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So, had to post this after all my phone related posts. A thought of my own, from back about the time Apple announce the 5c.

Traditionally Apple products are coming, there's buzz for months, stocks soar, the product is announced, stocks soar, the product sells, stocks soar.

Not this year, not a ton of buzz up until maybe a month before launch of 5s and 5c, even then not nearly the amount of buzz as before. Stocks hold even, ups and downs. New products are announced, stocks go down. Product launches and sells, stocks still go down.

Is Apple the new Microsoft? When I saw the price go down after the announcement I made a comment to a neutral party that stocks going down when a new product is announced reminded me of another company I knew (MS of course), they laughed and said they'd thought of that immediately, but hadn't wanted to say anything...

 
I was looking at Stratasys and it's stock, it keeps roller coasting on the upward trend. I believe they will be a major player and stay that way in the future. I think many companies are going to them for contracts. It's so tempting to want to invest just in them, but then again, anything can happen, some other company could come in and have a better business strategy then Stratasys, causing a slow downward fall. Will Stratasys be the Amazon or Blackberry?
 
I don't know we are just on the brim of them. I think the next 3-4 years they are gonna boom. I know I am going to regret not investing. But who knows, just like any investment it's a risk.
 
Anyone try to get in on Twitter this morning? A few colleagues, that are much more stock savvy than I, were discussing it earlier
 
I think they must had just went public here recently. Something I wouldn't get into, but I don't think it's a bad investment. I think it will be around longer than Facebook.
 
Not really interested even though I do like the product better than FB. It was just made available this morning. Opened at 45, rallied to 50, dropped to 44 and is around 46 now.
 
Social media is a risky thing to invest in. I would stay away from them. Something always new comes out. I remember people saying "Myspace is so huge, nothing will ever beat it!". Well low and behold...
 
Well the main thing was the IPO price was like $26 or $27 right. It'd be a short term bet if you could get in at the very ground level. One that would've paid off unlike the FB did right away for people at that level.
 
Well the main thing was the IPO price was like $26 or $27 right. It'd be a short term bet if you could get in at the very ground level. One that would've paid off unlike the FB did right away for people at that level.
I read somewhere that they might change the way to let regular people get in at the ground level. For some reason, I think it's unfair and seems like fraud to only give inside underwriters the initial price only, it's a guarantee win for them on IPO's.

 
So I just realized that this thread existed..... I have to say that I love buying and selling stocks. I have been in the stock market for about 16 months now using my retirement IRA as capital for my portfolio. I briefly read what others have written in the past and have a few comments. First, What drives a stocks price? From what I have noticed it is two things: Market Capital (usually is around the same value as enterprise value) and shares outstanding. The trick is to find a company that has very few shares outstanding and is currently growing capital at a healthy pace. If you will notice, a stock that has a million shares outstanding and has a market capital of 1 billion dollars will have a share price of $1,000 per share every time. No matter the company. This ratio is true to all stocks. So a stock trading at $40 a share has well over a million shares outstanding and/or less than a billion dollars of market capital. This idea is all relative to the company. Take AAPL for example. AAPL has approximately 900 million shares outstanding, but their market capital is 505 billion dollars. Hence, 505 divided by 0.9 (converted millions to billions) gives us a share price of approximately $550. Compare that to Priceline.com, who has a market capital of just 60 billion dollars however, with only 51 million shares outstanding and trading at a higher price point because of it ($1,100/share). Given this, when finding stocks to invest in, I look first at shares outstanding and secondly at a company's ability to increase their market capital through sales/revenue. Currently, I like these stocks:

BWLD (Buffalo Wild Wings)- Shares outstanding 19 million. Current Market cap of 2.7 billion. I like this company because they are growing, growing, growing and not adding to their outstanding shares. Last quarter they announced they are expanding internationally. Beer, Sports, Food, and good looking waitresses.

QIWI- Russian credit card/money transfer company. 52 Million shares outstanding. 2.4 Billion Market Cap. This company has found a way to corner how Russians use money and credit cards. Read up about them. Again, they are growing, growing, growing.

YNDX- Yandex is the primary Russian and Eastern Europe search engine. Besides that, they are getting involved in other avenues such as payment services. I get the feeling that they are trying to be "the Russian Google." 325 Million shares outstanding ( a little too high for my liking...but....) Market Cap 12 Billion and growing.

So those are my thoughts.

 
I would also like to add a thought in regards to the question about the number of shares a person can buy when a stock price is really high, like Google @ over $1,000. Don't think about it as number of shares! Think about it as amount of money invested in a company with a % return on your investment. What sounds better, 10 shares of a company, or $10,000 invested in a company? In the case of Google, they're the same thing. Apply that idea when investing. ~ I'm investing $10,000 and selling when I have a 20% gain~ That's the plan. So what if it's 10 shares or 500. It's still $10,000 invested. Also, you never "lose" or "gain" money until you sell. So if you invest in a company and the share price drops by 50%, you haven't lost any money. Your stocks have only depreciated in value. Stick with them, they may increase in value again. That being said, sometimes you have to take a loss on one company if you have a one to jump in on another.
 
So, had to post this after all my phone related posts. A thought of my own, from back about the time Apple announce the 5c.Traditionally Apple products are coming, there's buzz for months, stocks soar, the product is announced, stocks soar, the product sells, stocks soar.Not this year, not a ton of buzz up until maybe a month before launch of 5s and 5c, even then not nearly the amount of buzz as before. Stocks hold even, ups and downs. New products are announced, stocks go down. Product launches and sells, stocks still go down.

Is Apple the new Microsoft? When I saw the price go down after the announcement I made a comment to a neutral party that stocks going down when a new product is announced reminded me of another company I knew (MS of course), they laughed and said they'd thought of that immediately, but hadn't wanted to say anything...
I've been hearing that Apple is expected to go back up to around the $600 range.

 
I would also like to add a thought in regards to the question about the number of shares a person can buy when a stock price is really high, like Google @ over $1,000. Don't think about it as number of shares! Think about it as amount of money invested in a company with a % return on your investment. What sounds better, 10 shares of a company, or $10,000 invested in a company? In the case of Google, they're the same thing. Apply that idea when investing. ~ I'm investing $10,000 and selling when I have a 20% gain~ That's the plan. So what if it's 10 shares or 500. It's still $10,000 invested. Also, you never "lose" or "gain" money until you sell. So if you invest in a company and the share price drops by 50%, you haven't lost any money. Your stocks have only depreciated in value. Stick with them, they may increase in value again. That being said, sometimes you have to take a loss on one company if you have a one to jump in on another.
That is exactly the way to think about it. You must think in terms of percentages, it doesn't matter the amount. I'm going to be heading more towards dividend growth I think. Nothing flashy, just tried and true blue chip companies that have withstood the test of time. 3-6 percent dividend yield plus whatever gains the stock happens to make. Kind of like planting fruit bearing trees. Start off with a small amount but build up to an orchard. I do wish that there would be a market correction soon though so we can start buying at a discount.

 
That is exactly the way to think about it. You must think in terms of percentages, it doesn't matter the amount. I'm going to be heading more towards dividend growth I think. Nothing flashy, just tried and true blue chip companies that have withstood the test of time. 3-6 percent dividend yield plus whatever gains the stock happens to make. Kind of like planting fruit bearing trees. Start off with a small amount but build up to an orchard. I do wish that there would be a market correction soon though so we can start buying at a discount.
Those fruit bearing trees you speak off grow so slowly that you will die of starvation before you get full. GE for example has been on the NYSE for over 120 years now and it is trading at $26.50 right now.
 
Those fruit bearing trees you speak off grow so slowly that you will die of starvation before you get full. GE for example has been on the NYSE for over 120 years now and it is trading at $26.50 right now.
People don't invest in a company like GE for volatility. That's not what it does. And the people who end up starving aren't the ones investing in these type of companies.

 
Another stock to watch is Oculus Innovative Sciences, Inc. They are the makers of the Oculus Rift glasses. VR done right.OCLS
Virtual reality startup Oculus, the company behind the much-hyped Rift VR headset, has landed $75 million in Series B funding. The round, which closes Friday morning, is led by Andreessen Horowitz, WIRED has learned. It includes significant involvement from Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, and Formation 8, all of whom were involved in a $16 million Series A round in June.
http://www.wired.com/business/2013/12/oculus-vr-funding/

 
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