The Stock Market and Investing

fintail

The worst part is listening to a German about American infrastructure. It's truly embarrassing.

I hope that brave hero Boehner leads the country to default in order to avoid a system similar to what is used in all developed world competitors. What a wonderful man, a statesman, scholar, and gentleman. The GOP are going to have a very easy time in the next elections.

fintail

Maybe institute tax policies closer to other nations (all legitimate developed world competitors) and have a Praetorian class on a scale with them, too. I can assure you that ACA money would fall from the sky.

I don't know about having "something" made in HK, what is this "something", and in what conditions is it made? Right across the border in our social and environmental criminal "partner"? If free trade was fair trade, the compensating fees on that transaction wouldn't make it so appealing.

kyfdx

He has a nice tan, and can cry at the drop of a hat.. what more do you want?

anthonyp

I think---if you don`t have to pay commissions, then just start to make some buys , maybe twenty percent at a time good luck Tony

kyfdx

That money is in a rollover IRA at Vanguard..... so, will probably just buy into the S&P 500 index fund... as you note, about 20% at a time..

anthonyp

Starting now :-) t

ljflx

Did anyone catch 60 Minutes last night? The story about disability fraud in this country was incredible. I knew it was bad but it's much worse than anything I expected. The lack of job creation in this economy, which is a driver of the disability fraud is also worse than anything I expected but with Obama i should expect the abysmal by now. If you missed the show i recommend trying to download it or see it on the internet.

imidazol97

There was a 3 page discussion on this that I read yesterday and I can't find it. Here's a USA story about the 60 minutes and the hearings held yesterday on the fraud involved. Hearings on Disability Fraud

One problem is that going on disability SSI after your 2 years of unemployment insurance has been a benefit to the reporting of the falsely lower unemployment due to people not being counted because now they are on the disability dole, 50% of which are undeserved based on the congressman's information.

There are attorneys specializing in this, so that's a hint it's not right. The trick is to not respond to a denial of claim within the certain number of days. Instead go see an attorney if you haven't had one from the start. They know exactly how to word the application. If you respond to the denial, you probably set up a permanent denial. This is what people I know did after the wife's 2 years of unemployment ran out. So she's collecting SSI till she becomes eligible for SS.

Minor neck discomfort was the diagnosis. The real problem is she couldn't find a job due to her age and discrimination.

This is why the SSI program goes bankrupt in 15 months.

fintail

I suspect much of the mobility scooter and similar industries is connected to that, too. An old family friend has fought cancer, and spent some time at clinics, where she talks to many people. She has many stories of people having these things almost forced upon them, at no cost to them. Where does it come from?

robr2

One of the biggest companies in the industry - The Scooter Store - announced in September they were shutting down after more scrutiny by the Justice Dept.

Back in 2005 they settled with Justice for getting seniors to get Medicaire to pay for a chair and then upgrade them. In 2011, they were cited for improperly billing the government between $47 and $88 million.

robr2

...FB was downgraded by Raymond James from a strong buy to a buy while at the same time raising it's price target from $38 to $56. Stock is down 5% at the moment.

Results are to announced 10/30. Analysts expect revenue up, GP up, sales up.

I feel this is just a little bit manipulative by the financial industry.

fintail

I can believe it. The smalller companies play the same game too, no doubt. I suspect a lot of similar machines are "sold" the same way.

The company will "shut down", will be interesting to see where the execs with their unearned fortunes and unpunished crimes end up. Selling adjustable chairs and craftmatic beds to aging boomers?

ljflx

It ran up too fast so it'll get manipulated as a result. I'm not sold on FB holding this high a valuation. There's a lot of threat from Twitter as it gets a lot more industry buzz for obvious reasons ranging from famous person tweets to real time tweets on TV shows among others. One stock I hold is Nielsen (NLSN) simply because it's my industry and I know it so well. I've had it since near it's IPO at $25. They are now measuring Twitter TV. Basically they measure all tweets about TV shows and see what effect it has on future broadcasts and downloads. This is an important thing for Twitter because it makes them part of the currency for TV ad placement and it will probably extend into product placement on TV shows, which has rapidly expanded in the last 5 years. Just look how the luxury auto brands get their cars into TV shows. Last I checked Nielsen does not do this with FB, so this gives Twitter a nice lift and with it's IPO (BTW the prospectus for Twitter was agog with influence on TV) there is probably going to be plenty of money exiting FB and going into Twitter IMO.

circlew

This reminds me of Yahoo vs. Google back after the internet bubble burst. Google executed far better than Yahoo, the bigger of the 2 at the time.

Google best the pants of of Yahoo... and AOL.

ljflx

Reminds me a bit of radio and TV too. But the roles are reversed. Twitter is radio, FB is TV. But it's the Twitter radio like product that may well best the FB TV like product in a role reversal. FB seems to be more about posting pix, talking about a daytrip etc. Twitter is much more real-time and trendy for the media industry and as such seems to be a much bigger (and fastly growing) part of the media industry than FB. It'll extend into politics as well and start to be measured as part of the political polling and influence. Sky's the limit for Twitter IMO.

robr2

A good article I read this week compared Facebook at it's IPO and Twitter today.

Although Twitter has a tremendous potential upside, it has some glaring issues:

FB had ten times the revenue of Twitter the quarter before it's IPO.

Twitter's revenue growth line is linear - FB's was/is exponential.

FB added 480 million in the 2 years prior to and had 845 active monthly users at IPO - Twitter is at 218 million with only 100 million in the past 24 months. WhatsApp, FB and even Yahoo are adding more users than Twitter right now.

FB was profitable at IPO - Twitter lost money even though it tripled revenue last year.

FB had zero mobile revenue at IPO - Twitter gets 65% of it's revenue from mobile. Facebook had that entire arena to grow - Twitter doesn't.

Twitter makes most of it's money on ads. FB has revenue from ads and gaming.

Twitter tends to heat up during big events. FB is more stable.

No doubt that Twitter will be a hot stock when it does go public. But IMHO, it's not going to replace FB.

BTW - did you hear about the growth of Tweeter Home Entertainment (TWTRQ)? It's a penny stock that jumped from 5 cents to 13 cents on the news that Twitter (TWTR) had filed IPO paperwork. Some people should stay out of the market.

cyclone4

Here is something that is not fishy. It looks like a new Apple Event is on tap for October 22nd.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101096743?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cheadline%7Cheadline%- 7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=101096743%7CApple+will+reveal+new+iPa

anthonyp

I hope you got the Vanguard fund (twenty percent) the other day.....Apparently some people think it will be next week before an agreement is reached.....If the market pulls back , it might be a good idea to get another twenty percent.....That would leave you sixty percent to invest if there were no agreement, as I would think the market would easily give back the three hundred points it added `on` yesterday....Again Good Luck Tony

kyfdx

I didn't .. .that's the thing with mutual funds... you have to commit to purchase, and then you get the closing price, that day.. so, hard to pull the trigger..

Haven't really seen the pullback I'm looking for, yet.. might not get in with big amount.. Might have to just start dribbling it in over a couple of months, if it doesn't happen that way..

anthonyp

I`m sorry

When no one knows what is going on, you need to take advantage of the uncertainty....It is a pain not to be able to take advantage of your instincts during the day, and I have observed mostly a slight firming on the close ---most days--never the less- buying twenty percent , to thirty percent at a time still eventually gets you in...:-)

I`m hopeful that next week we have a good selloff and I WILL be a buyer....right on down :-) good luck Tony

anthonyp

What a pathetic performance.....We need some politicians, like in the old times Tony

slorenzen

What does it mean to you?

http://investmentwatchblog.com/must-watch-chase-bank-prepares-for-bank-runs-limi- ts-cash-withdrawals-50k/

robr2

As yes - a good old infowars.com story.

Chase has sent these letters out to account holders of their lowest tier checking and savings accounts advising them some features are no longer available and to contact the bank for an account that did.

houdini1

Then we should enforce term limits and stop re-electing these crooks.

We can't avoid being sucker punched one time, but if we let it happen multiple times, it is our own fault.

houdini1

I have no idea why anyone (except a multi-billion dollar company) would do business with a giant bank like this.

tlong

I have no idea why anyone (except a multi-billion dollar company) would do business with a giant bank like this.

Agreed. After the big bank bailouts I moved all of my business from Chase to a credit union. I wish everybody would do the same.

I get better service, I can use tens of thousands of ATMs all over the world, I am reimbursed for any non-network ATM fees, and I pay no fees. It's a win-win.

robr2

I have no idea why anyone (except a multi-billion dollar company) would do business with a giant bank like this.

Convenience, familiarity, branches nationwide....

My in-laws are with B of A only because it was easy for them when they had two residences - no matter where they were, there was a local branch. Now they are down to one but stay with B of A because they feel it's too much of a hassle to change.

I was with a local bank that became a huge east coast bank through a series of acquisitions. I'm still there because they have lots of branches, are open late and Sundays and have simple accounts that meet my needs. I work with two other banks (one for my business and the other for a NFP) and both those banks are pretty inconvenient to deal with - close at 4 PM, have refused to accept checks for deposit because the checks were not made out exactly to the name on the account, et al. I stick with them because they are cheap to deal with few requirements for balances.

cyclone4

"What a pathetic performance.....We need some politicians, like in the old times"

Tony, I'm sure to get blasted by some here, but to me, THE main reason for all this crap is because of the Tea Party extremists. I think that if these extremists would get their way, we would have anarchy in this great nation. To me they are the root of all evil. Here is a story quoting a Republican on his thoughts about the Tea Party.

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/16/gop_congressman_smacks_down_tea_party/

Kirstie_H

If you want to get into party politics, I can point you towards some good sites.
Hint: none of them rhyme with stedmunds.com.

fintail

If I could recommend your post, I would.

Some will opine that it doesn't relate to the topic at hand, but it does. Some groups have the power, for better or worse, to influence markets and all of our holdings. Some groups do real damage to the economy, and some members of some groups no doubt hope for collapse in order to say "told ya so" or finally be able to use silver dimes to buy loaves of bread. Luckily, it aint gonna happen.

cyclone4

I beg to differ with you but there have been countless political discussions here by many posters the past year or so basically bashing Obama and I stayed out of these discussions. Was that not political? Why were they allowed? And now since I point out that the major problem in Congress is the Tea Party, you will not allow a discussion? That seems unfair to me. Besides, what has been happening in Congress the past few weeks is very relevant to the economy.

gagrice

(Reuters) - Google Inc shares were set to open at an all-time high near $1,000 after the search engine giant reported a surge in mobile and video advertising that helped drive quarterly revenue up 23 percent.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/18/us-google-results-idUSBRE99G17Z2013101- 8

houdini1

Yes, there have been political discussions here in the past, and just like this one, you started most of them. Please listen to Kirstie's advice and take your offensive political rhetoric somewhere else.

Kirstie_H

I'll paraphrase from a popular piece of literature:
We hold these truths to be self-evident: threads created specifically to blame or bash a political party never go well, and result in Kirstie spending needless extra clean-up time.

Call it self-preservation if you will.

Of course there are going to be mentions of elected officials from time to time, as they hold the power over the economy to some extent. There's a difference in these mentions in context, as opposed to any thread created to start a discussion that could basically be re-titled, "Don't you think we should all blame party x for our problems?" The thing is, when people start these threads, they go very badly the moment someone else disagrees with the stated premise. This applies regardless of which person or party is the subject of said thread.

Let's move on.

cyclone4

I will say one final thing and that's it. It is not true that I started "most" political discussions on this forum and everyone knows that. I don't think I started any in the past couple years. For example, just in the past couple weeks there was a discussion started about the shutdown and there was a bashing of Obama and Obamacare. I did not even make one solitary comment on that discussion. Even in this latest one, I commented (along with a link) on Tony's topic ("Congress") and I did not start it.

carnaught

The political rhetoric shows one thing very well. We are more split than ever, I think, since the Civil War.

On the stock market front, how 'bout Chipotle stock today!

gagrice

I see that. Chipotle (CMG) is on the same hot stock watch as GOOG. Amazon is up over 5% as well. Overall the market is rather lackluster.

I agree on the huge divide in this country. I don't see it improving either. Very little tolerance on either side. All I am hearing is "My Way or the Highway" from all parties involved.

houdini1

We should be able to discuss politics here without getting "nasty" about it.

Yes, we do have a sharp divide in our politics and in our country right now and it seems there is little or no middle ground for compromise. If the Pope says there is a God and the atheist says there is no God, there is just no way to compromise. You just have to live with both positions.

anthonyp

Well Charlie, I`m sorry if I somehow brought attention to a subject we both generally agree on......My comment is that I wish the elected people would act as politicians of old----make deals and compromise--

It would seem to me that over the years we as a group have come to recognize that the `political` winds from Congress have a larger and larger impact on the economy...and if we are trying to shed some light on our investments, and help each other along this `dusty` road a person should try and do their best.....

Unfortunately Kristy has alot more experience on keeping things on track, and reading the responses that quickly originated from my post , she is right....again I`m sorry as I was venting my own frustration with what recently happened....

Read about what some of the people have experienced, the places like the mountains of N C and the `fall` tourist trade that were impacted by the closing of the `parks` etc....A shame and my heart goes out to them Tony :-)

cdnpinhead

diverse and tolerant group here, I think.

My politics are somewhere to the right of Atilla the Hun,and I find this board worthwhile, even though it's mostly Apple-related.

As with many of the other long-term Edmunds boards, the regular participants here are extremely civil.

cyclone4

Tony, there is no need to apologize. You did absolutely nothing wrong.

ljflx

Can't happen under today's situation Tony. Obama is trying to destroy the Republican Party and with the MSM totally behind him he can constantly take a my way or the highway approach. The tea party has figured out that the only way to stop it is to bring us to a situation that none of us want to see - a default on our obligations. So Obama better start negotiating because very bad things happen when you try to stomp folks out of existence. History will show him and the Dems in power during a default and that will set the Dems way back. It's a very dangerous game being played. As for Obama - most incompetent president ever IMO.

Man did I ever miss the boat on Google. But I'm not going to complain. My mutuals are up 33% this year. I'll pull back out of the market in January when we approach the next default deadline or if I sense a correction. Given the mild setbacks before the latest government negotiations I don't see a correction in the offing short term.

anthonyp

I swear it appeared to me that the Republicans did this to them selves.....Living here in S C, I think this is ground zero for the Tea Party, and there are many points that they have that I agree with, along with the more moderate Republicans, which represent me --just as the more conservative Democrats do....My point was that I think both parties should be like the politicians of long age......If we are both hungry, lets both eat :-) not just you or me...

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I was getting a new car...The Mercedes only comes with the larger engine for now, and I can`t see getting the Porsche Panorama with a twenty five thousand dollar battery.. I was just about to get the bmw with a diesel engine, but went for a test drive in the Ford Fusion.......Man what a surprise ...it drove almost as comfortably as my audi, and deathly quiet.....I ended up leasing one for two years, as I just couldn`t trust my good fortune.......I know this is hard to believe, but not counting the electricity I charged the car with, I drove eight hundred fifty miles, to the mountains and back with two weeks of driving around up there and a bit down here....All in all I used fifteen gallons of gas for an average of over fifty five miles per gallon.....I drove at eighty as usual, and nothing different than I usually do.....No exaggeration ....:-) I haven`t thought to mention this as it is such a non event, but now after using the car there is a huge change coming to the auto industry, and it isn`t diesel Tony

cyclone4

"but went for a test drive in the Ford Fusion.......Man what a surprise"

Wow Tony! That is a big surprise. Since I know very little about the Ford Fusion, which model did you get? I see that prices range from $22,000 for the basic non hybrid to $40,500 for the Fusion Energi Titanium that has a gas mileage rating of 108 in the city to 92 on the highway.

carnaught

Not sure what is super-charging appl., but I like it.

robr2

From the web:

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Societe Generale - Societe General upgraded Apple ahead of the October 28 report based on strong September data points. The firm said data over the past few weeks from Taiwan and China is strong driven by additional iPhone sales and indicates potential weakness in Android/Samsung handsets. The firm raised its iPhone unit forecast for the quarter to 34M from 30M and upgraded shares to Buy and raised its price target to $575 from $500.

cyclone4

Yes there has been this upgrade from Societe Generale, but that's just one excuse. The whole sentiment about Apple has changed in recent weeks. Remember when Apple was tanking even on good news? Well, in recent weeks it has been rallying even on supposedly "bad" news. Of course what the Street calls bad news is not always bad news. For example, they have been harping about the slowing demand for the 5C. In reality, even if that's true, who gives a crap when the demand for the higher priced 5S is fantastic?

robr2

Geeze relax.

Yes there has been this upgrade from Societe Generale, but that's just one excuse.

I wouldn't call it an excuse. It's the only reason that I could find that was out there.

tlong

Isn't it funny about these "recommendations"? When Apple was at 700 they were a buy. In the low 400's they weren't a buy. And now that they've gone up, they're a buy.

I always thought you were supposed to sell high and buy low!

anthonyp

In hind sight I wish I had just purchased it.....It is a Ford Fusion Energi , one step down from Titanium.....I could not get a titanium other than black inside....there was a large discount because it is a 13 model, like six thousand, then you could get back four thousand from the government...By leasing I missed the four thousand....but the lease enables me not to have to keep the car, if I didn`t like it....A couple of years ago I mentioned that I would like to try out the` battery engine` combination and thought it would be fun to drive one.....Well I got my wish...All my life I`v just had gas engines, other than a cadillac diesel (way back) ..this is a really well developed seamless driving experience....Cheapest radio, and way better than the Audi which I had to spend a couple of extra thousand for....Don`t misunderstand, the better European cars have substantially better interiors, but this is more than comfortable and nicely laid out......I`l keep you all updated in the coming months.......Tony