What stocks are best for a beginner?

Discussion in 'Stock Market Forum' started by Rosyrain, May 11, 2014.

  1. CarpeNemo

    CarpeNemo Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the insight! I don't have any of those eggs in my basket so it's nice to get a viewpoint from someone who has dealt with it recently. What's your opinion of Tracfone as a company? They only provide prepaid mobile services as far as I know and right now, prepaid is all some of the poorest Americans can afford right now which at minimum guarantees continued profits for them. They piggy back off every major carrier so they have phones on every system including CDMA. Think they're a bad investment?
     
  2. JR Ewing

    JR Ewing Super Moderator Staff Member

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    They got busted cooking the books a couple of years or so ago.

    A Chinese company being dishonest - who'da thunk it? :D
     
  3. Corzhens

    Corzhens Senior Investor

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    My long tenure of employment in our office qualified me for the stock option. I was awarded shares of stocks last year that has a holding period of 5 years. Since the amount is quite big, right now I am already thinking of how I would handle in case the shares of stocks become mine or I should say become eligible for disposal. Do I keep it or do I sell it if the price is right?
     
  4. baudwalk

    baudwalk Senior Investor

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    I can't comment on Tracfone as I've never looked at the company. Sorry. I don't recall seeing any discussions or articles on the firm, nor mentioned by Bloomberg or CNBC. I would hesitate to offer an opinion on it.

    FWIW, back when I began putting a bit of money into stocks -- first fully participating in pension and deferred savings programs -- one mantra told to me was to invest in firms and industries one was familiar with or used products thereof. I was dollar-averaging VZ and letting dividends reinvest some years before mobile phones came to be c.1990. I was a finance major in undergraduate school in the early 1960s, and needless to say the tools for stock value and technical analysis have changed since then. Back then, for term papers, I wrote a large program in Fortran to crunch numbers on an IBM 1620 mainframe. It had to be run overnight as a batch job, as it took 4-6 hours to compile and run a 3-year data set. It was easier, quicker and more accurate to do than punching keys on Monroe and other calculators in a statistics lab room.
     
  5. Trendtrader

    Trendtrader Member

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    Check out RSG. It's a Buffet pick and its business and volatility are rather boring: Garbage. But long term it'll be around.

    Twitter is actually the most expensive social network stock at its current prices, comparing its price/sales multiples. Facebook would be a more stable bet, they will be milking the cow full force for the next five years.
     
  6. baudwalk

    baudwalk Senior Investor

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    I guess I should have been clearer on Twitter as an investment. I view $TWTR as a short term swing trade, momentum if you like, certainly not long term. (And I include $FB as the same category.) There are no dividends. I would NOT recommend making Twitter a significant portion of one's portfolio. You have to determine your own tolerance for risk.

    At the ~$36-37 levels, I think Twitter is interesting, Portfolio for Android and continuing merger rumors are attention-getting, and a price target of ~$50 is not unreasonable. I'm willing to wait a while, and pull the plug if I have too. Right now, I think short interest helps put a floor in here. But that's me. YMMV.
     
  7. crimsonghost747

    crimsonghost747 Senior Investor

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    Many of the tech stocks do make pretty good short term investments, there is all sorts of news coming out, new products being made etc. And of course the volatility that comes with that. But I'm not sure if tech ones are really somethng that belong under "best for beginners" category unless we are talking about the more stable and well established ones.
     
  8. carl12344

    carl12344 Member

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    I would also suggest that you go along with Microsoft.
     
  9. carl12344

    carl12344 Member

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    I would also suggest you go with Microsoft. Also try looking into Google.
     
  10. JR Ewing

    JR Ewing Super Moderator Staff Member

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    This. Beginners who are looking for a few good companies to put into a longterm portfolio need to look for companies with significant histories of solid earnings / earnings growth and sales growth. Many of the high-priced, high-beta, high flying tech companies have plenty of sales growth, but few have substantial, consistent earnings like Apple and a few others have had.

    Beginners should not put everything into tech by any means. They'd be better off picking at least 5-6 other sectors / industries - energy, healthcare / biotech, industrials & materials, consumer staples, etc - and spreading the money out among them.
     

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