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| Hello, new to investing, a few questions. |
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| Alkaid |
 Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 3:21 pm Post subject: Hello, new to investing, a few questions. |
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New Poster
Joined: 20 May 2007
Posts: 3
This Month: 0
6722.36 e$
Net worth: 6,722.36
Portfolio Value: 0.00
Monthly Return: 0.00%
Trades this month: 0
Churn Rate: 0.00%Items
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I wanted to try and learn something and the stock market has always interested me. Having no business background whatsoever is making it a tad difficult to start. To begin, I've read a few things online and eventually I took a look at a stock quote and placed questions next to certain items:
Last Trade: 55.56 // Is this basically the closing price for the day?
Trade Time: May 18
Change: Up 0.51 (0.93%) // Is this change weekly/monthly/annually?
Prev Close: 55.05 // Yesterday's Close?
Open: 55.27
Bid: N/A // Why is the Bid N/A?
Ask: N/A // Why is the Ask N/A?
1y Target Est: 64.67 // Is this 1yr target est. for Dec 31 or 1 year from now?
Day's Range: 55.27 - 55.82
52wk Range: 37.24 - 56.09
Volume: 723,000
Avg Vol (3m): 1,010,520 // What does the 3m in brackets mean?
Market Cap: 55.66B // Market Cap?
P/E (ttm): 56.12 // P/E?
EPS (ttm): 0.99 // EPS?
Div & Yield: 0.20 (0.40%) // Div & Yield?
I've read about what bid / ask is and I saw a stock quote where the value (Is it called the value?) of it is around 55, the bid at 31, and the ask at 70. With such a large difference in bid/ask, how does one make a profit at all? Buying at 70 and selling at 30 doesn't seem very exciting, is it this 'Dividend' word I've been seeing a lot of? I don't know what it means nor how it works.
While browsing fool.com, I learned about what brokers do. In a comparison table of brokers, it shows Retirement Account (IRA) - $1000, what does this mean? I understand the concept of an IRA but i'm not sure how it works and what it is in relation to a broker (I'm in Canada if that makes a difference).
I've also read about Day Trading, apparently it's getting popular, I'd just like to know investor's thoughts here on day trading and if it's worth trying.
Lets assume that after a year and I get comfortable enough to start investing in stocks, is it just as simple as calling up a broker, making an account, and accessing their website to perform online transactions?
What is everyone's preferred method of choosing a stock to invest in? I've read about people using something called a discounted cash flow calculator.
I realize this is a long post and thanks in advance to anyone who replies with helpful information. I also just realized I could have split this post up into multiple topics with one question each for a lot more e$  . |
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| Im Not Warren Buffett |
| Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 3:33 pm Post subject: |
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CFO
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I'll go with "What is Sony (SNE) for $2000, Alex."
You've got a couple things here, so let me go line by line.
Last Trade - correct, right now it is the most recent close. During the trading day, it will be the most recently available price a trade took place at.
Change - this is daily.
Prev. Close - right.
Bid/Ask - could be showing this because the market is closed; for some stocks I've noticed it never really displays. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
1 yr. Target - This is the average analyst target price for the stock. Take with a spoonful of salt.
Avg. Vol. - The (3m) means it is the average daily volume over the last three months.
Market Cap. - This is how valuable the company is, according to the market. The formula is (shares outstanding x share price).
P/E - this is the Price/Earnings ratio, what people are paying for $1 of earnings for this company. I hate this ratio. See Problems with the P/E Ratio for more (two parts).
EPS - Earnings Per Share; or (Net Income over the last 4 quarters/shares outstanding)
Div. & Yield - The dividends (cash distributions) the company pays per share, yield is (cash dividends/share price).
Some advice:
Thou shalt not day trade. You don't stand a chance.  |
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| Alkaid |
| Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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New Poster
Joined: 20 May 2007
Posts: 3
This Month: 0
6722.36 e$
Net worth: 6,722.36
Portfolio Value: 0.00
Monthly Return: 0.00%
Trades this month: 0
Churn Rate: 0.00%Items
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| Quote: | Some advice:
Thou shalt not day trade. You don't stand a chance. Smile |
I'm learning mainly because I'll be entering into a university level business course in September. I thought it would be a nice idea to get a head start, I guess I should just wait for a qualified prof to teach it? I didn't think it would be that difficult to learn if I were to spend a month or so on it... |
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| Im Not Warren Buffett |
| Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 4:36 pm Post subject: |
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CFO
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| Alkaid wrote: | | Quote: | Some advice:
Thou shalt not day trade. You don't stand a chance. Smile |
I'm learning mainly because I'll be entering into a university level business course in September. I thought it would be a nice idea to get a head start, I guess I should just wait for a qualified prof to teach it? I didn't think it would be that difficult to learn if I were to spend a month or so on it... |
There is nothing wrong with learning, just make sure you are focusing your efforts in the right places. Nobody is going to be able to teach you to daytrade, because daytrading is not profitable - that is a myth fabricated by brokers to earn commissions, and out of people's vanity to believe they can predict what trillions of dollars of cash flows will do in any 8 hour period.
If you don't mind me asking, what kind of "university level business course" is this? If it is something like Corporate Finance, it won't teach you to trade, or even really how to invest. The skill set necessary to be an I-Banker is different than that necessary to be an investor. I think I could teach someone how to invest successfully if I had their undivided attention for a month, but trading? Not a chance - especially daytrading, which I consider to be the most pernicious of portfolio afflictions. |
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| Alkaid |
| Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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New Poster
Joined: 20 May 2007
Posts: 3
This Month: 0
6722.36 e$
Net worth: 6,722.36
Portfolio Value: 0.00
Monthly Return: 0.00%
Trades this month: 0
Churn Rate: 0.00%Items
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The course I'm taking will be at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. I'll be studying Biochemistry and Business co-op. It's apparently a very flexible program with graduates doing:
# Production Supervisor, Navistar International Corporation Canada
# Technical Sales Representative, Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc.
# Commercialization Management Fellow, Mount Sinai Hospital - Samuel Lunenfeld Research Insititute
# Project Coordinator, PDI Research Inc.
# Economic Analyst, Finance, City of Brampton
(Copy and pasted from their website)
The upper years seem to allow for a lot of electives as long as I choose some from the available business courses and some from the available biochemistry courses. So I thought it would be a good idea to see what side of business I like doing best before selecting my electives by dabbling in a bit of everything first. Some available programs in the Economics side of things are:
http://www.ucalendar.uwaterloo.ca/COURSE/course-ECON.html#ECON101
I probably should have mentioned I only read about two sentences that introduced the concept of daytrading, so I had no idea that it was complicated. Is investing and trading not the same thing? I was simply using the terms to refer to the buying and selling of stocks.
EDIT: Didn't want to double post, would someone mind answering some of the original unanswered questions? |
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