Comments on: 17,511 Reasons Not to Buy Individual Stocks

By: Duff

Duff — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:52:28 +0000

I’m in the “don’t buy individual stocks” boat, as well. I love the idea of “playing” the markets, but unless you want to play 24/7 you’re likely to get burned. Plus, transaction fees eventually add up.

I put most of my retirement money in VT — a global index ETF.

By: Monew Saver

Monew Saver — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:23:44 +0000

Well I think the best time to buy stocks is when everyone else is scared. Better to buy now rather than last year. If you are young, I say invest in Intel, Amazon, or Apple. Those companies ain’t going bankrupt, and have very nice futures IMO

By: Cap

Cap — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:48:36 +0000

pluto: yes

Moneymonk: dont think I’m really shocked or anything. if you’re talking about the text description for the screenshot, that’s just my sarcastic musings :)

By: Moneymonk

Moneymonk — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:23:15 +0000

Cap, everyone is down at this point, not sure why you are shocked

By: pluto

pluto — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:20:30 +0000

have you ever heard the words “stop loss” ?

By: aa

aa — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:49:18 +0000

Stock buyers who think they are NOT smarter than Buffett should hold at least 10-20 stocks and read the business statements.

By: Kevin @ The Money Hawk

Kevin @ The Money Hawk — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:35:05 +0000

I’ve been saying this forever.

@ Matt:

The S&P 500 is only down 40% over the last year. The Dow is only down 35%. But the main point is that index funds will beat 90% of “stock” investors as well as actively managed fund investors over time on average anyway, so the fact that both are down right now makes no difference.

The really big problem with stocks is that we know the market is going to recover; that doesn’t mean that all individual companies will. When your money goes up in smoke with no chance of recovery, you’ll wish you had stayed away from single stocks.

By: Matt SF

Matt SF — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:17:54 +0000

You will see similar returns on many index funds as well. Only way to turn a profit this year was buying into bear funds.