% of people who have no idea what they're doing?

bacon?

How many people (Rhetorical) do you think blindly invest large amounts of cash... like 5k - 20k.

I mean, I've only been on this part of the forum a short while... and I'm of those, who's pretty clueless and looking for advice... I don't understand most of the jargin.

I remember about 15 years ago I think it was, the government said it was a good idea to invest in eircom, which a load of people did... and lost their shirts.

I've a large sum to invest, and tbh, I think I'm just going to go with some professional advice... otherwise it's really gambling.

Or I could just have a nice safe deposit account... but aparently that's not even safe anymore...

mo money mo problems

I wish I had Andy Dufresne to help me out.

irishh_bob

bacon? wrote: »

How many people (Rhetorical) do you think blindly invest large amounts of cash... like 5k - 20k.

I mean, I've only been on this part of the forum a short while... and I'm of those, who's pretty clueless and looking for advice... I don't understand most of the jargin.

I remember about 15 years ago I think it was, the government said it was a good idea to invest in eircom, which a load of people did... and lost their shirts.

I've a large sum to invest, and tbh, I think I'm just going to go with some professional advice... otherwise it's really gambling.

Or I could just have a nice safe deposit account... but aparently that's not even safe anymore...

mo money mo problems

I wish I had Andy Dufresne to help me out.

hard to say when it comes to individual investors , i reckon at least a third though , when it comes to fund manager , 100% , they just use the throw **** at the wall technique and hope something sticks , they get paid regardless , hence why so many investment funds make nothing

colsku

As the markets are so corrupt and manipulated it's difficult for the small guy to make money these days. The regulators are either corrupt themselves (Maddoff fraud), incompetent or underfunded.

Add to this, you have the leeches feeding off the small guy and large pension funds, like the professional advisers you alluded to.

Couple the above with miserable interest rates, third party risk and high inflation and you come to the conclusion that all is not well in the investment world!

There's one investment class that beats all this, but I'll leave that up to you to figure out. (and no it's not Apple stock!)

Seifer

bacon? wrote: »

I've a large sum to invest, and tbh, I think I'm just going to go with some professional advice... otherwise it's really gambling.

Does professional advice come with any sort of guarantee? How will you be able to tell if the advice you receive is good or bad?
(I'm not asking you specifically, I'm curious to find out the answers myself.)

irishh_bob

colsku wrote: »

As the markets are so corrupt and manipulated it's difficult for the small guy to make money these days. The regulators are either corrupt themselves (Maddoff fraud), incompetent or underfunded.

Add to this, you have the leeches feeding off the small guy and large pension funds, like the professional advisers you alluded to.

Couple the above with miserable interest rates, third party risk and high inflation and you come to the conclusion that all is not well in the investment world!

There's one investment class that beats all this, but I'll leave that up to you to figure out. (and no it's not Apple stock!)

rhymes with cold

OfflerCrocGod

That's one of the reasons why you must dribble in investments slowly over a long period, keep constant track of your performance and always try and learn from your mistakes.

You must also spend time trying to learn more about the market - often the market can be very irrational and people will sell taking a loss just before the market shoots up. It's all about patience and effort put in.

martyoo

Thing you need to remember is that the market generates a lot of noise. Most market participants choose to listen to this noise and then they become a part of it making the noise louder.

This noise doesn't care about value, fundamentals or long term prospects and if you listen to it, it will effect your performance as an investor and not in a good way.

Just spend more time reading 10-K's than Zerohedge and you will be fine

AAII

Jim2007

martyoo wrote: »

AAII

A very good reference! I've been a member for years and I can highly recommend their Stock Investor Pro tool to anyone who wants detailed financial data on the American markets.

Mind you I just use their database and uses my own tools to do the analysis, but that is another story.

Jim.

Jim2007

martyoo wrote: »

AAII

A very good reference! I've been a member for years and I can highly recommend their Stock Investor Pro tool to anyone who wants detailed financial data on the American markets.

Mind you I just use their database and uses my own tools to do the analysis, but that is another story.

Jim.

martyoo

A very good reference!

Indeed Jim. AAII is the only site I have ever subscribed to and is well worth it. Would highly recommend it.

Thargor

Hadn't a clue when I started this time last year but you pick it up in a month or two just by doing it, it cost me a couple of grand just to learn you cant hit Buy and hope for the best, you have to set a limit always. Wasted a lot of cash topping up on spikes aswell, I don't do that anymore either. Also don't try to catch a falling knife. Im up about 80k on paper even after the recent bloodbath though so fingers crossed for another 12 months.

BrianD3

Thargor wrote: »

Hadn't a clue when I started this time last year but you pick it up in a month or two just by doing it, it cost me a couple of grand just to learn you cant hit Buy and hope for the best, you have to set a limit always. Wasted a lot of cash topping up on spikes aswell, I don't do that anymore either. Also don't try to catch a falling knife. Im up about 80k on paper even after the recent bloodbath though so fingers crossed for another 12 months.

80k in your first year, bloody hell! Presumably your initial investment was not huge (i.e. not a 7 figure or large 6 figure sum) and you are doing this part time. In that case 80k is great.

Thargor

35k initial investment, it was mostly from RRL and RMP so mostly luck rather than any strategy, down about 12k today anyway.

Grecco

You can add me to the clueless list after today