How's the market treating you?

[credit_endurance]

Looking into purchases of the shares on both Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (symbol VOO) and SPDR S&P 500 ETF (Symbol SPY).

How many shares is a good bet to purchase? Or a ballpark starting amount?

[Anonymous]

I've shared the gains for the past few days so today its time to share the loss.

The value of my portfolio fell 2.05% today compared to declines of 1.09% for the DJIA and 0.78% for the S&P 500.  The current structure of the portfolio causes it to overreact to market movements. When the market went up the past week, my performance exceeded the overall gains and now when it declined my loss of value was more than the actual market loss.  In the first hour of trading it was down nearly 9 percent but recovered thanks to my AMZN and CRSP shares.  I've been accumulated AMZN for a few years now through restricted stock units granted to employees and the discounted stock purchase plan.  Eventually I'll have to rebalance the portfolio to reduce some of the volatility but for now I'm just living with it and occasionally hedging with index options.

[Anonymous]

While Bufett never stated the names of the funds he suggests investing in; recent Berkshire Hathaway 13F filings indicate they have positions in SPY and VOO.

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've shared the gains for the past few days so today its time to share the loss.

The value of my portfolio fell 2.05% today compared to declines of 1.09% for the DJIA and 0.78% for the S&P 500.  The current structure of the portfolio causes it to overreact to market movements. When the market went up the past week, my performance exceeded the overall gains and now when it declined my loss of value was more than the actual market loss.  In the first hour of trading it was down nearly 9 percent but recovered thanks to my AMZN and CRSP shares.  I've been accumulated AMZN for a few years now through restricted stock units granted to employees and the discounted stock purchase plan.  Eventually I'll have to rebalance the portfolio to reduce some of the volatility but for now I'm just living with it and occasionally hedging with index options.

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We all had a down day today I think. MSFT, NVDA, AAPL, and GOOGL were my only stocks up, and they weren't enough to offset the downs. But one day is not a battle lost.

I'd be working the AMZN ESPP and RSU programs to the max, too. It's not going to go down, and while it doesn't pay a dividend, it's still worth having some of. Even 1,000 shares would go a long way in 20 years. I'll admit my ESPP/RSU stock (not AMZN, but another tech powerhouse) dominates my portfolio, and I'm ok with that since it's consistently going up and paying a solid dividend that keeps pace with annual salary increases.

[Anonymous]

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@credit_endurance wrote:

Looking into purchases of the shares on both Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (symbol VOO) and SPDR S&P 500 ETF (Symbol SPY).

How many shares is a good bet to purchase? Or a ballpark starting amount?

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I'll leave the specific advice to others but you can't go wrong by purchasing one share then adding to it over time; especially buying on dips.  Pay attention to the expense ratio of the funds you're interested in and note that Admiral funds have higher expense ratios and also require a minimum investment of $3,000 so you'd probably want to stay with the regular fund and not the Admiral class.

[credit_endurance]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@credit_endurance wrote:

Looking into purchases of the shares on both Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (symbol VOO) and SPDR S&P 500 ETF (Symbol SPY).

How many shares is a good bet to purchase? Or a ballpark starting amount?

---

I'll leave the specific advice to others but you can't go wrong by purchasing one share then adding to it over time; especially buying on dips.  Pay attention to the expense ratio of the funds you're interested in and note that Admiral funds have higher expense ratios and also require a minimum investment of $3,000 so you'd probably want to stay with the regular fund and not the Admiral class.

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@Anonymous Thanks so much for the sound advice. Much appreciated! Start slow and move ahead cautiously. 😃

[Anonymous]

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@credit_endurance wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@credit_endurance wrote:

Looking into purchases of the shares on both Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (symbol VOO) and SPDR S&P 500 ETF (Symbol SPY).

How many shares is a good bet to purchase? Or a ballpark starting amount?

---

I'll leave the specific advice to others but you can't go wrong by purchasing one share then adding to it over time; especially buying on dips.  Pay attention to the expense ratio of the funds you're interested in and note that Admiral funds have higher expense ratios and also require a minimum investment of $3,000 so you'd probably want to stay with the regular fund and not the Admiral class.

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@Anonymous Thanks so much for the sound advice. Much appreciated! Start slow and move ahead cautiously. 😃

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I just put my money where my mouth is and bought a small position in VOO at the opening bell.  I also plan on adding to this over time, especially on dips.

[Anonymous]

I made some heavy moves into DAL when the bottom dropped out to 18.50. Think I am holding until 40-45. 

Moved my gains from selling Carrier (13-->24.25) into AMD, which I am expecting to beat its targets with upcoming new systems from Sony and Microsoft. The NVDA deal with AMD also helps (getting business from competitors). 

Holding patern with Visa and JPM from when I bought them in April. 

Biggest miss I had was selling Square at 55. I got shaky. A bit mad at myself there. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

While Bufett never stated the names of the funds he suggests investing in; recent Berkshire Hathaway 13F filings indicate they have positions in SPY and VOO.

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I've often wondered why they don't share, would it cause chaos in the market if more people followed thus devalue said stocks?

Because I've never seen the harm in everyone doing well in finances, theoretically that would also mean a good economy since more people would be doing better off in that respect. 

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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I've often wondered why they don't share, would it cause chaos in the market if more people followed thus devalue said stocks?

Because I've never seen the harm in everyone doing well in finances, theoretically that would also mean a good economy since more people would be doing better off in that respect. 

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You answered your own question. Just look around MF for examples: one person comes up with a plan that helped them grow a credit limit or raise their score and others start following it like they're reading out of a binder or strategy guide.

A lot of people don't want to take chances or think for themselves. They want the get-rich scheme handed to them, step by step, on a platter.

The problem with this approach is that wealth is more like a zero-sum game than it isn't. If Warren Buffet said buy X, Y, and Z stocks to get rich, hundreds of thousands of people would rush out to buy X, Y, and Z stocks. Demand would surge those stocks to the point that most can't afford them, and more importantly, to the point where X, Y, and Z stocks are no longer profitable enough to generate wealth.

If everyone won the lottery, nobody would win any money.