Bumper Posted November 16, 2006 Share Posted November 16, 2006 Brazil, Russia, India & China (BRIC) are deemed to be the key emerging markets in the next 5 years. There is good money to be made if you invest in one of these markets. I invest in the US market in these funds: IFN (The India Fund), LETRX (Russian fund). Looking to get into PRLAX (Latin American Fund) EEM (Emerging market ETF). All markets have recovered quite well, from the crash (that lasted 6 months) and continue to head up. Perhaps the right time to get in. Lets hear where ur money is invested ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gator Posted November 16, 2006 Share Posted November 16, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets i made quite a bit investing on ishare brazil ETF last year... IIRC, i almost doubled... i sold it this feb or so... Apple is another great stock to have in ur portfolio.. got some change there.... it rose almost 10-12% in the last month alone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumper Posted November 16, 2006 Author Share Posted November 16, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets All stocks rose 20% in the last month. The market's bullish. Am watching BIDU (Chinese Google), this puppy rose from 84 to 107 in a week, without any strong fundamentals. May be worth riding, if it weathers the options expiration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Outsider Posted November 16, 2006 Share Posted November 16, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets Whats the best investment strategy if you dont have any money? :chin: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gator Posted November 16, 2006 Share Posted November 16, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets Whats the best investment strategy if you dont have any money? :chin: borrow money at low interest, invest it, and return it back... it may sound like a joke, but seriously effective.... 75% of the trades are done on margins... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumper Posted November 16, 2006 Author Share Posted November 16, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets Whats the best investment strategy if you dont have any money? :chin: It doesnt matter how much money u invest, Shwetabh. Even as small as $1000 is a good starting point. U can invest in any mutual fund right now, ur money will likely double in 3 years. With real estate being an dead investment, the BIG money will find home in stocks. I expect a good 2-3 years for stock market. If u are hesitant to invest urself, invest the max possible money in ur 401K. Thats a good starting point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Outsider Posted November 16, 2006 Share Posted November 16, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets Whats the best investment strategy if you dont have any money? :chin: It doesnt matter how much money u invest, Shwetabh. Even as small as $1000 is a good starting point. U can invest in any mutual fund right now, ur money will likely double in 3 years. With real estate being an dead investment, the BIG money will find home in stocks. I expect a good 2-3 years for stock market Hmmmm.....might actually consider doing something over the next few months. Though the last time I invested it turned out to be a disaster. Put in $1000 and the market kept going down and down for 2-3 years. As soon as it picked up and I broke even I offloaded. If I had waited another 6 months would have doubled up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gator Posted November 16, 2006 Share Posted November 16, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets blackjack... havent lost since the last 3 yrs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted November 16, 2006 Share Posted November 16, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets you can't buy into a any fund at any time and hope for a doubling in 2-3 years. the market is an all time high. don't expect a doubling any time soon. if anything there will be a correction. a series of corporate earnings shortfalls will send this market into a nose dive. right now is the time to buy individual securities depending on their merits (fundamentals and technicals). the S&P 500 is at 1400, that's a 52 week high. of course it has room to go, but may not be much. fyi, i am focusing these days on buying individual stocks (depending on MA, MACD and STOCH) and am also paper day trading index options (SPX). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted November 16, 2006 Share Posted November 16, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets shwetabh, if you don't have any money that is good. you can spend your time educating yourself and learning about the following: options (www.cboe.com - their options institute offers free classes) technical analysis (books from the library and online charting sites like bigcharts.com) you can open a zero-down account with optionsxpress.com and paper trade. learn about money management (alexander elder's come to my trading room). once you have a plan to trade/invest, write it down and follow it in a paper trading account. if you are profitable there for 6 months, start investing/trading with real money. there are other interesting sites like elitetrader.com as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumper Posted November 16, 2006 Author Share Posted November 16, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets Yoda, funds are the least risk investments in an uptrending market. If u think stock market will perform well, most funds will do well. You gotta be lucky & incredibly savvy to trade options. Most option traders are gamblers (i usually lose big money when theres a loss & gain a small amount, when i gain). Using conservative strategies such as writing covered calls may not be a bad idea, but usually buying options as a strategy to build wealth is not a good idea IMO. Even individual stocks, run u the risk of 'all eggs in one basket'. I own NVDA, used to own SNDK, both great companies. NVDA has earned me a 50% return in a year. SNDK had two bad quarters, which erased all my yearly gains on that stock. Thats how stocks are for most people -- hit or miss. OTOH, i own DODFX (solid fund) for an year. I have earned close to a 20% return, with no sweat off my butt (and this without counting the dividends). I'd recommend investing in good funds anyday over individual securities. To put it in cricketing parlance, a Dravid (well researched fund) is bound to score more at a far lesser risk than a Sehwag (hit or miss match winner), in the long run Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted November 16, 2006 Share Posted November 16, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets Yoda, funds are the least risk investments in an uptrending market. If u think stock market will perform well, most funds will do well. You gotta be lucky & incredibly savvy to trade options. Most option traders are gamblers (i usually lose big money when theres a loss & gain a small amount, when i gain). Using conservative strategies such as writing covered calls may not be a bad idea, but usually buying options as a strategy to build wealth is not a good idea IMO. Even individual stocks, run u the risk of 'all eggs in one basket'. I own NVDA, used to own SNDK, both great companies. NVDA has earned me a 50% return in a year. SNDK had two bad quarters, which erased all my yearly gains on that stock. Thats how stocks are for most people -- hit or miss. OTOH, i own DODFX (solid fund) for an year. I have earned close to a 20% return, with no sweat off my butt (and this without counting the dividends). I'd recommend investing in good funds anyday over individual securities. To put it in cricketing parlance, a Dravid (well researched fund) is bound to score more at a far lesser risk than a Sehwag (hit or miss match winner), in the long run only 10% of the funds beat the S&P. You will not put all eggs in one basket. You will diversify, apply stop losses, use money management to determine position sizing and learn to take profits. for every option buyer who loses, there is an option writer who makes money. :chin: funds are not the way to richness. yes, they will give you returns better than a CD. but some of what i have been talking about requires serious discipline and a lot of time commitment. both of which I am still trying to get my hands around. damn these ICFs. :hic: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumper Posted November 16, 2006 Author Share Posted November 16, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets Brilliant explanation Bumper. Is it worth it to hire a Financial Analyst ... Are these guys any good ? Hire a financial analyst only if he gives u an edge. Most of these analysts dont know jack. They just use conventional theories to invest ur money which works when the market is good and doesnt when the market turns south. I had a financial company call me. They said its typical of their clients to make a 15% return, they'd take about $300 or so for their service per year. Most importantly they said they can WAIVE the load on loaded mutual funds. That right there is worth their comission. Some of the funds u want to invest in, (many Fidelity funds) are not available for u to trade directly & typically these high demand funds charge u 5% fee on the initial investment. If u go thru brokers, they can help work around these hassles. Choose one such broker. At the end of the day, dont trust anyone. U do the research & invest ur money. Just use the brokerage services to invest in funds u dont have access to as a trader. Its infintely easy to research a mutual fund. Stocks can never be researched perfectly, unless u have some insider info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumper Posted November 16, 2006 Author Share Posted November 16, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets only 10% of the funds beat the S&P. You will not put all eggs in one basket. You will diversify, apply stop losses, use money management to determine position sizing and learn to take profits. for every option buyer who loses, there is an option writer who makes money. :chin: funds are not the way to richness. yes, they will give you returns better than a CD. but some of what i have been talking about requires serious discipline and a lot of time commitment. both of which I am still trying to get my hands around. damn these ICFs. :hic: I dont know about u Yoda. Stocks dont fall with a warning. Most people dont have the discipline to sell when the stock had gained more than 30%. In SNDK example, SNDK fell from $61 to $49 in 5 mins of the after hours session. I took a piss & came back to see my portfolio fall, quite a costly piss that. Thats a whopping 30% loss. If u invest BIG MONEY, this is a HUGE risk. How many people have u heard of, who have traded their way to glory ? Some of the world's greatest investors, Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch, Bob Brinker have all used conservative and traditional strategies to build their wealth. Even with such strategies, u gotta be a genius to pick hidden gems like them, which will be a 10 or 20 bagger in 10 years. My strategy is use to small money for risky, momentum trades & park the big money in funds and invest bigger money in lands back home. Ofcourse, there is no single strategy thats perfect, whatever works for me, may not work for someone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dada_rocks Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets SO what's the conclusion.. Stocks or mutual funds and particular names in each case please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gator Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets I will give my opinion based on my experiencce.... Typically, funds are safer than options or stocks, but are the worst vehicles after CDs, if you plan to get rich overnight.... Funds are good for putting a significant portion of your wealth for a nice steady growth... Historically, the really good funds should match the index or be better.... if it is managed by a good fund manager... You will get around 10-20% on an average... Again, you might have 3 straight year of negative returns too.... But over a period of 5-10 yrs, this will be your return.... You can prolly get the same result, by diversifying and iinvesting in index funds.... The faster way to get rich, would be individual stock trading.... ETFs are not bad either.. ETFs are exchange traded funds which can be bought and sold like Stocks, but they track some kind of index rather than one company.... Individual stocks might seem like a very risky option, but chances of sky-high returns can be tempting.... If you have $1000 to spare, I would put $200 in bonds, $400 in Funds and $400 in Stocks... Best way to get into Stocks is by getting yourself wet.... Take $500 and do some research for a couple of weeks and try to get into it... Get into discussion groups related to those stocks, observe its trends, see how the prices rise and fall based on what factors.... In the process, you will gradually get leads on other stocks.. Initially, you will end up paying for commissions and stuff disproportionately.... But, there is a way around tht too... Some online brokerage firms offer first 25 trades free or some sort of deals... Make good use of it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumper Posted November 17, 2006 Author Share Posted November 17, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets IMO, most stocks are for active traders, not for people who want to dump their money and fuggedaboutit for several years. If u are the latter kind, invest in mutual funds. MorningStar.com has all details on a fund u need to know. The below funds are good: DODFX BRSVX BRUFX EUROX PRLAX I dont invest in bonds. There are funds u can find for that too. Its good to spread ur money in metals & oil as well, in addition to regular stock funds. This way even if dollar weakens, u are making money in oil & gold. UNWPX - Index fund for metals ICENX, XLE - Oil ETFs (Exchange traded funds - Funds that trade like stocks): IFN EEM IIF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumper Posted November 17, 2006 Author Share Posted November 17, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets Bottom line is if u wanna get rich quickly with minimal investment, probability is stacked against u heavily. U might as well buy a $10 lottery ticket & hope for glory. Where there is a risk, there is usually a reward, but usually in options & stocks, the probability is against u. That doesnt mean u run away from them. Invest in small amounts in risky alternatives and big amounts in safer ones. Just my 2 cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets there is no get rich quick scheme in the stock, options and futures markets. also risk and reward are not the only factors. there is also a concept of probability of success. this is a major factor especially in the options world. for example you can sell an iron condor (options jargon) with a risk reward ratio of 10:1 (meaning you make $1, but you can lose upto a max of $10), but with a probability of success of 90%. i know people who make consistent returns of 8-10% per month using strategy. of course it is not a simple one and no i am not an expert in it (atleast not yet). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumper Posted November 17, 2006 Author Share Posted November 17, 2006 Re: Fund watch: Emerging Markets Yoda, am curious to learn more about successful options trading. Thats one area where i make consistent losses. Do u write option contracts or do u purchase contracts ? If you are a successful options trader, am curious what strategies u use ? As far as i can tell, only guys who write contracts make money. People who play with small money almost always have to write naked options, which is a big risk, IMO. From what i researched, most of the advanced options strategies recommended by experts, involve hedging, such as: Straddles (Simultaneous Call & Put), Call spreads (sell a lower strike price call & buy a higher strike priced call). But even for these, there is a big probability factor involved, which makes me nervous. Both BIDU & GOOG are examples of stocks, where a straddle may fetch u a guaranteed return after an earnings report, as both dont stay quiet the next morning. If the market remains bullish, i plan to straddle (small sum of money) Google, Baidu just before every earnings report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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