Thread: Investing, where to begin?

What sort of investing are you interested in? Stocks and options? Small business? Real estate? The Canadian equivalent of a 401K? There are so many options.

What it really boils down to is: how much time are you willing to invest?

anything in the FIRE sector of the economy, at least for now.

for the most part since interest rates are so low and the dollar is depreciating you really just want to break even with your savings (which is delayed consumption).

Originally Posted by DOMS

What sort of investing are you interested in? Stocks and options? Small business? Real estate? The Canadian equivalent of a 401K? There are so many options.

What it really boils down to is: how much time are you willing to invest?

Pretty much everything you have listed haha. The main one I want to learn about right now is stock and options. I need to know more about real estate because I want to buy a house or condo in a year or two. I'd like to learn how to run a small business and hopefully own one in the future. Planning for my retirement is always good too.

My company offers this:

Share saving scheme: Employees may participate in the group Share saving scheme. The company will match every share bought with one bonus share if kept for a period of two calendar years. A long-term incentive scheme with an obligation to invest in shares is implemented for senior executives and key professionals.

I have to figure out how many of my eggs I want to put in that basket but damn it sounds good.


I'm going to have a lot of free time at work. I'd rather do something constructive with it instead of watching movies or crap like that.

Originally Posted by LAM

anything in the FIRE sector of the economy, at least for now.

for the most part since interest rates are so low and the dollar is depreciating you really just want to break even with your savings (which is delayed consumption).

I'm In Canada LAM so it's a little different for me I'm thinking.

I saw on the news the other day that Facebook is in talking with IOP. Not sure what the stocks are going to start at, but if you're willing to front the money, the return could potentially make for a nice paycheck. I've been looking into it the past couple of days.

Originally Posted by secdrl

I saw on the news the other day that Facebook is in talking with IOP. Not sure what the stocks are going to start at, but if you're willing to front the money, the return could potentially make for a nice paycheck. I've been looking into it the past couple of days.

Yah potentially but I think Facebook is retarded. They're going to drive away a lot of people with their new Timeline crap and other stuff they force on its users. I remember when Google was going public, I wanted to put some money into it but had none to do that

Another opportunity that I missed out on were these apartments that got converted into condo's right across from my University. The one I looked at was selling for 110k and 8 months later it was going for 160k.

Invest in gold and silver bullion. Check out kitco or world gold council.

Originally Posted by OfficerFarva

Yah potentially but I think Facebook is retarded. They're going to drive away a lot of people with their new Timeline crap and other stuff they force on its users. I remember when Google was going public, I wanted to put some money into it but had none to do that

Another opportunity that I missed out on were these apartments that got converted into condo's right across from my University. The one I looked at was selling for 110k and 8 months later it was going for 160k.

social media sites are all over-valued and revenues decrease from all of them as the years go by. and especially in these tough economic times when most in the US are already suffering from a lack of disposable income.

as was already stated invest in some hard assets.

Originally Posted by OfficerFarva

What books/websites/people do you recommend to start with. I have a introductory personal investment and a corporate finance textbook. I'm planning on downloading some intro micro/macro economics textbooks as well. I'm finally in the position where I have extra money and I want to make the most of it.

Do the opposite of everything LAM tells you and you will make a fortune.

I think you already know I'm in the business and have operated several businesses.
First book you should read is think and grow rich (this will put you in the correct mindset)
Read rich dad poor dad (the basics). I'm not a fan of all of his works, but this is a good book.

Read the roaring 2000's by harry s dent, it's outdated, but the education on demographics is spectacular. He predicted the real estate boom in Canmore well before it started. His current book the "the great crash ahead" is good too, but only from the prospective of demographics. Harry has never been a great predictor of equity markets, but his economics predictions as it relates to demographics has been impressive.

Once you've read these books, you have a real world framework to learn more specific concepts, such as equity markets, futures trading, etc. Investing for dummies will give you a good base to move on to the more specific text books you are talking about. You could also take the Canadian Securities course, it’s $1,000, but my arm could be twisted to send you a pdf copy of the course for $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$FREE

For business, the 10 day MBA is pretty good to learn concepts and the lingo...

The investment sectors which will boom over the next 10 years (regardless of economic health) are Agriculture related industries, Uranium focused industries and Emerging markets bonds.

The OECD predicts a 50% increase in food demand by 2030. There is not really more arable land in the world so yields will have to improve. In order to improve yields, we'll need better fertilizers, bio technology, equipment and supply chain. Currently Deere and company is trading around 30% below its average PE. Farmers have delayed replacing equipment for few years so the completion of this cycle is inevitable.

Due to the temporary reduction in demand of Uranium due to sufficient supplies a few years ago and the disaster at Fukashima and the significant price drop in the commodity itself, the Uranium mining sector has slowed down, and exploration has slowed significantly. Although new mines are planned, the future supply is projected to fall significantly short of demand. The Uranium industry in a recently published 50 page report has projected 3 scenarios, the most conservative still seeing a shortfall. The middle scenario suggests a supply shortfall from 2015 to 2025. The OECD projects the doubling of operating nuclear plants by 2050. I see uranium trading over $20 in the near future. There are 2 and 3X leveraged ETF's which could see you big time rewarded. My favourite uranium focused fund is already up 17% YTD. Even though no one knows me here and never will, I do not recommend anybody buy any related security I’ve talked about...you should consult a qualified investment advisor first...

Good luck, I wish I was your age again, knowing what I know today...

Originally Posted by vancouver

Do the opposite of everything I tell you and you will make a fortune because I don't know jack squat about economics, I think unions bankrupted the US.

Considering 99% of the people here who do invest lost over 40% of their investments with the crash, I would not listen to any of them.

Land with water on it is probably the only good investment, find some and buy it.

Originally Posted by GeorgeForemanRules

Considering 99% of the people here who do invest lost over 40% of their investments with the crash, I would not listen to any of them.

Land with water on it is probably the only good investment, find some and buy it.

Not actually bad advice if a person weren't interested in learning the ins and outs.

It's simply too easy to make money in the markets if you have a good understanding of it and more important, experience. People who were down 40% could have made back their losses in spades, if they had an understanding of what sectors do well coming out of recession or the trough of a drawdown. The problem is, most make decisions based on fear and those who do have good advisors don't listen to them. When the market is fairly valued (16-20X earnings), a person should build a cash position, regardless of if they think the market still has some steam. When markets fall, you then have the opportunity to average down the cost of your good stuff, junk the bad and rebalance into sectors which have traditionally done well coming off the trough. You can check the PE of the overall market daily on most financial websites, I like bloomberg. The dow is currently trading around 12.5X. This is considered cheap relative to history, but is could get much cheaper. If a person where to buy the cheapest stocks (PE, not price) over the next 2-5 years, you will do extremely well. The dow will trade at 20X again, it always does. Russia's stock market is trading at 5X, it's dirt cheap, following the Asian currency crisis of 1998, it rallied 600%, after 2008, it rallied over 200%. Every time India's Sensex has traded below 16X, it returned 40% within 12 months. This time might be the exception, but it's already up about 7% YTD

I bought Citigroup around $7 in 2008 as I thought it was near a bottom. It coninued to fall down to $1.30 (to most people I lost most of my capital). I bought a lot more at around $1.50 to average my cost to around $3. I sold it in August 2009 for $4.70 for a 56% return. I honestly didn't think my profit was going to come that quickly, I was prepared to hang in for several years...

It's not possible to lose money in equities unless the stock you bought is delisted (has likely gone belly up). If you put all your money in something like this, perhaps you should have educated yourself first. If you rely on a financial advisor, but don't know the basics, you are setting yourself up for failure...

Originally Posted by theCaptn'

Invest in gold and silver bullion. Check out kitco or world gold council.

Gold, Land, guns and also
my inside sources say OIL will be booming for the next 20yrs.
Buy a rig or buy a business that is already established... Get with other "investors" there are tons of ways to make money work for you...
Personally, is get educated in oilfield and capitalize ASAP

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

I work directly for one of the worlds leading companies in SAGD production

What are you waiting on lol...Get to frackin ... Texas tea is where it be

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

the indexes in the US are total bullshit and have been overvalued for a long time. and if not for the trillions of QE injected into the financial sector by the central bank the stock market would have collapsed just like in the 1920's....that's some "free market" there protecting all those wealth shareholders but it's "socialism" when somebody making 1980's wages at the lower income levels needs help feeding the family.

here is a good read about how and why US banks are acting the way they are. we should have learned from Japan and their banking collapse (caused by deregulation of course). also need to break up the banks that are deemed "to big to fail" so when the push the market like they always do they will actually feel the financial repercussions of their own actions and not just those at the lower income quintiles.

A Binomial Model of Geithner’s Toxic Asset Plan
http://www.fma.org/NY/Papers/BinomialPPIP.pdf

Originally Posted by OfficerFarva

I'm In Canada LAM so it's a little different for me I'm thinking.

that's right, you live in a country that actually cares about it's citizens of "all" levels of income.

I am starting to learn more about your system up there as well. most of my friends that I know and will be working with at EY are all Canadians from Toronto.

Originally Posted by DOMS

What sort of investing are you interested in? Stocks and options? Small business? Real estate? The Canadian equivalent of a 401K? There are so many options.

What it really boils down to is: how much time are you willing to invest?

The canadian 401k is stuffing it in a moose's dead ass

Originally Posted by GeorgeForemanRules

Considering 99% of the people here who do invest lost over 40% of their investments with the crash, I would not listen to any of them.

Land with water on it is probably the only good investment, find some and buy it.

This^^^

Originally Posted by vancouver

It's not possible to lose money in equities unless the stock you bought is delisted (has likely gone belly up). If you put all your money in something like this, perhaps you should have educated yourself first. If you rely on a financial advisor, but don't know the basics, you are setting yourself up for failure...

really...because when there is a equity-to-debt swap wealth gets transferred from equity to bond/stock holders. who then stand the chance of taking a loss as there is usually a negative effect on share prices when the swap is announced and ever greater if the swap is associated with a bankruptcy or liquidation.

Number one rule to investing, never take anyone's advice.

I opened a brokerage account back in September, after using the whole summer to read several books and prepare myself the best I could. One thing I didn't do, that I should have, was place my funds in a tax-free savings account.

Some books I found most useful: All of the Market Wizards books, Schwager the author; One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch; Getting Started in Technical Analysis by Schwager; Rich Dad, Poor Dad. A lot of these can be grabbed from pirate bay as PDF, since you're Canadian. Ultimately, the Market Wizards books were most helpful, they give you a good idea of the range of strategies you can adopt. I have sorta taken several rules from several places for myself.

An almost equal amount of learning has come from opening my account, placing actual trades and understanding the whole process; I found it hard to find information without actually doing it myself. I use Questrade, because its a Canadian brokerage company, it doesn't have to abide by the day trader policy they have in the states (something like under 20k in your account and over 4 trades in 5 market days and your account is suspended). They also have the lowest per trade cost, if you aren't rich and buying thousands of shares, it can add up. If you choose to use Questrade, I can toss ya a referral.

Oh, and a Personal Finance course I took last semester had the Smart Canadian Wealth Builder as its text. The information they give you in the book is specific to Canadians here and now. I would suggest it for every Canadian as it maps out your financial living, from your first job, buying a house, insurance, retirement and even how to handle death. The best advice I gained from this book is the realization that people more/less spend a third of their lifetime in retirement, being young, I never thought of it that way.

Also, some sites I frequent daily:
marketwatch.com - general news and no delays in quotes
freestockcharts.com - free way of doing basic technical analysis
finviz.com - great for visualizing current trends in the S&P 500

I also figured out a way to get CNBC streamed on my pc for free, I usually have that running whenever I am at my pc during and slightly after market hours.

This thread is an example of why I love the IMF community, thanks everyone!

Originally Posted by LAM

really...because when there is a equity-to-debt swap wealth gets transferred from equity to bond/stock holders. who then stand the chance of taking a loss as there is usually a negative effect on share prices when the swap is announced and ever greater if the swap is associated with a bankruptcy or liquidation.

LOL!!! Did you have all your money in a stock that went sideways LAM?? No wonder you are mad at the world...

Originally Posted by vancouver

LOL!!! Did you have all your money in a stock that went sideways LAM?? No wonder you are mad at the world...

I haven't purchased stock since the late 90's. any stocks that I have left today are carry over from compensation packages from working in the tech sector. I only spend on hard assets, got hassled way to much by the SEC.

Originally Posted by LAM

I haven't purchased stock since the late 90's. any stocks that I have left today are carry over from compensation packages from working in the tech sector. I only spend on hard assets, got hassled way to much by the SEC.

You have not bought a stock in almost 15 years...what exactly are you doing on this thread??