Starbucks-Yes Piper Jaffray-No. The time to own investment banks/investment advisors/brokerages is when they're out of favor and the market's near a bottom. I'm thinking that the whole sector is pretty much topped out. Just my thoughts, take them as you wish, I'm often wrong.
This is the kind of stock I'd stay away from. I think it's a good illustration of why if your litmus test for buying a stock is that ol' cliched rules of thumb "does it have a good story? do you understand it and like it's product", you shouldn't be buying stocks. Crocs are hot. I'm sure you've seen them out there. And I'm sure for quite a few folks, the company would meet those questions. The reason I don't like it for a few reasons. There isn't a lot of volume. It's clearly not trending up; it's a roller coaster. And if you're looking to hold on to it long term, retail stocks are notorious for going in and out of style just like the products they sell.
But it really isnt varying that much from the markets behavior. I am not sure why you used that following example. Your CROC's post mades sense, but the market one doesnt.
Holy crap have I lost some money the last 2 weeks. Actually hit a stop loss target on XEC by having it drop 4% at one point today.
Happens all the time. dont let it get to you. Question: do you use charts to set a stop loss? If so so do the specialists on the exchange (or the market makers for NAsdaq) and they will try as hard as they can to drop the price legally to where all the stops are set (b/c I am sure people placed right near yours, due to a chart based support level and trigger them, take the contra side of the trade and then rip the stock back up to where it should be.... Happens all the time and is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Not saying you were wrong, but that is how they operate. beware. Personally, I like to use trailing stops, coupled with gradually selling out of winning positions in 1/3 increments. That way you lock in gains as the stock goes up and you are basically locking in an "insurance" policy on the balance b/c the stop price rises as the stock price rises. So if the stock turns around and tanks, you at least made $$ on the initial trade. Now of course you will have trades that drop immediately, but using a stop (as you did) will protect you allow you to "live to fight another day."
Footer Phooter, what kind of strategy do you use btw? You dont have to go into specifics, but if you are active in the market and are a position or swing trader I might have a good idea or something for you to look into. I havent backtested it or tried it, but it makes sense and in sideways or bullmarkets it looks pretty promising. let me know if you want to hear more. Again, I havent tried it, but it could be worth exploring.
During my long drive I sampled some "interesting" AM radio talk shows. Yesterday I got a kick out of hearing someone poo-pooing the stock market and talking up investing in real estate. Nothing against real estate but to point at the market and make a big deal out of the market being down 10% in the last month (or whatever he claimed) as a reason to get into real estate misses how much a lot of people's invests are still up over a year or 3 or ten even after recent paper loses.
I didn't use a chart. Basically just picked $36 as "the magic number" randomly. Honestly, I didn't think it would actually get that low.
I'd like to be a somewhat active trader, but haven't really figured out a strategy yet. It's pretty clear to me that I get the big picture (macroeconomics), but can't translate that into individual stocks.
Well, if you want a longer term (weeks/months) strategy thst makes sense google CANSLIM (or better yet buy the book. It is a cheap but valuble read) He basically looksfor growth stocks based on various critiera and rates then as such. Then he moves to chart analysis for the 2nd step. Let me know if you want to hear more info. I read the book and it seemd good, but I play shorter time frames, so I am putting it on the back burner for now.
It's best to look at support and resistance, and then set a stop below support, giving it some wiggle room. As someone posted, market makers will drop the price to flush out all the stops, then buy back at a good price.
Where does everyone think the market's headed the rest of the year? I think we're lower on Dec. 31 than we are now.
i think it'll go up... although predictin the market is like prediction your girlfriend's xxx date. But since the market hasnt really gone up in 5 years, despite insane increase in real estate, i think we'll see some of the real estate money flowing into the stock market. I really think the only chain right now is the gas price, although I think gas price is more symbolicly related to consumer confidence. I mean, average person only spends maybe $30 more on gas per month. That's really not unbearable, as the rest of the world has been paying more for gas than the so called "crazy" gas price in the U.S.. But in general, i think u can only make serious money in the stock market by doing opposite of what everybody predicts. That being said, I have invested 60% of my entire savings in Ford (which is actually peanuts), and its not looking too bad.
and Ford goes up another 6% today with another upgrade by Stearns (down graded GM). Thats like 20% increase in 2 weeks or something. Despite the ups, it seems lot of individual traders lost on the stock by shorting it.