Tech Stocks

[Rogean]

I have some money that's been sitting in a broker account and I need to invest it into some companies. Anybody here that pays attention to the market that might be able to make some suggestions?

Would be interested in tech companies but not limited to that if there are other areas I could play around with.

I messed around with oil companies a couple years ago but that didn't turn out well...

[Mandalore93]

Really depends on what you're looking for? Big risk for the big money or more along the average lines of long term, stable growth that you want to retire on? If it's the first you might want to look into some start ups if you have any experience in building companies and sales. If you're looking long term there are the usual staples but I do think spotify is a great company going forward. Everything is becoming digital and spotify really began to pull away in music and it's a very young company.

[Swish]

Saw a big advert at a shopping centre (shopping mall to you Americans) for Spotify and its links to the BBC here - something to do with music playlists.

Didn't one of its rivals shut down recently?

[Pringles]

All I know is I wish I had kept my google stock I had when it was $350 a share. I didnt have too many shares but that stocks up over 1k now. I made good money off it but I'll never be filthy rich at this rate =P (I'm a "take the money and run" kind of invester I dont like waiting to risk losing what I know I have "now")

Its not tech but I've been doing decent with a few mutual funds. My best performer to date has been SWSSX (lucky buy time) but I'm likely about to dump it.

[MrSparkle001]

If you had gotten in on the Twitter IPO you could have made out well. It's over $43 now. I wish I got in on it but I didn't trust it. I actually still don't but there's no denying I could have made money with the IPO.

[Rogean]

I actually tried getting in on the Zynga IPO. It tanked at first but I stuck with it and then sold when it went positive again. I sold too early though.

Stayed far away from the Facebook IPO after that.

[Chronoburn]

Just dump all your money into Amazon. It may be long term but between their cloud services, retail, and crazy innovations (drone delivery is pretty awesome conceptually) its only up from here.

Short term, higher risks .... no idea, too scared

[Kraftwerk]

Originally Posted by Chronoburn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Just dump all your money into Amazon. It may be long term but between their cloud services, retail, and crazy innovations (drone delivery is pretty awesome conceptually) its only up from here.

Short term, higher risks .... no idea, too scared

I also love to invest in companies with massive P/E ratios that are overvalued.

Seriously though, "investing" in the current market is more about what the Fed does than it is about actual research and company value. Look up a chart of fed balance sheet versus SAP500, pretty much overlay perfectly. Also anytime there is 'good' economic news markets start to drop because it means taper might start.

If you want to do short term 1-3 year investments you can probably ride this bull more. If you're concerned with 10+ year investments it's all about PMs, gold is criminally low now. And I don't mean paper gold, physically holding it in your hand and then reporting it lost in a boating accident so the government can't seize it like they did in 1933.

[Agno]

Take a look at some stocks in 3D printer companies. They just had a massive profit pull (sell off of stock to pull profit out and then reinvest) so stocks are cheaper than they have been right now. Average companies are seeing 80% growth (quick estimate based on the numbers I've seen) and with all of the publicity they are getting, they are getting even stronger. Plus with Military (printing replacement parts for warships onboard ships) healthcare (printing organs / tissue) automotive (printing car parts) and even construction (printing houses), a lot of markets are interested in 3D printing right now.

Good time to buy now before they balloon again. One company in particular that I've got money in went from $30 a share to $87 a share in I think a year and a half.

[Ruien]

I'll be a bit counter to the crowd but personally I don't invest by just "buying some tech company". The market is going to price stocks according to the known information, so even if a company is going to increase in business over time, that doesn't mean that that level of growth isn't already factored into the stock price. In other words, you can bet on a company getting more business and making more money, be right, and still lose money on the stock (or vice-versa).

I think it's okay to be bullish on an economy as a whole (I've been long Chinese Yuan since 2007) but for stocks I think long-term risk is quite high unless you really have the data and time needed to see what other professionals don't. I think there's actually less risk in shorter-term trades, and I'm a technical investor. In other words, it's not about what you trade, it's about how you trade. You don't invest in a stock, you invest in the skills required to correctly read and interpret the market. In this respect it's just like any other career, and you'll spend at least 5 years acquiring those skills.

If you're really interested, I'd recommend the following books:
* Trading with DiNapoli Levels (Joe DiNapoli)
* Dynamic Trading (Robert Miner)
* The Master Swing Trader (Alan Farley)

I have a quick introduction on my website here if you're interested. This is not intended to be spam - there's a lot of good information and trading examples there.

Investing well takes a lot of time, expect to put in over 2000 hours before you get the hang of it. Otherwise you're just taking shots in the dark.

Edit: The above might seem like a cop-out answer to your question, but it's not. For example, the right answer would not be "buy Amazon" - it would be more like "buy Amazon if the price drops into a fibonacci support confluence level on weekly bars shortly after getting a stochastic sell signal while a particular MACD indicator is still strong, and then closes up on the week with a reversal bar or reversal confirmation signal. Then place an initial protective stop loss at the weekly low and take 50% profits at the 62% retracement of that weekly move to lock in profit in the trade and reduce risk. Manage the trade with a 3-week trailing stop over the next month but be ready to take profits if the stochastic goes back into a buy or the weekly MACD goes negative".