Investment advice

[The Duke]

I absolve myself of all responsibilities if you lose money on this, but if I had any money, I'd put it here:

Chinese anything.  Anything you convert dollars to yuan to buy, like stock or bonds from China, buy it.  Before year's end the Chinese will appreciate their currency by bundling it with the Euro and Yen instead of just dollars, and the rise could be as high as 30%.  Even an investment that breaks even will earn money because the simple currency appreciation will make you money.

[Richard]

I absolve myself of all responsibilities if you lose money on this, but if I had any money, I'd put it here:

Chinese anything.  Anything you convert dollars to yuan to buy, like stock or bonds from China, buy it.  Before year's end the Chinese will appreciate their currency by bundling it with the Euro and Yen instead of just dollars, and the rise could be as high as 30%.  Even an investment that breaks even will earn money because the simple currency appreciation will make you money.

There are foreign exchange controls in China.  You can't just move your money in and out.

[The Duke]

Foreign investors can now buy A-Bonds pretty freely, which are stocks in Chinese corporations.

As for getting money out, just look at the "errors and omissions" figures for the 1990s.  People were literally carrying suitcases full of money into Hong Kong and exchanging yuan for dollars straight up.  This is why China had a net outflow of over $130 billion in the 1990s that they couldn't account for through tracking the regular economy.

[angus]

I absolve myself of all responsibilities if you lose money on this, but if I had any money, I'd put it here:

Chinese anything.  Anything you convert dollars to yuan to buy, like stock or bonds from China, buy it.  Before year's end the Chinese will appreciate their currency by bundling it with the Euro and Yen instead of just dollars, and the rise could be as high as 30%.  Even an investment that breaks even will earn money because the simple currency appreciation will make you money.

It's not that easy.  Their markets don't work like USA, Germany, etc.  I'll try to get some info. to you on how one would could try to crack the system, but your best bet is to get in tight with a chinese national, and let her/him do it for you.  They're not a total command economy, like the former USSR, but they're not an open one either. 

Oh, I see richius has posted this already.  yes, he's correct, you can't do it.  What you can do is get a citizen of PRC that you trust implicitly and give him your money.  He invests it.  Of course you can always buy the A-bonds.  But if you want to play with the big boys in china, you have to be chinese.

Since china is a semi-command economy, I have been buying up some foreign utilities.  As I've moaned about before, Deutsche Telekom is a downer.  I'm going to stick it out, as I have maxed my roth IRA in '04 in DT (3000K) which is now worth about 2700K, but surely it'll go up over the next few years.  My advice is NEVER to sell low.  stick it out. 

US Pharmaceuticals and munitions have all done well for me since November.  Go BU$H!  In particular, I'm hyping Merck.  I bought 40 shares at 25 in October, and they're at 30 last I looked.  I'm scared to look lately, so don't tell me!  I'm going to let everything I have ride ad infinitum.  This year I'm married and they raised the 3K limit to 4K.  I'm going to bite that bullet and do all 8K in yankee doodle dandies.  Maybe more Merck.   it, they're rich, even if they take a 30 billion dollar fine, they'll pull through.  And a company that was trading for 70ish for years, and only dropped because of a bunch of limp-dick sue-happy assholes, so I think it's undervalued now.  Buy Low.  Sell when you're ready to retire! 

Oh, and Go Patriots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Moooooo]

I have a quick question for some of you stock market guys.  Im 20 and dont have much money saved at all, but I am looking to start doing some investing.  What is the minimum amount someone could save up and put into the market and actually do pretty well with?  What type of things would be best to invest in as a young not so rich college kid?  Basically if you were a young college kid with very little money how much would you need to start investing and what would be some good things to invest in?

[angus]

I so wish I had started back when I was that young.  basically, I do everything on-line.  There's Ameritrade, Etrade, Scottrade, Brown.  Some of those are for bigger players, minimum 5000 or so.  But I'm thinking Scottrade is minimum 1000.  I'm not sure about the other two.  Trades are about 7 to 20 dollars.  Choose well the first time and hang on to it forever, so it's a one-time small fee.  Put in whatever the minimum is, maybe as low as a couple hundred in some of them, lose ten or so for the trade.  Then put the paper away so you don't panic at the daily fluctuations.  Alternatively, decide on an amount each week, and a particular stock you like, so you're set up to buy an amount of shares inversely proportional to its price.  If your stock falls, you'll be tempted to sell.  Many do.  That's called buying high and selling low.  Worst way to play.  As for specific stocks, hell I don't know.  No one knows.  I watch CNN, Fox, and CNBC.  Sometimes Bloomberg.  But, honestly, they don't know either.  I find the WSJ has the most consistently good advice.  I'll tell you one thing, don't invest in a company you don't know much about.  When someone walks up to you and says, "Hey dude, check out Frankenbugger dot com, they're a big up-and-comer."  you ask, "what do they make?"  and if he says, "hell I don't know, but it's a good deal."  then walk away fast.  go to a company's website or even call them.  Most big companies are happy to send you a bunch of junk mail if you say you're interested in investing. 

Right now, I can tell you my American companies are doing fairly well and my foreign companies are not.  Diversify, so you'll be able to handle it.  Also, before the election, don't put all your eggs in one basket.  Try to invest equally in pharmaceuticals/munitions and public transit/green technologies.  You really can't predict it.  Stu Rothenburg can though.  check out his picks before the '06 elections.

Mainly, I've learned that tea leaves, tarot cards, and Harvard MBAs give about equally good advice.  Good luck.

[Bono]

I have a quick question for some of you stock market guys.  Im 20 and dont have much money saved at all, but I am looking to start doing some investing.  What is the minimum amount someone could save up and put into the market and actually do pretty well with?  What type of things would be best to invest in as a young not so rich college kid?  Basically if you were a young college kid with very little money how much would you need to start investing and what would be some good things to invest in?

You're young, so you can have a very high exposure to stocks. If you really don't have that much money, I would suggest some index funds.