For a number of years now there has been a cloud over Social Security, brought on by the fact that as the Baby Boomers retire the number of individuals drawing on social security will be greater than the number of individuals paying in. This has been used as a justification and impetus for changes to the Social Security system. But what else will be effected by the retirement of the Boomers?
Last time, I told you how I sold my Microsoft (MSFT) shares at $23. Afterwards, it sank under the $23 mark and hovered there for a few days. Yesterday, it closed up at around $23.50 on a day that saw a lot of return to tech stocks. What’s in store for Mr. Softy?
Today will be a big test for the stock. If MSFT breaks $24 today and stays well above $23.50 on Friday, I think we may have seen the true bottom for this episode. On the other hand, there is still a possibility the stock will sell off after these gains and plummet to new lows (look around May 6th on the chart above). How’s that for ambiguous?
adsense
I’ll be honest here. In true InvestorGeeks style, I’ve been winging it this whole time with MSFT as I brought myself up to speed on “technical analysis” and how to read charts. Below I’ll go through my evolution as a chart reader and technical analysis convert, and show you the different chart tools and technical indicators I’ve been looking at lately as I follow MSFT and other stocks. I’ll cover support and resistance levels today and go into moving averages, stochastics, and moving average convergence divergence (MACD). (I know you’ve been waiting for these guys, but just wait a little longer. It’s good stuff coming.)
You’ve heard all the reasons that people want to stop renting. “I don’t want to waste my money.” Heck, you may have even said them yourself. Many of my friends are reaching that point in their lives where they’re considering buying a home. However it’s unfortunate that so many choose to buy over rent, especially in this expensive market, because many well-intentioned people are buying homes that are actually damaging their finances.
Despite the fact that many people disagree with me that the real estate market is going to deflate, there is a rule of thumb that I use that should give you an idea about how much you should spend on a home no matter what the market looks like.
As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now. Vonage has decided to offer some of their customers a shot at getting in on their IPO action. I happen to be one of those elligible customers, but should I buy in?
Earlier today I sold my 100 shares of Microsoft (MSFT) at $23. Truth be told, I should have unloaded the shares a couple of weeks ago. Overall though, I’m still happy with how I’ve been trading this and looking forward to buying back in when goes on the upswing. Below is a brief history of my investments in MSFT.
Originally I bought 25 shares to start a position because I thought (and still do) that the company has a bright future once Vista is released and their online Live component gains some traction.
I kept my initial purchase to 25 because I was a little unsure of the short term outlook for MSFT leading into the quarter. I bought my first shares right after the last Vista delay, and it seemed that more bad news could be coming. Lo-and-behold… Microsoft announces a lack-luster quarter, states that margins on their operating systems and Office software can be expected to shrink in the future, and (perhaps worst of all) declares their intention to spend a little more than $2 Billion to beef up their online services and Xbox segments among others. Well, investors were not to pleased with this.
Greetings! We’re very happy to present Carnival of Investing #22! We had an excellent 22 submissions this week, and thank you all for your timely submissions.
By far the most useful single page in Jim Cramer’s Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World is the “Cyclical Investing and Trading” chart on page 115.
Visually the chart looks like a W. It follows the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate through an economic cycle. The chart also depicts the Federal Reserve’s standard response of either raising (tightening) or lowering (easing) interest rates based on GDP growth. The chart has no explicit relation to time, but these cycles typically take about 7 years or so.
The meat of the chart is Cramer’s suggestions for which types of stocks (or sectors) to buy based on where we are on the chart. So where are we right now?
Tools are designed to help their users do their tasks more efficiently and crunching numbers is no exception. I’ve been humming along with Excel and my trusty scientific calculator just fine, but as I’m getting more involved with calculations such as discounting I’ve decided it may be worth the time to pick up a financial (more…)
I was doing some reading, and came across some great articles on Net Operating Income. NOI is an important gauge of a company’s ability to generate profit from its core business. While it’s only one piece of the puzzle when analyzing companies, understanding it can help you compare two firms who may have the same (more…)
Today I got an offer for a new Visa credit card. Now, most credit cards offer you incentives for signing up, a low introductory APR, low interest rate balance transfers, gift cards, and the like. But this offer was different, by signing up for this card. I could get a free Dell laptop.
