Thoughts on VALE?

Technicals look pretty brutal. Commodities have taken a beating as the market bets we're in deflation despite all the best efforts of the central banks.

High div yield but I wonder if that's sustainable looking at the numbers. Not a ton of cash onhand, but a book/share higher than current stock price and low debt. Ideal looking value play as the fundamentals look great, but could be a value trap. Be careful here.

Hard to say if it's a value trap or not... $500 is not bad to dip your toe into the water.

Ultimately, these stocks will bounce back. But how low do they go before investors jump in because they're so underpriced.

With VALE you have some China risk (they're buying materials & commodities firms cheap and operating them super-inexpensively) and you have Brazil economy risk.

I've bought quite a bit of FCX on dips. But these are probably stocks to hold for 5 years or more.

I've seen worse ideas, but really catching a falling knife tends to be a bad strategy. I'd rather buy a stock that keeps inching up than one that keeps inching down. But if you're a value player, just bank the dividend and be prepared to hang on for awhile.

@Cousin - if you're just getting started, I'd hop on the compounding interest train and buy whatever you can with yield. A lot of folks say you should be riskier at a younger age, but I think it's a lot better strategy to start compounding early & never stop.

Boring but relatively easy if you can just keep adding to it over the years.

This company (and Cramer) burned me whenever I was first starting out. I bought at 34 and again at 31 so I am in for the long haul. I've bought more shares to bring my price per share down, but over the last 4 years, I have learned a lot and I am done chasing this stock. I am going to continue to draw the dividend and let it play out. If it goes back up, then I am getting out.

Too many other very good, proven stocks.