Like literally just let us know what you decided to put in your portfolio?
I don't know if there is any reason you can't legally.
I don't know if you just don't want to deal with people or not.
I see people posting pics of 50 percent or higher gains for the year and I figure why not help each other out.
My returns are like 20 percent, or so, but a lot of them are long shot bets that pan out and raise my average so to speak.
for the past year I have been using a strategy I found in a book that lets me use the research done by smarter guys than I.
But I don't bet big with it, so my average not counting my weird long shots is probably a lot less.
I look up the buys the big dogs report every quarter to the SEC.
I looked up the whales that have a good turnover and don't just sit on a stock and compile it into a list.
I track about 10 of them each quarter.
If more than 3 decided independently to buy a stock, I buy it.
About 75 percent make money and the rest I sell if I lose 10 percent on it.

But anyway, if you guys that are doing well could see fit to just post what you bought, that might be helpful to the rest of us.
It isn't a zero sum game, so us riding your coattails shouldn't cost you any gains.
And since this isn't GD,I would hope this doesn't devolve into the WSB type thing, or maybe I do, as that has netted me a few bucks too.

So diversified index finds are out?

Someone doing well especially now means nothing.

no, if they are doing well then fine.
I mean I have a few funds I have had for 20 years that show 400 percent gain.

But I also had some crazy rides where 400 percent was in 1 week.
I figure the people that do well all the time, must be doing something right, might as well see what happened.

For me I always know it can go south and cost me money, so I always bet small, so it doesn't hurt as much.
But it also prevents big winds.
like that tsnp thing that went up over 10k times. wish I had bet bigger.
But that is a whole other discussion about when to get out type stuff.

Nobody is always doing well.  Some people bet big and win big then they either switch to a preservation strategy or lose it all.  

There are no magic beans.

People don't do well all the time.  The few that do fall within the statistically expected results for random chance.

Broad based index funds are what I recommend for long term investing.

You may want to read The Big Investment Lie and The (Mis)Behavior of Markets.

IDK...I got a Guy.

so my list from feb

Carmax up 9 percent
doordash decided not to buy. don't remember why but it is down quite a bit from feb.
Dragoneer growth currently down 14 percent, but I sold when it dropped 10 percent.
front yd residential it went private before feb.
Realpage inc (que the kenobi gif) up .4 percent
slack tech down 7 percent
xilnx inc down 12 percent but again sold when down 10 percent.

So you are right, I am down overall betting on the horses the big names picked.
GME and AMC brought me into the positives this qtr.

I'll indulge a little but I bought no individual stocks.

I bought index funds at the dip. Total index,  small cap,  and commodities.  

I also have some hedges that are doing well but they are an actual hedge for a personal financial risk that doesn't apply broadly.

As far as return that mix has gotten me around 70%. However these were long term bets,  not trading.

I bought MARA (bit coin processor/miner) at 5 bucks a share, sadly I only put 50 bucks in, sold all but 2 shares when it hit 40 bucks a share(650% gains if I do my math right).  ATT (6% dividends, bought at 24), Sunoco(, bought in at 14 bucks, pays dividends at 10%, current price is 30 bucks so ill get 3 bucks a year holding a 14 dollar stock. HELL YEAH).  

and AINV which is KILLING me as it has gone from 20 to 12.

Stonk newbs are cute.

This is one of my accounts. I didn't take anything out (no cherry picking allowed)  All I trimmed off was my totals. As someone said before. NO ONE does well all the time. If you pick good securities and stick with them though they tend to go up. Some of these I have held for YEARS and some were more recent.






Symbol
Last Price
Today's
Gain/Loss
Total
Gain/Loss
Current Value


DVY
ISHARES SELECT DIVIDEND ETF
$114.590
+$1.48
+$1,125.29
+1.31%
+$26,540.55
+43.81%


FAGIX
FIDELITY CAPITAL & INCOME
$10.99
+$0.02
+$238.35
+0.18%
+$29,014.91
+28.46%


FBGRX
FIDELITY BLUE CHIP GROWTH
$163.72
+$0.55
+$92.23
+0.34%
+$12,954.37
+89.34%


FIDELITY CONTRAFUND
$16.40
-$0.04
-$507.29
-0.24%
+$94,775.17
+83.71%


FDEQX
FIDELITY DISCIPLINED EQUITY
$52.33
+$0.08
+$17.59
+0.15%
+$1,508.88
+15.09%


FDIVX
FIDELITY DIVERSIFIED INTERNATIONAL
$47.24
+$0.33
+$439.96
+0.70%
+$17,552.78
+38.64%


FFTHX
FIDELITY FREEDOM 2035
$17.17
+$0.09
+$176.16
+0.53%
+$9,257.35
+38.02%


FID LARGE CAP CORE ENHANCED IDX INV CL
$20.16
+$0.13
+$93.20
+0.65%
+$4,454.70
+44.55%


FLPSX
FIDELITY LOW PRICED STOCK
$54.75
+$0.79
+$1,808.33
+1.46%
+$43,028.85
+52.29%


FNCMX
FIDELITY NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX
$163.10
+$0.20
+$11.05
+0.12%
+$3,415.68
+60.99%


FOCPX
FIDELITY OTC PORT
$17.73
+$0.01
+$20.49
+0.06%
+$14,335.31
+65.16%


FPURX
FIDELITY PURITAN
$26.86
+$0.11
+$2,013.58
+0.41%
+$194,436.22
+65.41%


FSMAX
FIDELITY EXTENDED MARKET INDEX FUND
$88.41
+$1.22
+$742.56
+1.40%
+$23,521.36
+77.65%


FSMEX
FIDELITY SELECT MED TECHNOLOGY & DEVICES
$72.96
-$0.01
-$4.54
-0.01%
+$13,611.14
+69.80%


ILCB
ISHARES MORNINGSTAR US EQUITY ETF
$223.680
+$3.28
+$429.35
+1.49%
+$10,876.01
+59.10%

LACFX
LORD ABBETT CONVERTIBLE FD CL A
$18.98
+$0.12
+$177.33
+0.64%
+$9,298.04
+49.59%

MRNA
MODERNA INC COM
$133.280
-$0.05
-$4.50
-0.04%
+$4,142.70
+52.76%


PFE
PFIZER INC
$36.25
+$0.58
+$82.03
+1.63%
-$201.47
-3.78%


PG
PROCTER AND GAMBLE CO COM
$135.450
+$1.97
+$279.83
+1.48%
+$6,714.83
+53.61%

SAVA
CASSAVA SCIENCES INC COM
$46.570
-$3.14
-$1,585.70
-6.32%
+$12,393.78
+111.41%

XRT
SPDR SER TR S&P RETAIL ETF
$88.75
+$1.98
+$19.80
+2.28%
+$20.10

bought ford at $6 now $12

In the past 10 years I have made over a million dollars with Comcast and Home Depot, look at their past 10 year performance.

Comcast Stock in the past 10 years has gone from $10.00 to $55.00 +

I have also done very well with Home Depot. The past 10 years has gone from $35.00 to over $300.00 per share.

So I worked at a company 31 years had a 401K    So got retired in March 2020   401 rolled to IRA  
Got a payout from the company in leu of possible annuity

Received the payout in May something of 2020
The market had recovered and I was scared to buy much of anything
Waited and waited   Remember 1/2 of the money was in the IRA churning   Had Pimco family of Bond funds  PHK  PFL  so on,  Sold the bond funds in Oct..
Got a tip on HYT Blackrock, they were cheap so bought   another closed end bond fund
Some of the things I already had  AAPL, HD, LMT, LLY, MMM, AMZN, JPM,   maybe a few more   most all DOW top 50 companies kept most all but sold JPM and MMM
Got a tip bought WHR about 125 has panned out well
End of August AAPL and TSLA split.   I bought more AAPL and some TSLA 100 shares

So still had the lump sum of cash and got lucky   A week before the election the market tanked
bought AAL, PFE, CVX, XOM, more HD, MCD, my solids    My speculations ABNB, EH, NIO, PINS, TSLA, PLTR  --- these were at pretty nice lows
INTC was another success as they had a bad quarter in OCT and there price dropped to around the 52 week low   so a good buy at mid 40...
have couple mutuals  WSTAX and FCNTX

Look for good or great companies to buy   look for companies with divs for the most of your $$   if your ok with risk look at some speculations  but don't put a ton in them or what you cant afford to lose.  
But the speculations will be your major gains and major losses.

Would suggest to always try and have 20% to 25% cash position for "on-sale" prices.  Its not a sin to move in and out of things but it can burn you  or you can burn it.....
the adage is you cant time the market, but if you have some cash you can make good gains on quality that has a bad day

Sorry, gonna be blunt here but trying to match someone else’s performance is just not smart.

You have no understanding of their risk profile, strategy, or the like. Focus on how to grow your net worth, not get rich quick kinda stuff.

I’ll admit I’m at fault here. I did post a screenshot from a Roth IRA that showed a 54% annual return as of yesterday. However, my situation isn’t your situation. I don’t need any of this money. Hence, I can be far more aggressive than most. While I’m aggressive I don’t believe in speculation.  I also don’t own individual stocks, and only one actively managed fund in my portfolio.  Also, with this aggressive stance I tend to have far higher volatility. For me that is fine as I can use dollar cost averaging to take advantage of the dips and make more overall, but you may not be in my situation. You have to have an iron stomach some days when you look at your portfolio and see a six figure drop in a week, and then throw in thousands more to buy the same investments that have just dropped.

Smart advice is to be in the market and not try to beat the market. Especially if you can’t afford to loose this money.

I don't think this is trying to chase someone else's gains.
It comes down to not knowing what you don't know.
There are a lot of stocks out there.
A lot of funds etc..

only the big names show up in the news, and not all of those are good investments or even good gambles.
Having someone else call out what has done good for them, or what they expect to do well, gives me places to look I was not aware of.

My risk as you say is my risk.
I don't generally "gamble" with any more than I am willing to lose on things that are risky.
Where as I have lost on things not considered risky in the past like GE, my rule on selling when it drops too much, keeps me out of the red.

My picks wouldn’t work for you. I’m not an active trader and I don’t sell.

A Blindfolded Monkey Can Beat Active Investors.

I've been in the market for 12-13 years now and I put in about 30% of my income every year along with doing a little real estate here and there.

In the past few years, I have been doing anywhere from 12-30% at given times but if you go all the way back to when I started.  My account shows that I am doing about 8% on average.

Just because people are bragging about this and that for the past few years doesn't mean they won't be crying at some time in the future.  Hell, a lot of stuff I have bought in the past 6 months is down anywhere from 5-20%.

Just keep investing.

Index funds.
Market has been doing well and thus so has the Index funds.
Can you do better? Yes, especially during this time due to how well the market has been performing.
Can you do worse? Yes, much worse and this is true regardless of how well or poorly the market is doing.
Index Funds are more of a set and forget.

VTSAX for the majority of my non-401k money.

I do watch stocks for value investing, picking really undervalues stocks. Last march i picked up cruise lines and airlines which took a 80-90% hit. They have since double in value and will be 5x if they return to their pre-covid levels.

I'm very inexperienced with stock trading but I've done pretty good, well REALLY good, with my small investments. I'm not foolish enough to believe I'm good at it though. I have tried telling my kids and other people that there are guys out there who eat, sleep, and breathe with their mind deep inside the market and they don't always do well. My youngest son (17) is pretty cool, he quotes some famous investors on strategy. It's refreshing to see him so young and have good perspective on the market.

This past year it's just been incredibly easy to make money with stocks. Like you literally couldn't go wrong. Some picks were huge winners and some just barely. The only stock I took a very small loss on was Intel. I held it for quite a while but it was so damn stagnant I figured that money could do better somewhere else. I sold it and bought ZOM at $0.39 and sold at $2.52.

The first stock I bought I just jumped right into - Qualcomm. It's one of those names I kept seeing for years and on a whim I bought. No research. Turns out they were in a lawsuit with Apple that I didn't know about and Qualcomm won! Boom the stock exploded. Then I started thinking about all the hype about the opioids epidemic and how there were drugs like Narcan and Suboxone being distributed pretty widely and growing with the need for them only increasing. Bought Indivior and Dr Reddy's laboratories. Boom, they also had a sharp rise.  So far my only regrets are not buying more of everything I've gotten into.

"The best way to make money, is not to lose money."~~Warren Buffett

Attached File

that Blue Chip Fund is the shit.

80% of my money is in mutual funds because they know a lot more about trading than I do.

I invested in Ecolab and Cummins last year and both are doing good for me this year.  Ecolab does a lot with restaurants and I figured there would be a comeback this year.

Vanguard TSMI

I'm lazy.  All we invest in are indexed mutual funds.

In the past, every time I tried to buy an individual stock, I lost money.

Dollar cost averaging is what works for us.

Here is my watch list of stonks and funds.  I own a few of them. Some I sold.  Some I just watch the crazy.

DOGE

QS is down quite a bit because of bad report by short seller. At $35 now but the blue sky on this company has people saying $100 all day. I am in for the long run

whats the next low share to rise?

I'm up 700% in the past 12 months. My 2021 buys have been NVAX, CYDY, CCIV, ZEST, PLTR leaps and physical gold/silver.

I generally want 5-10 positions each year and am looking for home runs. I have planned expectations and an idea of entry/exit points.

@OTDR Home Depot is the only single stock i own. Ive made good money on it. When i inherited 3 brokerage accounts from my mom, i sold everything, but HD. AT and T might pay dividends ,  but i think it was a dog, and sold it. I think my SCHWAB 1000 does better than HD. Ill have to check that see if it's a valid thought. Im not a single stock investor.  I understand the Schwab account will spread risk, but i hate the thought of selling that HD. Ill have to check my basis?
Think I've made over 20% in the last two and a half months. Thanks for any input.

Statistics show that you can't time the market.  

But somehow,  everyone on arfcom does it.  They post big wins and a few where they just made a little. They make a killing overall.

They always happen to just have the couple big winners and no losers.

Its all bs. My advice is worth what you paid for it.

OP

I mostly buy ETF's, and like Vanguard ETF's in particular. There are many companies that offer varying ETF's.

I have never made a 40% return in any year on my portfolio and never expect to.

I prefer multiple professionally managed diversified ETF's.

You can find these on-line and do your own work on selecting the ones that fit your investing style. Check out the information on performance, and holdings, as that is the first information I want on potential ETF investments. I usually use the 10-year performance to indicate the potential of the ETF.

Here is one I own MGK

actually statistics say someone does time the market, just not most people.

I got lucky. Thanks to Osprey61, I turned $30k in MVIS into $600k. Still on paper, but life changing shit.

There are generally two theories about investing. One is diversify. I won't go into the obvious. The other is the specify.

If you are going to select a stock because it is a good buy, there is no reason why you shouldn't pile a significant amount into that stock. When you diversify you are hedging you will have more winners vs losers and netting the difference. When you specify you are picking (hopefully) a winner, reaping in all the gains.

In my portfolio I only have a couple mutual funds representing less than 5% of my portfolio. These are maybe doing 6-7%. My individual stocks represent close to 75% of my portfolio have been hitting huge hits with Amazon and Nvida near 300-500%. The couple mutual funds I own do have small holdings of AMZN and NVDA but are offset with holdings of that have not done as well.

My last purchase 2 weeks ago was ARVL. They are a commercial EV vehicle maker who won the USPS contract for the next gen mail truck

Trading shares and investing are two different things.  The stocks I trade daily are not stuff you invest in. You take advantage of volatility and people who are slower than you.

this week I've traded SOHFF, RIBT, CIDM, AEZS, MARA, EOSE, DRD, ATHE, XXII, VTVT

Most of these trades im only holding for few minutes at a time. Rarely swinging them over night.

Re entered SPY after getting above 400.

This is an interesting view I guess.
I bet small in case I am wrong vs betting big in case I am right.

The only other thing is, I am not doing much if any research. I am probably just as well going in to play baccarat vs picking a stock to bet on. So I only bet what I am willing to lose, not working on what I might win.

Majority of people will do better after 30 years just investing in index funds vs individual stocks.

I am one of those people.

PIXY and METX today.

If you’re not a researcher then the mutual funds are designed for you. I hold about 20 stocks and 16 are over 300% in the past 10 years. A couple lag at 20% and a few are losers. What has happened over time is that I have created my own equivalent of a mutual fund.