Investing/Finance/Career thread

[towelie]

Originally Posted by Rob S

Finally going to stop being a moron w/ my money and getting a good chunk of it into the market. I'm a set it and forget it type of person when it comes to investing so thinking of doing a 50/50 split between VTI and VOO ETFs. Is there anything bad about that?

To clarify, I have zero interest in owning individual stocks which I have to monitor and trade on a daily basis.

the top holdings in both of those ETFs are mostly the same so i'd diversify a bit more. foreign stocks have been outperforming US stocks and if you're comfortable with the risk, i'd look into a chinese ETF like FXI (vanguard's version is probably superior). also, if you have certain sectors you're bullish on, you can target sector specific ETFs and diversity your portfolio that way- given you analyze and rotate those sectors periodically.

[WMD]

I want to buy something for cheap and then sell high and become rich. Advise me.

[towelie]

chipotle (CMG) is a decent buy-low right now if you expect them to regain consumer confidence and popularity. it should hit $400 again within a year, given there aren't anymore food safety issues.

[Babylon]

Originally Posted by WMD

I want to buy something for cheap and then sell high and become rich. Advise me.

If you're looking to buy cheap and get rich you're going to have to find the next Google, Apple, Amazon or Microsoft. Think of me when you do ok.

[Rob S]

Originally Posted by towelie

the top holdings in both of those ETFs are mostly the same so i'd diversify a bit more. foreign stocks have been outperforming US stocks and if you're comfortable with the risk, i'd look into a chinese ETF like FXI (vanguard's version is probably superior). also, if you have certain sectors you're bullish on, you can target sector specific ETFs and diversity your portfolio that way- given you analyze and rotate those sectors periodically.

I only want moderate risk at this point - maybe step that up once I am more comfortable. Really don't want to play in the international market all that much right now.

Good point on diversifying though. Anything in particular you think is worth looking into?

[fenikz]

Originally Posted by WMD

I want to buy something for cheap and then sell high and become rich. Advise me.

Wait until Desktop Metal goes public

[Brothgar]

ROTH vs 401K what do?

[towelie]

Originally Posted by Rob S

I only want moderate risk at this point - maybe step that up once I am more comfortable. Really don't want to play in the international market all that much right now.

Good point on diversifying though. Anything in particular you think is worth looking into?

having your whole portfolio in VTI and VOO would be low to moderate risk. VTI has 3000+ different stocks across the cap spectrum so you're well diversified there. VOO has 500+ different stocks across large and mid-cap so pretty safe ETF there. and both are well-performing vanguard ETFs so for your 'set it and forget it' style, it's good. just with some overlap at the top, but nothing too heavy.

if you wanted to get more active, i would recommend something like having a majority of your portfolio in either VTI or VOO and using the remainder in sector specific or more volatile ETFs. you wanna be aggressive when you're younger and be safer with your investment strategy as you age, generally.

[fenikz]

Do you guys have brokers? use Mint? something in between?

[towelie]

Originally Posted by fenikz

Do you guys have brokers? use Mint? something in between?

i have schwab for my IRA and savings and i use robinhood to get my gambling fix in.

signed up for mint years ago, but haven't used it much. they send me emails.

[Babylon]

Originally Posted by Brothgar

ROTH vs 401K what do?

That's a no braner. Roth.

[fenikz]

Robinhood was what I was thinking of, not mint

[ImBrotherCain]

Take it for what you will but in my opinion but straight passive right now might not be the way to go. We're in year 8 of a bull market and the top is starting to get quite heavy, flows to S&P tracking ETFs have been staggering and at some point something has to give.

As people, especially ignorant people continue to see the markets go up they find the quickest, easiest and often most advertised way to get in to the market and right now that is index tracking ETFs. What scares me about this, is generally speaking when the average mom and pop starts asking questions like this, it means things are starting to get long in the tooth. Couple that with the fact that the guys at the top continue to get bigger and bigger not because of fundamentals but because of momentum and I see a potential bubble looming.

FWIW other wise, I do agree with towelie and I think international is the place to be right now. If your just getting in and are looking to diversify a 50/50 split domestic and international isn't a bad idea.

[WMD]

Originally Posted by towelie

i have schwab for my IRA and savings and i use robinhood to get my gambling fix in.

signed up for mint years ago, but haven't used it much. they send me emails.

What exactly do you do on Robinhood?? Sounds interesting and I'm all for gambling. What's realistic for how much I can make there?

[towelie]

Originally Posted by ImBrotherCain

Take it for what you will but in my opinion but straight passive right now might not be the way to go. We're in year 8 of a bull market and the top is starting to get quite heavy, flows to S&P tracking ETFs have been staggering and at some point something has to give.

As people, especially ignorant people continue to see the markets go up they find the quickest, easiest and often most advertised way to get in to the market and right now that is index tracking ETFs. What scares me about this, is generally speaking when the average mom and pop starts asking questions like this, it means things are starting to get long in the tooth. Couple that with the fact that the guys at the top continue to get bigger and bigger not because of fundamentals but because of momentum and I see a potential bubble looming.

FWIW other wise, I do agree with towelie and I think international is the place to be right now. If your just getting in and are looking to diversify a 50/50 split domestic and international isn't a bad idea.

i'm fairly new but i'm concerned with how the popularity of ETFs are impacting prices of a group of stocks based on the performance of a guy at the top like amazon, tesla, or facebook. maybe this is a common thing but when a certain large semiconductor business trends down for a legitimate reason, the entire market of semi-conductors trends down in unison. it feels like market inefficiency based on the popularity of ETFs.

[towelie]

Originally Posted by WMD

What exactly do you do on Robinhood?? Sounds interesting and I'm all for gambling. What's realistic for how much I can make there?

It's a brokerage platform app with a clean and minimalist design that makes it a little too easy to trade stocks and ETFs.

The interface makes it a little too simple but you deposit money into Robinhood and then make trades. There's a day trade limit and I'd understand the tax implications before diving into it.

Sent from my ONE A2005 using Tapatalk

[ImBrotherCain]

Originally Posted by towelie

i'm fairly new but i'm concerned with how the popularity of ETFs are impacting prices of a group of stocks based on the performance of a guy at the top like amazon, tesla, or facebook. maybe this is a common thing but when a certain large semiconductor business trends down for a legitimate reason, the entire market of semi-conductors trends down in unison. it feels like market inefficiency based on the popularity of ETFs.

There can been some fluctuations just based upon sectors. I am sure part of it can be attributed to ETFs but I think a lot of it is just horde mentality. A year or two ago when oil prices fell, natural gas prices fell too despite strong numbers.

Really what scares me right now is if you look at the top weightings in the Russell 1000, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 they all have Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Google.

If you compare the weightings those stocks comprise:
- 11.46% of the Russell 1000
- 42.19% of the Nasdaq
- 12.83% of the S&P 500

That is scary to me. Each time someone just blindly puts money into an index ETF they are contributing to the growth of those stocks, which then further increased their weighting, thus making it so more money gets put into those stocks... you get the point.

[towelie]

Originally Posted by ImBrotherCain

There can been some fluctuations just based upon sectors. I am sure part of it can be attributed to ETFs but I think a lot of it is just horde mentality. A year or two ago when oil prices fell, natural gas prices fell too despite strong numbers.

Really what scares me right now is if you look at the top weightings in the Russell 1000, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 they all have Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Google.

If you compare the weightings those stocks comprise:
- 11.46% of the Russell 1000
- 42.19% of the Nasdaq
- 12.83% of the S&P 500

That is scary to me. Each time someone just blindly puts money into an index ETF they are contributing to the growth of those stocks, which then further increased their weighting, thus making it so more money gets put into those stocks... you get the point.

it's a great spot to be in as one of those top companies but there's definitely artificial growth there. along the same line, as the biggest companies within industries continue acquisitions and mergers, it's a greater market cap for these large companies and greater leverage to dictate both the consumer market and equity markets. there's too much accumulation at the top imo with the Dow soaring disproportionate to the other indexes.
but alas, capitalism

[Rob S]

Originally Posted by towelie

It's a brokerage platform app with a clean and minimalist design that makes it a little too easy to trade stocks and ETFs.

The interface makes it a little too simple but you deposit money into Robinhood and then make trades. There's a day trade limit and I'd understand the tax implications before diving into it.

Sent from my ONE A2005 using Tapatalk

How are the tax implications any different than using another brokerage app (ie: scottrade)?

Originally Posted by ImBrotherCain

Take it for what you will but in my opinion but straight passive right now might not be the way to go. We're in year 8 of a bull market and the top is starting to get quite heavy, flows to S&P tracking ETFs have been staggering and at some point something has to give.

As people, especially ignorant people continue to see the markets go up they find the quickest, easiest and often most advertised way to get in to the market and right now that is index tracking ETFs. What scares me about this, is generally speaking when the average mom and pop starts asking questions like this, it means things are starting to get long in the tooth. Couple that with the fact that the guys at the top continue to get bigger and bigger not because of fundamentals but because of momentum and I see a potential bubble looming.

FWIW other wise, I do agree with towelie and I think international is the place to be right now. If your just getting in and are looking to diversify a 50/50 split domestic and international isn't a bad idea.

What ETFs would you recommend from an intl perspective? This might not be a bad idea. Could go 50% domestic, 25% industry specific, 25% intl.

[Babylon]

If i were starting over i'd go 50% straight S&P 500 25% bonds, 25% intl. What do i know. It's not like i've made a boat load of money on the stock market......