If I am wrong,I’m not going to die from any but the last one, am I?

Objective? i Iive on a fixed budget and have leftover money without stocks. I have two projectors and radio sets dating back to 1937, am getting a good function generator, speakers and building a new antenna tower then saving for a car with the $250 President Obama authorized.

Investing in stocks without balancing my portfolion, other things in my basket would be onething in any instrucions to my friends as to when to have me checked for dementia as both of as all my grandparents went through the Great Depression without them anyhow and taught me more about money and life. I lost my grandfathers years ago but my grandmothers are both 90 now and I’m going to lose them sooner or later.

You never learn enough before they go. You don’t think to listen much until it’s too late.

Sounds like rationalization and denial to me.

Admit it, nothing will change your mind. That’s not objectivity.

Yes, the market is subjective. So you are saying that your view is the only correct and objective one here?

It’s ok to have an opinion, we all do. But to say that yours is the ‘correct’ one is like saying your review of the Mona Lisa is the only one that counts. Maybe I don’t like the Mona Lisa, but what difference does that make?

It’s more useful to admit that everything is opinion.

If the stock went down would you still say that the stock market is BS anyway? I don’t think so. You would be going on about how you were right and how the market confirmed it.

I didn’t say your opinion of Google is wrong. I said the indicators were that it would go up and it did. That’s useful. Saying they suck and therefore should be sold is not using all the data available. It’s the opposite of being in love with a stock (never a good idea). Best if you leave the emotions at the door.

On Thursday at 3:50 I sold the 390 calls that were to expire on Friday for $13. That gave an effective cap on my gain at $403 and gave me a cushion to $388 – 13 = $375 in case it did fall. All for a single day. The stock hovered over $390 and I let it get called for an effective sale price of $403. That’s objectivity. Not love. Not hate. Just seeing which way the wind was really blowing.

So much for your prediction of no prize in the earnings box. Great thing is I didn’t even have to hear the earnings. I got what I wanted by watching carefully, seeing all the ‘options’, and taking advantage of the situation.

Now for my next ‘prediction’. It will drift downward over the next 2 to 4 weeks. And I will pick it up again when I think it’s at a decent value (under $370).

Google isn’t laying off because it’s in dire straits. They are laying off because it’s prudent in this economic environment.

People decide what they want to pay based on it’s value to them and then they bet the other will increase the price until they reach a price they want and sell to capture a profit margin.

It’s really distressing how little some of you know about stocks and usually your ilk get hurt hard and fast when bad things happen.

I don’t buy stocks either. Gambling is a disease. telling me where yours were at X isn’t important.

Skepticism and pessimism are healthy traits in the forward minded. The Tea Party thing was a huge waste of time although it was better than shooting folks.

You already have companies scrambling to give back their “bailout” money and crawl back under the bench in their dugouts hoping the next inning is coming quickly. The volcano god is not appeased. Google has been shuttering and firing for ONE REASON ONLY.

Google doesn’t do this as a rule, nor do any other businesses usually. Most companies try to operate everywhere and in any field they can until it bleeds. It’s not often that anybody other than consumer brands owners (a bunch of them in the past 2 years) will flip a product of division. Still, a soft drink brand such as Crush is rarely liquidated.

Of course these are wetrd, ill times when Hummer or Saturn aren’t it, it’s GM and Chrysler.

I’m not sure I like Obama’s whoopings, much as I dig him otherwise. Polly’s Ticks are biting hard so I’m done with that.

You aren’t getting a prize in the Cracker Jack box Wednesday, only Corn and Nuts.

PS Peanuts are LEGUMES, not NUTS.

Lots of volume to go with it. That would indicate good news for tomorrow’s earnings report.

Seems like a lot of people were just waiting for an excuse to get in.

All the Google slamming here seems like too much emotional connection and not enough detachment.

One key piece of advice for investors is not to fall in love with a stock. The opposite seems to be happening here. Objectivity is the key. Yes, Google is imperfect. But they do a ton of good stuff as far as I can tell. They are smart, and well managed.

Reminds me of Microsoft in the early 90’s. I was a young investor when MSFT originally went public. I bought them. Then I got nervous when they didn’t jump up. I sold. Then it took me over 5 years to buy back in. All the while MSFT looked grossly overvalued. Once I took the plunge, I hung on and MSFT grew steadily and significantly for 7 or 8 more years.

GOOG seems the same to me. I didn’t like it at $700 this time last year. But I like it here. I’m not saying it’s a screaming buy, but it’s not way out of whack.

It was a screaming buy at $280 back in November. I’ve been in and out ever since. I say in and out because it’s just plain crazy to buy and hold. It’s been crazy since 1999. The traders, hedge funds, and automated trading see to that. They push things up too far and take them down too far. It’s crazy to sit still for that kind of whiplash. See it for what it is. Trade the swings. Hedge with options. Be happy with the gains. Cut your losses.

I say sell at 20% gains and get out with a 10% stop. Use options to take advantage of the extra volatility.

BTW, complaining and being negative and sarcastic is a disease. It’s very easy to criticize. It’s hard to resist that impulse.

Yeah, Google Groups suck. Yeah, Google doesn’t listen much on their own groups. So they aren’t perfect.

They do a ton of good smart stuff. They are way better than MSFT ever was and MSFT grew steadily for many years despite their suckage.

Zen investing. Detachment. Ommmm

The problem here is do I sell because it’s up nicely (my 20% rule). Or do I take the chance that it will pop after the report? I say take it now.

Of course, I got out of NFLX at 39 and it touched 50 only about 2 weeks later! Oh well. You can be sure the traders will push it too high.

I never trust someone who is pushing. Regardless of whether it’s pro or con. That means they either have an agenda, or they are not objective enough.

And btw “my nest egg” does not equate “my savings”: IRAs &c (typicaly in low-load index funds such as Vanguard’s), insurance policies, large equity in my home, etc, are part of the “nest egg” but not of “savings” I actively manage. You may be an index-fund fanatic, if you consider that being in anything else than such funds is “a shining example of what not to do” — but as for me, I’ve got most all the exposure I want to such indices via the above-mentioned instruments, and I see nothing wrong with investing substantial slices of the actively managed savings in a few single stocks; in fact, for anybody who’s not doing this as a full time job, I’d be surprised to see any slice that is not substantial, say at least 5% — how many stocks can you carefully follow in your spare time, after all…? Surely no more than 10 to 20. (If you’re against any interest in single stocks, then what else besides trolling and insulting people are you doing in a thread about a given company’s quarterly-earning prospects?-)