Dear Yreka,
You're very welcome; I am so glad that I could be of assistance to
you. Thank YOU for honoring me with a specific request for an
"opinion."
As to your other question, I am not a particular scientific sort. No
"Day Trader" here, with crawls of stock quotes running on the bottom
of my screen. I take a very simple approach in the stocks that I like
for the long term. They are companies with whom I am familiar, I hope
to have made an informed judgment when I initially purchase the stock,
and I am not particularly interested in getting out of them. I
participate in their dividend reinvestment plans and try to accumulate
shares over time. I suppose the professionals would refer to this as
portfolio dollar-cost averaging, but to me it is using a simple method
to allow me to do what I need to do most: devote time to my family and
my profession.
There are more security market theories out there than Carter’s has
Little Pills – and to greater and lesser degrees, I’m sure they all
have their advantages. But one defender of the Buy and Hold philosophy
explains it thus:
This philosophy maintains that it is far better to purchase a
well-chosen portfolio of stocks and to hold them for a period of time,
rather than "playing the market." This helps eliminate emotional
investing and the temptation to buy and sell for various reasons that
an investor cannot control: the volatility of the stock market,
interest rates, inflation and the overall economy, political
elections, or the latest investment fad. This philosophy requires an
investor to have patience and discipline while focusing on the future
prospects of the companies rather than looking only for short-term
appreciation. This approach has the potential to reward investors over
the long term while allowing them to be less concerned with the
day-to-day fluctuations of the market. http://www.janneys.com/uit/
(Thanks to the folks at Janney Montgomery). Here is a site that takes
exception to the buy and hold thing:
http://www.turtletrader.com/buyandhold.html
A good mutual fund is always a nice thing to be into as well,
particularly when one is not inclined to spend lots of time, doesn’t
have lots of bucks, or doesn’t have the detailed knowledge (or desire
to obtain it) as to the market forces, portfolio structuring,
liquidity analysis, etc. The problem these days is that there are SO
many of them that fund selection becomes a challenge. I don’t think it
appropriate for me to suggest any of my favorites, but there are
plenty of websites that discuss them:
http://www.mutual-funds.com/mfmag/ ; http://www.morningstar.com/ ;
http://www400.fidelity.com/ just to mention a very few (great way to
start an argument: begin comparing mutual funds with various people
: )
TV shows? Not much of a fan. Years ago I was a big fan of Louis
Rukeyser’s Wall Street Week on PBS (until he was unceremoniously
kicked off the air – and landed at CNBC, but that’s another story):
http://www.rukeyser.com/home/home.asp - of course there are many other
shows between Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/ ), CNBC
(http://moneycentral.msn.com/cnbc/tv/default.asp ) , CNN and CNNfN
(http://money.cnn.com/ontv/ ), FOX Money
(http://home.foxinternet.net/money/ ) , and the networks.
The only advice that I want to give you that is truly meaningful: Put
your money where you can be comfortable for the long term. Years ago
I let someone talk me into putting money into a number of savings and
loans that offered tremendous returns. I forgot the old adage that “if
it’s too good to be true, it probably is” and I plugged my savings
away into some Texas S&Ls. The good news is that I was able to get my
money out. But as the S&L scandals were unfolding in the late 1980’s
and my money was plugged into them, there were plenty of sleepless
nights. The returns were NOT worth it.
Keep it simple. Be confident. Be careful.
Look at well established firms with solid reputations. Your Pepsico
idea is an example of a well established firm with a solid reputation.
Thanks for posing your question to me. I appreciate it very much. And
thank you too for using Google Answers!
Best,
weisstho-ga
Search Strategy:
mutual funds
buy and hold
(various news organizations) |
