Investing in the stock market - Discussion

[Boudrias]

9 hours ago, Down by the River said:

My personal opinion is that people are not actually 'investing' in GME, AMC, etc. Which is not a problem at all. I have nothing against that; people are free to do what they want. However, I think it is more like gambling than investing and it kind of distracts. Some might say that it is not a distraction and its actually highlighting problems on Wall St. I think these issues were well-known prior to Reddit/WallStreetBets. 

 

EDIT: What I mean by not investing is that it is all speculation. The first two books I read when trying to learn/make decisions were Common Sense Investing by Bogle and Intelligent Investor by Graham. They both got at the idea of picking stocks that you'd be willing to own regardless of the price you bought them at. GME and others don't fit that description for me. Not saying that other people should have to change, just that the potential for more volatility is not beneficial to me personally. 

 

Excellent points. I've read Graham and Bogle as well. My fundamentals are building a portfolio which generates consistent cash flow thru dividends. I barbell to an extent by targeting about 25% to growth stocks with a capital gain upside. I consider any stock that yields less than 3% a growth stock. Total return (TR) has to exceed 10%. 

 

IMHO Bitcoin and many of the SPACS are gambling pure and simple. SPACS are touted as the retail investors opportunity to access venture capital scenarios previously unavailable to them. Sounds good but the reality is the vast majority of people buying into this do not have the knowledge or skills to make solid judgements. It is hard enough in the first place to filter news or hype about blue chip stocks let along high risk ventures which have a massive failure rate. To me this market is a clear reflection of government involvement in capital markets by destroying the bond market and forcing people further out onto the risk curve. They have primed all of this by QE and by giving money to millions of people who have no better use for it than gambling in the stock market. Some will be very successful but the vast majority will lose.  

[Wolfgang Durst]

Some news from the EV sector:

1. Tesla

A long-time skeptic on Tesla Inc. ‘s stock, UBS analyst Patrick Hummel, has more than doubled his stock price target, saying the narrative is no longer about the company’s leadership in electric vehicles, it’s about “winning” in software.

Hummel raised his price target to $730 from $325, while keeping his rating at neutral. His new target has swung to be 20% above the average target of the 34 analysts surveyed by FactSet — $608.58 — from being 46% below it.

He has been neutral on Tesla since March 2020, after being at sell or not rated since at least December 2017.

 

2. VW  (market leader in EV's sold in Europe) - Tesla ranks 3rd in Europe, based on sold units of EV's in 2020

A teardown of Volkswagen AG’s first dedicated electric vehicle found it measures up favorably to Tesla Inc. models in several key aspects, sending the German carmaker’s shares to levels last seen before its diesel emissions scandal.

The deep dive into the ID.3 by UBS Group AG analysts found the platform underpinning VW’s EV models will be fully cost competitive with Tesla and boast best-in-class energy density and efficiency. Analysts led by Patrick Hummel called the car “the most credible EV effort by any legacy auto company so far.”

 

There have been some rumblings that Elon Musk seeks to enter into a cooperatiion with a German car marker in order to act as a contract manufacturer to use the new Berlin gigafactory to full capacity. Full capacity of the gigafactory is about 500.000 units per year.  Leading car analysts hold the view that European Market can't absorb 500.000 Teslas.

 

[NucksPatsFan]

Added dips on Nio, STPK, CLSK - 3 companies going no where but up in the future

[skolozsy2]

2 hours ago, NucksPatsFan said:

Added dips on Nio, STPK, CLSK - 3 companies going no where but up in the future

I remember selling CleanSpark months ago for $41.  Didn't realize it had fallen that low now.

[AriGold2.0]

7 hours ago, NucksPatsFan said:

Added dips on Nio, STPK, CLSK - 3 companies going no where but up in the future

Sooo I should have held onto this is what you're saying 

[CBH1926]

Rough ride for AI, PTON, ETSY, TTD, NOW, PLTR, CRM, SNOW, SQ, PINS, ZM etc.

 

[kurtis]

20 hours ago, Down by the River said:

My personal opinion is that people are not actually 'investing' in GME, AMC, etc. Which is not a problem at all. I have nothing against that; people are free to do what they want. However, I think it is more like gambling than investing and it kind of distracts. Some might say that it is not a distraction and its actually highlighting problems on Wall St. I think these issues were well-known prior to Reddit/WallStreetBets. 

 

EDIT: What I mean by not investing is that it is all speculation. The first two books I read when trying to learn/make decisions were Common Sense Investing by Bogle and Intelligent Investor by Graham. They both got at the idea of picking stocks that you'd be willing to own regardless of the price you bought them at. GME and others don't fit that description for me. Not saying that other people should have to change, just that the potential for more volatility is not beneficial to me personally. 

 

I agree 100% on this! The store is failing hard and they are closing like crazy. I do agree that it seems like just a big gamble at this point. For myself I'm brand new at it, but I have been doing much better then I would of at the casino! 

[kurtis]

So for the last 4ish months I've been using Wealth simple invest. Up to around 1000 now with round up and bi weekly % adding from paychecks. About 2 weeks ago I started learning more about stocks and have invested on the invest side. From what I have read it's not the best for US stocks? I still did it anyways and did pretty decent following those apes in reddit on a few stocks.

 

Now my question is, clearly wealth simple is limited for self buying stocks in usd and choices ect. What would you guys recommend? Robinhood and TD ( my bank ) both seem to be getting slammed hard in reviews from crap going on with the reddit wars. I'm leaning towards TD as it's been my banking for 25 years... But any tips from the pros would be great. Thanks. 

[kurtis]

11 hours ago, Russ said:

I just looked on WSB, I have no idea where they are bloody well posting this stuff.  I just see dumb memes and no one actually talking stocks so I can't even toss a few bucks at a lottery stock lol.

 

I have heard Tesla is one of the most shorted stocks now..... I could use a YOLO from WSB there so I can set stops and cash out there though :D

 

Actually laugh and enjoy some of their video clips these guys make.

You have to look hard for the smart people. I usually just find myself laughing out loud and annoying my wife. 

[Down by the River]

10 minutes ago, kurtis said:

So for the last 4ish months I've been using Wealth simple invest. Up to around 1000 now with round up and bi weekly % adding from paychecks. About 2 weeks ago I started learning more about stocks and have invested on the invest side. From what I have read it's not the best for US stocks? I still did it anyways and did pretty decent following those apes in reddit on a few stocks.

 

Now my question is, clearly wealth simple is limited for self buying stocks in usd and choices ect. What would you guys recommend? Robinhood and TD ( my bank ) both seem to be getting slammed hard in reviews from crap going on with the reddit wars. I'm leaning towards TD as it's been my banking for 25 years... But any tips from the pros would be great. Thanks. 

Wealthsimple is good for CDN stocks and that's about it. I use Questrade for my non-CDN holdings. I wouldn't rave about it but its fine enough. I have multiple accounts under the same username to allow me to keep track of different investment philosophies (e.g., one is purely ETFs, one is bluer-chip stocks, one is just me speculating on things). 

[Russ]

45 minutes ago, AriGold2.0 said:

Sooo I should have held onto this is what you're saying 

Hot damn, well who would have seen it really going up like it did.  Always hindsight 20/20. 

 

10 minutes ago, kurtis said:

You have to look hard for the smart people. I usually just find myself laughing out loud and annoying my wife. 

Wife always turns and says "why are you laughing now and not telling me?"

[AriGold2.0]

Ugh.. Futures red AGAIN.. Please make the bleeding stop.. I'm starting to feel like this guy...

[Lancaster]

1 minute ago, AriGold2.0 said:

Ugh.. Futures red AGAIN.. Please make the bleeding stop.. I'm starting to feel like this guy...

I feel exactly the same.  It's like everything I pick goes down nowadays.  The days I wait on the sidelines, it goes a bit up.  Then I re-enter and down it goes again...

[Russ]

1 hour ago, AriGold2.0 said:

Ugh.. Futures red AGAIN.. Please make the bleeding stop.. I'm starting to feel like this guy...

I knew this bull market would run out at some point, was hoping it would last a bit longer so I could cash in a bit more.  Now bear markets arent fun

Edited March 4, 2021 by Russ

[nuckin_futz]

5 hours ago, AriGold2.0 said:

Ugh.. Futures red AGAIN.. Please make the bleeding stop.. I'm starting to feel like this guy...

 

5 hours ago, Lancaster said:

I feel exactly the same.  It's like everything I pick goes down nowadays.  The days I wait on the sidelines, it goes a bit up.  Then I re-enter and down it goes again...

 

5 hours ago, Russ said:

I knew this bull market would run out at some point, was hoping it would last a bit longer so I could cash in a bit more.  Now bear markets arent fun

Do you guys consider yourselves investors or active traders? If you're investors then carry on doing what you're doing. If you're active traders you need to think about incorporating some short selling into your game. There's no need to limit yourself to trading in one direction. There's no need to fear the futures in the evening. I don't know anyone who is successful long term in trading who doesn't do at least a little short selling.

[nuckin_futz]

Dave Portnoy Helps Launch New BUZZ ETF that Tracks Hyped Stocks

The ETF will rank the top 75 stocks with the most positive investor sentiment

Dave Portnoy is promoting a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) focused on stocks with positive shareholder sentiment that is set to debut Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

 

Portnoy, the founder of popular sports and pop culture website Barstool Sports, has partnered with the makers of the VanEck Social Sentiment ETF (BUZZ) to launch the new investment vehicle. Portnoy became a day-trading phenom over the past year as the COVID-19 pandemic forced sports betting to pause. He translated his notoriety with sports bettors to day traders, sharing his trading wins and losses every day on social media and YouTube.

 

BUZZ will invest in the 75 stocks worth at least $5 billion receiving the most positive sentiment on the Internet and social media by using artificial intelligence to search the web for mentions. Specifically, the ETF’s algorithm monitors 15 million posts a month to measure which stocks have the most positive investor sentiment based on online chatter. Then it ranks the top 75 stocks in the BUZZ NextGen AI US Sentiment Leaders Index.2

 

Online sentiment has driven unprecedented volumes of trading so far this year. The chatter, led by retail investors and day traders, has rallied so-called meme stocks like GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment (AMC) to new heights. The latest target of online forums like Reddit’s WallStreetBets has been Rocket Companies (RKT), which popped 71% Tuesday.

 

Portnoy, who was given an ownership stake in BUZZ, said the algorithm was built five years ago. In 2020, the Buzz index outperformed the S&P 500 by 40%, he said.

Some of the top holdings in BUZZ include Twitter, Tesla, Draft Kings, Virgin Galactic, Advanced Micro Devices, Plug Power, Ford, Novavax, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. Ninety percent of the holdings in BUZZ are in the following five sectors: tech, consumer discretionary, communication services, health care, and industrials.

 

*****************************

 

This is the type of stupidity that typically marks market tops. I am sure Portnoy is a smart guy but when it comes to active trading he's as dumb as the day he was born. He's going to lead a lot of lambs to slaughter.

Edited March 4, 2021 by nuckin_futz

[Russ]

4 hours ago, nuckin_futz said:

 

This is the type of stupidity that typically marks market tops. I am sure Portnoy is a smart guy but when it comes to active trading he's as dumb as the day he was born. He's going to lead a lot of lambs to slaughter.

I saw this on my google feed and laughed because that really is full on gambling going with gambling stocks in an ETF.   Going to be really interesting to see how many WSB guys hop on board to this though. 

 

4 hours ago, nuckin_futz said:

 

 

Do you guys consider yourselves investors or active traders? If you're investors then carry on doing what you're doing. If you're active traders you need to think about incorporating some short selling into your game. There's no need to limit yourself to trading in one direction. There's no need to fear the futures in the evening. I don't know anyone who is successful long term in trading who doesn't do at least a little short selling.

Want to be an investor with little bit of active trading.  I have been looking into longer term ETFs/solar stocks/etc that should benefit long term and want to keep those going even if they are sucking wind right now.  Had my fun trading last few months but as weather gets nicer I want to have less and less interest in the market as I want to get out and play with the kid, winter was easy to just bunker down in the house and learn and watch and trade.

 

My goal was to outperform my FAs (which seems pretty easy considering they still got most of my stuff under 10% this past year) and see if I could make enough for a new vehicle in a couple years.  Had success doing both of those. 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Russ

[KoreanHockeyFan]

5 hours ago, nuckin_futz said:

 

 

Do you guys consider yourselves investors or active traders? If you're investors then carry on doing what you're doing. If you're active traders you need to think about incorporating some short selling into your game. There's no need to limit yourself to trading in one direction. There's no need to fear the futures in the evening. I don't know anyone who is successful long term in trading who doesn't do at least a little short selling.

Finally finishing up school gave me the opportunity to start investing long-term. Too bad that happened only a few months before the COVID drop, so I've become a bit of an active trader while all this market craze settles down. Not a fan of investing my money at what looks to be near the end of a decade long bull run.

[nuckin_futz]

[HI5]

8 hours ago, nuckin_futz said:

 

 

Do you guys consider yourselves investors or active traders? If you're investors then carry on doing what you're doing. If you're active traders you need to think about incorporating some short selling into your game. There's no need to limit yourself to trading in one direction. There's no need to fear the futures in the evening. I don't know anyone who is successful long term in trading who doesn't do at least a little short selling.

I’m a long term investor now lol, when I can free up enough cash I’ll consider short sells.  
 

I think you mentioned it, or I heard a quote along the lines of “any fool can make money in a bull market”, which makes more sense now as I fumble to strategize how to trade in a bear market. 
 

Shorting is about to become another tool, I’ll be adding to the toolbox soon.