I had promised that I was going to start my own thread regarding stock investments and the markets. So many things have happened since last time I was here and I really do not feel like sharing my knowledge. But a promise is a promise and there have been few people that have emailed me and supported me.

This thread will deal with investing in the stock markets. I will not discuss individual stocks but discuss ETFs like SPY, DIA, IWM and QQQQ. The one good thing about trading ETFs compared to individual stocks is the the ETFs provide instant diversification among similar companies within the same sector.

I will post more as we go along, regarding entry-price, profit-target and stop-losses. I do not think that any ETF is good or bad. It is good only if I'm making money and bad if I'm losig money.

If you have not been in the market so far, please read this as an information piece only rather than my recommendations. There is risk involved and you should know how much risk to take on any position.

Any suggestations, comments and criticisms are welcome as long as it is market related. If this thread gets out of hand and we start discussing off-topics, I'll stop posting.

Have a happy new year!!!! May 2007 bring you and your family lots of joys and riches.

CPI and PPI are coming out this week and there is options expiration on Friday. I'm neutral Medium term. I'll buy on Friday if we close near the low and sell it if we close near the high.

Look for stocks that have shown strength during this sell-off, those will be the best gainer if the market moves up.

Keep posting Eminitrader. Where is your picks ?

It is very important that the market does not go below today's low in the next 2 days. If the market can stay above today's low, I'd say that we have seen a short-term bottom. The market should rally from that point on. This is a trader's market now. You have to buy and sell to make money.

My Picks:

CDI, GROW

Always know where you'll get out if it does not work. 7-10% decline from your buy point is a good place to take your loss.

Weekly Update:

This market cannot decide where it wants to go. The lows are being bought and the highs are being sold. On March 14th, there was a decent rally from the low led by Nasdaq but the last two days nasdaq seemed to lag. It is not really promising for the bulls. I think we are going to see more of the same next week too. The Fed is meeting next week and that could provide some direction. Inflation numbers were out this week and by looking at those numbers, I don't think the Fed is going to cut interest rate any time soon.


I think one major sell-off is necessary. Currently the S&P is at 1386, I'd like it to go down to 1320 so that I can load up on cheap.

Wow, did you guys see GROW. That was my pick on 3/14. It went up about 15% today. Got pretty lucky on that. CDI is not doing too bad either.

We are going to be in a trading range for few months (another 5-8 months). If you are going to be buying here, always know where you want to get out if it does not work. I'm still not convinced of this rally unless things chage dramatically in the coming days.

http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2007/marapr/features/dweck.html

Hey eminitrader, I made whole month's paycheck from youre picks. My delima now is whether to take profit or hang on to these stocks

Prachandra:

You must be joking. You actually bought CDI and GROW. Good for you. I'll hold on to those stocks at least for the time being. I'll wait till the end of the week to see how the market unfolds. The Fed is meeting on Wednesday so it could go either way. If the market strengthens here, GROW will see $60 before $35.

Get-out of the stock when there is a 1% true selling day i.e. when S&P, DOW and Nasdaq all close down 1% on the same day.

Use your judgement. Read my previous posts regarding how I tell when the market is weakening.

We are at an important juncture. I will be selling everything tomorrow and getting into cash.

Most of the weak shorts got squeezed pretty well. We are going t see another decline by the end of this month.

Watch this market sell-off hard. Another 1000 DOW points decline from here.

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
entrepreneur [(ahn-truh-pruh-nur, ahn-truh-pruh-noor)]

One who starts a business or other venture that promises economic gain but that also entails risks.

An entreprenuer does not wait for a paycheck every 2 weeks.

hey dude
i m new to share market although i understand financial terms but dun hav any idea abt how to invest money in shares

plzzzzzzzzz help me

Hey Eminitrader..its not about how much money one has or doesnt have...its about how rich one's heart is...and believe me, im rich at heart..and I dont need any amount of money to serve as evidence of that...good day, sir

P.S. What you think about this fledgling company called Enron...sounds like a definite money-maker, no?

Dear E ji,

I agree with you, it is sell time. And I am doing so.

BTW, could you tell me if there is a way of getting into IPO market? Like Cud one buy before the stocks gets listed. Please point me to some primeri if you happen to have.


I am selling my SONS and ORCL. Made some profits out of it.

Best~!

-B

Nirvana: I think the only way to do this is read a lot of books and watch the market regularly. I had recommended few books in my earlier posts, you can start there. DO NOT jump in the market before you are prepared. Be willing to take hits at times.

Start with Secrets of profiting in Bull and Bear markets by Stan W.

Bricolage: Unless you are one of the underwriting bank's big customer, getting an IPO is pretty hard. You don't need to get in an IPO to make a lot of money. Actually the best performing companies made their huge run after 8 years. Microsoft's IPO was in 86 but you could have bought MSFT in the 90s and still make money.

Bikasjyu: I'm speechless. I don't know what to say. I'm just so priviledged that you would grace my thread.

Anyway, it looks like the market is breaking down. We are going to get good prices for some of the stocks in the future. One of the stocks to put in your watch list is GROW. When the market bottoms, it will make a huge run again.

Eminitrader

thanks for doing free service to sajha users.

My retirement funds are basically uninvested? How should I start to invest.

I know nothing about these finance things.

Shrish: Thanks for the kind words. I do not have any experience with retirement funds so I'm not going to pretend as if I know. Please read some of the books that i have mentioned and if you have questions after that, I'll be glad to answer.

Eminitrader
Having accumulated large quantity of GROW around 37 to 38 , is it time to take proft? or is there chance of going higher than 53 ? .Its P/E is already at the stospheric level

Prachanda: That was a very nice run up by GROW. I already sold my positions. It is a good idea to take partial profit about 50% and see how far it can go. In this way, if the market turns down, you'll save some money and if it goes up from here, you have some left.

This market is not looking as strong. I'll start buying if it goes past the old high or comes down to 1320-40 range in S&P. Actually I'm selling here. I started selling early last week and by luck, it was near the hgh. I think we will re-test the lows.

E ji and PS ji,

I agree with GROW being a buy, but again, I wanna see it in the 40s again (if ever) to make some solid profits out of it.

E ji you were right about the end of the month thingo. Again, I have valued your inputs, and you seem to have some acumen when it comes to understanding market. Nice to see one fellow Nepali having a cool head w/ enterpreneurial juices flowing. A perfect cocktail to start your own financials endevors wherein other beat Nepelese can join the bandwagon and reap some benefits.

Best~!

-B