re: Investing question for the board from a position of complete ignorance.

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actively swing trading or position trading

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I view short-term and swing trades differently. Neither is a major part of what I do. Maybe 10-15% ROI.

Basically, if a stock unexpectedly skyrockets in a tax-protected account, I'll lock in profits short-term. I avoid ST trades in regular accounts. The tax exposure is simply too steep.

When I swing trade, it's always with a stock/company I've either dealt with for years and am comfortable range trading during volatility, or a company I understand both fundamentally and functionally. E.g., MRNA in the 2000-2021 timeframe. Understanding the company, the science, and its interplay with epidemiology, and politics helped.

Given that for every buyer there is a seller, for every transactional winner there is a losing counterparty. So there is not some simple formula. Unless you follow the markets more closely than your OP intimates though, buy-and-hold index investing is really the way to go.

Yep. I cut out my fidelity guy years ago. I did an analysis of my return and his return. I beat him with simple etf, he had over 20 funds, some with high expense. You may want to look at the funds they have you invested in.

it has been discussed here ad infinitum the last 10-15 years on this board. Have you not read this board in that time frame? There are tons of links on it. high fees,commissions, loads, expense ratios, poor fund choice, poor advice, etc. you are basically letting a salesman manage your money.

you are better off just throwing it in an index fund.

LINK

run away from EJ. it is not too late. make it happen.

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buy-and-hold index investing is really the way to go.

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There are multiple ways to get to your promised land, but THIS got us to ours.

If you want to spend chunk of your life deep in stock research chasing the highest returns, go for it. Fun and peak chasing can be fun. However, most (not all) do not beat the index after tax return over time. We were too busy at sports parks, events etc raising family so low cost indexing investing (primarily) served us well.

Afforded us target nest egg early, to eject from working life (early) that was the plan. Suffice it to say it works!

(1+k)^n —> n (time) is the magic. Start investing in cash generating assets early, structure this into your life automatically, and don’t fret on perfect investing. Time is your compounding friend.

I started career w/MBA in hand thinking like hare. I am now hiking somewhere every week in retirement and, in reflection, think tortoise wins. Boring as it seems.

For us, of course. Share from our perspective only.

Good luck!

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This board is priceless. sure i did many on my own but this board has made me lots of money on stock picks alone!

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Was referring to the seeking Alpha boards. Alot of the people posting articles and comments on website are just average joe's but many others are really good and have many years of knowledge.

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(1+k)^n —> n (time) is the magic

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Show off

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If you want to spend chunk of your life deep in stock research chasing the highest returns, go for it. Fun and peak chasing can be fun. However, most (not all) do not beat the index after tax return over time. We were too busy at sports parks, events etc raising family so low cost indexing investing (primarily) served us well.

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yep....the dead outperform the living

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embarrassingly, all I've ever done is sock away money in my 401k and let my money guy at Edward Jones keep me diversified and on track for retirement.

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Actually that is pretty noble. The percentage of people like you are very small compared to the masses. Heck I was at a company that gave a huge 401K match, and many employees invested nothing and instead left all that $$$ on the table.

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1) What is a good resource (book/s, podcast, business journal, etc) for understanding a companies fundamentals and whether their stock price is under or over valued.

2)Where do you guys find out about up and coming companies to keep an eye on (any sector)

3) Once you find a company of interest, do you have a quick "formula" you use to assess if you want to get involved ( Revenue, earnings, assests vs liabilities, solid CEO etc) ?

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If you want to do all of this stuff, do it with fun money. I've always believed in letting the professional handle it. I think its pretty ignorant to not use their resources.

I have bought random stocks from this board's recommendation. Some did well, others bombed. However, it was fun money to see if I hit the jackpot.

I have so much going on, and don't have time to research. Leave that to the financial institution you delegated that responsibility to.

Drop the Edward Jones guy and buy VTI for the next 25 years, done.

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This board is priceless. sure i did many on my own but this board has made me lots of money on stock picks alone!

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This....make it easy on yourself. Put a good majority into broad ETF funds such as VOO and QQQ. Figure out what % you want to put into a few individual stocks to start, then you can increase that amount if you wish as you become more confident. I've been able to basically double my investment portfolio in the past year by going with ETF's and stock picks mentioned here. Of course I had a great start time by investing during the tariff aftermath a year ago!