patrick.net

BAC and many of the other banks are only alive because of a fictional accounting and a captured political class. Buying them is simply gambling. I'd rather play roulette since I know the odd and payouts ahead of time.

If its money you can "afford" to lose then not the end of the world I suppose. But otherwise its best to stay away from stocks. If we truely down into a depression your not likely to win at all.

SFAce: I bought a boatload of RIG instead. 4B or 20% below book value and a company generating 1B in operating cash flow less Capex.
Still learning here as I nose around the balance sheets and cash flow statements. Bear in mind the 20% below book value (now down to 10% given the recent rise) includes intangibles (the largest being $8 billion of goodwill -- not written down at all since Macondo). Still having a hard time pulling out the cash flow above. The last quarter was not pretty as rental rates per day are down in many categories (due to competition). Also, utilization is down with a lower backlog. If business picks up, they should be able to capitalize on the opportunities. I guess that's the bet here... (also helps to buy out the competition as they appear to be doing today). Historically they've done well. Anything to add?

surfingerman says

thats what loosers say, as an investor i consider it my first and foremost job to identify fraud, thats part of the role of an investor aka investigator to weed out the scams from the legit deals, if you dont know how to identify fraud you have no business at all investing, sadly most individual investors don't have a clue

You can't catch and identify it all as a small investor. Fraud doesn't walk around with a sign, millions are usually spent covering it up. And you don't have millions to uncover it.

surfingerman says

thats what loosers say, as an investor i consider it my first and foremost job to identify fraud, thats part of the role of an investor aka investigator to weed out the scams from the legit deals, if you dont know how to identify fraud you have no business at all investing, sadly most individual investors don't have a clue

Perhaps you are playing big money and can afford to do forensic accounting. What businesses have you identified fraud in? Enron? WorldCom? Lehman? Bank of America?

surfingerman says

thats what loosers say, as an investor i consider it my first and foremost job to identify fraud, thats part of the role of an investor aka investigator to weed out the scams from the legit deals,

Most people don't have the time or aptitude to dig deep into financial statements. However, one should always read a few opinions from people who are Shorting the company prior to investing.

The shorts do more to bust Fraud than the SEC.

E-man says

EBguy, I hope you took profit on PBR.

I bought some PBR the other day. 66 cents/can, a bargain at twice the price. Then I drank it and day-traded some stock and made $1000. PBR is awesome.

stock in yourself, or a family member. Tuition, healthcare, job training, gym membership (make sure to use it!).

LINE and SBUX both look interesting to me today. Thanks for pointing those out E-man.

MPEL - Best Casino investment in Macau, most undervalued.

Another drop today. Keeping powder dry for reload soon though.

What about PSQ? Or any similar inverse ETFs? If we all believe the market is falling, why not try to take advantage of it?

I'm leery of inverse ETF for slow grinds down like this.
YMMV.

I put some retirement cash in the mREIT ponzis -- here's a good leverage chart. I can't help but feel this will end badly, but for now, there's cheap money.
I think some of you folks come from this school of investing. Name that investor:
“I’ve taken a whole different approach than most people in investing. I think buy and hold is a crock of *%&# (bleeped). I’ve always been of the attitude that unless you really have a commitment to something, just keep your money in cash … knowing that at some point in time, there’s going to be a week or two like we’ve just had.”

BeMeProtest says

What about PSQ? Or any similar inverse ETFs? If we all believe the market is falling, why not try to take advantage of it?

That works if you understand how inverse ETFs work. Most people do not. I have written about this in two prior discussions:

http://patrick.net/?p=617532#comment-757241
http://patrick.net/?p=880544#comment-750625

Inverse ETFs are absolutely not the same as a short and do not simulate a short except on a daily basis. They do not simulate a short over the long term, and high volatility, such as we are seeing now only makes them simulate a short more poorly. Unless you are day-trading, inverse ETFs or 2X or 3X ETFs may not make sense for you.

Wondering if you pulled the ripcord and bailed out of BAC and C?

Or are you averaging into them as they go down?

No still holding on...Governement won't let both fail at the same time.
Even if one of then gets out of the woods- I'm covered.
If both fail- I'll be unlucky.

I did buy RIG also ......and shold've bought SNY at 31 dollars.

okaaay Good....buffet invested in BAC today

had bought BAC a while ago, will hold off for a while now since Buffet bought it. When he gets it, it usually becomes main stream.

@Interesting that this BAC deal is not that great compared to the GE and GS deals. 6% dividend and 5% premium in shares buy back compared to 10% dividend and a strike price of $115 for GS and not sure about the strike price for GE.

Thanks again, E-man.

BAC-PL was selling for $500 in early 2009. I picked up some then, 14% dividend.

Later dropped to $300, LOL.

I'd say any oil related stocks might be a buy now since oil is town, and I suspect that it will shoot back up since there is no letup in demand from China.

"What are the best stock to buy today ?"

The only truthful answer: nobody knows.

Anything else is someone either trying to sell you something or trying to sell you on them being smarter than they really are.

Quantitative statistics back up my answer - not even debatable.

Like the last poster mentioned, no one knows what a particular stock will sell for in the short term because the market is an auction. I was going to sell a painting at Sothebys once. They said it was worth about $15,000. So, it's in the catalog and they have the auction but a few days before the dot.com bubble deflated, so no one bought it or much else. So, my painting was NOT worth what Sotheby's said. They offered to put it into the next auction for 1/2 of the original reserve.
As far as stocks in general, look around. The world runs on oil and capital. It also runs on food, transportation, drugs, and electronic gadgets. People ride around in cars, and like entertainment. Which companies succeed in the competition to provide these needs to a growing world appetite will probably go up in value or produce some dividends or both in the long term.
If I had to choose a stock today, among the last ones would be a badly managed company like B of A.
Generally I let Primecap Management worry about which stocks are good ones or not, but it's irresistable sometimes to buy Apple.

I am back in cash again. I'm going to sit out Labor Day most likely and see what happens next.

It's fun to look at old threads sometime .

I bought 500 shares of SJW earlier this week for $25.98 I think. I bought $300 shares of EWBC at $32.51, and 1,000 shares of ARR at $4.22.

I picked up 200 shares of SDRL for $33.01 recently when SFace mentioned about it. I'm looking to buy FEYE on a double bottom. I expect it to pull back to $27 in the near future. I intend to buy 200 shares of FB if it comes back down to $57. I intend to buy 20 shares of GOOG if it comes down to $525.

Been busy and haven't been paying too much attention to the stock market. When I closed on my apartment building in the next 3 weeks, I would be busy again.

I'm debating on submitting an offer on 1024 Hopkins Ave in Redwood City. It's a trophy building in my opinion. The reason I'm buying is because I can borrow money at 3% interest rate. Rents are $900/unit now, but I believe I can get $1,800/unit. I'm not buying it for cash-flow, but for pride of ownership. It will have a 4.5% - 5% cap rate after stabilized.

This thread is like asking someone; who makes the best car/truck? You first have to ask a few questions to figure out the (possible) answer. Are you in your 20s, 40s, in retirement? Risk tolerances? Trader or buy/holder?

If you are a long-term buy/holder of dividend paying blue chip stocks, I would say Coca Cola (KO), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), and Philip Morris (PM)...

The 3% dividend yield for KO will double to 6% in 7 years, will pay increasing, stable dividends that will outpace inflation. It's done it for decades, and I have a good feeling it will continue to do so for many more..