(05-19-2010 12:04 AM)Brookes Owl Wrote:  Am I the only guy who gets the impression Mach makes posts like this primarily because he needs us to know how well he does playing the markets?

That and he likes to pokes people to disrupt the peace and harmony that's existed the past month that he's been gone.

That would make a better poll.
Has the civility gone up and the name calling gone down the past month? Yes or no?

Yes.

Damn, I already see my blood pressure rising again.

And I'm in the worst financial spell of my life. My income has been dropping the past two years doing the same work I've done for over thirty years.

(05-18-2010 06:32 PM)Machiavelli Wrote:  Are you better off today then than you were in 2008?

No.

But I am better off today than I will be in 2012, unless things take a major turn in a different direction.

And so are you.

Brooke's I think all of us could do well in the stock market. Especially with the volatility. It's like a 25% sale every other week. I do concentrate on banks and particulary regional banks in my area.

There's also a great dividend play I make on 20 stocks quarterly. I wish I could fire up the flux capacitor and talk to an 18 yr. old kid about twenty years ago about stocks. It's truly an equalizer.
There was nothing in my first post that resembled any form of braggadocio. The reason I feel interest rates will continue to go down is the trouble with the Euro and the volatility in our markets. People are scared. Mainly from the trumpeting of Beck and Rush. Every damn commercial on their programs deals with investing in gold. The right is very scared. The informed will take advantage of that. Gold is 1200 dollars an ounce. Let's revisit this in 6 months. 30 yr. mortgage around 5 and 15 yr 4.375. Let's see where we are at there too.

I've shared my ideas on the dividend play before. Works like a clock. I'd be more than happy to bounce ideas off anyone here. No intent on malice here.

(05-18-2010 10:55 PM)smn1256 Wrote:  No, the above stuff is just for the speakers and amp. Then there's the CD transport, digital-to-analog converter $8k, $7k, Pre-amp, $7k, room correction system $6200, lap top to run the room correction system $1,100, speaker cables, $3,300, various interconnects, $2,500 or so, power cables $900 each (and I have a lot), custom equipment rack $2500, AC power conditioner $2500, accoustic treatment for the room $2000, extra pair of speakers just sitting around not being used $13,500. And then there's the cost of a few thousand CD's.

The good thing about the stereo is that, unlike my wife, I can turn it off.

What the hell do you have, the highest-end Martin Logan's?

I'm happy with my Bose 3-2-1. My co-worker has some ML's that cost about 2K per piece. I thought that was crazy.

smn..... here's what I want you to do. sell that equipment and open up a scottrade account. Find the highest paying dividend stocks/their price. Last week cplp paid a 22 cent dividend and the stock two weeks before this dividend was 8.40 cents. You buy this stock 2 weeks before the x date. You sell one day before the x date. You set a buy order for 3x's the amount of the dividend - closing price of the day you sold for the next day. The price will go back to that closing price by the distribution date. It's really that simple.

Ex. you buy 1000 shares of cplp for 8400. You sell at 9.13 the day before x date. You buy back the stock on x date at 8.32. You sell it on distribution day for 9.

Here are the stocks I use.
hts, cplp, ksp,cim,cmo,anh,nly,kcap,forty,rso,ftr,mfa,qbak,ston,tcap,nzt,alsk,enp,cade,vz,stp,cvx,

Happy hunting.

How about some examples of your losses.

*Spelling.

Ohhhhhhhh................

I lost 9,000 dollars one time on that play with FUN. That's the stock that started it all. It went from 10.32 to 7 dollars last October and I owned 3000 share making this play. My daughter went into the hospital and I didnt sell on the day before the x. Lost my tookus, but if I would of sold the day before I would of made hands over fist. There's some joy.... there's some pain. Overall this is a great strategy. It works. Hope you never try it Paul.

(05-19-2010 07:35 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  Hope you never try it Paul.

I wont. I make it a habit to not take gambling advice from anyone who offers a guaranty on their strategies. Thanks for answering about losses, though I didn't ask for excuses for them.

(05-19-2010 07:07 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  ...There was nothing in my first post that resembled any form of braggadocio.

...I've shared my ideas on the dividend play before. Works like a clock. I'd be more than happy to bounce ideas off anyone here. No intent on malice here.

Here's what's really chapping me about your thread. If you pay attention to the economy and markets as much as you claim, you absolutely had to know that there was a good chance we'd have unemployed posters on this board. For crying out loud, unemployment was below 5% at the beginning of 2008 and a little over 7% at the end. So you start by talking about your personal investment strategies and follow up with, essentially, "are you better off now than 2008? I am!" That makes you incredibly dense or desperately needy to have people think you are successful. I don't think you're that dense (some may disagree).

I'm sure you intended no malice but I've seen you do this before. I was raised a little differently but that's just a culture issue I guess. I probably wouldn't have brought this up if you hadn't been so particularly compelled to talk about the 2008/2010 delta.

And stock advice to SMN? Really? Would you take some random guy's stock advice on a message board?

Everyone keep in mind this is the same person that said we should all be pooling together to pay for his medical bills and supports the Obama Socialized medicine. If you're doing so well in the stock market, YOU handle it, Mach.

I think you have selective memory when it comes to 2008. Thinks were tanking and they were tanking big time. It was October of that year when everyone's 401k went off the cliff. What I think is happening and it's only one man's opinion Brooke's. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. I can give you two metrics to one on how things are better today then they were two years ago. And on that stock advice backtrack the strategy I gave, it's somthing I stumbled upon myself. It works.

and employment rate is always a lagging factor. So hopefully things will start to come around, but with the constant harping from the "sirens of the right". It's hard.

(05-19-2010 08:24 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  and employment rate is always a lagging factor. So hopefully things will start to come around, but with the constant harping from the "sirens of the right". It's hard.

Your willful ignorance is amazing. Have you neglected to take into account the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, the Obama tax increases, the healthcare fiasco that's already going to be over the budget, etc., etc., etc.? His policies aren't even implemented yet.

BTW, short-term sellers/buyers, making a quick buck, etc., aren't a good indicator of how well the economy is performing. They're opportunists. How are long-term investments looking?

yep.....and and we are going to see hyper inflation. The sky is falling the sky is falling.

The stimulus worked. Plain and simple. Get on the bus.

(05-19-2010 08:32 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  yep.....and and we are going to see hyper inflation. The sky is falling the sky is falling.

Educate yourself on what causes inflation, re-read your posts. At that point, if you have an IQ above 50, you should come to the same conclusion about your comments that the rest of us have reached.

Good luck.

The stimulus worked? OMFG you need help.

(05-19-2010 08:17 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  I think you have selective memory when it comes to 2008. Thinks were tanking and they were tanking big time. It was October of that year when everyone's 401k went off the cliff. What I think is happening and it's only one man's opinion Brooke's. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. I can give you two metrics to one on how things are better today then they were two years ago. And on that stock advice backtrack the strategy I gave, it's somthing I stumbled upon myself. It works.

Geez, maybe you are that dense. The stats aren't that hard to look up. See, I'm not trying to make a political point (but fyi I think W exacerbated existing problems and I think O threw gasoline on W's fire), I'm trying to tell you that your posting behavior makes you appear insecure and gives the impression of a desire to call attention to yourself.

And you're gauging the economy by the Dow? Wow. At the end of 2008 millions of people who had crappy retirement accounts still had jobs but today they've got no job to accompany the (maybe slightly better) 401k. If they had a choice, do you think most would pick the job or the 401k?

But for what it's worth, here's my perspective: In 2007 our small business was doing fine and making a living for several people. In 2008 we saw some signs and tightened our belts over the course of the year, but were hanging on. Through the first part of 2009 we had no choice but to lay off our employees. It's 2010 and the business is virtually mothballed. We qualified for no stimulus money; no banks were/are interested in speaking to us seriously. I'm lucky enough and thankful to be employed, but stimulus worked? Meh. Don't talk to me about selective memory; I LIVED it.

The dollar isn't pegged to another currency. We can play by a different set of rules for awhile. Can we sustain our current level of borrowing? Quite simply no. We will eventually have to raise taxes and cut spending. Preferably in defense spending. Any rational human being who ******* and moans about our current state of affairs and stays silent on our defense spending lacks credibility.

I'm sure raising those taxes will do wonders for our 10% unemployment. Afterall, raising taxes on business owners is a surefire way to make them hire more people.


.....in LA LA Land.