I'm kicking myself this week. I bought a penny stock (GNBT) a few months ago around $.60 a share. I don't usually buy penny stocks, but I heard about this one from an endocrinologist friend of mine and took a look at it. Thought things looked good so I bought some. Held it for a while, watched it go up to $1.50 and fall back to $.70 or so, then finally sold it for $.90, a small profit. About 3 weeks after I sold it started heading up....it is trading at $4.58 today. OH MY GOD...

It wasn't a huge amount of money I put in there, but I still left about $12,000 on the table, which for a young guy like me is still a nice chunk of change.

Rick, call me the next time you get a tip. I'll take a 50% return anytime SmileWavy

Me too Howard, but this one I bought specifically as a high risk high reward play. I feel like I accepted all the risk but punched out before I got the high reward...

Nathan...Your a GREEDY mtherfker....50% profit for say 3 months is a HIGH return....16.7% per month x12 = OH my GOSH 200% per year!!!

50% per year is a High rate of return....

So what would you be saying if the stock dropped to .12?

1) Damn, I missed a brilliant short opportunity.
2) Damn, I'm glad I got out with a 50% gain.

I like Buffett's style. The best way to make money is to not lose money.

on-ramp, here's an interesting blurb about Warren Buffett in Wikipedia:

I just LOVE this Thread....

American workers have been OVERPAID for decades, and now comes the comupence, we have people who will do the same things we can for LESS money.....So our mfg has left our shores and Americans have become lazy and ignorant as evidenced by the percentage of Engineers we are turning out...so now even the tech jobs are being outsourced to those Wog countries....

Take a look at GM..the reason they can't compete and are hemoraging money is all those UNION contracts for Health and Welfare Benfits on top of the $30 an hour that they receive in pay.....

So GUESS what is going to happen....Very simply the USA is going to become what is known as a 4th World Country...in other words a HAS BEEN....much like GB was during the 60s and 70s....Right now we are greasing on those little Plastic. cards...but once the PARtey is over....thats gona be it...

And do U think ANY Politican wants to tell you the facts of life....Ohhh NO...they will tell you the ship is unsinkable all the while they secure themselves a seat in the lifeboat...

Well, hindsight is always 20/20 and it could have gone to $0. The glass half full way to look at it is that I made a profit and as the old saying goes "No one ever went broke from taking a profit."

The glass half empty way would be to think "Damn, I could be $12k richer right now".

I'm just feeling half empty today.

And Tabs, yes, I am interested in making money (maybe even greedy when it comes to investments) but that's why I invest in the market. I don't expect 50% per year return overall, but when I go out on a limb and buy a penny stock, I expect to make a big return or lose a bunch of money. That's the world of penny stocks. 50-100% returns are common in penny stocks, of course bankruptcy is common too.

And U bright boyz get to watch the Super Bowl or the World Series to keep you occupied and a SUV in the driveway....kinda like being in Rome...bread and circuses for the masses...

All the while the Rich get Richer and you get POORER.... Oh and Motion with his FLASH money Ferrari....nice toy there..but what are you going to do for an encore when the RE Bubble goes bang....go back to your day job...In other words U better have about $5,000,000.00 in CASH or equivlant LIQUID ASSETS ....Otherwise your what Mother calls being "Nigger Rich".

Hey didja even notice that yesterday Congress raised the debt limit to $9,000,000,000,000.00 otherwise the USA was INDANGER OF DEFAULTING ON US TREASURIES...for the 1st time in history....HEHEHE...IF WE DEFAULT KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE...... the Breadline starts to your left.

NATHAN YOU WERE COMPENSATED FOR YOUR RISK>>>50%.

Yeah but I could've been compensated much more for my risk...

Sorta like accepting a deal to sell your Porsche for $5,000 and then discovering that Bill Gates once drove that same car as a boy and wants to buy it for $500,000. Yeah, you got your 5 grand, but boy that half a mill would be nice wouldn't it?

Sure I'm a MIllionaire, but I ain't rich.... Mother and Daddy never buy anything on credit...they had the Cash to buy their house...but only put 80% down.... and they save their money like no tommorow...so as a consequence I am one twisted fk when it comes to money...I literally can't buy anything unless it has the poetential of making a profit....thus my spoon collection....for Christs sake I'm still watching my Sony 20" inch TV that I bought in 1986..... and when I do spend money on something it usually is of very good quality....I bought McIntosh Stereo equipment back in 1978..79 and would U believe that it is worth as much today as what I paid for it back then....and I do work the deals when I do buy something...I even asked for a discount on an item at Walmart , and I GOT IT too..... I once found $40 a bottle Far NieteChardoney in the Bargin Bin at a Food For Less for $4 a bottle...I bought all 8 bottles.... my guests loved it... and New Cars forget it....2 years old is the way to go...and as I get older I see a car as being a utility...meaning anything more than a Nissan Sentra (basic transportation) is a LUXURY..and I tend to keep them forever...my F150 is now 8 years old and the Ranger I had before I had for 13 years....So that U might say is how U get RICH monetarily.... but rich is subjective and U can have all the money in the world but if you don't have piece of mind U ain't got *****.... and fortunately I have that as well, and for that I had to work very hard indeed...now I am not going to sit here and tell you that I don't have my problems/stresses but they are external problems and not internally derived.

Wow, talk about stream of consciousness...

tabs....just curious if you have any investments at all or if you're a cash only/liquid assets kinda guy.

See I try to save as much as I can in addition to my 401K. But I also have a small mutual fund portfolio. not rich but i will have a few $$$ to fall back on ifthe bottom doesn't fall out.

i don't get it. where are the nine remaining guys eating now..?

I have quiet a chunk in the Stock and Bond markets...and that why I have been crying for the past 5 years....cause the bottom did fall out...this has been the WORST MARKET since the Great Depression...everything is basically on a 5 year business cycle...as Stocks go down....RE and Hard Assets goes up and vicey versa....so the prognoisis is that over the next five years your going to have a Bull Stock market and a declining RE market...Right now the Stock Market Charts have an amazing resembelnce to the 1934 Charts......

Ohh and now I am bragging....I believe in having Professional help unless yur willing to sit in front of the Computer screen 8 hours aday watching the Market...and my opinion is that most Brokers are ORDER TAKERS and only know what the Brokerage House tells them...at Smith Barney outa 13,000 Brokers there are only 346 that are Portfolio Manager Qualified.

For a Portfolio usually U need about 100K and the Broker has complete discreation on buying and selling....just like your Mutual Fund....except with a Portfolio Manager there is COMPLETE TRANSPARENCY...U know what he is buying and selling on a daily basis....The cost is 1.5 % of the value of the Portfolio per year just like your Mutual Fund...thus NO CHURNING of the Account to make commissions....and it behoves the Manager to make your Portfolio grow becuase he makes more money on the account if he does...

Now my Portfolio manager has been doing this for 30 years first in the Banks as a Trust Manager and then as a Stock Broker...when she was in Banking she became friends with the last Chairman of the Federal Reserve and even has a client in his office. The last Fed Chairman is a US Treasuries investor....and does not participate in the Stock Market. Also she is a sometimes advisor to the RNC....on a quid pro quo basis....I found that out right after 911.....I got in the door when she was in Pasadena, CA through a Millionaire friend of mine who is now passed away.... and the only way in is by referal...the last time I talked to her about it...she said she wants to talk to U for about a year before she will take on a new client... So I feel that I have been fairly well represented...

Well the first theree are getting Food Stamps and the ones who could pay something are using Credit Cards

I'm glad tabs is here to keep us in check :D

As I approach 40 this topic really starts to hit home. Do I quit racing, sell the 930, stay in my relatively cheap house, keep driving my 5 year old truck, and start a business or invest all this fun money into real estate or the market and hope to be rich in 10 years. Or do I keep living comfortably with my hobbies and toys knowing I can retire comfortably at 55 if I want but that I'll never be able to buy a new GT3 or live in a posh neighborhood?

Today my decision is to start a small company on the side while keeping my day job. Stay in the house, keep driving the truck, keep the 930, and race a couple time a year. This plan will probably change a few times before I act, but I feel like I have to do something so I don't wake up at 50 and wonder what the he!! I've been doing. BTW, the company will be a machine shop. With my luck the oil boom will bust just as my first bills come due.

Tabs,

any stocks/mutual funds that short the RE market?
Let me know and I'm in tomorrow morning. thanks dude

I'm planning on opening a side business in the next 5-10 years, possibly a car dealership. I read that 10 out of the 32 NFL owners got their money from car dealerships...gotta be money in those.

Short Toll Brothers or KB Homes if U like...and I don't own much in the way of Mutual Funds....I think Shorting is a dangerous game at the moment....

When dealing with the Stock Market....your managing your risk...you want the least risk and greatest return...every stock trades in a range...boy this is brilliant stuff isn't it...

Take a look at a Chart of the Market over the last 2 years....down to 10,000 up to 10,700 and back....Backing and Filling...Building a base....now the base is 11,000 to 11,300 so far....the length of time building that base is an indicator of the length of a move and its strength.....