Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hagwonnewbie]

I started buying a handful of stocks several months ago. All NASDAQ

I wish I had bought more sooner.

I was just wondering who's up this year.

How much (percent)?

When did you start buying?

What were some of your notable positions?

[I-am-me]

Hell No!!!!

[prodiGy]

i did mutual funds in the beginning of the year.

i'm up about 27%. not bad for mutual funds. less risky too.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I have mutual funds, too. When the KOSPI is above 1700 I'm pretty much delirious with joy--it means I'm getting 40+%.

[is so delicious]

I have pretty much all my savings in stocks. Love playing the market, though I'm relatively new and don't know too much. I've invested maybe twenty-five to thirty grand a year ago and made about twenty grand so far Could have been A LOT higher... I played it safe with HGSI and sold on a grand profit the day before positive results for lupus medicine came through... would have made like ten grand, though I chased it and made another two grand... also am just generally conservative and not patient... constantly sell too early, buy too early... but that's how it goes. My vague strategy is to just sell when I'm up a grand or two, try to make a lot of quick trades...

I really only know the shipping sector. I think I've figured out the ranges pretty well, so a lot of my trades have been DRYS, EXM, and FREE (mostly DRYS). DRYS can be maddening, though, because the CEO seems to dillute it on a whim... one day you look and the stock has bombed. But they're good action... they're known to move very quickly.

Right now I'm only invested in American Apparel. Could have played it much better... bought in at 3.40 then bought again at 3.00, to get my average price to 3.17. Just yesterday, after a month or two of holding, it hit my average price... so I'm in a good mood today. Everyone seems to like it for the future. Might hit Citibank, which has bombed the past few days, or just wait a while and try to sell APP at 3.67, my original price. May try to sell at 3.30 and get back into a shipper... DRYS is down near 6, which is generally a great buy-in price, but it was dilluted a week or two ago, so it may not be done dropping. Eventually it'll make you good money bought at this price.

I don't know much about stocks... can't rattle off numbers and jargon and all that... I seem to have just gotten lucky, beginning to invest at about the same time as the economy bottomed out, so it seems. It's been a great year. Prices haven't gone up too much, though... plenty of recovery to be had. I recommend everyone to get into the market. For now, while everything's still down, it ain't rocket science. Do some research, find a company with solid fundumentals who is way down from its traditional price, figure out its range, and buy near the bottom of that range. Sell when it goes up, hold when it goes down, and try not to mind the red numbers if that's the case. I think I speak for the very casual investor here... I know it seems like gambling at first, but it's really not like that at all.

[bassexpander]

If you had put your money into Google several months back, you'd be sitting pretty now!

We had to tie our money up in Jeonsae, unfortunately!

[alliance psi]

I bought 1K worth of Palm Inc last fall for less than 1.50/share. sold it all this summer for 14/share.

Check out Wireless Ronin technologies, china phrama holding, and GenCorp Inc.

I also gobbled up as much AIG and Citi as I could

Wish i would have picked up on Nokia

[jvalmer]

Oct 2008 to roughly march 2009 was a golden opportunity to pick up tons of stocks at their historic lows. It was like a 2 or 3 in lifetime event. Hopefully it will happen again in the next 30 years, so I can even put more money in.

[adventurrre]

This thread needs to be active for a long time... personal stock picks are great to read on here... and I know "don't go to daves for financial advice" yada yada yada... but some people actually do really well and I'd like to hear more about what people have invested in and are keeping on their radar.

I think the next full year will still be a great time to invest... maybe this march was the best time ever, but the market is still really devalued and there are plenty of picks that are going to double, triple, 10-bag in the next few years....

so i hope we can keep some sort of thread going over the course of the year with stuff like this....

[Rusty Shackleford]

Picking stocks is basically gambling. It's mathematically possible for the likes of Warren Buffett to be a fluke and not really the stock guru he seems. Though, that is unlikely.

In the long run any given person has as much chance of picking the right stocks as a monkey throwing darts at a dart board. Sure some people on this thread have given examples. "I bought this last summer and just sold it for that". But what about the other trades that didn't come off?

A good book to read if you are just starting out is "A Random Walk Down Wall Street".

The current boom in the NASDAQ is likely a bubble caused by the Fed printing cash. All that money has to go somewhere. Don't be surprised if you see all your gains wiped out over night. (Not trying to harsh your buzz or give stock advice).

Now since everyone is giving advice, here is what I do.

My primary goal is savings, not getting rich quick. I buy ETFs in my home stock market. I figure I have a vested interest in it and if it tanks hard enough I will have better things to worry about as money probably won't be an issue for anyone at that point.

The reason I do this is because I pay no fees on transactions and can buy small amounts at a time. I currently buy $NZ200 a month. In this scenario even if I make no gains at least my money is protected against inflation. As well, I believe in the product (all the production of New Zealand), so when the price goes down I buy more. People are selling something I value for cheap, after all.

[Rusty Shackleford]

I also quite like delious' strategy. Knowing a certain sector well and just making a profit where you can see one. I would only do this as a small percentage of my portfolio, though.

[I-am-me]

I want to hear about those who lost their life saving in the stock market. Its all a gamble.

[adventurrre]

[Capo]

I like west china cement. already up 300% since april and the share price likely to double again when they list in hong kong next year. Current listed on the AIM market in the UK.

[GB]

Don't flame me here...but...how would someone who has no experience at all get involved?

How do you by the shares? How do you keep track of the market changes?

I have a few grand saved up, and would love to increase it, even by just a couple of grand.

Any advice?