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Stock, Wall Street Up

Wednesday, March 7th, 2007

I think a huge sigh went out over all of Wall Street and the financial world with the gains posted today. The Dow Jones Index, NASDAQ and S&P 500 all showed gains of over 1% with the NASDAQ almost 2% up. After more of a sell-off on Monday following the correction of February 27, doom and gloom was casting a pall over the street.

Personally I saw 2 of my own personal stock holdings jump back and give life back to my portfolio. Goldman Sachs (GS) was up 3.88% (197.37) after dropping to 190 just a couple trading days prior. I am still down overall on the stock, but i cannot pass up its P/E of under 10. Last Friday after a sell-off I built more of a position and by Monday afternoon I began to have some second thoughts.

My other poor performing stock is the New York Stock Exchange (NYX). It has figuratively killed me since I bought it. A couple weeks back I had faith after it had another big drop so I built a position in by doubling up. The end of yesterday I was down almost 16% on a cost basis–not good. Therefore, today’s skyrocket of over 7% was a welcomed sight. Wednesday and the several days following will be telling as 24.6 million shares of former seat holders become active. I am crossing my fingers even though I do believe that the company is financially solid.

Hopefully the volatility will wane so we can return to a more stable stock market.

Posted in Investing, Stock Market, Stocks | No Comments »

Stock GOOG and Stock AAPL

Tuesday, March 6th, 2007

Google (GOOG) stock is on my watch list for my retirement accounts. Its 52-week high was in the 510 range and now it is hovering around 440–about a 14% drop. Many claim Google has nothing but upside and I see little reason that it cannot rebound and gain at least 10% in the next few months.
The problem is the stock market has been volatile lately and it had disappointing growth last earning report. Yahoo! finance stock is making an effort to catch up to GOOG stock and this could be a drag on Google as well.

Apple (AAPL) stock is currently in my retirement account portfolio. It was in the $95 range after the announcement of the iPhone. Then lost steam quickly and dropped to 85, where I purchased it. This week AAPL stock was volitile and on Thursday it was up over 4% at one time during that day. I see Apple having a lot of upside. I think it can easily get back to 95 and in the next 6 months possibly $115.

These Wall Street stocks have tremendous upside potential, but Wall Street needs to calm down from last week’s trouble in order to get a clear picture of where these two stocks, and more are going.

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Personal Finance Education Websites

Sunday, March 4th, 2007

Many people want to learn more on personal finance and investing, but do not know where to start. Websites like this one and other personal finance sites are great tools. I also wanted to let you know of other resources available to get you up-to-speed on a wide variety of financial topics.

I would recommend watching Mad Money for investing. He is one of the few who will go step-by-step to help you invest smarter. This can buttress a general investing education you can get from doing some homework. Obviously, there are loads of investing books so look around and see what others have to say about it.

These are from from the only options available. You can easily go to Kiplinger, Money, Smartmoney, Yahoo! Finance, Google Finance, etc. These are all informative and can hold your hand until you get the hang of certain topics you might not have mastered yet.

These are great personal finance education websites to start. Ask around and get people’s opinions on what sources to use. I would recommend using as many reliable sources as possible. It is not easy, but we all want to do better with our money.

Posted in Banking, Budgeting, Credit Cards, Healthcare, Household, How To, Insurance, Investing, Real Estate, Retirement, Stock Market, Stocks, Taxes | No Comments »

Stock Market Uncertainty

Friday, March 2nd, 2007

The stock market has been behaving erratically this week and do not think that it will stop soon. When the market has a day like it did on Tuesday the herd of Wall Street takes notice as well as the casual investor.

Cool heads prevail. Do not panic and consider this an opportunity to buy some stock at a discounted price. You will need to do your homework in order to determine which stocks are the right ones. High dividends and day-to-day needs will lead the way. The high yield comforts the blow of a downturn in the market and people still need toothpaste no matter what the economy is like.

I feel fortunate that I had about 1/3 in cash. I was nervous about the market because I was slightly negative on the it back in June of 2006. I also invested much of my funds in Altria (MO) and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B). Altria (MO) has a 4.0% yield and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) is Warren Buffet’s horse and I felt comfortable with him at the helm.

In the next several days I will need to decide if it is time to increase some positions and take advantage of the lower prices.

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Stock Market Plummets: Don't Panic

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007

I know it is difficult to keep cool when the stock market goes down over 3% in a day and many stocks dropping over 6%. However, if you are an investor you have to see this as an opportunity, not a crisis.

Unlike many terribly bad days in the stock market this day was caused by internal glitches in the actual trading system.Â Of course, China’s stock market going down 9% in a day off its all-time high had reverberations. Keep in mind that many economic figures are positive and the day was nothing like 20 years when the stock market lost over 22% in one day’s trading.

The market will probably go further down today, but if you begin toÂ build a position in any stock in the long run you have a good chance of making money.

I know last June I thought the stock market was due for a correction, but I do not necessarily think this was what I was predicting.Â I thought it would because of poor economic numbers combined with a world crisis.

Small Caps: 10 Fastest Growers

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

Picking individual small cap stocks are a dangerous road to go down.Â

They are small companies that have do not have the track record that many larger cap stocks will have.Â
Their earnings fluctuate more than other capitalization stocks.
There is more risk which means you can lose a lot of money

Â However . . .

More risk means more potential for big rewards
Speculating can be more fun than S&P 500 stocks
They are not covered much by Wall Street so it is easier to get in on the ground floor

Check out this link for IBD’s top 10 small cap growers:Â

http://biz.yahoo.com/special/ibd022607.html

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Wall Street to Open Higher

Monday, February 26th, 2007

Early reports have the stock market moving higher this morning.Â Eli Lilly and Merck will lead the charge on FDA approval of an anti-depressant drug for Lilly and an upgrade from Citigroup from hold to buy.

Posted in Investing, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Mutual Funds Tailored for Your IRA

Friday, February 23rd, 2007

It is nearing the April 16th deadline to max out your 2006 IRA limits so you need to consider what your strategy will be for the investments you make.

Consider these points when investing:

Retirement usually means a long investment time-horizon
You IRAs are not the place to be speculating
Diversification and rebalancing are essential to your retirement portfolio
Fees can eat up returns of your investments
Max out your IRAs because the longer you have money invested the more time coupound interest takes effect with the Rule of 72.

Kiplinger has some interesting ideas on mutual funds that go hand-in-hand with your IRA.

Posted in Investing, Retirement | No Comments »

Retirement Planning: 2006 Roth IRA Contributions

Wednesday, February 21st, 2007

My wife and I have been distracted lately with kitchen cabinets being installed. Corian kitchen and bathroom counter tops and hardwood floors being installed and sanded. However, we are aware that we have until April 17, 2007 to complete our Roth IRA contribution for fiscal year 2006. The contribution limit is $4,000 each and my wife has already contributed $2,000 directly to an international value mutual fund while I have contributed about $1,250 to a small cap growth mutual fund. So we have about $3,750 left to contribute to our Roth IRAs.Â

The plan is to wait until April until we do our contributions. We plan to do this for a couple reasons:Â

1) Our current available cash is being tied up in home improvement projects andÂ

2) I want to wait and see what the stock market is going to do in the next couple months. There is still part of me that is very concerned about the stock market and I think any day it could begin a move downward. Obviously, I cannot time this if it does occur, but since our money is tied up I thought it was a wise retirement planning investment strategy.Â

The probable scenario for investment choices will be that my wife will deposit $2,000 into her Scottrade Roth IRA account when we have enough of a safety net in cash. Then that $2,000 will go toward an individual stock that looks undervalued at the moment. My $2,750 would be contributed directly to a couple mutual funds. One will be an international growth mutual fund and $1,750 will go into that asset class. The remaining $1,000 will go into a real estate mutual fund. I think both of these investments are solid no matter what happens in their own asset class and I see them doing well in the short-to-mid-term (I only invest in mutual funds that have excellent long-term track records–so the long-term performance is a give for me).Â

If we have enough cash in our savings we will begin our 2007 Roth IRA contributions, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.Â

Posted in Investing, Real Estate, Retirement | No Comments »

Solar Power Stocks

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

Going “Green” these days does not mean more expense and no-profit. With the popularity of Al Gore’s An Unconvenient Truth in addition to respected New York Times columnist, Tom Friedman’s twice weekly primers on how to make “Green” the next “Red, White and Blue,” this has gone from tree-huggers to mainstream. Many business’ are riding this wave of popularity and solar power is one aspect of the new “Green” economy.
Investor’s Business Daily has a great article listing some top solar power stocks.