What's new
By:
Filters

Stock Picks

Sirkickyass said:
Yes.

Simply put I conceivably have access to a lot of non-pulic information. The vast majority of it I have never actually seen and have no reason to go looking for because it doesn't relate to anything I'm actually doing, but I have access to it and knowledge could be imputed to me.

Let's take an example. Company XYZ is considering purchasing a smaller company that will dramatically increase their profitability over the next 5 years. Company XYZ is a client of the firm and the negotiations, due diligence, and legal work are being handled by the transactional attorneys, who are physically located in an entirely different building than my office. During the negotiations, I puchase stock of Company XYZ without even knowing they're a firm client (we have literally hundreds of clients that I don't know about) and I make a big gain when the deal is announced. The SEC would look at the firm I work for, determine (correctly) that if I had done some poking around in the firm's computer file system I could have learned of the deal, and could decide to go after me for trading on material non-public information.

Lawyers get taken down on this pretty regularly, especially lawyers that operate in the securities field and thus "should know better."

I can get stung even if I don't actually have insider information and don't even know a stock I buy is through a firm client.

I got in hot water at work one time because I told my dad to buy stock in a particular company that was a firm client before I even worked at the firm. He sent an e-mail to my work account thanking me for a stock recommendation a couple years later (he made a lot of money) and that hit the firm's automatic sensor for potential insider trading.

In order to get around this I literally have to invest completely blindly, handing someone else my money and having them handle all the transactions while I give no input as to what companies I want to be part of the portfolio. It's a big disadvantage.

I have a lot of ideas; can't act on any of them or tell anybody else about them.
Click to expand...


I am accepting new clients. If you are interested.


Troutbum
 
Sirkickyass said:
One of the pains of being a securities lawyer is that I essentially have to play entirely blind and have others invest my money. Anything else virtually assures that I will be the target of an SEC investigation.
Click to expand...

Appropriate, but terribly unfair in the light that Congression staffers do really well on their stock picks and it's totally legal for them because insider-trading laws don't apply to Congress. Makes me wonder if they share information with friends and family but don't talk about it.

According to a Wall Street Journal analysis, at least 72 aides on both sides of the aisle have traded in companies their bosses oversee.
 
franklin said:
Market cap peak was about 230 billion, 120 today after selling off pieces. I looked at it and said "nah" as it's less than a double back to it's bubbly high. There's not enough upside in a stock I cannot reasonably scrutinize/value without a multi-person team, if at all. If it hits $3 again I might give it a gamble. I'm sure it'll go up, but I just don't think it's worth my time.

I'm holding LUK too. It's enough of a hassle to keep straight. I don't need to add C.
Click to expand...

Nice pop today in Citi. Government finally out (faster than expected) and over 2 billion shares traded today! I think LUK sold off their holdings of C a few weeks back.
 
Duck Rodgers said:
Good job. Did you bail too? The volume on Citi was just insane. 3,297,829,400. That has to be some kind of all-time record, no?
Click to expand...

I think so. Didn't bail, I'm holding long. Got in around $4.15 a while back and watched it go from high threes to 4.35 about three times over. Wishing each time I would have sold and repurchased on the dips. I'm hoping now that the gov is out it will make its way past $5 the next couple of months (without a stock split) and $6 sometime next year. Dividend could be on the horizon as well.
 
TroutBum said:
I wish I knew jack squat about stocks. I probably should've stayed in school.
Click to expand...

I just got into it about 4 years back and taught myself - I wanted to start a ROTH IRA and had no idea what to put my money in so I started researching. Everyone has their own strategy, but the way I learned was picking things I was familiar with and everybody seemed to be using. Electronics (apple, microsoft), restaurants (Chipotle, Buffallo Wild Wings), entertainment (netflix, google) and kinda went from there. I watched a lot of cnbc and subscribed to Motley Fool Stock Advisor. I cant really talk shop too much and definitely don't day trade, but I really have fun doing it. Making a little extra money is nice too.
 
Let me know if you find any interesting biotech speculative stocks. I have a few speculative stocks, but Exelixis (EXEL) is my only biotech holding.
 
If you want to be an above normal stock picker, there is only one methodology that has a superior multi-decade record, and that is value investing as practiced by Ben Graham and his Columbia business school students, Buffett being one of them. Buffett practices a different version from Graham's original version and their are also variations on the methodology used by some of the best value guys today such as Whitney Tilson, David Winters, and what Bruce Greenwald now teaches at Columbia.

The only other methodology that works is momentum. A whole other subject.
 
Duck Rodgers said:
Silver has gone up about 65% since this topic was started - crazy. That was the good news for me. The bad news is that my one stock long -APWR -got stopped out a week ago. I had a good 30% gain on that one when I posted here in Oct, but that got erased basically overnight by a poor earnings report and I ended up down 5% on the stop out. Currently looking for another speculative stock to go long in. Likely biotech or I may just go even deeper into the metals and oil.
Click to expand...

You are correct. I got in at 13.
 
For Duck and Viny,

What indicator are you looking at and what is your exit trigger if you are dead wrong and silver, gold, etc is making a significant top AND what will be your alternative capital allocation decision?
 
Duck Rodgers said:
As long as this austerity/tax talk is in the air and people are talking about fixing the budget like it even matters, I've got nothing to worry about....except for that whole country falling apart thing.
Click to expand...

This. Pearl, you and I have different outlooks on the economy and the country. I think we are on our way to a doomsday scenario, if we're not already there. That said, Im gonna try to hold out to 40 but Im looking to get a road bike soon...so...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top