Nope...I took profits on COP. BP liabilities still scare me....

I did buy a couple thousand shares of T the other day at 32.19.

Looking at Kinder Morgan Energy Partners as a possible buy....been kinda beat up like T, but still makes money and pays a great dividend.

I am in a quandry about T.

I am really heavy on T, and while I'd like to pick up a few more shares, I'd hate for the stock to turn into an Enron someday, LOL.

I do think that BP could be a winner someday, IF they ever get the gulf spill settled and paid off. They know how to find oil and make money. I have a small stake in BP already at $43 and $45.

What do you think of VZ?

Where do you all find news about the stocks you are studying?

While I like Scottrade as a brokerage firm, their news is lame. "AEP, in conjunction with the Greater East Side Parks system, dedicated two new trees and planted them."

I want real, hard news about the stock and company, and as much heads up about any potential Enron as I can get, LOL.

So where do you go for real stock news?

Well dang it. I did it again....twice.

I bought T and had it for a couple weeks. It went up 5% and I sold it to bank my $4,000 profit. Of course, it went up another 5% after I sold!

Then I bought KMP. Held it 3 weeks and sold today and banked a $3,200 profit.

I bought both of these thinking that they had been beat up, and I would enjoy the nice dividend while I waited for them to go up. Both went up enough that I got what amounted to 6 to 12 months of dividend in a couple weeks, and I got weak-knee'd and dumped them.

I am just not cut out for saying no to a nice profit, while hoping for a huge profit.

Just watch and see what KMP does now that I got out today! :hysterical:

Warren Buffet I am not! :censored:

[QUOTE=tarbe;7030956]I am just not cut out for saying no to a nice profit, while hoping for a huge profit.
QUOTE]

Better to take a profit than to hold on thinking more profit is coming - only to be wrong and the stock drops!

I read the Clovis Report whenever I can.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am making less sense of this market as time goes on.

I am about 35% cash right now, and thinking I might increase my cash position.

I did move about 20% into gold and silver the last two weeks. I guess I am feeling nervous about equities in general. So many global geo-political risks, not to mention just the usual purely economic issues.

So that means you all probably should jump in with both feet, as I am backing out! :hysterical:

I'm definitely a buy and hold type of guy. I've studied Graham, Lynch and Buffett over the years, and I live by the "you make your money when you buy" mentality.

I can't predict the future, so the best thing to do, in my opinion is look for companies that have been around for ages, and have a solid history of growth, great management, low debt and strong name brand. I don't know what will be out there in 50 years, but I'd bet Coca Cola is still turning out cans of coke, and McDonalds will still be selling burgers and fries.

Slow and steady wins the race, and thanks to the market fluctuation and panic by the average investor, you can sometimes have great opportunities to pick up quality companies for dirt cheap (like in 2008-2009). When your able to make those buys, you can see very good returns. Buy quality and let the top tier management make you money. To quote Benjamin Graham, "More money has been lost reaching for yield than at the point of a gun."

98% of your stock research should be looking at the historic EPS, dividend history, management changes/issues/trends, and so on, than at the stock price. Shop for quality companies that you'd love to own, buy them, and let them turn out cash for you as the years go by.

I'm up 24% on RDS'B, but I'll be damned if I'll sell it. I'll keep it, continue to re-invest dividends and let it continue to grow over the years.

If your assets are spread out between 40-50 quality companies, than each holding only represents about 2% of your overall portfolio. Over the years you will have the Enrons, the Kodaks, etc, but that's alright. Say you lose everything of that stock when it goes belly up, your out 2% and that loss will be replaced by growth in no time.

I don't sweat over the current prices of the stocks I own. They'll go up and down, but if you have the self dicipline to see it through, you'll be able to smile as you see people putting Coca Cola into their grocery carts, Johnson and Johnson and Unilever products in their carts, General Electric light bulbs for their house, and so on as you walk around the store, knowing a small percent of the money they're spending is going in your pocket.

Filson, I agree completely with what you are saying...I have preached this same message myself.

There are just times when I cannot seem to live the advice...and now seems to be one of those times.

I felt the same way in 2000 and 2007. Not saying we are going to have a repeat of those days, but.......I am going to try to stay at least 30% cash for the time being, so I can have something to buy those (maybe) bargains with!

Trailing Stops...Always. I'm 1/3 in cash right now waiting for a drop so I can be buying.

It can be hard to follow one's own advice, but self-discipline will become second nature over time, if you stay strong about it.

Keeping cash on hand is good for just that reason. As for the year 2000, that was my freshmen year of high school, wish I knew then what I know now, not that I'm doing all that bad so far.

Get out now while the gettin is good. The whole thing has reached its peak and is about to nose dive, if you're still in the market you are a cockeyed optimist!

Everyone, PLEASE listen to this person and follow their advice. I will watch the prices plummet and I'll get to buy more shares of great stocks at dirt cheap prices :)

Well, you are only about 27 years, and a few roller-coaster rides, behind me!

I have been at this just long enough to know that 7 figures can become 4 figures pretty quickly if you get greedy or stupid. I am trying to remind myself that I no longer need to make a killing...I really just need to avoid big losses.

I still like to play though. I need to get over that.

If your at 7 figures, you really need to pull back on wanting to "play". You should really be looking at preservation of capital vs trying to reach for a few extra percentage points.

Mix up your assets. Have some in quality blue chip stocks, buy some real estate (small apartment complex, little hotel/motel, etc) that will produce more income for retirement, maybe look into a little timberland as a commodity generator and to add some diversity to your holdings. Bonds are pretty much a joke right now as you probably know, but whenever the interest goes up a bit, consider moving some of your capital into bonds.

Also sense you have some experience in the world - consider putting thoughts to paper and picking up a pen and write out a couple ebooks or something to create some royalties.

Take a few grand, open a separate account and use that as your "play" money.

Best of luck!

Well, speaking of "play" money...I did buy 7,000 shares of FST some weeks back, after it had crashed from $3.20 to under $2/share.

It was one of those speculation buys, where I figured the panic was always overdone. I immediately put a sell order in at a 20% gain.

I actually forgot about the sell order, so when I checked FST this morning and saw that it had opened up about 26% above yesterdays close, but quickly lost half that bounce, I winced when I thought of the lost opportunity.

Then I opened my account and saw that I sold at the open, at $2.44! :banana:

Not a lot of money for sure, but any time I can get a 20% gain banked in that short a time, I have to consider myself lucky.

Now, if I had just bought 20 times as many shares..... :hammer:

But then I would be risking the wrath of DW!

I absolutely need to keep the speculation playing low key. I need to remember GM and Lehman Brothers!! They were low key speculations of mine that did not turn out so well. :D


Tim

Tim,

CLF gave me a swift kick between the legs. Live and learn. The number one rule with investing is don't lose money. But... It's hard to know how to do well, while doing it safely, without experiencing some downfalls early on when your learning.

The best thing I could of learned (and did) from my experience is to keep pushing forward and don't get scared away when things don't work out as you hoped. Success has found a man many more times over through perseverance than luck. It's a give and take. :duel:

losses are not always bad. they are really good for balancing tax gains. the key is to be in as many stocks across all the fields/sectors as possible. the dividends will keep rolling in and they can then be reinvested. have a large savings for the great deals is good.

I'll add that diversity is very important, but don't pick up a bunch of random stocks just for the sake of diversity. If your uncomfortable with learning how to properly pick individual stocks (and even then, you should be spread out across many many industries) than focusing on a quality index fund may be your best bet.

Anyone still trading?

I am finding it harder and harder to find decent valuations on stocks with good dividend yield. Many of the stocks on my watch list are at 52 week highs!!!

Two frustrating things this week:

I've been watching TEG, which is a utility. I am heavy with utilities in my small portfolio, so I hadn't bought any shares of this company. TEG had a buyout offer yesterday, and the stock was up $9 a share at one point.

I've been trying to buy BP for it's dividend, especially on a pull back, and the stock keeps going higher and higher, and higher. I am at a 'drop back and punt' on my plan to buy more shares.

Well Clovis, MPC (Marathon Petroleum Corporation) took a big hit today - down $5.48. Closed at $80.90.
MPC had been increasing steadily, and lately it's been going down.
I'm a buy and hold kind of guy - thinking I should maybe send in some money.

Looks like MPC got hammered today, down about $8 or so at one point.

Hope you do well with the stock!!!! The dividend is a little too low for me at this point. If a person could pick it up at its 52 week low of $61, (which is unlikely), the yield might be good.

MWS-

Do you have any higher yielding stocks in your portfolio, and would you care to share them with me so I can put them on my watch list?

Clovis,

I ended up with Marathon Petroleum when Marathon Oil spun it off. It's kind of hard to pass up free shares - and I've been happy with it thus far.

Sure, here is a list of a few:

T A T & T 5.00 % yield
AEP American Electric 3.80 % yield
CVX Chevron 3.50 % yield
DUK Duke Energy 4.40 % yield
HE Hawaii Electric 5.10 % yield
MSEX Middlesex Water 3.80 % yield
VZ Verizon 4.30 % yield

A plus with the above stocks is you can buy all of them direct from the company - or through their transfer company with little or no fees.

Thank you, MWS!

I own shares in T.

AEP, DUK, and VZ have been on my watch list forever and a day.

I invested in AEP with a very small yearly rental check I started to get in 2012. I figured instead of just spending that little rental check and having it disappear, I would invest it in AEP. In 2012 I bought at $39.91 / share. In 2013 I bought at $45.66 / share. For 2014 I recently bought at $52.72 / share. Yesterday's closing price was $55.77. It's too bad it's the little rental check money I was using!

VZ even offers a direct IRA - Traditional or Roth if you are looking for a long term investment. That 4.3% dividend yield is kind of nice when reinvesting dividends.

Agreed!

I had a couple positions that have bounced pretty nicely...SLV over the last month or so and CLF over the past 2 weeks. As usual, I got jumpy when I saw some gains approaching 10% in a fairly short term, so I dumped a good portion of each.

Anyone wanting a quick gain could put in a buy order now for SLV or CLF...now that I sold a bunch, they are bound to bounce even more!

I said a while back I was going to try to stay 30% cash so I could take advantage of any pull-back. I find myself at about 60% cash right now for the reason you mentioned Clovis. Tough finding bargains out there.

I want to be liquid so I can jump on bargains when needed, but I hate making 0.1% in a money market!

I think I will just lay under a rock for a while and see what happens.

They may be too low dollar for many, but I like RNO and CLCT for dividends. They are both slow movers...I buy and sell them a lot :)

Mon

My most recent buy was BGS. They are a food company that owns a ton of brand names, with Ortega and Cream of Wheat being two of their top products.

Decent div yield, about 4.2%.

The stock has dropped some since I've bought it. My hope is that it continues to drop so I can pick up additional shares.

Tarbe,

What dividend stocks are on your watch list? Would you be kind and share?

Sorry for the slow response, have not been on the thread in a while.

Current watch list included (but not limited to):

T
BHP
KMP
COP
MO
GIS
NOV
WU
PG
LINE
KRFT
MMM
RDS-B

Not buying any of these right now! Actually, I am 95% out right now, waiting for prices that make me think the risks are acceptable.

I am perfectly willing to miss out on whatever gains might have been in play. I am just not willing to walk the rope this high off the ground.

Thanks, Tarbe.

I did not know that MMM had such an attractive dividend.

I own shares in T, KRFT, RDS-A and MO, albeit, they are very small investments. COP is on my watch list.

Thank you for sharing your list. I will check the other stocks you listed.

BTW, why RDS-B, instead of RDS-A?

GSK took it on the chin today, and MCD is getting the daylights beat out of it this week.

I might be a buyer of MCD in the $90 range.

KRFT took a hit today too, down $1.53. I'd love to own more shares of KRFT, but I'd like to get a 4% yield. I think it is the strongest stock on my watch list.

The BGS that I bought a few weeks ago has gotten kicked to the curb recently, due to a bad quarter. I am also watching that stock, and if it gets close to it's 52 week low, I would buy that.

I am also interested in BP, but they could suffer over those sanctions. I'll wait and see on BP too.

Thoughts, anyone?

MPC just announced today a 19% dividend increase - from $.42 / share to $.50. With the dividend at $.42, it only yields 1.9%.

Let's see, I bought it . . . oh wait . . . I didn't buy any of it. Marathon Oil gave it to me when they spun off MPC. My first dividend reinvestment in September of 2011 had a purchase price of $36.12.

Purchase price in September of 2012 was $52.45.

Purchase price in September of 2013 was $68.20.

Current closing price today of $78.98.

And now they are going to give me even more money!! You gotta love that!!

So. Anybody buy glw after it fell?

So is everybody buying or selling?

I got hit a little today, but not that bad. I had been moving to cash over the last month. My few remaining stocks are all dividend stocks that have been fairly stable for the last couple of years.

Tax advantage.

I got 95% out over the past month.

5% is in a 3x leveraged bear fund.

Watching from the bunker for now!

KRFT is tempting me big time.

I tries to buy a similar etf today but it was up over 5% when I put my bid in. It ended up over 6% today. I'll have to wait and see if it comes back a little.