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Can anyone point me toward good books or information on investing in stocks?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by robbie380, May 21, 2003.

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  1. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
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    I have had interest in the stock market and investing all of my life and I have become more and more engrossed in it and I am seriously wanting to pursue it as a career. I've become more involved in it lately because one of my friends did some playing around in the stock market with money is parents gave him and he is doing pretty well. So I wanted to learn more and I bought the book Beating the Street by Peter Lynch and how he describes what he did sounds fun to me. Granted not on the level that he did it, but it is something that I want to learn more about. I have just graduated with my degree in history from UT. Choosing history was primarily a function of hating my 1st 2 years of engineering, becoming burnt out on school, and trying to find something that I liked. Throughout my whole time in college I have not had this much passion for wanting to learn about something than I have had in this past week when I started trying to learn more about investing in stocks. Anyhow...what I am looking for is information or books on how I can learn more about the jargon used in the stock market and financial stuff in general. Also, I am looking for stuff on how I can start researching companies, how to read earnings reports, what positive and negative things I should look for, and so on. Basically, I want to learn everything about this stuff, but I need help with where I should look to do it so I can learn more efficiently. Ok any help would be great....Thanks
     
    #1 robbie380, May 21, 2003
  2. Dr of Dunk

    Dr of Dunk Clutch Crew

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    #2 Dr of Dunk, May 21, 2003
  3. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
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    good info there...thanks DoD
     
    #3 robbie380, May 21, 2003
  4. A-Train

    A-Train Member

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    [​IMG]

    These days, this is the only reliable way of picking stocks...
     
    #4 A-Train, May 21, 2003
  5. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
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    Ok I hate to act like I am just trying to get stock advice, but there is this one stock one of my friends stumbled upon and told me about and it serves as a good example to answer some of my questions. Sirius (SIRI), they do digital satallite radio and they are XM radio's smaller competitor. When I look at this company everything seems good to me and I don't understand why it is so cheap. It is about 1/9th the price of XM Radio (XMSR). They were in deep debt, like $1.2 billion, but recapitalized their debt in March by issuing stock to their creditors which left them with $60 million in debt and over $200 million in cash. I really don't know what that means, but to me it seems if their creditors are willing to accept stock in exchange for debt then that would indicate that the creditors believe that Sirius is going to go up in price, which it has done by tripling in price since this was done. However, then the stock price dropped after Sirius issued convertible bonds. Why did the stock drop after this happened? I don't get it. Is it because it is seen as the company attempting to get money any way it can? I guess my final question is why is a stock that is making good deals with various companies and that has a growing number of subscribers so much cheaper than its competitor that doesn't seem like a company that is 9 times better?

    I know this is a lot to ask, but I am trying to understand if this is actually a really good deal or if this is just a mirage. I am trying to see if I am actually reading everything right so I can use this as an example for myself in the future when looking for bargains in other stocks.
     
    #5 robbie380, May 21, 2003
  6. Fatty FatBastard

    Fatty FatBastard Member

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    Yeah.......

    Find the one stock that you think will do well and bank the house on it......

    Right.......:rolleyes:
     
    #6 Fatty FatBastard, May 21, 2003
  7. Mr. Clutch

    Mr. Clutch Member

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    I recommend gold funds. I put in some money in December 2001 and it has almost doubled.

    Gold tends to do well during economic recessions and during times of uncertainty (ie. wars, terrorism, epidemics). I think the economy will do pretty poorly for a while so I expect gold to keep outperforming most other stocks.

    The code for the one I have is sggdx. www.kitco.com is a good site to learn about gold stocks and mutual funds.
     
    #7 Mr. Clutch, May 21, 2003
  8. F.D. Khan

    F.D. Khan Member

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    Gold?!

    C'mon. Put your money in the Vanguard S&P 500 Index and FORGET about it. Don't worry about short term recessions, learning investing yourself or anything else. Its very low cost and has beaten over 90% of money managers and mutual funds over history.

    Don't get pulled into the buying individual stocks yourself through etrade nonsense. Just like you needed two years to learn basic engineering, company analysis and valuation is not kid play. Just because you can be stocks without a degree, doesn't mean you should.

    Compounded returns over time build wealth, not turnover. I own an Investment company and thats my free advice!
     
    #8 F.D. Khan, May 21, 2003
  9. F.D. Khan

    F.D. Khan Member

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    Buying Gold today would be like buying Technology funds in the first quarter of 2000. A move that has already reaped most of its benefits. Gold is a metal that shines with almost no 'true' technical or manufacturing purpose. Thats why it has been in a steady decline for the last century versus that of the market, which is made up of the publicly-traded companies in this country.
     
    #9 F.D. Khan, May 21, 2003
  10. Fatty FatBastard

    Fatty FatBastard Member

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    Also, why buy a "gold fund", when you can buy gold?

    You do realize that with a gold fund, you don't own any gold, don't you?
     
    #10 Fatty FatBastard, May 21, 2003
  11. A-Train

    A-Train Member

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    OK, I have a stupid question...

    Hypothetical: Let's say I have ten bucks, and I trade it in for 100 Yen...Then, Japan's economy gets really good, so I trade my 100 Yen and get 15 bucks back...what is that called?
     
    #11 A-Train, May 21, 2003
  12. Fatty FatBastard

    Fatty FatBastard Member

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    A-Train: Arbitrage.
     
    #12 Fatty FatBastard, May 21, 2003
  13. Mr. Clutch

    Mr. Clutch Member

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    Because buying individual gold stocks is too risky. As a fund, they will buy the stocks they feel are best.

    I wouldn't want to buy actual gold bars! Is that what you are suggesting?
     
    #13 Mr. Clutch, May 21, 2003
  14. A-Train

    A-Train Member

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    OK, so what is a good country to...uhh...arbitrage in. :)
     
    #14 A-Train, May 21, 2003
  15. Mr. Clutch

    Mr. Clutch Member

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    I expect the DOW to go down to 6,000, so that would make investing in an S&P Index a bad idea, IMO. I don't think this is a short-term recession either.

    I only put an initial investment into my gold fund. The rest is invested through my 401K and most of it I put into money market funds, and it's performing well compared to stocks.
     
    #15 Mr. Clutch, May 21, 2003
  16. No Worries

    No Worries Member

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    A-Train: Currency speculation.
     
    #16 No Worries, May 21, 2003
  17. Fatty FatBastard

    Fatty FatBastard Member

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    LOL!!!

    Gold funds are wildcatter projects. Can you make money on them? Sure! Can you make money at the roulette table? Sure!
     
    #17 Fatty FatBastard, May 21, 2003
  18. Fatty FatBastard

    Fatty FatBastard Member

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    A-Train: I'm not a fan of arbitrage, unless you have a crap load of money.....

    That being said, the peso and the yen have always been piss-poor on the international market.
     
    #18 Fatty FatBastard, May 21, 2003
  19. Mr. Clutch

    Mr. Clutch Member

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    That is true to an extent. But when the recession was going down in 2001, I was pretty darn sure the price of gold would go up. That would guarantee that gold stocks would go up. They performed better than almost anything out there. I didn't invest much though, I am not that big of a risk-taker.

    And it's also true that investing in the DOW is equivalent to gambling. The 90's was an aberration, it won't keep going up. We are in for a LONG bear market. The price of gold will be stable.

    Gold is up another $5 bucks today!
     
    #19 Mr. Clutch, May 21, 2003
  20. Fatty FatBastard

    Fatty FatBastard Member

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    Mr. Clutch: if that was your reasoning, then you would want to buy the commodity gold, or purchase futures on gold.

    buying a gold fund has absolutely nothing to do with the value of gold.
     
    #20 Fatty FatBastard, May 21, 2003
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