WoV stock portfolio

Quote: Dieter

Quote: 100xOdds

Quote: Dieter

Quote: 100xOdds

Quote: billryan

Quote: 100xOdds

Doesn't England have a govt social welfare program for old people for free?

in america, it's called Social Security but we put about 2% of our salaries in it. It's calculated on the 10 highest earning years.
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Self-employed people pay over 15% in SS and Medicare taxes. Most people pay half, and their employer picks up the other half. There are income maxes where you stop paying after about $200,000 income each year.
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Wait, I'm putting in 7.5% for ss + Medicare?!?
Glad it's taken from my paycheck before I get a chance to bring it home
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I think it's listed as "FICA".
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yes but i thought it was around 2%.
in all my decades working, i never actually looked at the actual amount deducted on my paystub.
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I just checked mine, around 6.3% between Social Security and Medicare. This seems about right.

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc751
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SS is 6.2% and Medicare is an additional 1.2% for a combined rate of 7.4%

Quote: billryan

Most civil service jobs come with pensions, although not nearly as good as they used to be. NYPD used to offer 50% pensions after 20 years. Now, you can still retire after 20, but it takes an extra two years to get the 50% pension. Almost all government plans are now tiered, so someone who was hired fifteen years ago has a much better plan than today's hires. The Military is still 20 years for a half pay retirement.
I'd guesstimate that 75% of Americans are underfunding their retirement and are going to be in for some unpleasant surprises.
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The place I am working at now offers 40% after 20 years.

My Uncle retired as a low-level NYPD supervisor around 1973, on the 20th anniversary of his appointment. For a few years before that, he'd worked part-time for the New York Racing Authority as some sort of non-uniformed security. He continued to work for them occasionally until he turned 62 and started collecting SS.
To his surprise, he qualified for a NYRA pension of $150 a month It was found money and he was quite happy about it
A few years later, someone from NYRA died, and he attended the funeral. While there, he heard his coworkers mention the great pension they were receiving It turned out his coworkers were collecting several thousand dollars a month When he called NYRA, he found out they still had him listed as a part time employee, not a retired one His NYRA pension ended up being almost the same as his NYPD pension and he received several years of back pay When he died, he had a paid up life insurance policy from NYRA that he wasn't aware of
A few years later, the New York Racing Authority was stripped of its franchise, and the state attempted to claw back many of the bonuses the Authority awarded itself.

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well, I'm glad I didn't sell anything
the past few days have been the most fearful I've ever been
and I was heavily invested thru 2008, 2009 when the s&p dropped 50% off of its 2007 high
in the past few days I felt like you could not be optimistic about anything
I still don't know how all of this will play out - I guess nobody does
but I don't feel as horrible as I did - losing big chunks in just a couple of days

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If you can keep your head, while those around you lose theirs and blame you.

Quote: billryan

If you can keep your head, while those around you lose theirs and blame you.
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If You Can Keep Your Head When Everybody Round You Is Losing His, Then It Is Very Probable That You Don’t Understand the Situation
$:o)

Quote: lilredrooster

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well, I'm glad I didn't sell anything...
I don't feel as horrible as I did - losing big chunks in just a couple of days

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That was earlier in the day. Did it age badly, or what?

This situation has a lot further to run.

Quote: OnceDear

Quote: lilredrooster

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well, I'm glad I didn't sell anything...
I don't feel as horrible as I did - losing big chunks in just a couple of days

.
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That was earlier in the day. Did it age badly, or what?

This situation has a lot further to run.
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you're right of course
but I won't be selling
I've never sold during a downturn and I won't start now
idk - it may take a long time to come back - or maybe not - it's definitely not a predictable thing

.

I've got a bit more cash than usual,as I haven't been reinvesting, but nothing looks attractive right now. If China is going to get raked with tariffs, companies in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indonesia may prosper.

Quote: lilredrooster

...
but I won't be selling
I've never sold during a downturn and I won't start now
idk - it may take a long time to come back - or maybe not - it's definitely not a predictable thing

.
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I tend to agree about riding out downturns. By the time it's ripe to go short, it's usually too late. So I'll be watching for a deep enough bottom to think about bargain hunting.

Quote: OnceDear

...This situation has a lot further to run.

o/u: 9/10/25

Saving the date; as I think it can be a useful reminder to myself during a few interesting days, and not to say that's near what you'd have in mind by "a lot further."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Too long for some esteemed WoV forum member’s attention-span, don’t read:

At about noon today broad market (US) large-cap indices such as the S&P (I dunno ‘bout the FTSE since I don’t speak Brit much) were right where they were one year ago. At which time last year US equities were (and to just a little lesser degree still are) priced at a level that’s rather expensive by comparison to historical averages using common measures such as Price/Earnings, Price/Sales, Price/Growth, Price/Book, etc. Where my personal holdings stand, if this turns out to be anything like an enduring bottom, or a near neighbor to it, I can expect to be neither very pleased nor sad, and will not feel poor or filthy stinking rich because of it. But I will definitely be surprised.

I"m not in index funds, not against holding them at all but probably won't be doing so anytime soon, and evaluation of the securities of individual enterprises and their particular business environment is what will finally matter for me in deciding to buy them. But. I’m memorializing my wild-ass guess of when financial market metrics might begin tapping my shoulder to tell me I should probably begin (resume) generally looking to buy some new stuff & adding to some existing positions, in enterprises that I’d be comfortable holding for a significant period of time. I think doing that sort of thing can be a small check on invevitable temptations to act on how it "feels" during outsized high volatility swings.

Not trying to call The Bottom, but seeking to get comfortably in the range of my conception of good value. That might happen 3 months sooner than that, or it could be 6 months or more later. But it is definitely not today, tomorrow, or next week for me. Publicly saving the thought for myself to keep perspective. But with the extra bonus that y’all can also now feel free to use the open invitation for future ridicule. [And I've been on this board enough that I can actually kinda like knowing there’s one here who won’t even be able to wait that long for cooking up a gratuitous smugly snarky fragrant nugget, then unknowingly state the opposite a little later, as the usual suspect just did, and will again.]

Meantime, I’m holding equities with a total market value that comprises somewhat less than half of my brokerage account balances. That’s in comparison to usually being closer to 80%+ invested in securities that I think have some significant capital appreciation potential in addition to generating dividends & other income distributions. So, still ‘in the market’ to some some significant degree, and selling nothing here; but buying nothing, and also not shorting anything. (Except for one small single-stock short I made months ago, by purchasing some ultra ‘long-dated’ and ‘out-of-the-money’ put-options, with an expiration date out in January 2026. Mostly for entertainment value, hoping to have some enjoyment watching what I happen to regard as a bubble in one particular ridiculous financial fad type of outfit go deservedly broke, as some of the impulsive short attention-span kiddies of all ages get some of their money redistributed to the adults. That bowl of popcorn is now finally off the shelf, and waiting for another leg down to fire up the stove top.)

I'm not sure why this is hard to understand, but if you lose 20% on a stock one week and it goes up 20% the next week, you have not broken even.
A simple example- You have $1,000 worth of Blatz Beer stock It goes down 10% so you have $900 worth of stock
The following week your stock goes up 10%, from 900 to 990.

A more extreme example- Your $1000 stock loses 50% and is now worth $500. It rallies and goes up 50% but is only worth $750.

A stock that loses 50% of its value must go up 100% just to break even.

I don't know which way the next 1,000-point swing will go, but I know which way the next 100% market swing will be.

One of my spec stocks lost 37%, then rallied 20%, lost a few points, and is up 10% today. It will take a big rally to break even anytime soon.

Quote: billryan

I'm not sure why this is hard to understand, but if you lose 20% on a stock one week and it goes up 20% the next week, you have not broken even.
A simple example- You have $1,000 worth of Blatz Beer stock It goes down 10% so you have $900 worth of stock
The following week your stock goes up 10%, from 900 to 990.

A more extreme example- Your $1000 stock loses 50% and is now worth $500. It rallies and goes up 50% but is only worth $750.

A stock that loses 50% of its value must go up 100% just to break even.

I don't know which way the next 1,000-point swing will go, but I know which way the next 100% market swing will be.

One of my spec stocks lost 37%, then rallied 20%, lost a few points, and is up 10% today. It will take a big rally to break even anytime soon.
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As a person that drank an unhealthy amount of Blatz beer when I was in college, I recommend that you check your stock certificates. Blatz, although currently brewed by Miller Brewing, was bought by Pabst which is owned by some investment guys and I don't think it is public.

SELL NOW AT ANY PRICE YOU CAN GET FOR IT.

Blatz wasn't available in NY and I always thought it was a National Lampoon creation until I encountered it years later.

Quote: billryan

Blatz wasn't available in NY and I always thought it was a National Lampoon creation until I encountered it years later.
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The lore I heard was that the cheerleaders washed their hair with Blatz, to give it that certain sparkle.
To my knowledge, no better use for the product has been found.

Quote: Dieter

Quote: billryan

Blatz wasn't available in NY and I always thought it was a National Lampoon creation until I encountered it years later.
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The lore I heard was that the cheerleaders washed their hair with Blatz, to give it that certain sparkle.
To my knowledge, no better use for the product has been found.
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Never heard of it (Blatz - not cheerleaders marinated in beer) so I invested several minutes to cure that cultural deficiency...

Quote: Wikipedia

In the 1953 cult-classic The Wild One starring Marlon Brando, Brando's character Johnny Strabler is the leader of a biker gang that terrorizes a small town in California. After one of the members of the gang injures himself in a motorcycle crash and is taken to the town doctor, Johnny orders a beer at the local bar and the love interest, Mary Murphy, serves him a bottle of Blatz. Johnny and his gang drink Blatz out of the bottle throughout most of the movie.

Quote: billryan

I'm not sure why this is hard to understand, but if you lose 20% on a stock one week and it goes up 20% the next week, you have not broken even.
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I swear I have seen this mentioned over and over again [esp by media] but I have no idea what it has to do with investing

do people lose money by thinking they are selling high and buying low when actually they got it all wrong? who the hell would go by percentages instead of the price?

Quote: DrawingDead

Never heard of it (Blatz - not cheerleaders marinated in beer) so I invested several minutes to cure that cultural deficiency...

When I was in college 1984-1989 Blatz was the cheapest beer that you could get in bottles. It was $4 for a case of 24 bottles. That was probably the only period in my life where I had some muscle. Carrying those cases of Blatz three blocks to my house was quite a workout.

Quote: billryan

Blatz wasn't available in NY and I always thought it was a National Lampoon creation until I encountered it years later.
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I wish it wasn't available in retrospect. I always enjoyed my rare trips back to Ohio so I could load the car up with my favorite beers. I loved Cream Ales so I would load the car up with Genesee Cream Ale and Little King's Cream Ale. Those were not available in Iowa.

Quote: odiousgambit

Quote: billryan

I'm not sure why this is hard to understand, but if you lose 20% on a stock one week and it goes up 20% the next week, you have not broken even.
link to original post

I swear I have seen this mentioned over and over again [esp by media] but I have no idea what it has to do with investing

do people lose money by thinking they are selling high and buying low when actually they got it all wrong? who the hell would go by percentages instead of the price?
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I'm confused. When you look at your portfolio, aren't all your stocks' performance listed by percentage YTD or MTD?
When you look at the S&P 500, don't you measure success by the percentage of increase? Does anyone say the S&P is up $37 for the year, or do they say the S&P is up 8% for the year?
How do you compare stocks, if not by percentage?
Would you rather have a $500 stock go up $12 or a $100 stock go up 10%?
If I want to compare Tesla vs Pepsi, wouldn't the YTD percentage mean more than comparing prices?

Perhaps you simply weren't clear, but i'm not seeing a point Maybe you could clarify.

Quote: DRich

Quote: billryan

Blatz wasn't available in NY and I always thought it was a National Lampoon creation until I encountered it years later.
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I wish it wasn't available in retrospect. I always enjoyed my rare trips back to Ohio so I could load the car up with my favorite beers. I loved Cream Ales so I would load the car up with Genesee Cream Ale and Little King's Cream Ale. Those were not available in Iowa.
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I drank Genny Cream Ale in high school because it was one of the cheapest beers around. When I moved to Rochester a few years later, it tasted much better. It's as if they keep the good stuff for locals and bottle the rest.

Quote: billryan

Quote: odiousgambit

Quote: billryan

I'm not sure why this is hard to understand, but if you lose 20% on a stock one week and it goes up 20% the next week, you have not broken even.
link to original post

I swear I have seen this mentioned over and over again [esp by media] but I have no idea what it has to do with investing

do people lose money by thinking they are selling high and buying low when actually they got it all wrong? who the hell would go by percentages instead of the price?
link to original post

I'm confused. When you look at your portfolio, aren't all your stocks' performance listed by percentage YTD or MTD?
When you look at the S&P 500, don't you measure success by the percentage of increase? Does anyone say the S&P is up $37 for the year, or do they say the S&P is up 8% for the year?
How do you compare stocks, if not by percentage?
Would you rather have a $500 stock go up $12 or a $100 stock go up 10%?
If I want to compare Tesla vs Pepsi, wouldn't the YTD percentage mean more than comparing prices?

Perhaps you simply weren't clear, but i'm not seeing a point Maybe you could clarify.
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I just don't decide if a stock has recovered from a decline by looking at percentages

If you looked at Tesla and Pepsi, you might decide one is up or down more than the other by the percentage, sounds like curiosity more than anything. Generally I pull up a chart. If something goes down in a bear market, I might look at 6 months ago or 1 yr ago and decide if that pricepoint is worth considering. I really don't go by the percentages, maybe I have an instinct on that as to it being possibly misleading as you mentioned