Strange fun

[otis_girl]

Anybody here plays with the stock market?

I always thought this would be hugely painful (like Math) and dull. But it’s actually as fun as gambling in Vegas - without the odds being with the house. :-)  I learnt about stocks about a year ago, and since I don’t have much money to invest, I keep buying and selling the same $1000 over and over, just

Comments

[avitania]

Congrats on your foray into the market. :)

My husband and I don't "play" the stock market, per se, we take it pretty seriously -- it's pretty integral into how we manage a chunk of our assets. With that said, I'm very bearish on the state of the market, and have been making more money these days shorting stocks (mainly in subprime lenders and other housing stocks). I've always been long on energy, though. :)

[otis_girl]

Well, playing doesn't mean I don't take it seriously. Playing with it is my way of getting familiar and comfortable with it, so when time comes to make serious investments, I'll be ready.

And talking about serious inv's, I'm about to enroll on my new company's 401k, and I'm studying the different funds options. Any particular thoughts on that? (As in which type of funds work better in the long term?)

You're buying subprimes??? I came across NEW recently, and almost bought it, until I read all the foreboding news... It dropped a huge percentage the very same day I almost bought it.

[avitania]

It's definitely a scary time to be in the market, so be careful! I'd expected the market to be a lot further down this morning than it actually is at this moment, but there's still quite a few hours left in the trading day. :)

I'm shorting and buying put options on subprimes, so it's not like I'm investing long-term in those -- I'm betting that those stocks are going to go in the shitter, so I'm making money as they go down. There's a lot of volatility in the market, and I don't think the worst is over yet, and not by a long shot. I'm not in NEW (though they had some "interesting" news this morning, and I should listened to my gut and bought puts on them a few months ago - they're down another 8% right now!), but I've got put options on FMT and CFC, and some on technology like DELL. As you get more familiar with the market, buying put options and shorting stocks become pretty interesting, so I'd take a look at that as you study if you haven't already

[avitania]

Wow, I'm going liberal on the use of smiley faces today, aren't I? Derrr.

That link for put options sucks. Here's a better one: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/put.asp