Any stock tips?

[Onlooker]

I'm thinking of investing a few hundred dollars is something highly speculative. Last time I did this, I invested in HRT. I bought 50 shares at $2.50/share and after more than a year it went nowhere, so I sold. Now, I see the stock trades at around $15/share. Damn.

[amazona]

1. if you have only a few hundred to invest

I don't believe you should be investing in stock if you have only a few hundred to invest. You are not likely to have a big enough win to overcome the vig. You'd have a better chance at the pass line with odds at craps.

$2.5 times 50 shares is only $125!!!! What did you pay to do the trade? $12? $14? Your expenses are all out of whack. If you don't get in the habit of keeping costs down relative to investment, you will be a long-term loser.

The costs of a $125 pass line bet in craps is around $1.75. Of course, if you make just one bet, you either win -- doubling your money -- or you lose, all of the money. But over time your expectation would be to lose $1.75 for every $125 you put on the pass-line.

Do you get what I'm saying? If you're a gambling and speculating hobbyist and make a lot of "bets" over time, a craps hobby will actually cost you less than your nearly-penny stock hobby.

If you don't need action, the better bet is to hold out for local or even internet banking offers. I've several times been able to open bank accounts for $100 mininum and get a bonus of $25 to $75 for keeping the account open for 90 days. And there is no risk of loss with such games. Read your local banking ads each week.

I won't give stock tips to someone with this amount of cash to invest, it just seems immoral somehow.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[Joebert]

2. The commissions always get you.

Every purchase I make has the buy/sell commissions added into the mix in a spreadsheet so I can see what kind of performance would just break even.

And never forget about the taxes.

If you sell too soon, the tax bite will be harsher than it would be if you held.

It's all about the strategy I guess.

If you can find a stock that is going to double soon, then the commission/taxes are moot.

So, if you can find a stock that is going to double soon, LET ME KNOW.

:-)

[Onlooker]

3. Actually, I'm fairly risk averse

Most of my retirement is in mutual funds, CDs, and my condo, but every now and then I like to risk a few hundred dollars. When I risk, I know I can afford to lose.

[MsTryska]

4. in that case...

perhaps an alternative fuel company? Like maybe a fuel cell manufacturer or soemthing?

or a biotech? I've done really well with PDLI over the last few months, but they're about midway through their known price range by now so maybe not the best for what you are looking for.

i jsut checked my Alt Fuel paper Trade....there's a couple of pinksheets and penny stocks on there that you may want to check out....

VWSYF
SLGLF
PEIX
DESC


those are the cheap ones that have increased in value since 4/05. Let me know if you want any of the ones that went down instead.

[amazona]

5. then i'd say play blackjack and dice

They've done all right by me. And even if you lose, you have the entertainment and the free drinks and free buffet.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[superconnected]

6. I don't believe in asking or putting out stock tips.

But,

I'll give you a site tip.

You probably already know that Wealth-Lab.com is a free site that give you an imaginary 100 thousand and lets you do simulated trading against the real market.

Therefore you can trade under $5 stocks to your hearts content and create a system that works before throwing in real money. I've always found trading the stocks that low to be fun. You can make money in it. Having a system would be a good idea though - consistently positionsize, buy, sell on paramaters you figure out in advance.

Having a way to control your risk is also important - ie only investing 1% of your capital on any trade and having exits like a reverse profit exit and a stop loss exit.(you should have more exits than these. You should know on what terms you're exiting the stock before you buy)

William O'neils book using the Canslim method(I can't remember the name of the book even though I own it) puts up a good argument on why not to buy stocks under $5. I don't totally agree with him although I respect his method.

Van Tharps book - trade your way to financial freedom - a boring book, is still the best book I've read for creating a trading system.
It's well worth the read and will go through many different systems including O'neils Canslim.

Any Market Wizards book by Jack Schwager is also very good. He interviews super profitable traders(started from nothing and often worked their way up to 100's of millions) and you discover nearly all are system traders.

I'm bringing all of this up because you asked for a stock tip. That's usually a red light. Going on stock tips is generally a really bad excuse for not doing your own homework or not having a good system. You really can't rely on stock tips and shouldn't trade on them.

Microsofts Sharebuilder is a great site for buying stocks and you can pay as little as $4 a month to make several trades a month. They are not real time at that price - the trade goes in the next business day. $12 a month - I believe is still the price - gives you unlimited trades, again that get put in at the beginning of the next business day. Real time trades cost more.

I hope you are not using a stock broker. They're unnecessary, expensive and usually will throw you off with their "tips" and trying to sell you stocks they are pushing. Skip the stockbroker.

Van tharps book is the one book I would recommend over any other, if you don't mind feeding your head a little before you start putting up a lot more money. Or build your trading capital up using discressionary trading(gut feeling) and lose it all quickly on bad gut feeling.

Everyone has differnet threshholds for how they trade. That's one reason stock tips are worthless.

Sorry this is so flipping long.

I highly recommend you stay out of the casinos no matter what your capital is. They are rigged for you to lose over time no matter what. At least losing it in the stock market will give you a feel for the market and start tuning your senses.

[Onlooker]

7. Thanks

Eight months or so later, I finally see your post. A lot of good info, and I will pick up a couple of those books. But, I do keep a little money aside for very speculative investing, and have pretty much broken even.

[trof]

8. OK, NAT. Nordic American Tanker

They've quadrupled their fleet since I bought a few years ago.
Suez class, double-hulled oil tankers.
They pay huge dividends.
Run by a bunch of hard-headed, freight savvy Norweigens.
http://www.nat.bm/

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. Even though the above post is over a year old, it is irresponsible to

suggest;
"I hope you are not using a stock broker. They're unnecessary, expensive and usually will throw you off with their "tips" and trying to sell you stocks they are pushing. Skip the stockbroker."

This is advice from someone that has no idea what he or she is talking about.

15 minutes in my office and i'll show that person and most others that they are totally unprepared to properly diversify and allocate appropriately across asset classes all the while strategically and tactically investing so as to reach a specific return target. I say "most others" because you cant convince some people they have no clue if you opened a display case containing every clue in the known universe and SHOWED THEM they dont have one.

The minute some person suggests an investor can do all that is necessary and appropriate for their situation (without actually KNOWING their situation) by merely reading a collection of books is the minute one serious about their financial situation should RUN, not walk and seek the professional advice of a properly licensed and qualified Financial Consultant face to face.

Yes, Brokers are unnecessary and expensive. Thats why almost every single millionaire and billionaire on the planet as well as the overwhelming majority of the folks in this country with any REAL money have a Financial Consultant.

Otherwise known as a Broker.