Share holders in GM were wiped out in bankruptcy. The shares of the new "Government Motors" are recently issued.
If you look at overall stocks and not only GM - you still make money. You can't win in each stocks (some will go burst but most will survive and fly). So far I still haven't heard anyone is richer than Mr. Warren, so buy and hold still work (stop telling the bs story of loss decade since 2000..)
If you want to learn options the clean way; just start from the older posts of Tom Preston on this page (thinkorswim archive); most of the newer stuff has very little to add in terms of understanding options if you understand the initial few tp's chats. Then play with them for your hearts content on any simulator and think what should have happened on a particular move and see what actually happens (backtester; tos has a decent free one if you have an account with them). https://www.thinkorswim.com/tos/displayPage.tos?webpage=onlineSeminar&displayFormat=hide PS: Some videos on the CBOE site are ok; specially the ones by dan sheridan; but they are a bit buttercoated. all valid strategies but wont hold up if you backtest them on periods other than the ones he shows; but they are ok from an educational perspective.. but; heavens sake.. everybody else (pretty much) are mostly jokers..
With that logic, everyone should enter the World Series of Poker because Jonathan Duhamel won nearly $9 million in 2010 or play Powerball because a Conagra group in Nebraska won $365 million. Just because someone is exceedingly good or exceedingly lucky at something doesn't mean that it works for everyone or is the best thing to do.
All my working life I put the maximum possible into my IRAs and 401ks, which were mostly invested in stocks. (And not at all in options, of course.) I have damn little to show for it. The stock market has gone nowhere in 10 years. The only long term investments I made that have done well were silver and gold, bought at a time when everybody "knew" it was crazy to buy those barbaric relics. Anybody who believes those happy charts investment advisers like to show in which your stocks and bonds go up by 10% every year for 35 years is in for an unhappy surprise.
Depends on what the topic is. If it's general chat, that interpretation is up to the person reading it. If it's options, he has a good grasp on them imo.
It is just chance. You could just as well have been born earlier, invested in the 80s or 90s for 10 years, and made a pile. It is really a time frame issue. The investment advisors always show people longer time frames. Sure you can do fine if you can hold for 30-40 years, but most cannot do that, they need some of the money before that. Those guys used to charge 0.8 to 1% not so long ago, and now the going rate appears to be 1.5 - 2%. Not counting the load charges and other hidden stuff, of course. What a racket that industry is. Since people's stash is now half what it was, they simply double their charges. Yet no one seems to notice. Most of my non-investment savvy friends are still in bonds or even cash, freaked out by what has happened. Sure way to get killed by inflation. I consider this the ultimate result of the buy and hold mantra the investment industry has so carefully cultivated. One of my older friends is 85. They have lost 2/3 of what they saved by buying and holding through all this mess the last 10 years. They can't even afford to move into assisted living. It really pisses me off.
Actually, I have been putting in money since the mid 80s. Most of the gains were lost in the crashes of 2000 and 2008. I estimate that had I simply stuffed the cash under my mattress I would have about 50% more money saved up by now. The stock market is a treacherous place.
EXACTLY.. the scum vermin of WALL ST.. how many times have u heard.. HISTORICALL The S and P. returns 8% annually.. ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT... look at the NIKKEI http://www.forecast-chart.com/historical-nikkei-225.html assume u were a fresh grad and u started investing in 1990.. what wud happen. COST AVERAGING to the ground. .u would be ruined.. ALso. I read somewhere FIDELITY MAGELLEN 80 billion holding .the mutual fund. took in like 2 billion fees in 10 years and returned NOTHING think about it.. all the corporate parties. the swanky lifestyle.. the MANHATTAN offices. .all paid by us. and thet did JACK SHIT for us. i think there should be MAIN Street and us. hard working folks. .where the @@$^$^ did WALL ST. interject in the middle.. the MASTER PIMPS.. just buy quality stocks.. and hold.. like BUFFET.. now million $ qs. what is quality. ?? remember buffet saying.. close your eyes and think if this cos will be around in 30 years.. saying that he invested heavily in COCA COLA and KRAFT foods..
In some regards, long term investing is like day/swing trading. You need some degree of knowledge, timing and selection as well as learning from mistakes. Buy & hold investing during the past "lost decade" was losing proposition (poor job growth, decreasing household income, a housing bubble, DJIA not far from where it started, etc). Yet doing the same in the 80's and 90's was a big winner. Call it timing. Call it luck. At a minimum, B&H-ers should perform asset allocation which is timing for idiots This isn't holier than thou preaching. I was on the wrong side of the crash of '87 and had to learn the hard way how painful margin calls are. I gave up some soon to be stellar performers in order to eat the monthly naked puts I sold on expiration Friday, 10/16/87, the trading day before. I still use plenty of margin but now as a PDT but I manage it carefully.