stocks? can i make money in 1 week or 5 years?

[Matt Gruber]

on friday i loaded up an a Co that converts the signs at gas stations to LED's to save them money on electric and flourescent bulbs that last 1 year. Contracts with BP and 7-11.
paid $7.02 I hope to sell it at around 10AM an friday the 19th, 1 day after their earnings release, in which i expect them to increase the dividend (due to previous announcement). I will listen to the thursday 3PM conference call and see if they can convince me to hang on to some of it.
As the market is up and down like a yo-yo, i have a plan B, which is to keep it, as the dividends exceed what i can get in a 5 year CD.
This is my first BUY in 2 years. Have decades of stock experience. Odds are good on the stock, but bad on the overall market. As for my track record, it is excellent, but there are always losers that make stock picking a challenging game.
I'm just telling you guys hoping for some interesting comments, and so you can watch what happens for entertainment. I'll post the daily prices monday thru friday. Anybody else picking stocks?

[RayJE Carburetors]

buy gold and silver before they skyrocket when your US dollar is worth less than the paper it is printed on

[jmarkaudio]

I buy tools, I can still make a living working on stuff if I had to.

[Unkl Ian]

If I wanted to make money in the stock market, I'd be a broker.

[Matt Gruber]

i did have gold as a buy on my web site a few years ago at $450. I did not buy any myself, but my neighbor got in at 650. he is happy. very easy to mis-time any commodity. Who would be surprised to see gold at $800 or less, years from now? not me. I do recommend some gold jewelry for ladies, at least they can wear it!
Anything that does not pay a dividend is very risky. If the price goes down, at least u have those dividends coming in. There is a stock that for a fee, confirms that gold coins are legit. pays a 7% dividend. i may look into that as all these gold bugs will someday want to sell, and the buyer needs proof they are not fake.
i actually worked one day as a broker. it was really just a cold call sales job so i quit.
to judge the value of the dollar i use the MG corvette CPI
in 1970 u could buy a new vette for 1/10 todays price. $ has lost 90% of its value. in 20 yrs i predict a new vette will cost $250,000-500,000 and gas $20-50/gal. A bank CD is not going to keep up! Gold at the right entry price should keep up.
thanks for the replies!

[Matt Gruber]

so i was reading the letter to shareholders of a micro-cap medical device co.
said in 2013 obamacare will add an excise tax of $500,000.
in 2010, pretax they made $700,000.
So how is the total tax rate figured?
700k less 35% corp income tax = 245k, less 500k= that would be 745k tax on 700k income! tax of 106%
or do u deduct the excise tax as an expense?
700k-500k=200k, less 35% or 70k=130k net?
570k tax on 700k=81%
or is it 570k tax on 130k or 438% tax rate?
which is correct?
What did Nancy Pelosi say, "just vote for the bill, and read it later"
Anyway as of 3 pm my stock is kind of boring. 7.09 to 7.40 range.

[Matt Gruber]

7.01 close 6.96-7.14 range on double volume.
i'm looking for .16 eps(up from .04 last year) and sales $76 up from $64m. and a .07 div up from .05
report thursday!

[af2]

Matt!!!!!!!!!!!!
You need a job where you can work and not read!!

[pocket5s]

really depends on the goals. I have a friend that buys stocks and collects the dividends. He has yet to sell a stock (!). He is an investor. Me on the other hand, I trade. I'm looking at 8-16 week gains and I'm out and into something else unless it is a really stellar performer. For me stellar would be 20% gain in 8 weeks.

[Matt Gruber]

really depends on the goals. I have a friend that buys stocks and collects the dividends. He has yet to sell a stock (!). He is an investor. Me on the other hand, I trade. I'm looking at 8-16 week gains and I'm out and into something else unless it is a really stellar performer. For me stellar would be 20% gain in 8 weeks.

Hi! not too many traders left, i think
.
week ending 8-10-11 stock mutual funds had $30 Billion in outflows. Ouch!
.
my pick is in a coma. closed at 7.01, range 7.00-7.20

[Matt Gruber]

looks like i'll get 3.4%, the consolation prize
they missed on all the numbers
Q4 eps .06
sales 74m
div up 1 cent/q to 6x4= .24/yr
3.4% is better than $ in the bank and will have many chances for cap. gains.
Q1 report is due in just 2 months. Just in time for the october meltdown i expect

[Matt Gruber]

Since i think long term oil prices will be higher, i want a stock that pays more dividends when oil is high. So i'm reading about ultra deepwater drilling rigs. They cost over $600 million each and lease for $190,000 to 500,000 per day. That high price was back in '07 when there was a shortage of rigs. Now it is back around $200,000/day.
Some of the rig stocks pay a high dividend, one paid 75 cents/share in the last Q. If oil goes below ~45/bbl that div could be cut or eliminated, but gas would be cheap at the pump. If oil goes way high, the div would go way up, helping to pay my gas bill. I'll have to wait and see some good news about the economy as oil is in a clear downtrend now causing the stock price to drop. But it is tempting with a 10% yield!
It would be great to have some income pegged to higher gas prices!

[JoePorting]

I'm a bear on just about everything. I think gold is getting ready to crash. It'll be the next bubble. Will probably go down to $400. The US stock market is looking alot like the Japanese stock market. If you put $40,000 in the Nikkei in 1990, you'd have $8,719.24 today.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EN225 ... z=l&q=l&c=

Not to good of a return for 21 years. And note the long term trend is downward. I think US stocks are going to trend downward over the next 15 years. I think stocks in general are just a big ponzi scheme. Gambling at it's best.

I think real estate is getting close to a bottom. I'd save my cash and get into some rentals in the next few years. It's the only place I've ever made money. I got out in 2005, so my timing was pretty good. Anytime an asset is going up 30%+ a year, you know there's a train wreck at the end. And real estate is good cover if the dollar becomes worthless.

[Matt Gruber]

Joe
Y'r too optimistic
Bubbles create jobs, and we r running out of bubbles!
The mother of all bubbles is the sovern debt bubble.
Great stories in history starting with the tulip bubble in Holland.
Just got a letter from the property appraiser for Volusia county. 5 yrs ago 85% of deed transfers had a mortgage. For 2010 is just 6%. not a misprint, six % !
Stocks were a great dot.com bubble, now, like RE, stocks are just like rental property, u get the dividends with hope for a gain someday.

[Matt Gruber]

i'm out in 12 days. i'm happy to make 1% considering the weak earnings. Thanks to the 2 day rally.
and since my MM account only pays 1% APY, it is not so bad. The return of my $ makes it available for my next guess.
i'll be listening to the conference call of pick #2 tomorrow at 10am. Hopefully they will miss the analyst guess of .45 and it will drop. unless this is a 3 day rally