My first Post (i am new) - Page 2

wadea · #11 08-09-2005, 12:44 PM

For a noob, I think "The Motley Fool Investment Guide" goes through the nuts and bolts of what makes a good investment quite nicely and offers some ideas about how to find opportunities. This book was published back when Motley Fool was a little "purer" than they are today. After touting themselves for not selling out, they now offer several newsletters for purchase and have a pay side to their website. Anyway, this book came before all that and I liked it when I was starting out. It's easy to understand and appeals to common sense. Good luck,

-w.a.

DpR · #12 08-09-2005, 08:18 PM

Its better than the negative amount poster will get when he is constantly buying high and selling low.

DpR · #13 08-09-2005, 08:23 PM

1) You are not going to beat the stock market. There are many professionals out there with a lot more knowledge and experience than you whose proffesion is to beat the market. The market is like poker, a zero sum gane - you have to be better than the pros to beat the indexes. You cannot get that way by reading a few book. Even among those profeesionals I refer, only about 5% beat an index after fees and taxes. Get that? 95% of people who's job it is to beat the market cannot do it.

2) Don't bother thinking about stocks until you have $10k to invest.

A lot of people everywhere including this board will tell you they beat the market yada yada yada, while a coupel may infact, the vast majority most likely do not even know how to measure their performance.

DpR · #14 08-09-2005, 08:28 PM

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to tell you the truth, all these advices are preety safe advicse . the ones about putting it away for an x number of years and getting a good return. but honestly i am into investing for the thrill of gambling and MAKING money. thats why i will make sure i learn to beat it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guarantee you have poor investment results. In fact with your approach to it, you may lose it all. I know you will not believe me, so you will go ahead and learn the hard way. There are MILLIONS of investors in this country who think just like you - they all do horribly in the stock market.

Sniper · #15 08-09-2005, 08:57 PM

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Its better than the negative amount poster will get when he is constantly buying high and selling low.

[/ QUOTE ]

A very negative view of the markets that doesn't represent reality.

OP is looking to educate himself about the markets, and like anything else, with enough education and enhancement of the skills needed to succeed, OP can be successful.

FishHooks · #16 08-09-2005, 09:23 PM

[ QUOTE ]
1) You are not going to beat the stock market. There are many professionals out there with a lot more knowledge and experience than you whose proffesion is to beat the market. The market is like poker, a zero sum gane - you have to be better than the pros to beat the indexes. You cannot get that way by reading a few book. Even among those profeesionals I refer, only about 5% beat an index after fees and taxes. Get that? 95% of people who's job it is to beat the market cannot do it.

[/ QUOTE ]

This guy has no idea what he's talking about. The stock market is not a zero sum game. If it was a zero sum game that would mean that random stocks would go up and down and the dow would overall stay the same. Historically there has never been a 30 year period in which the market has gone down, and I believe there is an average of like 3-4% gain in the market each year. That proves it is not a zero sum game, the market would have to have no rate of growth and no rate of decline for it to be a zero sum game.

Also this 95% talk is just retarded, since it's their job they would have to be making money, obviously some dont but for the most part they are pretty successful. Also how you even find a stat like this even assuming it was real.

Sniper · #17 08-09-2005, 09:39 PM

[ QUOTE ]
1) You are not going to beat the stock market. There are many professionals out there with a lot more knowledge and experience than you whose proffesion is to beat the market. The market is like poker, a zero sum gane - you have to be better than the pros to beat the indexes. You cannot get that way by reading a few book. Even among those profeesionals I refer, only about 5% beat an index after fees and taxes. Get that? 95% of people who's job it is to beat the market cannot do it.

[/ QUOTE ]

This post shows your fundamental lack of understanding of the stock market, its participants, and the way it works.

The Stock Market is not a zero sum game.

There are many people who outperform the indexes. There are many more people who have no idea, or desire, and settle for mediocre returns.

The objective of most mutual funds is NOT to beat the key indexes, and they operate under severe restrictions that an individual investor is not bound by.

[ QUOTE ]
2) Don't bother thinking about stocks until you have $10k to invest.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is also not good advice, and compares to saying you shouldn't play poker till you can beat the 2K/4K game.

Sniper · #18 08-09-2005, 09:42 PM

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There are MILLIONS of investors in this country who think just like you - they all do horribly in the stock market.

[/ QUOTE ]

The truth is exactly the opposite... the stock market has created considerable wealth for the average person.

wadea · #19 08-09-2005, 11:26 PM

I know this has already been said several times, but this "zero sum" statement is so wrong that I am compelled to add another reply to strengthen the converse arguement. Anybody who had to take economics to graduate high school should understand why this is.

The truth is that anybody can make money in the long term by simply investing in an S&P500 index fund. I promise. Give it 10 years and I promise you'll be ahead.

Also, any individual investor with a good understanding of how to value stocks and the time and effort to do their homework can beat the S&P500 over the long term. And here's another hint, focus on small caps .

-w.a.

NiR · #20 08-09-2005, 11:36 PM

although you might be correct about 5% beating it but that seems alot to me. like with poker, i am sure you know what % of people actually beat online poker regularly. if you know that then i am sure you understand that it is less then 5%. much less. ya i am sure stocks is a whole another game and may be much more difficult and 5% of the pros beating it seems very hard. but i am not quite getting what your saying. so your saying that only 5% of the professionals make money from it and the other 95% lose money? all i mean by beating the stocks is making profit consistently. ofcourse you will lose and win but on average hourly rate, you will be ahead. please explain. yes i know that reading few books wont do anything. i am not beating online poker by reading few books. i am bebating it with experience. and thats what i need in stocks. but i will do my homework before i start.