Investment BS Thread - Stocks/Futures/Mutual Funds/Bonds/Commodities/Options/ETFs/401ks/Etc

True, but it was the right move.

 

Well it's a very capital intensive business. Before I left we were planning a 250million purchase of ground equipment, that replaced 2% of the non flying vehicle fleet. Think about that for a second. I used to say all the time that I have no idea how the place made ANY money, let alone the profits they did, the infrastructure is insane. Your talking a medium sized UPS sort center just for baggage at each hub for example.

I got some stock options and immediately dumped them and my coworkers called me an idiot..

 

Sherwood

 

I'm in aero but we do everything from commercial to military (including ground engines, power generation, tanks, etc). More than that, I'm in aero manufacturing QA. Talk about a big budget it's been a good ride but I think in the next several years I'll look to transition to another sector, maybe vehicle, back to medical, unknown.

Turns out my BP is now red. Doing the best of my positions today but still, all red

 

Buffet dumped a lot. Not just in airlines. According to a report I read this morning he’s still sitting on billions and is waiting for a better buying opportunity than the 25% dip we’ve had recently

 

I was in ground equipment and facility maintenace safety and then promoted to running the department that specs and writes the maintenace programs for the ground equipment and facilities at a major airline based here in chicago, then left to do my own thing. You are right time to go find something else to do for a while!! For the record I thought it was a well run company and enjoyed it, it's just not investable for the reasons you see. All you need is global issue or someone tries to blow something up with a shoe bomb and the bottom drops out of it. Too many factors beyond anyone's control.

 

We're actually still fully operational, albeit somewhat reduced. I've been going into the office consistently through April and this month - March was a work from home adventure, but April and May have been work on site. A few stragglers still at home - IE our engineer with 5 kids at home? Yeah, nobody is upset that he is working from home right now. Especially if they can work to at least 90% capacity.

My product is diverse enough that we do okay during bad times for the aero industry, but we're an AS9100 plant and our main focus is aero. I won't be leaving this week, etc. but soon, might flip the switch and go to Vehicle. Right now I'm high mix low volume, would be good to see the other side - high volume low mix in the vehicle industry. Or go back to medical. Or, heck, go to like cardboard boxes and get away from (the high level of...) regulatory agencies we have to deal with in Aero.

 

He’s been sitting on 120 billion before any of this started. He’s waiting to see how it shakes out to make long term bets. Doesn’t care about monthly ups and downs.

 

With that much money, he has SEC rules to follow (can't just buy public companies, I think going beyond 5% it gets difficult). I wouldn't doubt they're getting billion(s) per year in dividends so it's also not like he needs to do anything at all.

 

yea, I read he sold off number of shares in some companies to stay below 10% stake, that’s some kind of threshold. I also like to stay below 10%

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/billyb...ld-be-about-to-destroy-the-us-banking-system/
The article says trump, but read the article, it's all the boneheads running things are thinking this, mainly the fed bosses.

"Hey we have a crises caused by people and companies not saving enough, so let's institute monetary policy that penalizes them for saving."

 

The more this drags on and things are happening, the more I am in the "let them all fail" camp, don't care who they are, let them be replaced by better companies.

 

BA continuing to dive. Wonder if we'll see it below 100 again.

 

Another round of layoffs, from what I understand.

 

Except this would target the individual.

Company wise it would further increase the practice of taking loans out to fund capital projects and using profits to but back stock. Which sounds great for the investor but the entire economy would be stuck in a massive inflationary cycle, which would suck to have to pay a few hundred bucks for a gallon of milk.

 

Boyk1182, sorry for the delay in responding.


I haven't really figured out my return per se, but I'm pretty sure that I'm up or at least break even...I've bought inexpensive gold/silver and expensive gold/silver over the years.
My thoughts... Even though metals aren't popular in the USA, there are billions of Chinese and Indians that highly value them, especially gold.
I don't use or consider gold/silver investments, I consider them a SAVINGS ACCOUNT. I buy them, put them away and forget them. If I were to ever need to sell them for $, well that's pretty simple to do. Likely, I'll just pass the stack on to my kids when I die.

Also, it seems that the Federal Reserve and our government has done nothing but dilute/debase our money. All these trillion dollar deficits, monetizing debt, QE 1,2,3,4,5... QE infinity does nothing but make every dollar worth less in my opinion. Metals help against that process. Not perfectly, but helps.

Consider this...
100 years ago in 1920, the average wage was $60. You could be paid in 3 $20 bills or 3 $20 gold coins. Toss those in your sock draw and pull them out 100 years later. The 3 $20 bills are worth $60. The 3 $20 gold coins are worth $4934(gold bullion value only, not collector value). HUGE difference. This is what our government and the Federal Reserve have accomplished in that time... diluted the value of the dollar down to pennies.
This next chart is not up to date... gold is approx. $1700


To me, that chart solidly justifies putting a good chunk of my savings into gold.

Obviously, if you want growth then you must bear more risk and that's where the stock market and investing come into play, along with all the associated risks, of which there are many.

I'm not a tin foil hat wearing, doom and gloom conspiracy theorist. I like investing and playing in the market. In fact, I've been loving trading a few sub- $1.00 penny stocks recently. Risky and volatile, but fun and kinda exciting. But I know it's risky so I don't trade with more than I can afford to lose. In fact, my overall personality and investing style is conservative. I like to end each day not owing anybody anything and outright owning all that I have, including metals. This allows me to sleep well at night. Whether it works out is yet to be seen.

Frankly, I subscribe to your dividend stock approach. Sort of a set it and forget it. One that I've held for a long time is Metlife(met).

Apologies for the wordy post, it's difficult to get points across without going on and on.
And here's another pic cuz what the hell.
A few 1/4 oz gold Maple Leafs, a 1/10 oz American Eagle and a .06 Mexican Peso.

 

Awesome response, thanks. I am in the same boat as you, buying precious metals is not a bad thing, as long as you understand that it's more to preserve capital than growth. I am sure if it got bad enough, those who own gold and silver might make some money then. But as long as it goes along as it has, you're preserving capital with some slight appreciation. Nothing wrong with that at all.

 

Awesome area, but a lot more crowded than it used to be.

I was born in Roseburg, moved to Clackamas/Gladstone area when I was 9 and left years later for a military aviation career.

 

Thanks. For me, it's all about preserving the value of the dollar that I've saved because I know how hard it was to earn and then save it.

Tin foil hat time... More and more as I get older, I realize that our government via the federal reserve has really done a tragic disservice to us all by devaluing our currency.

When my grandparents were raising a family, a $60,000 salary would have made you rich. When my parents were raising a family, $60,000 would have been ok- comfortable upper middle class, and now $60,000 wouldn't support my 4 person family very well at all.

You can see much of this inflation in the stock market and home prices... sort of an inverse relationship to the value of the dollar. Home prices strike me the most.
From the metro Boston area:
Grandparents bought 4 bed colonial for about $20,000.
Parents bought similar 4 bed colonial for about $180,000.
Currently, 4 bed colonial anywhere from $500,000-$1,500,000.

Same with the stock market.

This is where all those trillions of dollars that the fed has printed/flooded the markets with have ended up and these markets do a good job of actually hiding the devaluation of our money. It would seem like a good thing as home prices and stock prices rise, but is it really? Or is it just a sort of illusion where it takes 10 times more money to buy that 4 bedroom colonial even though wages haven't risen nearly as much?

Also, I find it ironic that the same group that controls our money is the same group that puts out inflation numbers, then changes the way inflation is measured, all the while printing dollar bills as fast as they can. Talk about the fox in the hen house robbing the population blind.

Sorry again for rambling on, but talking about metals and investing leads my mind down rabbit holes.

 

It's hard to use the metro boston area as your baseline for housing though. Costs are insane, as with all the cities nowadays. Everyone wants to live in the cultural center, in the city. Way back when, other than LA and NYC, and maybe Chicago/Detroit, nobody really wanted to be in the city. Now...Everyone's clamoring to live in freaking Boise, Idaho! People want cities and population now, and the problem with Boston/Metro area is that housing was already expensive (welcome to New England), and the influx just made it worse. Go check out Portland, Maine - the increase in housings costs there is insane. But, everywhere else...Meh. Normal increase over time. There's a huge culture shift away from the 'burbs.