Should there be a DU Investment discussion group?

[0rganism]

I can think of several reasons to have a group dedicated to talking about investments.

* Beating inflation on the way to retirement in Bush's "ownership society"

* Sharing strategic advice and particular fund, stock, or derivative picks

* How to keep one's portfolio as "RNC free" as possible

and so on. Anyone interested? I think the rule is 9 more co-sponsors to get it started.

[The Doctor.]

1. Oil and Gold....

The money's going to be there no matter what...


I wouldn't mind sponsoring such a thing, but I can't afford the time I already spend on here as it is.

PM me if you need follow-through.

[0rganism]

8. But which Oil and Gold?

There are lots of different ones to consider. Possibly there are some that aren't so intimately linked to republicans. Maybe DUers want to invest in secondary stocks, for the companies that make mining equipment or service refineries. And maybe we want to consider things like LEAPS or put-options for stocks that are ready to crash.

I think there's always room for more detailed discourse. Thanks for offering to co-sponsor. I'll keep your alias on tap.

[Nite Owl]

2. Sounds like a good idea

It could be interesting trying to find something to 'invest' in though. I'm more of a take the money and run not a buy and hold type. But finding sectors that might go up in these times could be helpful. You can add me as one of the 9.

[0rganism]

9. Right on, consider yourself counted

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Hydrogen Economy, funds, stocks, best way to change the world and put

some controls on those who wield way too much power in it for now.

www.ch2bc.org

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Warning in case you didn't see it....

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We do not send or reply from this address.

[0rganism]

10. Itd be nice to have some input for DUers tracking IPOs on energy companies

There's a lot of new tech that's ready to come on the scene, and we could be getting in on the ground floor by having people keeping an eye on different sectors and posting to a central DU group.

[meti57b]

4. Yes ... there should be a DU investment discussion group.

[0rganism]

11. Excellent! we're halfway there

[wildeyed]

6. Yes, I would be very interested,

Actually I was just thinking about that subject today. But would it be covered by the economic activism forum?

[0rganism]

7. So far, it is not a major topic in the EA&PL forum

This is not to say that it might not be a reasonable place to hold such discussions, but there's a lot of unrelated material there also. In an entire page of topics, I saw maybe two that could be construed as investment-oriented. There are at least ten times as many anti-investment boycott threads. A sudden influx of investing threads might even be seen as a hostile takeover, of sorts.

I'm thinking more along the lines of the kind of Stock Watch threadage that shows up in the LBN forum every day, but not limited to the major indexes and big movers. We'd be talking about long-term investments, whether certain bonds or bond funds can be profitable under certain interest rate conditions, which stocks would be ripe for put options, market modeling algorithms, and so on. Maybe we'd go so far as talking tax policy, or the ethical pro's and con's of having certain investments tax deferred. More practical, less ideological, but still DU.

[wildeyed]

18. Sounds great.

More complicated than anything I am familiar with. I would be interested in basic info though, like good mutual funds and how a small investor gets money overseas. Also, I am worried about inflation, and would like to know how to protect my money. I currently have a variable rate mortgage, at what point do I need to change to fixed rate? Stuff like that.

[FizzFuzz]

12. I'd be interested

but I am strictly 101 investing/finances for dummies.

I don't know ANY of the jargon or concepts or anything, I am at level neg 10.

Guess I would lurk or ask the kind of questions that I'd be afraid would look dumb.

[Nite Owl]

14. Ask all the questions you

want. Not asking is the dumb thing. We all have our areas that we know about. I'm negative more than 10 when it comes to computer techie stuff.

[FizzFuzz]

20. yep! Me too, not a tech head either.

But if anyone wants a feminist viewpoint or information on Deafness/Sign Language, I am your woman! :D

Or knitting. I can contribute if that topic should come up too.

Ha! I have to claim SOME sort of expertise! :puffpiece:

[0rganism]

15. Exactly why such a forum would be useful

You could have someplace sympathetic to ask the questions and get the tips that would keep you from losing money if you chose to invest. There's a lot to know about investing. I think having a DU board that acts as a knowledge base for this material would be valuable for participants and lurkers alike.

[FizzFuzz]

19. Indeed!!

My financial advisor has pretty much given up on me, I am clueless. It IS overwhelming, there's just too much information, and I don't even know where to start.

Yay for sympathetic forums!!!

:thumbsup:

[knight_of_the_star]

13. Not a bad idea

I would do it very willingly, I'm studying the currency exchange so I can throw that stuff in.

[0rganism]

16. Great! We're almost there, folks!

[Steven_S]

17. Aside from due dilligence...

It would be nice to share ideas or links or learning curves or whatever.

I'm interested.

[Yupster]

21. Here's a problem

I'm a stockbroker which is the truth.

I am strictly prohibitted from giving any investment advice or recommending any stocks, mutual funds or other investments in internet chatrooms.

I'm sure other professionals in the industry are covered by the same due diligence and compliance regulations.

Therefore any advice you will be getting will necessarily come from people who are not trained to give it. You will be self selecting against experts in the subject.

Of course, that may be to your benefit.

But just realize that anyone saying I'm in the business and I say buy this, is either not in the business, or is probably violating his company's rules by recommending at DU.

Just my $ .02.

[0rganism]

27. Your concern is significant, but not insurmountable.

For instance, from the brokerage POV, you probably don't make your customers sign a non-disclosure agreement. If someone paid you for advice, and later talked about it in a chatroom, they wouldn't be bound by the same restrictions.

There are financial advisors and planners who don't mind giving out generalized free tips and answering basic questions -- even to the point of recommending LEAPS on certain stocks. I've seen it happen on other forums.

Sometimes professors and students of economics have been known to share market-related insights at DU.

But primarily this would be for people who have invested or are planning to invest to share and compare experience and insight. I would not expect it to be on the level of advice from a portfolio manager, although I suspect there will be occasional posts of that caliber. And even someone under constraints such as your own might be able to point out where a post is in error.

I don't think it's quite fair to say that such a forum "self-selects against experts" as not all experts are bound by identical constraints nor would the forum itself be enforcing those constraints. Quite the opposite, really: by agreeing to those prohibitions, people in your profession have already self-selected against the entire body of open internet forums! There's really nothing any discussion forum can do to include your advice, so it's hardly a matter of self-selection on the part of forum sponsors.

[Doctor_J]

22. I would like that

[buycottJoe]

23. I'm in

The new group would be a great companion to the DU group: Economic Activism and Progressive Living where we learn to vote with our $ when we purchase.

With an investment group, we can learn to vote with our $ when we invest. Socially responsible investing (SRI) has been around for years. A Google search on "socially responsible investing" gives sites such as:
http://www.domini.com
http://www.socialfunds.com
http://www.socialinvest.org
A search in http://www.powells.com gives a lot of books on the subject, so it is a big area.

I do have a slight problem with SRI's though, because they don't seem political enough. But nevertheless they are basically mutual funds which select companies using criteria such as the companies not having anything to do with weapons production, tobacco, gambling etc. You choose the criteria and the mutual funds. I currently own 1 SRI.

"RNC free as possible" is something I would like to learn more about.

[DoctorMike]

24. yahoo finance or motley fool

How would this be value added or in addition to the massive message boards on Motley Fool or Yahoo Finance? Wouldn't we have the same shilling and pumping and dumping?

[newyawker99]

25. Hi DoctorMike!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

26. I'm sure it would happen, but I would hope that it would be a smaller

group of folks who would stay away from the blatant shilling at least.

That being said, I'd be more of a lurker. I day trade a bit but really don't know enough to give anyone any advice.

[pilgrimsoul]

28. I'd be VERY interested in this group...

count me in! With the diverseness of the folks we have here, it would make for a lively, well rounded discussion.

[amazona]

29. the fool is a paid site

So people pay to be shilled bad investment advice.

I recently read an article on the front page (not the paid forum area) where the writer promised that if you invested $350 a month for 25 years then you would have a million dollars. That isn't what my calculator said that $350 times 12 months times 25 years is.

Then I noticed his assumption -- that you would earn 15 percent by buying his stock recommendations. No honest advisor would promise 15 percent annual returns over 25 years in the market. Yikes! I think they took that article down now but it should never have been posted at all.

[0rganism]

30. Proposed Mission Statement -- needs agreement from 10 DU donors

Mission Statement:
"The DU Investment group provides a forum for discussion and evaluation of investment strategies, specific investments, and market trends, foreign and domestic."

If you agree, post with something like "I agree" or "Aye" in the subject line.
If you would agree pending a change in the statement, post with "proposal to amend" or something equally obvious in your subject line, and the change you'd like to see in the message body.

[FizzFuzz]

31. AYE. sounds good to me!

I don't know enough to offer any critical input.

So, AYE! is good enough for me.
;)

[chaska]

32. I have no money, but I have a tip...

I called this one a couple of years ago and was right.

Buy stock in Splenda. I just read an article saying that they can't keep up with demand and are having to ration it. They have plans to build a couple of additional factories soon. Splenda will be in everything soon and will replace aspartame and sacharine.

If you haven't tried it, you should. Pretty darn good.

[buycottJoe]

33. I agree

This being a Democratic site in general, we can learn to help Democratic businesses when we invest. We can learn about investing in general. I hope people saving for retirement or whatever, aren't keeping everything in a savings account, where the interest rate is next to nothing. They would actually be losing money because of inflation.