stocks stocks stocks.

[creamcash]

my friend messages me goes, "invest in this co Hydrogen corps."

he doesnt own any shares in stock, and i dont either. I been wanting to learn about stocks lately but people tell me to best start off with a grand and learn.

i was reading up on them but all these information doesnt make sense when i look at it. (maybe i should pick up a book instead )

can anyone tell me how they determine if they should invest or not? in my case with "HydroGen Corp. (HYDG)" what do you guys look for, etc.


im just learning guys. dont be too harsh on a newbie :]

[netstar]

Just did a quick check on that stock. At a price of $1.51, it's considered a PENNY STOCK. Any stock that sits below $5/Share is considered a penny stock. I would stay away from penny stocks like the plague!

I like to watch a few things.

1.) Is the stock in an upward or downward trend. We prefer the upward trend.
2.) Money flow trend. We want an upward trend. (Your stock is on its way out)
3.) Your gut. Do you feel 100% about this stock? How do you feel about the company? If you aren't 100%, don't waste your money.

I also like to watch the MACD and the slow stochastic lines to kinda guage when the stock is going to turn.

Personally, I would stay away from this stock, and go with something with some stability. Usually you will lose your tail when you mess with penny stocks. Also watch the movie "Boiler Room", you will get a pretty good outlook on some of these "too good to be true" stocks.

There are several good sites out there you can track stocks with. My favorite site for reading the charts is a website called bigcharts.com and use their interactive chart. My online broker has some pretty good info charts as well.

Hope this helps.

[jack1887]

read peter lynch's book "　one up the wall street"

[akula]

my friend messages me goes, "invest in this co Hydrogen corps."

he doesnt own any shares in stock, and i dont either. I been wanting to learn about stocks lately but people tell me to best start off with a grand and learn.

i was reading up on them but all these information doesnt make sense when i look at it. (maybe i should pick up a book instead )

can anyone tell me how they determine if they should invest or not? in my case with "HydroGen Corp. (HYDG)" what do you guys look for, etc.

im just learning guys. dont be too harsh on a newbie :]

ok...provided that you're not trading based on insider information, or as part of a market manipulation syndicate, scientifically speaking, there is no way to determine (with any useful or measurable degree of certainty) whether to "invest or not [in HYDG]". the reason for this is that changes in stock prices are random. in that sense, both the fundamental (financial statements) and the technical analysis (price trends) are useless.

scientifically speaking, the only correct and acceptable circumstance for buying into this security (or shorting it), is if the transaction forms part of a portfolio, in which case you're making bets on wider macroeconomic changes which are less random.

of note, i'm a licensed financial planner and you can be safe in knowing that what i'm telling you is correct, based on the science available at the moment

[creamcash]

wow thanks for replying. i didnt think anyone was willing to help :]. i guess i was more interested because it says recently they landed a deal with samsung, so i thought maybe they will grow? if that makes sense if you think in mind of a newbie.

[Gaulkin]

The information you got is considered pump and dump or hyped up whichever you prefer. This means he is hyping the stock in hopes you will buy into it so he has a market to dump on you. If he is a real friend i doubt he has any real information on a penny stock to begin with. As hydrogen goes, its a little early to be investing in it. If you want a green growth play go for first solar ticker "fslr" around $200 dollars.

ps. If your on the penny stock forums and you consider using any information anyone give you, don't. Everything on that forum is simply pump and dumps.

[jasaunders]

Before you start investing, you have to know what your goals are to form your investment strategy. Are you investing long-term for 50 years, 20 years, or short term for 5 years, 1 year, or 6 months? How much risk do you want to take?

As Daniel stated, the predictability of stocks is random. Current market theories suggest that stocks are always priced at exactly what they are worth. So for instance, with HYDG, if they announced some partnership with Samsung, the market has already taken that into consideration, you don't know about this information before the market does.

With limited experience and/or knowledge, take your time to learn how to evaluate stocks. In the mean time, if you want to invest, diversify your holdings as much as possible and start simple. Try investing in blue chips and ETF's. If you want to invest in green stocks, try green ETF's such as QCLN, PZD, PBD, GEX, PWB, or PUW. An ETF is essentially just a collection of stocks that trade under its own ticker symbol. Yahoo Finance has great information on stocks, ETF's and anything else about investing.

[GuyBBY]

All of the information stated thus far is very informative, helpful, and correct in its own way. While I am no financial advisor such as Daniel, I have my own personal experiences with Mutual Funds. I do not get into individual stock as much (under 10 companies in my portfolio), however I am very big on funds.

A few I started with in high school, and still have today, are the American Funds. They are great for long term growth and you can also get into emerging markets and international funds. Check out CIBBX, CAIBX, CWGBX, AEGBX, WSHBX along with some other bond/small cap funds like VSEBX, FDIVX, LLPFX, BGRFX, FCNTX, and PRWCX. All if not most of these have initial minimum investments of $250. These are ones I like for long term investing with solid consistent returns...typically to save for retirement, large expenses down the road (homes, college tuition for children, etc). There are many other funds out there for faster growth but with that comes risk obviously.

Ken Heebner has a great fund going with CMG Focus Fund. I recently got into that one, and while it has a higher initial investment, Heebner is infamous for beating the market.

Hope you find what you want to do, and either way, it is a very smart move to start early and let your money grow for you and compound over time...you'll be glad you did.

Guy

[clp11479]

To clear up this point, just because a stock is under $5 does not make it a penny stock. As an example, look at Rite Aid's stock (ticker RAD). The share price is $2.58/share but the company has a value of $2 Billion dollars (hardly a penny stock).

The stock you mention though is a penny stock. The company's Market Cap is $19.28 million. I would stay away from stocks with a market cap of $100 million or less as a rule of thumb (their share price can be more easily manipulated then a higher valued company).

Stocks are a tricky beast to master, because even if a stock is undervalued (HLYS is very undervalued in my opinion but the stock sits in the same price range... their market cap is less then their book value amazingly) it doesn't mean the stock price will go up.

Before investing I would do a lot of reading and then do some 'fake investments' where you pretend you had $10k and do some trades and track how you would have done and try to learn some things that way.

Just did a quick check on that stock. At a price of $1.51, it's considered a PENNY STOCK. Any stock that sits below $5/Share is considered a penny stock. I would stay away from penny stocks like the plague!

I like to watch a few things.

1.) Is the stock in an upward or downward trend. We prefer the upward trend.
2.) Money flow trend. We want an upward trend. (Your stock is on its way out)
3.) Your gut. Do you feel 100% about this stock? How do you feel about the company? If you aren't 100%, don't waste your money.

I also like to watch the MACD and the slow stochastic lines to kinda guage when the stock is going to turn.

Personally, I would stay away from this stock, and go with something with some stability. Usually you will lose your tail when you mess with penny stocks. Also watch the movie "Boiler Room", you will get a pretty good outlook on some of these "too good to be true" stocks.

There are several good sites out there you can track stocks with. My favorite site for reading the charts is a website called bigcharts.com and use their interactive chart. My online broker has some pretty good info charts as well.

Hope this helps.

[netstar]

To clear up this point, just because a stock is under $5 does not make it a penny stock. As an example, look at Rite Aid's stock (ticker RAD). The share price is $2.58/share but the company has a value of $2 Billion dollars (hardly a penny stock).

You are correct. I also did not mention that the company needs to be under the $500M mark. But generally penny stocks are under $5/Share. But of course I wouldn't touch Rite Aid, penny stock or not.

[BMX]

Just did a quick check on that stock. At a price of $1.51, it's considered a PENNY STOCK. Any stock that sits below $5/Share is considered a penny stock. I would stay away from penny stocks like the plague!

I like to watch a few things.

1.) Is the stock in an upward or downward trend. We prefer the upward trend.
2.) Money flow trend. We want an upward trend. (Your stock is on its way out)
3.) Your gut. Do you feel 100% about this stock? How do you feel about the company? If you aren't 100%, don't waste your money.

I also like to watch the MACD and the slow stochastic lines to kinda guage when the stock is going to turn.

Personally, I would stay away from this stock, and go with something with some stability. Usually you will lose your tail when you mess with penny stocks. Also watch the movie "Boiler Room", you will get a pretty good outlook on some of these "too good to be true" stocks.

There are several good sites out there you can track stocks with. My favorite site for reading the charts is a website called bigcharts.com and use their interactive chart. My online broker has some pretty good info charts as well.

Hope this helps.

Great Info!

[akula]

Before you start investing, you have to know what your goals are to form your investment strategy. Are you investing long-term for 50 years, 20 years, or short term for 5 years, 1 year, or 6 months? How much risk do you want to take?

That's right, as Josh has noted, stated financial objectives are important, and without these objectives, direct equities will most likely be an inappropriate product for creamcash.

For example, if creamcash has a balanced risk profile and is accumulating wealth to buy a house in 5-7 years, then speculating on stocks may not be the best alternative, and it may be be more effective to use dollar cost averaging, a personal loan and a margin, to leverage into a portfolio of tax effective, passive managed funds.

Likewise, on another hand, if creamcash has an aggressive risk profile and wants to try and meet his hurdle rate of a 300% return so he can go on a holiday in 12 months, again, direct equities may be inappropriate and he might be better off to think about trading derivatives instead.

Essentially, just because a friend might be buying into some bunch of crap, doesn't mean it's appropriate for you to do so because both of you guys will have different tolerance levels for risk and different financial objectives.

[Aletheides]

Akula, always dropping the premium knowledge on these stock threads - gotta love it, very interesting.

I had a stock phase when I was a kid, I would check the newspaper stock prices of my favorite companies and track the numbers. I decided to invest at one point, and it soon became my first loss of $125 when I was 12 - a cheap lesson learned at an early age.

IMO solid companies are a good bet for a long term investment strategy in stocks (retirement), but if you're looking to get rich off them in a few years it would probably be better to look at real estate or owning your own business.

But really, why would anyone want to tie up their capital with long-term stocks, especially this early in life? Considering a 10% annual return in stocks is GOOD, IMO there's much better opportunities out there with less risk. But to each his own.

Come to think of it, diversity is key so having some stock investments might not be a bad idea.

[creamcash]

thanks everyone that replied. i gues i should do an extensive amount of research and read before i jump into anything

[akula]

well...i'd be the first to support you on the whole analysis-paralysis thing, but the good news is that because of science, there really no more mystery on "what is the best way to invest in the stock market". Do the following;

Low risk option: use your savings to open up a wrap account with access to DFA funds and buy the whole portfolio. Expected rate of return: 10-20%. Min holding period: 5-7 years.

Med risk option: use your savings to take a 50% margin, open up a wrap account with access to DFA funds and buy the whole portfolio. Expected rate of return: 20-40%. Min holding period: 2-5 years.

High risk option: use your savings to take a personal loan, use it to take a 50% margin, open up a wrap account with access to DFA funds and buy the whole portfolio. Expected rate of return: 40-80%. Min holding period: 1-2 years.

If you follow any of these strategies, your chances of outperforming all other investors with comparable risk profiles will be about 90%, with the remaining 10% accounted for by random error and illegality. And that's a fact.