Stocks

[Omniman]

For those of you who dabble in investing in stocks I'm curious what your investing in right now. I've been messing around with just nvidia for the time being. I bought in back when it was around high 11ish. So far it's been playing along nicely.

[Hawkwing74]

My real money in stocks is only in the 401k right now. I have a mix of growth fund, large cap, small cap, a little international, and 1% in treasuries.

But I have been playing a stock simulator on investopedia.com.
http://www.investopedia.com

I'm getting my butt kicked (lost 9k of 100k in a few months) and pretty much reminds me I shouldn't dabble in individual stocks for real.

[kumori]

Empirically, a retail investor will realize the best return by investing in an index fund. In fact, the more you trade, the more likely you are to lose money.

[grantmeaname]

Empirically, a retail investor will realize the best return by investing in an index fund. In fact, the more you trade, the more likely you are to lose money.

This. Word.

[JustAnEngineer]

http://quote.morningstar.com/fund/f.asp ... ture=en-us

[Jive]

Empirically, a retail investor will realize the best return by investing in an index fund. In fact, the more you trade, the more likely you are to lose money.

I would agree with you 99% of the time. Most retail investors have no knowledge of the market (especially ones i talk too)and end up buying a bunch of crap (i.e., RIM, Sunpower, Facebook, Nokia...etc) because they are "cheap" or they like the product (meanwhile 99% of population hates it) or it is the current hot stock. Instead they shart their pants when 2 weeks later the stock takes a nosedown after it is downgraded/they report bad earnings/financial meltdown a la 2008.

I've been trading individual stocks (and options) with real money for about 7 years now ever since i turned 18. After making back losses from the 08 crisis i am up about 30% on a money-weighted return. I invest usually in what i know, i.e. tech stocks.