Like I've seen saying, this sell-off is ridiculous.
Well, their refusal to offer guidance/expectations seems like it kicked off (or at least played into) the worst of it.
New CEO, don't blame them. Plus they already issued guidance on stock repurchases this year, let the stock tank and they buy it back cheaper.
Biggest news was PS5 announcing they would be using discs. Not to mention backwards compatability with PS4... which would bolster the used game market even further. That makes me feel much better about buying and holding long term. I felt good about the 2-3 year window and now feel good to at least 5 years. Not sure of a specific price target, just know sub $9 is pretty insane right now.
Like I've seen saying, this sell-off is ridiculous.
Well, their refusal to offer guidance/expectations seems like it kicked off (or at least played into) the worst of it.
New CEO, don't blame them. Plus they already issued guidance on stock repurchases this year, let the stock tank and they buy it back cheaper.
Biggest news was PS5 announcing they would be using discs. Not to mention backwards compatability with PS4... which would bolster the used game market even further. That makes me feel much better about buying and holding long term. I felt good about the 2-3 year window and now feel good to at least 5 years. Not sure of a specific price target, just know sub $9 is pretty insane right now.
I haven't kept up with current-gen, but I had the impression that newer games were moving to having original-buyer-only download codes for "pack-in" DLC.
Like I've seen saying, this sell-off is ridiculous.
Well, their refusal to offer guidance/expectations seems like it kicked off (or at least played into) the worst of it.
New CEO, don't blame them. Plus they already issued guidance on stock repurchases this year, let the stock tank and they buy it back cheaper.
Biggest news was PS5 announcing they would be using discs. Not to mention backwards compatability with PS4... which would bolster the used game market even further. That makes me feel much better about buying and holding long term. I felt good about the 2-3 year window and now feel good to at least 5 years. Not sure of a specific price target, just know sub $9 is pretty insane right now.
I haven't kept up with current-gen, but I had the impression that newer games were moving to having original-buyer-only download codes for "pack-in" DLC.
Is that not the case?
Sony gave official guidance on PS5 the other week.
the next-gen console will still accept physical media; it won’t be a download-only machine. Because it’s based in part on the PS4’s architecture, it will also be backward-compatible with games for that console.
I haven't kept up with current-gen, but I had the impression that newer games were moving to having original-buyer-only download codes for "pack-in" DLC.
Is that not the case?
Sony gave official guidance on PS5 the other week.
the next-gen console will still accept physical media; it won’t be a download-only machine. Because it’s based in part on the PS4’s architecture, it will also be backward-compatible with games for that console.
That is different than what I'm asking.
There is a wide spectrum between "disc only" and "download only".
I had the impression that there was a growing number of AAA titles that came on a disc, as physical media, but had quite a lot of content as a download code used the first time you play the game. (where the code is only valid for the first account that gets associated with it)
But I haven't owned a current-gen console in quite awhile, so I don't know how widespread that is.
It would still fall within the parameters Sony is talking about, though, while potentially degrading the value of a "used" versus "new" games.
There is a wide spectrum between "disc only" and "download only".
I had the impression that there was a growing number of AAA titles that came on a disc, as physical media, but had quite a lot of content as a download code used the first time you play the game. (where the code is only valid for the first account that gets associated with it)
But I haven't owned a current-gen console in quite awhile, so I don't know how widespread that is.
It would still fall within the parameters Sony is talking about, though, while potentially degrading the value of a "used" versus "new" games.
Those are generally trivial things. In RDR2 I think it was an exclusive in game horse. Either way, nothing that has deterred me from buying used games on eBay because I didn't want to buy them at MSRP at release.
Those are generally trivial things. In RDR2 I think it was an exclusive in game horse. Either way, nothing that has deterred me from buying used games on eBay because I didn't want to buy them at MSRP at release.
OK. Like I said, I haven't kept up with current-gen consoles, and the way people talked about that issue made it sound like it was major content.
Jone Bone - I am not a savy investor, but I am going to be in a position soon where I can begin investing. I've been eyeing the market for a while and have pretty much decided I will wait until the next recession and then pump 20k into the market. I'm planning on doing this because I don't know which sectors of the economy are going to be hit and it is hard for me to tell how much stocks are inflated after the run of stock buy backs. Do you think this strategy makes sense or do you think I'm leaving money on the table? Also, what do you think about the state of the economy?
Jone Bone - I am not a savy investor, but I am going to be in a position soon where I can begin investing. I've been eyeing the market for a while and have pretty much decided I will wait until the next recession and then pump 20k into the market. I'm planning on doing this because I don't know which sectors of the economy are going to be hit and it is hard for me to tell how much stocks are inflated after the run of stock buy backs. Do you think this strategy makes sense or do you think I'm leaving money on the table? Also, what do you think about the state of the economy?
It's a great strategy, I am heavily cash as well. You can find lots of online savings accounts paying 2% annual in interest these days and I advise a strong cash position. It's still worthwhile to max out Roths / 401ks so you have lots of stock exposure knowing you won't touch them for decades, but I'm not a big fan of buying into the stock market at these levels either.
There's tons of stocks I'd want to own in a nice stock portfolio, AMZN, FB, GOOG, DIS, W, KSS for example, but if the market as a whole goes down, it'll bring even the best stock down with it. You can also consider gradually building a position over time. Instead of dumping in $20k at once, you dump in $2-$2.5k here and there, once a month or so until you build up a sizeable position. That limits your downside potential should the market start tanking.
Jone Bone - I am not a savy investor, but I am going to be in a position soon where I can begin investing. I've been eyeing the market for a while and have pretty much decided I will wait until the next recession and then pump 20k into the market. I'm planning on doing this because I don't know which sectors of the economy are going to be hit and it is hard for me to tell how much stocks are inflated after the run of stock buy backs. Do you think this strategy makes sense or do you think I'm leaving money on the table? Also, what do you think about the state of the economy?
Personally, I think you should go do some reading on Bogleheads and read up on the studies that have looked at lump-sum investing "whenever" versus trying to time the market versus dollar-cost-averaging.
A lot of this depends on your time horizon, but if you are 20 or 30 years away from retirement, a lot of the concerns about "local peaks" tend to go away, assuming you have a well balanced portfolio (i.e. what Bogelheads promotes with a 3 or 4 fund/ETF porfolio that might be 80/20 equities/bonds with that equity position subdivided between US broad market or small caps and international markets).
I personally think a person needs well into 6 figures in a 3-fund portfolio before it is worth their while (on a risk adjusted basis) to try for anything fancier.
With a Roth IRA, you have a fixed limit you can contribute each year, and any year you miss you can never "make up for it" later. The opportunity is simply gone.
Even if a person wanted to be ultra-conservative with CDs or money-market accounts, they could do that easily in a Roth IRA.
A 401k tends to have more considerations, since some employers offer genuinely bad plans (with high fees and bad fund options) whereas others offer full brokerage service via discount brokers like Schwab.
But if the company offers a match, you're leaving money on the table to not at least get that.
For sure. In regards to investing a little at a time. I've read that the "thrifty" stores did well last recession, dollar-tree, marshals, ross, etc., Personally, I think the quality of Marshals products at least has gone up a bit since before so I am not sure if the cost of their products is comparable between the two periods. A higher product cost may limit their demand, but I think they are still much cheaper than their competitors. The type of goods they sell do make me a little nervous also, house wares I assume are elastic and people could go without them if they are low on cash. These type of stores do seem like like an option if their stck prices are reasonable.
I will have to read into that, I have never heard of Bogleheads. I am not sure if this is similar at all, but I was contemplating using Vanguard. Vanguard has been getting my Grandparents a steady 7% return, I just thought because I am looking at 30 years out I could be more risky.
For sure. In regards to investing a little at a time. I've read that the "thrifty" stores did well last recession, dollar-tree, marshals, ross, etc., Personally, I think the quality of Marshals products at least has gone up a bit since before so I am not sure if the cost of their products is comparable between the two periods. A higher product cost may limit their demand, but I think they are still much cheaper than their competitors. The type of goods they sell do make me a little nervous also, house wares I assume are elastic and people could go without them if they are low on cash. These type of stores do seem like like an option if their stck prices are reasonable.
I don't think your portfolio is anywhere near large enough to reasonably try and pick individual stocks, but to each his own.
I will have to read into that, I have never heard of Bogleheads. I am not sure if this is similar at all, but I was contemplating using Vanguard. Vanguard has been getting my Grandparents a steady 7% return, I just thought because I am looking at 30 years out I could be more risky.
Bogleheads is basically Vanguard's investor forum. (i.e. named for John Bogle the founder of Vanguard)
Vanguard offers tons of options for sector-ETFs if you don't want to own broad markets.
Alternatively, a place like Schwab is a decent discount broker for being able to buy anything (individual securities and specific bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, etc).
The only real advantage of going directly with Vanguard would be if you invested enough money to get into their Admiral Shares which have even lower fees than their already low fee products.
But you aren't locked into a brokerage once you invest -- you can move an account anywhere you want to after-the-fact.
EDIT: and a baseline for "more risky" would simply be 95% equities rather than something lower (your grandparents are probably at 60/40 stocks/bonds).
It doesn't have to involve trading individual stocks to get decent returns over long periods of time.
For sure. In regards to investing a little at a time. I've read that the "thrifty" stores did well last recession, dollar-tree, marshals, ross, etc., Personally, I think the quality of Marshals products at least has gone up a bit since before so I am not sure if the cost of their products is comparable between the two periods. A higher product cost may limit their demand, but I think they are still much cheaper than their competitors. The type of goods they sell do make me a little nervous also, house wares I assume are elastic and people could go without them if they are low on cash. These type of stores do seem like like an option if their stck prices are reasonable.
I don't think your portfolio is anywhere near large enough to reasonably try and pick individual stocks, but to each his own.
You're probably right. I just hate kicking myself when I see things I cant take advantage of. Like Qualcomm, I saw that when the news broke an it was still at $62 and I knew it was going to go up.
Thank you for explaining Vanguard and Bobleheads I will do more research.
For sure. In regards to investing a little at a time. I've read that the "thrifty" stores did well last recession, dollar-tree, marshals, ross, etc., Personally, I think the quality of Marshals products at least has gone up a bit since before so I am not sure if the cost of their products is comparable between the two periods. A higher product cost may limit their demand, but I think they are still much cheaper than their competitors. The type of goods they sell do make me a little nervous also, house wares I assume are elastic and people could go without them if they are low on cash. These type of stores do seem like like an option if their stck prices are reasonable.
I don't think your portfolio is anywhere near large enough to reasonably try and pick individual stocks, but to each his own.
You're probably right. I just hate kicking myself when I see things I cant take advantage of. Like Qualcomm, I saw that when the news broke an it was still at $62 and I knew it was going to go up.
While it would be exciting to get a 50% return in a month on a single piece of good news -- that stock was completely flat for months due to the uncertainty.
That outcome was practically a spin at the roulette wheel, but via a brokerage service, rather than at a table in Vegas.
I really think you'd do well for yourself to go do some reading on how much investing consistent amounts with relatively boring strategies adds up over long periods of time.
That forms your baseline, to calibrate your expectations of what you can think of as "likely" versus trying to pick a lottery ticket.
THEN you go back and start thinking about where there are opportunities for larger gains and start trying to figure out risk-adjusted-return -- i.e. how much additional risk are you taking on to make an incremental gain over your "boring" baseline.
But I think you should build up your core portfolio the boring way, first.
Are there any books you recommend? Also, I should say that I will be starting my career this year, so I plan on maxing out 401k contributions each year at a minimum. The reason I am considering investing the 20k is because I didn't want to waste upcoming opportunities.
I wouldn't bother with specific books, personally, given how much is available online.
But if you insisted on a book, A Random Walk Down Wall Street is a good starting point and does a fair job of covering modern portfolio theory.
If you want to get into something more technical you should read the Trinity Study and some of the follow-up work to that study.
(it's foundational to people trying to calculate safe withdrawal rates for when they eventually retire and need a portfolio to last potentially indefinitely)
Those are generally trivial things. In RDR2 I think it was an exclusive in game horse. Either way, nothing that has deterred me from buying used games on eBay because I didn't want to buy them at MSRP at release.
OK. Like I said, I haven't kept up with current-gen consoles, and the way people talked about that issue made it sound like it was major content.
You're starting to see this with some Switch games in the US I believe. I'm pretty sure both the Mega Man 1+2 Collection and Resident Evil 1+Origin had one game on the cart and required a download code for the rest of the content.
I could totally see a future where that method is used for more games/systems.
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
Depends on what you want to buy.
Schwab is about as cheap as it gets for a decent platform for people that trade some but not excessively.
Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard all have zero-transaction-cost for buying and selling their own-brand ETFs. (all 3 have sector ETFs for just about anything you could want)
The baseline account shouldn't have any sustaining fees with either of those three, aside from the the expense ratio of whatever specific funds you own.
If you're going "full boring mode" a la Bogleheads, then just using Vanguard directly is probably cheapest in the longrun since that also gives you access to their Admiral Shares (i.e. a fund might have an expense ratio of 0.8%, but the Admiral Share might cut that to 0.08%)
Personally, I've gotten used to Schwab, and they've suited me just fine. (much better interface than Vanguard, IMO -- no direct experience with Fidelity)
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
If you're looking for pure stock trading, Fidelity is pretty cheap at $4.95 per trade (what I use). Firsttrade is a relatively newcomer that offers $0 trades but doesn't have quite as pretty of a user interface or knowledge apps. If you're looking for starting a Roth then either Fidelity or Vanguard is what I'd recommend (I have a Vanguard Roth).
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
If you're looking for pure stock trading, Fidelity is pretty cheap at $4.95 per trade (what I use). Firsttrade is a relatively newcomer that offers $0 trades but doesn't have quite as pretty of a user interface or knowledge apps. If you're looking for starting a Roth then either Fidelity or Vanguard is what I'd recommend (I have a Vanguard Roth).
Schwab is price competitive with Fidelity, FWIW.
For a new investor, I'd recommend comparing the free-to-trade ETFs at all 3 services to make a decision. (check relative expense ratios for major index followers)
To my recollection Schwab has a slightly broader range of free-to-trade ETFs, but I'm sure it cycles between them and Fidelity depending on who has come out with the latest batch of products to offer.
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
Use Robinhood. Its 100% free stock trading at it's finest. I used to use ETRADE before finding Robinhood. PM coming. If you use my referral we both get one free stock. Usually a $5 stock but there is a 1/250 chance to get Apple or Berkshire Hathaway.
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
Use Robinhood. Its 100% free stock trading at it's finest. I used to use ETRADE before finding Robinhood. PM coming. If you use my referral we both get one free stock. Usually a $5 stock but there is a 1/250 chance to get Apple or Berkshire Hathaway.
Is Robinhood still mobile-only? Seems like a major pain-in-the-ass versus having the trading platform on your computer monitor.
Robinhood had some major fuck-ups recently where they offered a banking product without getting all of the regulatory compliance right.
That one event concerns me enough with their competence that I wouldn't keep any meaningful amount of money with them.
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
Use Robinhood. Its 100% free stock trading at it's finest. I used to use ETRADE before finding Robinhood. PM coming. If you use my referral we both get one free stock. Usually a $5 stock but there is a 1/250 chance to get Apple or Berkshire Hathaway.
Is Robinhood still mobile-only? Seems like a major pain-in-the-ass versus having the trading platform on your computer monitor.
Robinhood had some major fuck-ups recently where they offered a banking product without getting all of the regulatory compliance right.
That one event concerns me enough with their competence that I wouldn't keep any meaningful amount of money with them.
I believe it is also on PC now as well although I only ever use the mobile app.
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
Use Robinhood. Its 100% free stock trading at it's finest. I used to use ETRADE before finding Robinhood. PM coming. If you use my referral we both get one free stock. Usually a $5 stock but there is a 1/250 chance to get Apple or Berkshire Hathaway.
Is Robinhood still mobile-only? Seems like a major pain-in-the-ass versus having the trading platform on your computer monitor.
Robinhood had some major fuck-ups recently where they offered a banking product without getting all of the regulatory compliance right.
That one event concerns me enough with their competence that I wouldn't keep any meaningful amount of money with them.
I believe it is also on PC now as well although I only ever use the mobile app.
Some kind of options-trading screw-up: (not that I would recommend anyone trade options, in general, but it speaks to their team not being fully aware of what it takes to run a trading platform)
I guess the old saying is true, "you get what you pay for". I can only go by my experience of buying a couple thousand dollars worth of stocks a year. I am a very small fish in a huge pond. I don't mess with options either. So for me Robinhood has been perfect.
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
If you're looking for pure stock trading, Fidelity is pretty cheap at $4.95 per trade (what I use). Firsttrade is a relatively newcomer that offers $0 trades but doesn't have quite as pretty of a user interface or knowledge apps. If you're looking for starting a Roth then either Fidelity or Vanguard is what I'd recommend (I have a Vanguard Roth).
Any recommendations for a company that allows short selling?
Comments
Like I've seen saying, this sell-off is ridiculous.
Well, their refusal to offer guidance/expectations seems like it kicked off (or at least played into) the worst of it.
New CEO, don't blame them. Plus they already issued guidance on stock repurchases this year, let the stock tank and they buy it back cheaper.
Biggest news was PS5 announcing they would be using discs. Not to mention backwards compatability with PS4... which would bolster the used game market even further. That makes me feel much better about buying and holding long term. I felt good about the 2-3 year window and now feel good to at least 5 years. Not sure of a specific price target, just know sub $9 is pretty insane right now.
Like I've seen saying, this sell-off is ridiculous.
Well, their refusal to offer guidance/expectations seems like it kicked off (or at least played into) the worst of it.
New CEO, don't blame them. Plus they already issued guidance on stock repurchases this year, let the stock tank and they buy it back cheaper.
Biggest news was PS5 announcing they would be using discs. Not to mention backwards compatability with PS4... which would bolster the used game market even further. That makes me feel much better about buying and holding long term. I felt good about the 2-3 year window and now feel good to at least 5 years. Not sure of a specific price target, just know sub $9 is pretty insane right now.
I haven't kept up with current-gen, but I had the impression that newer games were moving to having original-buyer-only download codes for "pack-in" DLC.
Is that not the case?
Like I've seen saying, this sell-off is ridiculous.
Well, their refusal to offer guidance/expectations seems like it kicked off (or at least played into) the worst of it.
New CEO, don't blame them. Plus they already issued guidance on stock repurchases this year, let the stock tank and they buy it back cheaper.
Biggest news was PS5 announcing they would be using discs. Not to mention backwards compatability with PS4... which would bolster the used game market even further. That makes me feel much better about buying and holding long term. I felt good about the 2-3 year window and now feel good to at least 5 years. Not sure of a specific price target, just know sub $9 is pretty insane right now.
I haven't kept up with current-gen, but I had the impression that newer games were moving to having original-buyer-only download codes for "pack-in" DLC.
Is that not the case?
Sony gave official guidance on PS5 the other week.
https://www.wired.com/story/exclusive-sony-next-gen-console/
One of the best nuggets from the article:
the next-gen console will still accept physical media; it won’t be a download-only machine. Because it’s based in part on the PS4’s architecture, it will also be backward-compatible with games for that console.
I haven't kept up with current-gen, but I had the impression that newer games were moving to having original-buyer-only download codes for "pack-in" DLC.
Is that not the case?
Sony gave official guidance on PS5 the other week.
https://www.wired.com/story/exclusive-sony-next-gen-console/
One of the best nuggets from the article:
the next-gen console will still accept physical media; it won’t be a download-only machine. Because it’s based in part on the PS4’s architecture, it will also be backward-compatible with games for that console.
That is different than what I'm asking.
There is a wide spectrum between "disc only" and "download only".
I had the impression that there was a growing number of AAA titles that came on a disc, as physical media, but had quite a lot of content as a download code used the first time you play the game. (where the code is only valid for the first account that gets associated with it)
But I haven't owned a current-gen console in quite awhile, so I don't know how widespread that is.
It would still fall within the parameters Sony is talking about, though, while potentially degrading the value of a "used" versus "new" games.
That is different than what I'm asking.
There is a wide spectrum between "disc only" and "download only".
I had the impression that there was a growing number of AAA titles that came on a disc, as physical media, but had quite a lot of content as a download code used the first time you play the game. (where the code is only valid for the first account that gets associated with it)
But I haven't owned a current-gen console in quite awhile, so I don't know how widespread that is.
It would still fall within the parameters Sony is talking about, though, while potentially degrading the value of a "used" versus "new" games.
Those are generally trivial things. In RDR2 I think it was an exclusive in game horse. Either way, nothing that has deterred me from buying used games on eBay because I didn't want to buy them at MSRP at release.
Those are generally trivial things. In RDR2 I think it was an exclusive in game horse. Either way, nothing that has deterred me from buying used games on eBay because I didn't want to buy them at MSRP at release.
OK. Like I said, I haven't kept up with current-gen consoles, and the way people talked about that issue made it sound like it was major content.
Jone Bone - I am not a savy investor, but I am going to be in a position soon where I can begin investing. I've been eyeing the market for a while and have pretty much decided I will wait until the next recession and then pump 20k into the market. I'm planning on doing this because I don't know which sectors of the economy are going to be hit and it is hard for me to tell how much stocks are inflated after the run of stock buy backs. Do you think this strategy makes sense or do you think I'm leaving money on the table? Also, what do you think about the state of the economy?
It's a great strategy, I am heavily cash as well. You can find lots of online savings accounts paying 2% annual in interest these days and I advise a strong cash position. It's still worthwhile to max out Roths / 401ks so you have lots of stock exposure knowing you won't touch them for decades, but I'm not a big fan of buying into the stock market at these levels either.
There's tons of stocks I'd want to own in a nice stock portfolio, AMZN, FB, GOOG, DIS, W, KSS for example, but if the market as a whole goes down, it'll bring even the best stock down with it. You can also consider gradually building a position over time. Instead of dumping in $20k at once, you dump in $2-$2.5k here and there, once a month or so until you build up a sizeable position. That limits your downside potential should the market start tanking.
Jone Bone - I am not a savy investor, but I am going to be in a position soon where I can begin investing. I've been eyeing the market for a while and have pretty much decided I will wait until the next recession and then pump 20k into the market. I'm planning on doing this because I don't know which sectors of the economy are going to be hit and it is hard for me to tell how much stocks are inflated after the run of stock buy backs. Do you think this strategy makes sense or do you think I'm leaving money on the table? Also, what do you think about the state of the economy?
Personally, I think you should go do some reading on Bogleheads and read up on the studies that have looked at lump-sum investing "whenever" versus trying to time the market versus dollar-cost-averaging.
A lot of this depends on your time horizon, but if you are 20 or 30 years away from retirement, a lot of the concerns about "local peaks" tend to go away, assuming you have a well balanced portfolio (i.e. what Bogelheads promotes with a 3 or 4 fund/ETF porfolio that might be 80/20 equities/bonds with that equity position subdivided between US broad market or small caps and international markets).
I personally think a person needs well into 6 figures in a 3-fund portfolio before it is worth their while (on a risk adjusted basis) to try for anything fancier.
It's still worthwhile to max out Roths / 401k ...
This specific point I agree with.
With a Roth IRA, you have a fixed limit you can contribute each year, and any year you miss you can never "make up for it" later. The opportunity is simply gone.
Even if a person wanted to be ultra-conservative with CDs or money-market accounts, they could do that easily in a Roth IRA.
A 401k tends to have more considerations, since some employers offer genuinely bad plans (with high fees and bad fund options) whereas others offer full brokerage service via discount brokers like Schwab.
But if the company offers a match, you're leaving money on the table to not at least get that.
For sure. In regards to investing a little at a time. I've read that the "thrifty" stores did well last recession, dollar-tree, marshals, ross, etc., Personally, I think the quality of Marshals products at least has gone up a bit since before so I am not sure if the cost of their products is comparable between the two periods. A higher product cost may limit their demand, but I think they are still much cheaper than their competitors. The type of goods they sell do make me a little nervous also, house wares I assume are elastic and people could go without them if they are low on cash. These type of stores do seem like like an option if their stck prices are reasonable.
I don't think your portfolio is anywhere near large enough to reasonably try and pick individual stocks, but to each his own.
I will have to read into that, I have never heard of Bogleheads. I am not sure if this is similar at all, but I was contemplating using Vanguard. Vanguard has been getting my Grandparents a steady 7% return, I just thought because I am looking at 30 years out I could be more risky.
Bogleheads is basically Vanguard's investor forum. (i.e. named for John Bogle the founder of Vanguard)
Vanguard offers tons of options for sector-ETFs if you don't want to own broad markets.
Alternatively, a place like Schwab is a decent discount broker for being able to buy anything (individual securities and specific bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, etc).
The only real advantage of going directly with Vanguard would be if you invested enough money to get into their Admiral Shares which have even lower fees than their already low fee products.
But you aren't locked into a brokerage once you invest -- you can move an account anywhere you want to after-the-fact.
EDIT: and a baseline for "more risky" would simply be 95% equities rather than something lower (your grandparents are probably at 60/40 stocks/bonds).
It doesn't have to involve trading individual stocks to get decent returns over long periods of time.
For sure. In regards to investing a little at a time. I've read that the "thrifty" stores did well last recession, dollar-tree, marshals, ross, etc., Personally, I think the quality of Marshals products at least has gone up a bit since before so I am not sure if the cost of their products is comparable between the two periods. A higher product cost may limit their demand, but I think they are still much cheaper than their competitors. The type of goods they sell do make me a little nervous also, house wares I assume are elastic and people could go without them if they are low on cash. These type of stores do seem like like an option if their stck prices are reasonable.
I don't think your portfolio is anywhere near large enough to reasonably try and pick individual stocks, but to each his own.
You're probably right. I just hate kicking myself when I see things I cant take advantage of. Like Qualcomm, I saw that when the news broke an it was still at $62 and I knew it was going to go up.
Thank you for explaining Vanguard and Bobleheads I will do more research.
For sure. In regards to investing a little at a time. I've read that the "thrifty" stores did well last recession, dollar-tree, marshals, ross, etc., Personally, I think the quality of Marshals products at least has gone up a bit since before so I am not sure if the cost of their products is comparable between the two periods. A higher product cost may limit their demand, but I think they are still much cheaper than their competitors. The type of goods they sell do make me a little nervous also, house wares I assume are elastic and people could go without them if they are low on cash. These type of stores do seem like like an option if their stck prices are reasonable.
I don't think your portfolio is anywhere near large enough to reasonably try and pick individual stocks, but to each his own.
You're probably right. I just hate kicking myself when I see things I cant take advantage of. Like Qualcomm, I saw that when the news broke an it was still at $62 and I knew it was going to go up.
While it would be exciting to get a 50% return in a month on a single piece of good news -- that stock was completely flat for months due to the uncertainty.
That outcome was practically a spin at the roulette wheel, but via a brokerage service, rather than at a table in Vegas.
I really think you'd do well for yourself to go do some reading on how much investing consistent amounts with relatively boring strategies adds up over long periods of time.
That forms your baseline, to calibrate your expectations of what you can think of as "likely" versus trying to pick a lottery ticket.
THEN you go back and start thinking about where there are opportunities for larger gains and start trying to figure out risk-adjusted-return -- i.e. how much additional risk are you taking on to make an incremental gain over your "boring" baseline.
But I think you should build up your core portfolio the boring way, first.
Are there any books you recommend?
I wouldn't bother with specific books, personally, given how much is available online.
But if you insisted on a book, A Random Walk Down Wall Street is a good starting point and does a fair job of covering modern portfolio theory.
If you want to get into something more technical you should read the Trinity Study and some of the follow-up work to that study.
(it's foundational to people trying to calculate safe withdrawal rates for when they eventually retire and need a portfolio to last potentially indefinitely)
Those are generally trivial things. In RDR2 I think it was an exclusive in game horse. Either way, nothing that has deterred me from buying used games on eBay because I didn't want to buy them at MSRP at release.
OK. Like I said, I haven't kept up with current-gen consoles, and the way people talked about that issue made it sound like it was major content.
You're starting to see this with some Switch games in the US I believe. I'm pretty sure both the Mega Man 1+2 Collection and Resident Evil 1+Origin had one game on the cart and required a download code for the rest of the content.
I could totally see a future where that method is used for more games/systems.
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
Depends on what you want to buy.
Schwab is about as cheap as it gets for a decent platform for people that trade some but not excessively.
Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard all have zero-transaction-cost for buying and selling their own-brand ETFs. (all 3 have sector ETFs for just about anything you could want)
The baseline account shouldn't have any sustaining fees with either of those three, aside from the the expense ratio of whatever specific funds you own.
If you're going "full boring mode" a la Bogleheads, then just using Vanguard directly is probably cheapest in the longrun since that also gives you access to their Admiral Shares (i.e. a fund might have an expense ratio of 0.8%, but the Admiral Share might cut that to 0.08%)
Personally, I've gotten used to Schwab, and they've suited me just fine. (much better interface than Vanguard, IMO -- no direct experience with Fidelity)
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
If you're looking for pure stock trading, Fidelity is pretty cheap at $4.95 per trade (what I use). Firsttrade is a relatively newcomer that offers $0 trades but doesn't have quite as pretty of a user interface or knowledge apps. If you're looking for starting a Roth then either Fidelity or Vanguard is what I'd recommend (I have a Vanguard Roth).
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
If you're looking for pure stock trading, Fidelity is pretty cheap at $4.95 per trade (what I use). Firsttrade is a relatively newcomer that offers $0 trades but doesn't have quite as pretty of a user interface or knowledge apps. If you're looking for starting a Roth then either Fidelity or Vanguard is what I'd recommend (I have a Vanguard Roth).
Schwab is price competitive with Fidelity, FWIW.
For a new investor, I'd recommend comparing the free-to-trade ETFs at all 3 services to make a decision. (check relative expense ratios for major index followers)
To my recollection Schwab has a slightly broader range of free-to-trade ETFs, but I'm sure it cycles between them and Fidelity depending on who has come out with the latest batch of products to offer.
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
Use Robinhood. Its 100% free stock trading at it's finest. I used to use ETRADE before finding Robinhood. PM coming. If you use my referral we both get one free stock. Usually a $5 stock but there is a 1/250 chance to get Apple or Berkshire Hathaway.
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
Use Robinhood. Its 100% free stock trading at it's finest. I used to use ETRADE before finding Robinhood. PM coming. If you use my referral we both get one free stock. Usually a $5 stock but there is a 1/250 chance to get Apple or Berkshire Hathaway.
Is Robinhood still mobile-only? Seems like a major pain-in-the-ass versus having the trading platform on your computer monitor.
Robinhood had some major fuck-ups recently where they offered a banking product without getting all of the regulatory compliance right.
That one event concerns me enough with their competence that I wouldn't keep any meaningful amount of money with them.
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
Use Robinhood. Its 100% free stock trading at it's finest. I used to use ETRADE before finding Robinhood. PM coming. If you use my referral we both get one free stock. Usually a $5 stock but there is a 1/250 chance to get Apple or Berkshire Hathaway.
Is Robinhood still mobile-only? Seems like a major pain-in-the-ass versus having the trading platform on your computer monitor.
Robinhood had some major fuck-ups recently where they offered a banking product without getting all of the regulatory compliance right.
That one event concerns me enough with their competence that I wouldn't keep any meaningful amount of money with them.
I believe it is also on PC now as well although I only ever use the mobile app.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlkaufman/2018/03/27/free-brokerage-robinhood-is-now-available-on-the-web/#7a98afc129d3
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
Use Robinhood. Its 100% free stock trading at it's finest. I used to use ETRADE before finding Robinhood. PM coming. If you use my referral we both get one free stock. Usually a $5 stock but there is a 1/250 chance to get Apple or Berkshire Hathaway.
Is Robinhood still mobile-only? Seems like a major pain-in-the-ass versus having the trading platform on your computer monitor.
Robinhood had some major fuck-ups recently where they offered a banking product without getting all of the regulatory compliance right.
That one event concerns me enough with their competence that I wouldn't keep any meaningful amount of money with them.
I believe it is also on PC now as well although I only ever use the mobile app.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlkaufman/2018/03/27/free-bro...
Just for reference: some of the concerning news about Robinhood
The real reason Robinhood is "free" to use:
(i.e. they sell your order flow to front-runners -- classic case of if you're not paying money YOU are the product rather than the customer)
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4212397-robinhood-high-frequency-trading-scandal-plot-thickens
Some kind of options-trading screw-up: (not that I would recommend anyone trade options, in general, but it speaks to their team not being fully aware of what it takes to run a trading platform)
https://www.businessinsider.com/robinhoods-options-trading-shutdown-and-customers-are-furious-2018-12
This is the snafu where they improperly tried to introduce a banking product:
https://www.axios.com/robinhoods-new-checking-account-b2b0df32-40c6-4bd1-b336-2408b27f16b0.html
Any recommendations for a platform from which to get into buying stocks? As someone with no knowledge of how any of this really works it all looks the same to me and I would assume cheaper transaction fees are better but I'm sure that's not strictly true. I doubt that I would do enough trading to make that a significant factor and I'm wondering what sort of other fees I could expect?
If you're looking for pure stock trading, Fidelity is pretty cheap at $4.95 per trade (what I use). Firsttrade is a relatively newcomer that offers $0 trades but doesn't have quite as pretty of a user interface or knowledge apps. If you're looking for starting a Roth then either Fidelity or Vanguard is what I'd recommend (I have a Vanguard Roth).
Any recommendations for a company that allows short selling?