

[KaneKungFu123]

i just want to point out, that when someone makes the correct decision to buy or sell, then someone else made the inverse bad decision.

sometimes i feel like people tout the market as so easy to beat and make money. tell that to enron shareholders.

[greg nice]

[ QUOTE ]
i just want to point out, that when someone makes the correct decision to buy or sell, then someone else made the inverse bad decision.


[/ QUOTE ]

this would make the stock market a zero sum game, which people have said here that it is not. there was a small discussion on this a few weeks ago.

[bobman0330]

[ QUOTE ]
i just want to point out, that when someone makes the correct decision to buy or sell, then someone else made the inverse bad decision.

sometimes i feel like people tout the market as so easy to beat and make money. tell that to enron shareholders.

[/ QUOTE ]

My embryonic study of investing has indicated to me that the key is not to treat stocks as so many baseball cards, but rather as real ownership of a small part of various enterprises. If you take that into account, then your statement does not hold true.

For example, I buy 10,000 shares of Enterprise A 25 years ago. Enterprise A has grown by leaps and bounds and my shares are worth a ton. (The stock market price currently reflects the approximately correct price for my holdings.) I retire and decide to sell my shares to finance my new yacht. I sell them to you, and you buy them because Enterprise A offers high dividends and will provide a stable source of income while protecting your principal. Who's making a bad decision here?

[KaneKungFu123]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i just want to point out, that when someone makes the correct decision to buy or sell, then someone else made the inverse bad decision.

sometimes i feel like people tout the market as so easy to beat and make money. tell that to enron shareholders.

[/ QUOTE ]

My embryonic study of investing has indicated to me that the key is not to treat stocks as so many baseball cards, but rather as real ownership of a small part of various enterprises. If you take that into account, then your statement does not hold true.

For example, I buy 10,000 shares of Enterprise A 25 years ago. Enterprise A has grown by leaps and bounds and my shares are worth a ton. (The stock market price currently reflects the approximately correct price for my holdings.) I retire and decide to sell my shares to finance my new yacht. I sell them to you, and you buy them because Enterprise A offers high dividends and will provide a stable source of income while protecting your principal. Who's making a bad decision here?

[/ QUOTE ]

but what about the times you are selling a stock because its about to go belly up. you sell it to someone else, and let them take the fall.

the market is appretiating, so it leaves room for more winners then losers, but there will be losers.