If you had a grand to invest today to gamble on high risk stocks, which

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stock would you pick? And why?

I just figure things are about to change radically if Democrats are in office, so I thought there might be some left-leaning stocks out there that could take a looksee.

[RufusEarl]

1. Renewable energy

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5. Someone reprinted an article regarding Solarbuzz, but it's in

Germany and I haven't a clue if it's even public stock.

[salin]

2. Not a stock... but there are some interesting

mutual funds that focus on socially responsible investing and that give pretty decent returns. I think that "Domini"? (sp?) is one of them - hopefully others will weigh in.

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8. Any clue on how to research them?

We're about to dump our financial consultant and we really don't want to pick up another. Bad experience. We told him we wanted to invest in something to pay off the kid's college education and nine years later, it's worth half of what we put into it. We went to see him last week and you know what he said? Most people who put their money in mutual funds are thinking long-term, about fifteen years. Son of a bitch! My kid will be out of college by then!

THIS, Bush you moron, is why privatizing Social Security was a bad idea.

[salin]

11. One avenue would be to go to the library

and find the annual Consumer Report digest (tells when items have last been reviewed - what issue to look at - and sometimes has a synopsis) - they have a pretty extensive writeup about different funds and things to consider. I believe that somewhere in their report they also discuss socially responsible funds - as their customer base (CRs) include a lot of folks for whom this is an interest.

Then while at the library - after reading about funds - I would go find the recent Morning Star reports and read what they have to say about the fund you find interesting in the CR review.

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13. Thanks salin.

[salin]

14. I don't have much interms of investments

but this is how I have approached them rather than going to a 'planner'.

[pitohui]

20. you need a better handle on your own risk tolerance

i don't want to flame or to be flamed, but i want to clarify a point which seems to be a key to your problems w. your financial planning in the past

you don't know your own risk tolerance, you use words in your original post like "gamble" and seem to be seeking a risky undiversified single stock for your $1,000

you cannot have substantial opportunity for gain without substantial opportunity for loss (risk)

seems to have been poor communication between you and the planner, you wanted money to pay for college in the short term (less than a decade) yet you wanted to invest in equities (very risky, esp. considering the time when you first invested, 9 years ago, equities were already overheated and due for a correction)

i would be v. surprised if your planner didn't tell you when you purchased the original funds that you had no guarantee of gain, certainly not over a 9 yr period, and certainly not in mutual funds in an already overheated market overdue for correction


considering the atmosphere of the time, i'm guessing the planner did inform you (it's pretty standard disclosure) and you brushed off the risk, seeing only the potential for gain

instead of learning from this that in reality you have little or NO tolerance for risk, here you are looking to throw $1,000 at TODAY'S high risk investments

my suggestion would be, and i mean it respectfully, is to accept that you are in no position to take on risk and to focus on investments w. no chance of loss of principal, such as CDs, it ain't glamorous, but when you need the money, it's there

some of the suggestions you're getting seem almost perversely intended to make you lose money, why would anyone buy gold at near its 25 yr peak, just shoot yourself now and get it over with

others didn't read the part about how you had $1,000 to invest, they don't get how transaction fees or minimum opening deposits impact your ability to make a profit on your investment

yet you can buy i-bonds or even $1,000 CDs or even just open an ING account without such fees, no chance of a big hit, but you can at least save money and keep up with inflation and not have the risk of losing the money

someone w. only $1,000 to invest should not be gambling

it isn't the answer you wanted to hear but i hope you'll consider it

if you want to gamble w. $1,000 you have a better shot at the craps table than you do with a stock brokerage, the fees are simply too high on these small investments

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21. I can see why you reached the conclusions you reached.

But they're wrong.

First, in another post I mentioned that we diversified our portfolio. We did the usual security safeguards. Actually, we made the diversity decisions on our own that now seem to be paying off.

But the money that went south and which I discussed in the post was Grandma-Grandpa Christmas money we received that we gave to the financial consultant to help determine where it should go. In retrospect, it was the ONLY major decision we gave him. He sold us on a mutual fund which was averaging 20% plus a year. The year AFTER we began the investment, the mutual fund began to dive. The consultant never called us back to switch it. After six years of a bad trend, we just stopped adding to the fund. Three years later, it still hasn't dug itself out of the hole. We knew the risk, we took it, and we consider it a reflection of his ability that he never called us sooner to move it.

Second, the thousand dollars mentioned in the original post is money that can be "gambled." (Anything stock related is a gamble.) Our other investments are doing well enough to free up a wild hair investment. (i.e. the kid's college educations are secured through other investments which paid off.) I thought of something high risk because back in '89 I invested in Western Digital when it was considered penny stock, just $100.00, but it's now $400.00, so I wondered if there was something in renewable energies that was just as hot now as WDC was back then. That's where I prefer to put it, but I don't know enough about the research out there to make a smart decision.

[mondo joe]

3. Biotech (I don't know if that's actually high risk or not). n/t

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12. I did a search and quite a few names come up under that name

http://uk.finsearch.yahoo.com/uk/index.php?s=uk_sort&nm=Bio+Tech&tp=S&r=US&sub=Look+Up

[Minnesota Libra]

4. I'd go with pharmacy/medical stocks because they will always be........

.....making money regardless of who is in office.

edited for clarity

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6. You would think so.

But we put our kid's education in a mutual fund that included Merck, Phizer (sp) and they tanked the mutual fund along with GM. Thank God we diversified.

[Toots]

7. PPTL.PK

Premium Petroleum. It is a small company diggng wells in Canada for Natural Gas. It is going to soar in very near future and one can buy in really cheap right now.

[ThomWV]

9. Fuck That - Put you dollars in Euros or gold

Then, after the crash, put the appreciated euros or gold back into stock and buy anything that is made in China and is used by old people, adult pampers come immediately to mind.

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10. Funeral homes?

Do you really think that they plan to give aging Seniors the best medical care?

[ThomWV]

17. Adult Pampers Hardly Count As Medical Care

But a man would be hard pressed to loose cash on an investments in a well run cemetary what with the age of the babyboomers - self included.

[SpiralHawk]

15. SpiralHawk, UnLtd. is a terrific investment

Send me all your cashmoneybucks now, and I will invest it in a tank of gas.

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16. Might as well invest it in carbon and sit on it for a few hundred years.

[sweetheart]

18. go long water

water is not yet realized to be the gold of the 21st, oil is so 20th.
Water might be land in canada, it might be engineering super-dry grass lawn species
that take 10% the water of normal grass... water is a wide and creative
sector that will only ever grow in scarcity during our lives. It is the
natural purifying element, and as the world grows more and more toxic with
this population explosion and its future-footprint, people will only increase
their demand for water in the heat, richer countries will only increase their
demand for water-intensive luxury... its a neverending public good, or perceived
as so... and that perception will break up soon enough. Canada might start
nationalizing its watershed as it and russia's become some of the world's most
vital resource domains.

can't help you otherwise. Gold and euros are still an ok bet, but they'are
pretty arb'd out.

[electron_blue]

19. No stock names for you, but go get Morningstar & Motley Fool literature

read up and you'll be ready to start.

If you want a place to start, look up stock index funds, which are mutual funds set up to track/mimic the various stock indices, such as Dow, S&P, etc. Vanguard has a well-respected index fund. That'll at least guarantee you do as well as the stock market in general.

OF course, if the stock market tanks, so do you. But it probably won't tank over the long-term (crossing my fingers here). Then after reading up, you can move to more aggressive stocks once you learn your way.

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22. Is there any place on the net to buy and sell stock?

I looked at Schwab's webpage but wasn't too impressed. I remember years ago when I had some old company stock to sell I went down to one of their storefronts, but I'm wondering if there's a way to do it for cheaper & easier?

[ThomWV]

23. Got a bank account?

Just walk into any bank you have an account with, they will act as a discount broker for you and most will give you case based on a note you sign right then and there - but it will cost you a couple of bucks in interest.

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24. Thanks. I didn't know that.