Anyone in the stock market?

What would you recommend as a good safe growth stock? This week I bought WOOF, FOSL, and YELL.

NYSE BA

I think the smartest investment in the stock market is a diversified mutual fund. Preferably an index fund and preferably one with a very low expense ratio and no sales load (Vanguard has funds that meet these criteria). And then put your money in for the long term (5-10 years minimum) and don't get discouraged and sell when the market inevitably takes a dive.

Of course this is not as exciting as investing in individual stocks, but that is the point.

Run, dont walk away!!! I was a seasond trader and lost more this year then alot of people make...

Serioulsy it's tough, The Market punishes stocks harshly for any issue these days. But the good news is short of a major event its a good time to scale into stocks...

My advice set a 5-10% stop after you buy anything....

Nikon,

I don't believe there are completely safe stocks. Where there is the chance for profit, there is a corresponding risk.

I think Lurker is right. Buying individual stocks is very risky because it is a competitive game played by the brightest people there are, using information that very few have access to.

I believe someone can learn to play the game and play it profitably, but it requires years of hard work to get there. I'm still working on it and doing only moderately well. It's a tough game. Perhaps you're brighter than I and could learn faster.

Let me offer a reference. I've read more than a hundred books on the subject, but the single author I've found most helpful is a fellow by the name of Van K. Tharp, who has done a lot of work with both seasoned traders and people learning to be traders. He's written a few books that you may be interested in checking out. You can get an overview of his philosophy by going to iitm.com. He emphasizes knowing your risk and in putting together a program specifically suited to your individual ways of doing things.

I just received and started reading his most recent book, Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom, which looks at the larger world of what you can do to improve your financial life. It has some good ideas IMO.

Perhaps this is more than you were looking for. In any event, I wish you good fortune.

Paul

I'm never out of the stock market. I've been way, WAY ahead of the curve and am one of the rare individuals that made an exceptional amount of money in stocks.

True story here. I got a bug in my brain on Nov. 11, 1999 to dump as much money as I could afford in tech stocks. I mailed the order to buy and it got there Nov. 13. On Nov.13 the NASDAQ started the climb to the moon. I kept the money there until March 9, 2000, the day my son was born, when the bug said to SELL. I sold most of the tech stock and the market crashed that day. With the money I made I bought a new Dakota Truck and a New Beetle with lots of money still in the bank account to pay for major improvements in the house. I still have a bunch of money from that windfall profit. So now I slowly feed the money back into the stock market and since the stocks have been getting stronger over the years the money has ballooned upwards again.

Ugggh...the taxman liked the big piece of tax pie too. I made a lot of friends and enemies during that weird four months.

Yes, that was luck and market timing to a precision. At work they thought I was nuts to do that trick. But they saw my money double but by the time the people at work followed my lead to buy the stocks then the stocks were too high and everyone else grumbled the stocks I picked were bad. They lost money in stocks. Nope, it was their market timing that lost them money.

I put money in mutual funds. These are the stocks I have:

Vanguard Index 500
Mairs & Power Growth
Northeast Investors Growth
PBHG Technology and Communications (my big money maker)
White Oak Growth

These funds are no-load so no cost to get in and out of. Profits of the companies are based on a percentage of the profits they make. The companies do not do a lot of trading and are very conservative on the trades so a lot of stocks are not moved around and not taxed as much because of many trades. And the 'track record' of the management is good.

As a side thought. Another investment that could work. But it is either a fast deal or you had to invest in property at least six years ago. It could also be the snake that bites you. The price of CA property is high and still going up. When I bought my home in 1998 the CA property was in a slump. Only $92,000 bought my home in CA back then. Fast forward to 1994 and a price of property has outpaced incomes. My property is now going up at the rate of $11,000 a month! The price of the home, not including improvements is now over $300,000 and still rising. If you have a home in CA then you sell and move to another state with cheaper homes then pocket the rest of the money. But the bubble of CA property money could burst too at anytime. The exodus of San Francisco home buyers has driven the price of CA property to the moon too.

The stock market has been my friend. If you know what you are doing and have patience the stock market will work.

There are many examples of people (like HaveBlue) who have made investment fortunes in various ways. The problem comes in duplicating their successes. If you tried to buy tech stocks and CA property and make the exact same money HaveBlue did, you would almost certainly have different results (might make more or less). Just like my neighbor went to Vegas with his brother-in-law who won one million dollars from a progressive slot machine, but I'm not rushing to Vegas to play the slots. I doubt I'd come home a millionaire. You have to find something that makes sense for the future, not just something that worked once in the past.

Every investment has a unique expected reward and a corresponding risk. You have to decide how much reward you want and how much risk you can tolerate.

I guess I should be very clear that I'm not a trader, I'm in it for the long haul. I bought the three stocks I mentioned because I really believe that in a year from now they'll be worth substantially more than they are today. This is the way I choose all my stocks. I also watch them and the market carefully. I examine the news and numbers daily. I don't form relationships with stocks. If they don't perform as expected I dump them. I'm constantly looking for new things to buy. If the market starts to look really bad I'll get out of it quickly.

So...along those lines, would anyone care to mention a stock or two that they feel looks good for the next year?

Boeing

Contract out building your own house. Live in it 2 years. Sell and move. The profit's your to keep. 100.0% tax free. Repeat as necessary.

We're in a house valued at about $225k. We owe $125k on it and have lived here 8 months. Next year we will start building a new one, using the equity here as collateral. It'll be easier this time around since the bank has a track record on me.

Property is rising in price here at a nice pace also. That always helps.

I would LOVE to know what a $225k house from MS would be worth in CA.

I've done well, percentage wise, in the market over the last five years with my stock picks. I didn't start out with much, so I won't be retiring any time soon.

I'm not sure what caliber of advice you'll get on a flashlight message board, but I'll throw out some names I own. Bed, Bath and Beyond (BBBY). Buy it at $27. It's selling for $37, now. Chico's FAS (CHS). Buy it at $30. It's selling for $34. CHS is a little riskier than BBBY, but has stronger growth.

If I were smart(er), I would've bought a house in San Diego in 1996 when I moved here and enjoyed the nation's hottest real estate market. But my portfolio has kept up and I don't have to move to Timbuktu to cash out.

I'm quite familiar with Chico's, having owned it for several years. I sold it earlier this year when it started to go down along with the market. When all this business with lost sales due to the hurricanes is over, I fully expect this stock to fly again. I don't think it'll go down to 30.00 though, the worst case will be about 33.00 where it hit a short time back.

Chico's is one of those stocks that people can't seem to figure out. Few people want to believe that it will continue to increase sales as it's done in the past, at about a 50% annual rate. I'm one of those who do. Once the weather settles down I think we'll see a very rapid climb in the price of this stock.

If you had invested $10,000 in Chico's in 1997, you would have become a millionaire this past Spring. It went up in prce an average of 89% a year for those seven years. I don't think the ride is over.

I picked up CHS in late 2001. Being a younger man, I skipped over CHS in 1999 for not appealing to my masculinity (I bought the dud, Abercrombie and Fitch, instead). When I realized how much money I could've made, I felt pretty stupid. I have made 5x my investment in 3 years, and though I look out of place when I walk into Chico's stores, the $$$ is worth it.

I have no idea if CHS will hit $30, but if I were buying, that's what I'd hold out for. Nikon, I was reading through the locations of current and planned CHS in the annual report. I started to get concerned that they may have saturated the U.S. I mean, they have a store in every good sized city I could think of, not to mention many smaller burgs. And I don't know how it's possible they can continue to increase same-store sales at double digit rates. It's like Lance Armstrong winning the Tour every single time. It's almost too good to be true.

Still, I'll hold my CHS unless it gets around $60, which I would take.