MARKETS,Anybody even yet?

[FAA]

My advisors have finally deigned to reacquire Apple. Of course, 18 at a lofty $246.

[TripleTriple]

We may be lucky to have the market even approach 11 percent for 2025 IMO.

We may be lucky if it's not -11% for 2025.

[FAA]

I may have to settle for my NASDAQ treading water on the year.

[olds442jetaway]

Very lucky! A couple of extremely wealthy guys I know ( not me of course ) were smart enough to dump their Tesla and Nvidia earlier in January. They picked up more and or kept the AAPL they already had. Of course after Warren Buffet unloaded some of his, it still remains as his largest position. Anyway, I picked up a little AAPL at 223. Keeping it for now.
My sister who lives in Sonoma had a chance to get Apple literally for Pennie’s when it first started. She had friends in Los Altos. The rest is history. She didn’t buy any. nor did I and she told me about it too at the time. If I remember to back in 1980, Apple came out at around 22 bucks a share. I think it went down to around 18 bucks and that is when we were told about it. In reality, that would be about 10 cents a share after adjustments for splits etc.
My former trainee, ( Now retired already ) did pick it up at the time by way of his mom who absolutely loved Apples. That’s why she bought it. Needless to say, he is now a multi millionaire just because of the Apple stock. She never sold any of it.

[olds442jetaway]

I find Advisors and so called Wealth Managers do a lot of Monday morning quarter backing. Self Directing can be fun and quite rewarding, but you have to read constantly, now your stuff, and even then it’s still a crap shoot. The ETFs out nowadays help out a lot. I find that Wealth Managers are using them more and more too.

[olds442jetaway]

Very lucky so far this year ( YTD ). Much more so than VP . Here’s my ytd chart as of Friday. As of a few months ago, Berkshire Hathaway still had 400 million shares of Apple and it represented about 25% of the holdings of Berkshire Hathaway. I only have a tiny position.

[dinghy]

I find Advisors and so called Wealth Managers do a lot of Monday morning quarter backing.

They're herd animals. They copy each other and all buy the same stocks because it protects them from being singled out for failure. They have to police anyone who tries to think independently.

Let's say I research ABC Company and find it to be a good value at the current price of $50. Later it declines to $40 and I can see that the fundamentals haven't changed. Obviously it's logical to buy more, but the experts will scold me for trying to "catch a falling knife." Averaging down - "worst mistake you can make as an investor!"

Incidentally, bitcoin is going parabolic this morning: +10% nearly because Trump said something.

That should be a good sign for the NASDAQ, which tends to move the same direction imo.

[tech58]

I find Advisors and so called Wealth Managers do a lot of Monday morning quarter backing. Self Directing can be fun and quite rewarding, but you have to read constantly, now your stuff, and even then it’s still a crap shoot. The ETFs out nowadays help out a lot. I find that Wealth Managers are using them more and more too.

The best "Wealth Managers" have nothing to do with the retail end of the market.
They run their own investment company with a very few high-millions to billion level clients.

Self directing is exactly as you outlined with an added emphasis to HEAVY on the crap shoot.
Our biggest hurdle is the fact that were in the ring with Joe Louis, Sonny Liston, and Cassius Clay, and rooms full of super computers on their side.

Day Trading/Swing Trading, faces that hurdle and more.
It used to be great fun back in the day, when free trades first appeared, now their computers are
tough to beat. They make hundreds of trades in the time we do one.

Best of luck to all. Market wise as well as VP.

[olds442jetaway]

Thanks Tech…….as I polish up and dust off my crystal ball for tomorrow. Even Warren Buffet says the market is just another form of gambling. A while back Warren Buffet unloaded a ton of Apple probably figuring that 50 percent of his holdings in Apple was just too high. He still maintains 25 percent or so, but look what Apple has done since he dumped half of it. One more interesting thing about Mr Buffet. He likes to get paid ( dividends ) while sitting on his cash and holding a stock. I feel the same way. In the case of Apple, it’s less than .5 percent, but it’s still cash he can use while he waits. On 400 million shares, ( 2 million bucks ), that’s a lot of McDonald’s breakfasts. I get a kick out of the fact that he gave Bill Gates coupons to use for their meal.

[dinghy]

Buffett