Silly poll for fundamental investors: How do you decide exactly when to buy a stock?
103348
h. a variety of ways.\n1.  If a stock becomes overvalued, I replace it.\n2.  If, upon periodic evaluation, I can show that a better opportunity in terms of likely long term return exists with less risk.\n3.  If the portfolio undergoes a singularity, I check to determine if the portfolio is still holding the best priced low risk stocks.  The measure of which tends to exceed my patience with writing a post.  That would actually be a technical measure since it has to do with price curves rather than fundamentals.  They occur very infrequently but tend to last quite a while.\n4. I use Kaizen as a method of process improvement, so I also update the portfolio if I can show a process in use is inferior to other processes and then remove securities purchased under the inferior process.\n\nI happen to participate in a stock picking game and it mimicks my real portfolio.  You can decide if one should use fundamentals or not.  It is at http://www.marketocracy.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Portfolio.woa/ps/FundPublicPage/source=CaHiHdImDlIfEbAoMaKiAbOa
1117610
Let me look into my crystal ball. Nope, can't find it.\n\nThere are tons of questions you should be asking before this one. How can we help you if we don't know your background info, where you are in the investing process, and whether you've asked critical questions. This question is not critical.\n\nI don't wish to play the guessing game, so I'll skip "critical" to pertinent. "Should you be invested in 'any' stocks at this time?"\n\nWhat is the current market climate? Horrible. Unstable. Risky. Perched on the edge of a void. The markets are down for the year, and still below the peak set in Jan 2000. That is a huge Double Top formation, and we've only just peeled off 900 pts in the Dow. This is called a Downtrend. Unless you think this is a market Bottom, you don't buy stocks or hold stocks in Downtrends. \n\n"Buy and Hold" is a great strategy for brokers and fund managers, but it doesn't hold water if you have to consider when you buy. If you bought prior to the 2000 top, you would still be waiting for a profit after six years, and content to wait another six if you are truly a "Buy and Hold" investor. My idea of investing is earning money, not "waiting" to earn money for ten years or even 25 years if history is any guide. \n\nIf, and when you finally decide to buy, you really should try to diversify. The best way to do that is to buy the ETF's either on the Indexes like the Dow or S&P or Nasdaq (DIA, SPY, QQQQ), or the sector ETF's, like for the internet companies if you like Yahoo, and diversify across them all, or across the whole market.\n\nGood luck.
778576
It's a game, you're looking for some potential big increases in a short period.\n\nLMRA is a good speculative stock.  Buy on support around 7 and sell around 10.  \n\nLook at the chart.  Pops up, pulls back, pops up, pulls back.\n\nhttp://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=3m&l=on&z=m&q=c&p=&a=&c=&s=lmra\n\nSome solid stocks you might like are NYX or MA.  KSS isn't too bad either.\n\nGood luck!
298889
I think if you checkk out this web site, it would answer your question and then some:\n\nhttp://www.dcstocks.com/buyingshares/
290861
As far as I know, you buy the stock at a certain price. Example, you buy a share of yahoo stock for about $30. You watch as the price of the stock goes up and down. Let's say that the next day, yahoo's stock price goes up to $31. Then, if you only bought one stock, you would GAIN $1 (if you sold it then, but let's pretend u didnt). To get your total gain, you would multiply the change in the stock price and the number of shares you bought. So if you bought 10 shares of yahoo stock, and the price went up $1, you would have gained $10.\nNow, for the LOST. Let's say that the stock price for yahoo stock went down the next day to $29. That means you LOST $1, NOT $2, because you bought the stock for $30. So $29 - $ 30 is -$1. (The negative means you lost money) \n\nSO overall, to get your change in stock price, you subtract the stock price of that day to the stock price in which you bought it from. (E.g. $29 - $30 in my above example) And if you bought more than one share, which is what happens 99% of the time, then you multiply the change in stock price and the number of shares you have. Negative means you LOST money, and positive means you GAINED money.\n\nAm I helping? Sorry, if your still confused, contact me, and I will be happy to straighten out any confusion I may have caused.
448528
I wouldn't advise asking for an investment advise on Yahoo Answers or any other board.  Consider consulting a professional when it comes to such decisions unless you have money to throw away in which case just buy hisc and hope for the best :)\n\nAleks
442396
Anyone who knows the answer to this question for sure, 100%, no doubts, no risk... Is not wasting their time in here, they are out putting money on that stock!\n\nDo your due diligence.  Use what you know.
13889
there's no specific time to sell a stock, always look at its technical and fundamental details before making a decision. Google properly prompted you to sell it recently due to its pull back. Its nice to keep it now, as it was a pull back where it found support on its prior high. We will see how it goes the next few days before making a decision to sell. If it breaks its support on its prior high on above average volume, it will definately be a sell.
1122183
As opposed to what?\n\nI think you're asking the wrong question, and you give no indication of market knowledge or direction.\n\nIs this stock going to buck the downtrend in the stock market? Today, we are finally getting a bounce after a 900 pt decline. Are you calling the bottom here in the market? \n\nYour money is probably better off where it is, regardless of which stock you've heard to be recommended or the latest hot pick.
120362
It depends on what your goals are.\n\nTraders trade on news and daily price movements.\n\nInvestors hold for the long run.\n\nTry the top down approach: think about what services/products will be in demand in the next few years, and then find out which companies are set to take the reins to supply that demand in the coming years.\n\nGood Luck!
358597
None.  IMHO, you should start by learning how to invest, determining WHAT to buy through Fundamental Analysis and determining WHEN to buy with Technical Analysis. \n\nIMO, newsletters only make narrow recomendations based on their system of analysis and investment strategies, and often they are compensated heavily for their recomendations and therefore dangerously biased.   I firmly believe that to get a clear picture about any stock, and to determine whether you're actually going to invest in it, it's best to do your own research and adapt a system that meets your investment needs, style and risk level.  There are many stocks ripe for the picking just about at any time if you know how and where to look.\n\nStart with Investors.com, it's William O'Neil's online version of Investors Business Daily.  The How To Invest section is the best place to start learning the importance of Fundamentals and the basics of Technical Analysis.   The site has the IBD 100, a cross index list of the market leaders, the Stock Checkup, a great tool for checking fundamentals on any stock, and articles and analysis of stocks and general market conditions.  They also run various screens every day which in addition to the other lists, (IBD100, New America, stocks under $10, CANSLIM select, ect) are very helpful for finding investment ideas with solid Fundementals that are ready to move.  The CANSLIM method alone is a very successful and popular trading system, but I prefer to use a combination of Fund & Tech Analysis, rather that just the rating system alone.\n\nFrom there you can move on to more detailed study of Technical Analysis.  \n\nStart with StockCharts.com, they have an excellent free Chart School which helpfully explains various chart patterns and Technical Indicators and overlays.  Pay particular attention to the Chart Patterns section, and make sure you learn about Zig Zag patterns, Bollinger Bands, Moving Average, Volume, RSI, the MACD (Mac-D), The Williams %er, Stochastics, and the Chaikin Money Flow.  Sounds complicated, but when you start chart reading you'll want about a half a dozen or so of these overlays and indicators.  I personally rely heavily on the ZIG-ZAG, MACD, Chaikin Money Flow, Volume, Moving Average and RSI.\n\nStockTA.com is also an excellent Technical Analysis site, with charted Fibonacci resistance and support lines and will tell you if the stock is bullish or bearish in the short, medium and long run.  The site also has an extensive Candle Pattern Glossary and a fantastic technical screener.\n\nThe above sites do have premium services, but all the services I mentioned are free.  After you've absorbed some of the Technical information, do some reading on Fibonacci numbers and Elliot Wave theory, there are good links in the "School" section of StockTA.com.  I've been using Elliot Wave and Fibonacci's to help refine my in and out points.  StockCharts.com's "ZigZag" overlay helps me plot and count the waves and that helps determine where I am in the overall pattern.  \n\nSo basically I'll find interesting stocks through the screens on Investors.com or StockTA.com, run them through the Stock Checkup at Investors.com, if they measure up I'll run them through the Analyisis & Fib Analysis at StockTA.com and do an extensive chart study, examining the 2 yr, 1 yr, 6 mth, 3 mth, 1 mth & 5 day.  I'll also do my due dilligence, studying the profile, key statistics, headlines, etc. through Yahoo Finance and web searches.  If it all measures up and the stock is in a base or in a pull back and it's starting a wave 1 or wave 3, it's time to buy.\n\nRemember, always protect your downside with a stop loss or a trailing stop loss.  Once you have absorbed a few of the things I've mentioned, the fog will begin to lift and you'll start seeing which stocks should be bought or sold and you'll be able to do your own analysis on any stock, no matter where
634279
The stock has done extremely well but it is not clear why. It is way overvalued by most measures and I would not hold it at this point. If you're concerned about selling too low, then you might set a stop-loss, which means if it keeps going up, the value of your stock will keep going up, but if when it drops significantly from the top your shares will sell.\n\nBest of success.
991706
No, I did not.  Nor did I attempt to, however.  My investments were made with "the long haul" in mind: strong companies with good brands that are leaders in their industry but with room for growth that I believe years from now when I might actually NEED that money will have appreciated significantly.  \n\nThe first stock that I ever invested in tripled in two years, and I left it right where it is because I personally don't think that I have enough of a clue to guess what's going to happen if the folks in the Wall Street Journal can't do it.  I'm fine with the market as it is now.  Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug.
373503
This depends on your goals, level of risk you are willing to accept, and many other factors.  For me, I like shares of small start-up companies.  Very high risk, but very high rewards IF it pans out.
239776
You can't buy options in that short a time frame, assuming that I understand your question correctly... and what strike price are you looking for?
661299
Buy a diversified series of HIGH QUALITY, LOW EXPENSE mutual funds. One good piece of advice is that especially when just starting out, owning individual stocks is just way too risky. In many cases, it's more akin to gambling than investing. So go with mutual funds, which are much more diversified, and therefore spread the risk among many, many more holdings. The key, of course, is buying quality. So make sure you hit ALL the asset classes, like Large cap stocks, small/mid cap stocks, international stocks, emerging markets stocks, government debt, corporate debt, hi-yield debt, foreign debt, emerging markets debt, real estate, commodities, and precious metals. That's 12 categories right there, so with $1200, you're talking about $100 each. This is called asset allocation, and it's a step beyond simple "diversification", which most idiots think is buying a hardware tech stock AND a software tech stock.\n\nAdd systematically on a monthly basis. That means make sure you put the same amount of money in every month, no matter what. Soon you won't even care what any of the markets are doing. They're up? Great! Some of my investments are worth more. They're down? Great! Now I'm buying quality investments at an "on sale" price.\n\nThen sit back and re-balance each year, back to your original percentages. Again, this is called asset allocation. It's is very important, perhaps the most important thing you can do with your money. The thinking being, what's BEEN hot is more than likely not going to STAY hot. All markets are cyclical. There's hundreds of years of data to back this up. Yet some people still think they can ride the next hot wave. They usually wind up begging on the street for beer money.\n\nNow, this sort of portfolio should average 8-12% per year, so just split the difference and say 10% on average. Will it do 10% EVERY year? Of course not. I'd be surprised if it EVER did EXACTLY 10%. That's an annual average. With that average, your money should double roughly every 7 years.\nSo, if you're starting with $1200 or so like I said in my example, then in 7 years , even if you added no more money, you should have about $2,400\nin 14 years you should have about $4,800\nin 21 years you should have about $9,600\nin 28 years you should have about $19,200\nin 35 years you should have about $38,400\nin 42 years you should have about $76,800\nin 49 years you should have about $153,600\nin 56 years you should have about $307,200\nin 63 years you should have about $614,400\nin 70 years you should have about $1,228,800!\n\nOf course, if you keep adding money in that $100 a month, you'll become a millionaire MUCH sooner. The key is discipline, and sticking in when markets are up OR down. Don't try to time the market--you'll NEVER get it right.\n\nBy the way, here's a handy formula:\n\n$100/month x 12% x 20 years = $100,000.\n\nSo if you need $300,000 in 20 years and have no idea how to get it, just save $300 a month and you're there. If you don't get 12%, you'll wind up with less naturally. But IF you still wind up with $250,000, I'd call that one hell of a failure.\n\nOh, and if you qualify on income limits (generally, if you're a single filer and make under $90,000/yr), and do this all in a Roth IRA? Then every penny will be 100% TAX-FREE. That's a deal that's too good to pass up. That's why I tell anyone who's under 30--if you make under $90,000, and therefore qualify to do a Roth, you'd be a fool not to. Just having the power of youth (and therefore time) on your side is such an advantage, to squander it would be such a waste!\n\nHope this helps!\n--J.
858018
I'm a long-term investor and believe in holding stocks... for decades.  If your gut, however, is telling you to take a profit... there's no harm in it.  And if you think some other stocks show more potential, no reason to hold off reinvesting in those.  As for me, I'm keeping my oil stocks... indefinitely.