Give me a stock tip.

I have about $500 that's been sitting dormant in an investment account for a few years. I'm terrible at picking stocks: I sold my Amazon stock when it was at about $350 - It's over $1,700 today. I held onto my Oil and Gas stock until the company went bankrupt: PQ. Since then I've 'invested' my extra savings in too many cheap Porsches, but that $500 still sits there.

Rather than pull the $500 out of the account, let's play a game. Help me find a cheap stock or stocks to buy into and watch the money grow or disappear. Let's set the goal at enough money in the account to pay my registration fee + banquet and stuff for the 2020 Challenge. I realize that amount should be less than the current $500, but on my own, I can turn $1,000 into $0.

No index funds and no big mutual funds, but only legit public stocks. This is not 401K stuff. It's $500 walking into a casino looking for a hot table or horse track and looking for an underdog. It can sit on one stock or I can trade it every week 'till October. I'll buy in Monday night after the close, then we can track it here in the thread. What does the Hive advise?

Buy low, sell high?

Sorry, I'll get my coat. 
 

Look at gbtc bitcoin trust and when it drops hard for 2 days buy, it's likely to go up after that?  I made a few hundred when it was way up over the summer

Take a short position on L-Brands. 

To short is to bet that the stock will go down.  L-brands used to be The Limited and more retail clothing stores but it is still Victoria Secret and Bath and Body Works.  Sure thing, these two "mall based" brands will be affected by empty malls for the holiday season. The greater issue is that L-Brands founder, Les Wexner is tangled up in the Jeffery Epstein mystery and that drama is going to continue to get dragged out in more and more headlines. 

Combine that with a female customer base and MeTo...I'd bet Victoria Secret sales are going to tank.  

Use chicken stock instead of water when making fried rice. 

I read recently that CoPart is killing it.  Just this year they have gone from $50 to $90.  The industry of salvage auctions is dominated by Copart and IAA.  Locally, my IAA branch contained cars from Progressive, State Farm and Geico as well as some smaller insurance companies (Liberty Mutual, USAA, Cincinnati, etc).  Three darn big players in my state of Ohio.  I just learned last week that Geico has pulled out of IAA.  This must mean they are going to Copart.

My Cleveland Ohio IAA location auctions offer 600+ cars per week.  I have been noticing a recent weekly decline to sub 500 numbers and this upcoming Monday auction only has 397 cars.  I do not watch or participate in Copart (yet) so I can not say if their numbers have increased by the same that IAA has declined.  

AMD

"If you don’t cheat, you look like an idiot; if you cheat and don’t get caught, you look like a hero; if you cheat and get caught, you look like a dope. Put me where I belong."

oops.  Wrong kinda stock.

Or maybe not?  

Ford? 
Hope the Mach-E takes off?

My honest answer is VTI the index fund but you said no index funds. So Tesla based on 4 quarters of profitability coming up and massive million plus orders for the cyber truck. Then again they're near the 52 week high and likely to go down instead of up and you can only buy one share with $500 and will have a bunch of "change" sitting unused. So instead HSBC. The HK protests are likely to have settled out by then. They're around the 52 week low. They've got an awesome dividend so even if the stock is flat you'll get about $25 in dividends. 
 

how much is $2000 registration anyway?

dculberson said:

... So instead HSBC. The HK protests are likely to have settled out by then. They're around the 52 week low. They've got an awesome dividend so even if the stock is flat you'll get about $25 in dividends. 
 

how much is $2000 registration anyway?

For 2019 I paid $280 for Registration ($195), plus meals and T-shirts for two.

So far I'm liking HSBC and Copart the best. The Short on LB sounds like a good plan, but I'm not sure if I can properly work the short. I'll look at AMD, Ford, and gbtc bitcoin trust.

The paradox of this is that if I pick the one that looks best to me, it is probably a bad choice. Does that mean that the one that looks the worst to me is the best? If I go with the most popular I'll be making tasty fried rice. I'll have to sort out the selection process after morning coffee.

In reply to John Welsh :

IAA was spun off from their parent company KAR back in June, I wonder if it’s tied to that somehow?

In reply to Saron81 :

Ford has been mediocre for years, they are due for something.  They do pay about 6% dividend.  Unfortunately for me is I am in at the 11 buck mark, for it's been a looser for me.

Been waiting for them to steal some Tesla thunder. Still waiting...and hoping the mach e is it.

Ps... someone check my spelling, this phone makes me change words three time before going back to the original spelling and still indicating wrong. Berkley phone...oh, that belongs in the minor rant therad... 

I can't think of a single highly speculative stock that ever made me money.  My best picks are buying NVDA at 14, AMD at 10, and ATVI at 14.  I would not recommend any of those stocks today.

They say buy what you know.  Who's got a fresh idea in a business that relates to your area(s) of expertise?  Buy them.

My stylish and off the top of my head pick for you, since everyone likes alternative energy (and Canadians), is CSIQ --Canadian Solar.  Share price around 16 bucks.  Runner up is Sirius XM, SIRI, even cheaper at 7 bucks a share.

Wally said:

Use chicken stock instead of water when making fried rice. 

To the OP:  Your best investment option may very well be to start a comedy club after first signing Wally to be your headlining comedian to a long-term contract.

How much skoolin' can you get for $500?

Well that's my thought train right now.

Doesn't really matter if it's Victorian Needlepoint or Intro to Python well it's the latter but that's where I'd put my money.  Edumacation.

For yourself.  Looking at your garage.  Some Porsche specific tool or software.  Man that's a lot of Porkers. 

Back to stocks.  What day to day expenditures do you have?  Such as body wash, toothpaste, boner pills etc. etc.?  That was the advice from the WahPos financial guru for stock-buying. 

Vehicle sales have been slowing dramatically across the globe, and that's likely to continue through 2020. If we're talking about a timeframe <12 months I don't think I'd be looking at any large manufacturing/automotive companies, unless you're shorting them.

Also track a Mutual fund.  10% growth?

I think I'm going to start out with 5 shares of Copart. I am a customer, I like their product, and they are a GRM/Challenge sponsor. ***Don't all rush in and buy it too and inflate the price until after I get mine. K?

One thing I like to do is look for a company that has dropped fast. An example would be ABBV, who dropped when they purchased Allergan. I couldn’t figure out WHY they dropped - obviously it was because they did the purchase, but I couldn’t find the underlying reasons. Especially when Pfizer had tried to purchase Allergan for a lot more. Theirs was to attempt a stock inversion, but there is no stock inversion worth THAT much. So why did it drop? I concluded it was due to a knee jerk reaction. A few months later, I was right - purchased in the $60’s, probably going to sell next week. 

Similarly, look for a scandal that doesn’t really matter. Price drops, then people realize it doesn’t really matter. These can be more difficult to gauge - you need to make sure it isn’t a systemic failure. For instance, the BP oil spill - that was an issue with the oil industry at large and not BP specific. Price dove, but within a year was up 40% from the low. However, the Enron scandal... that was systemic fraud. Can’t fix that. 

Otherwise, read warren buffet articles and letters. Look for undervalued companies. 

Buy utx.  The company will split soon, carrier and Otis will be spun off.   Could be a good win for those buying now. 

How old are you?  Decades away from retirement, head toward something really risky with big dividends; like bring in a boat to south Miami.

Close to retirement, find something with a low risk 3% return.  BTW, I suck at this.....

914Driver said:

How old are you?  Decades away from retirement, head toward something really risky with big dividends; like bring in a boat to south Miami.

Close to retirement, find something with a low risk 3% return.  BTW, I suck at this.....

 

I'm in my late 50s. This is just $500 to play with and see where it goes for a year. Retirement is all set and separate, mostly in index funds and ignored, plus I receive US military retirement.

I have some in tesla, and from reading on that came across NIO, which is a chinese electric car maker that has hit hard times lately.

I did basically what you want to do with it. It's cheap, downside isn't much for me but upside could be good.

Some people call them lottery stocks and I agree with that. 

Making 12% on a 'safe' bet with $500 isn't that great $$$ wise.

But if you get one of these 'lottery stocks' you might lose or maybe a China trade deal gets signed or some new tech helps the stock.  

NIO closed at 2.27 and was over $10 earlier this year.

Good luck

Wally said:

Use chicken stock instead of water when making fried rice. 

This also applies to grits.