Just wondering if there are any active investors who are playing the stock market among us here in sajha. I am a rookie investor myself, so it would be nice to share a few thoughts, ideas, and tips with those involved in it.

From what I have seen in America, owning your own business or being an wise investor is the only way to build wealth. Well you can always hit the jackpot lottery but what are the odds? Investment, Stock Market, and all the financial jargons related to them can be overwhelming and intimidating for first time investors, even more so if you are an immigrant. So, I hope we can make this a knowledge sharing platform to help those who are interested in learning more about investment and stock market in general. And for those of you who have no interest in stocks or investment at all, here is why may be you should reconsider.

We all know about Dell computer and chances are at one point or another we have all used it. If you had spent $5,000 on Dell stocks in 1998 your return as of today would be over $133,000. Or how about ebay? I know I use it for buying and selling time to time. If you had spent $5,000 on ebay in 2003, guess how much would be the value of your stock today? In less than 3 years your $5,000 investment today would be worth over $47,000 today.

Now I am not saying it's a sure thing because you can lose money in the stock market as well and that is why you need to be wise and do your research. So, if we have interested folks, we can make this a way to help each other in a small way.

Thanks.

can international student also buy stocks?

Even aliens from space can...

stock market gain is unearned income. International students can make as much unearned income as they can.

if you want to earn a lot of money and have a lot of spare time..hehe but value stocks..this means but stocks that cost like $2-$5. this will give you leverage meaning you can buy alot of stocks say if you have $1000 to invest then, you can but 500 shares@$2. and if the stock price increases by $.5 then you earn $250. But there is very likely chance that you will lose your money. So you definetly need to take calculated risk. Do trend analysis and techical analysis before investing and you will be fine . I guess..and hope luck is in your side..:D

if you want to earn a lot of money and have a lot of spare time..hehe buy value stocks..this means buy stocks that cost like $2-$5. this will give you leverage meaning you can buy alot of stocks. say if you have $1000 to invest then, you can buy 500 shares@$2. and if the stock price increases by $.5 then you earn $250. But there is very likely chance that you will lose your money. So you definetly need to take calculated risk. Do trend analysis and techical analysis before investing and you will be fine . I guess..and hope luck is in your side..:D

if you want to earn a lot of money and have a lot of spare time..hehe but value stocks..this means but stocks that cost like $2-$5. this will give you leverage meaning you can buy alot of stocks say if you have $1000 to invest then, you can but 500 shares@$2. and if the stock price increases by $.5 then you earn $250. But there is very likely chance that you will lose your money. So you definetly need to take calculated risk. Do trend analysis and techical analysis before investing and you will be fine . I guess..and hope luck is in your side..:D

Very humbly, I want to say a couple of things:

I agree Warren Buffett is one smart cookie, and has done very well for himself. But please keep in mind, he did not become a billionaire overnite. He put in his 2 cents in the industry like everyone else, had quite a bit of luck in the beginning, and yes he worked for someone else for some time before flying solo.

Anyway, I like this thread for the reason it was started--to educate-- but I am also afraid it could quickly turn into an 'experiment' by a lot of the users-- students using their book knowledge to pick stocks (which is very dangerous, by the way); others reading up on stks mentioned by someone else ( either here or copying some columnists opinion) and taking the easy but dangerous strategy of investing in them without proper due diligence.

The other thread started by EMT was I think visited by my more savvy brethren, and I did throw in some stocks to watch there-- but for beginners (if that is what this thread is for), I would urge you guys to get enough knowledge on this before you go in. If you do not have the knowledge, or the interest/resources to get it, please do not waste your hard earned money.
The easiest way to start is by mutual funds and etfs---look at the best performing mutual funds over 5/10 yr periods and dissect them to see what they are invested in (every mf will disclose its top ten holdings)-- see if you understand the strategy and why those positions were picked in the first place-- if you do, then you are ready to invest in stocks. if you dont, then buy the broadest index fund you can find and ride it long term.
hope this helps.

Lonewolf... let me begin by saying I am in no way shape or form an expert in this field. However, when you say...."this will give you leverage meaning you can buy alot of stocks say if you have $1000 to invest then, you can but 500 shares@$2. and if the stock price increases by $.5 then you earn $250"...From what i understand...leveraging is either a use of debt or options. Doing so increases both potential risk and reward...correct me if I m wrong.
Further, $.5 increase in $2 dollar stock should be valued in percentage term with stock that is worth $50. From what i have seen...incremental changes in price of stock that is $100 will be more than say $2 stock. But then again...what do I know. :o)

Wit's End!

You do Thapap's caricature so well if I may say.;p You have a point in your argument though. :)

wow we talking stocks again after a long time. good to see some famaliar names and some new ones. hope everyone's been able to do as well with the current market as i have been blessed with.

thapap bro, your picks of 10% gain as would our friend borat would say "not so much" LOL but those picks you had were safe large cap ones so considering that it's still a better return than what you would get outta bank.

the market is showing extrem bullish signs as of late, so this is a great time to be invested. i had been bullish on china since the beginning of the year and i'm even more convinced chinese stocks have a lot of leg left in them for the remainder of the year (chinese people being able to invest independently and chinese government's commitment to invest billions into US market should only help our cause).

my chinese picks earlier in the year were CTRP, LFC, and ACH -- sold them all just recently for an avg. of 85% return. would recommend them buying at the current prices but here are some of the chinese stocks i've been keeping an eye on and seriously considering:

JASO & CSUN -- these are both solar energy companies. with the rise in gas prices, alternative energy is the talk of the town these days. just like last year ethanol was the sexy name on the market last year this summer it is solar energy!! considering the HOT HOT HOT sector they are in and because they are chinese stocks, I expect these 2 to produce a very high RIO even by the end of summer (Oct / Nov).

HMIN -- chinese discount motel. missed the earing today so down almost 9%, looking at it as a buying opprotunity. don't forget the olympics in china and with newly formed chinese sub-middle class there will be a lot of travelling. have liked this one since it IPOed 6 months ago but price kept going up so much didn't get a chance to buy. stock prices are more resonable right now.

Disclosure: my analysis and recommendations are all in good faith :-)

Opsss Correction:

my chinese picks earlier in the year were CTRP, LFC, and ACH -- sold them all just recently for an avg. of 85% return. would NOT recommend them buying at the current prices

lemme add one other thing if i may...since some of you are talking about stock price.

the bottom line is, cheaper or expensive it is all about the percentage. dollar amount wise 2% on a $20 stock is more than 2% of a $2 stock but if you had $1000 invested in both stocks, you made $20 on each stocks. i know it is tempting to buy cheaper stocks as we feel like there is more upside to it but there are obvious reasons for it be at that price. so, it is wise not to get too caught up on the price of a stock but rather focus on it's business and the sector it is in.

Yes it is true that leverage means to finance by debt but that is just one of the definitions. And there are many reasons why stock prices vary and it does not always truly reflect the performance of the business. If you go to finance.yahoo.com under key statistics you will find the beta value. This number gives you the riskiness of the stock. The more risky the more fluctuation there is in the stock price, which implies that there is high probability that you will either win a lot of money or lose a lot of money. When buying people always tend to buy stocks that they here about. Companies that do a lot of advertising to be precise.However, there are other firms which have cheap stock price and better performance means their eps is really good. There is lot of things that goes onto buying a stock as I said before. you need to do a lot of research and choose the right time to buy stocks. There are a lot of big player in the stock than buy huge amounts and sell huge amounts of shares which makes the stock price rise rapidly or makes the stock price decline rapidly. People need to get a feel about how the stock moves in correlation with the market. Some Stocks move positively and some move negatively. Some stocks are not effected by the movement of the market where are some affects the stock price. A good portfolio includes a lot of stocks so that the unsystematic risk is declined to zero. What do u think guys?

How much you earn in the stock market is proportionate to how much risk you are willing to take. The more risk you take the higher the return.


p.s Do not try this at home if you don't have spare money in your pocket.heheheh

hi lonewolf, you're right. there is a lot that goes into the pricing of a stock. that's why i advice not to get too caught up in it.

and yes diversification is the mantra of a good portfolio! however, i don't agree you need a lot of stocks to be diversified. my own theory is to not have between 5 - 7 but i can see why you would want upto 10 depending on your risk tolerance but more than that, you're probably better off buying mutual funds.

one way to protect your portfolio from market moves is to invest in sector that aren't following the market (meaning that are doing better than the rest). it's not sure thing that just because you konw the HOT sector (which is relatively easy to do) doesn't mean each stock from teh same will perform well from that...so i say take diversifying to another level...find the sector that is performing better than the market and diversify in it. right now metals, aerospace, foreign (esp. china) stocks are beating the market but some of the tech stocks are starting to make a serious comeback so put them in your rearview mirror :p

I totally agree with you. My roomie is Chinese. and he is investing his fathers money in the Chinese stock market. He calls his broker in china everyday , but it only cost 2cent per min. But still he wakes up late night to watch how the stocks are moving and in 4 weeks he has made $6000. Its just amazing. I wish I knew Chinese..hehe..

There are a couple of stocks which move in opposite direction of the market. Its very rare but its a good idea to keep one in your stock portfolio.If you don't have time watching the stock market constantly, the best way to make money is to have well balanced portfolio, which will go over time. But if you have the time to watch the stock constantly, speculation is not a bad idea either. But low and sell high as fast as you can. hehee..but its really risky and should not be tried..

Hey do u know if a International student can buy nasdaq software so that people can exchange stocks online?

i'm not sure about nasdaq software for stock exchange but if you are wondering about buying and selling stocks, if you buy through brokerage they will let you open account as long as you are here legally. there might be some that don't check your status but i'm not aware of it. in today's world of cheap online brokerage, it's very easy to buy and sell stocks.

abt your chinese friend, i've read a lot of stories lately about the average yang and yings in china going nuts over their stock market. their new law passed recently made it possible for people to buy stocks without going through brokerage. so the stock frenzy for average chinese has just begun. most stock gurus in the US think this will cause the chinese market to crash as it was the case in the US when they first allowed general public to invest individually. and i think they have a valid point but i don't think china's market is crashing anytime soon, just on the simple fact that there are probably 10 times more chinese investing population than there were american investing population. so you see the lehman's logic there HAHAHA

but if there are alot of people buying and selling stock the market would come close to be perfect which means there is chance that there is little money to be made...due to perfect competition. so if the chinese are letting ordinary people trade stocks..i am guessing the return on stocks going to decline..i know it does not look like that but i am guessing..we will what happens..hehe..

if there are a lot of people buying and selling stock in the Chinese stock market , the Chinese stock market would come close to be perfect competition, which means there is chance that there is little money to be made..if the price reflects accurately what a person is willing to pay then how is someone suppose to make money out of others expectation. so if the Chinese are letting ordinary people trade stocks..i am guessing the return on stocks going to decline..i know it does not look like that but i am guessing..we will see what happens..hehe..

Hukka,
Are you still holding TIE?

TIE tied down my cash.... :(

Chinese stock market is the next bubble about to burst. Remember the chinese market correction in march? it took the wold market down with it.