Investment questions and answers (Q & A) 2005:
These are some of the questions and answers that was sent in
2005. Questions and answers in the forum can be both about the
software program Amateur Invest and about stocks and investments
in general. You can see the other parts of the Q & A section
in the investment forum, or directly: 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001.
These are some of the questions that have been answered in
2005 (click on item or scroll down the page):
Basic
Investment Question
Mutual funds
Big Fluctuations
Help, short selling
Need help with investing
Setup questions
Basic Investment
Question.
Chetan - posted 10/28/2005 5:46 PM
---
Hello Customer Service, - I have some general questions. I want
to invest in intel and just buy a few stocks. Basically, I'm a
newbie, so if I buy 1 stock in the morning, how much fluctuation
in the price is possible? Let's assume its about $0.500, then, is
it possible to buy 500 stocks and sell them to gain a profit of
$250 in one day? - That's my idea? - Tell me why/why not this
plan will succeed? -thanks. Mr. Chetan Agnish - Thank You for
your generous assistance.
R. Michael (Moderator) - posted 10/28/2005 5:56 PM
---
Hi Chetan. Thank you for your question. There are no easy or
stupid questions - only unintelligent answers... - - Usually it
is not a good idea to buy only a few stocks. The cost are too
high. - - When you buy stocks, your broker or bank want a
commission. - - For example: you buy 1 Intel stock - the price is
(at the moment) USD 23. You have to pay your bank or broker USD 5
- so the total cost for you is USD 28. A month later, the price
has gone up by 1 USD, so it is now USD 24. When you sell, you get
USD 24, minus the 5 USD commission for selling. So the
calculation is: You paid 28 and received 19 = USD -9. Even though
the stock price went up. - - - If you had bought more stocks,
lets say 100, the calculation is much better. 100 x 23 + 5 = 2305
USD in cost. And selling: 100 x 24 - 5 = 2395 USD in earnings. Now
that way, you have gained (2395-2305) = USD 90. - - - Amateur
Invest can help you do all these calculations of profit and loss,
taking commissions into account. - Regards, R. Michael.
Mutual funds.
Eckhard Hinrichsen - Sun, 14 Aug 2005 23:10:31
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Dear Sirs, I have downloaded your program and started testing it.
I encountered the problem to download stock
quotes for mutual funds. I
tried to add an energy fund (MLIIF W ENERGY A2C, 1211918.DU) to securities and then clicked on
"download new prices from the net". The prices were not
updated for this. In ID Import I entered 1211918.DU. Can you pls.
help me with this. Since I have many funds I need to enter and
update their prices from the internet. Regards, Eckhard
Hinrichsen
R. Michael
---
Hello Eckhard. - Thank you for your interest in Amateur Invest.
What you have done is correct. Amateur Invest however, doesn't
recognize the .DU extension in the package you have. I have
however updated and tested a new setup, and the 1211918.DU price
comes through nicely with 15.98 - Please update your definition
(in the admin window) or get the latest version of Amateur
Invest.
Big Fluctuations.
Nonameo - posted 8/2/2005 5:18 PM
---
Hi guys. I have a quick question about the market after 16:00
EST.What happens to it ?i am told that there are no quotes after
this time, but on my demo account with GCI, i can still place
trades and close positions at this time.Also, there are big
fluctuations in the market as shown in this screenshot (taken
last year) http://nonameo.elite-tek.com/flux1.JPG this is
obviously very profitable but it must be too good to be true
??can i trade this in a live account ? Thanks
R. Michael (Moderator) - posted 8/4/2005 9:08 AM
---
Not sure about this, but some broker
companies allow trading also
when the stock exchanges are
closed. This is then done only between people participating at
that broker. - The broker company keeps track of the deals. - In
essence it acts as a small stock exchange.
Help, short selling.
Harry Stanley - Sun, 17 Jul 2005 14:00:43
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I am trying your investment
software program. How do I handle short selling,
and how do I get a name into the box where the stock name should
be, it's filled with names already. Harry Stanley
R. Michael
---
Hello Harry. In the current released version you cannot do short
selling. - This will be possible in the new version later this
year.
In the portfolio window, and when buying or selling, you can
only choose from the securities that has been entered in the
securities window. 1) Establish a security in the securities
window, and 2) now you can select the security in the portfolio
window. You can also download a lot of predefined securities from
the Import/Export window, or use the import wizard to do the
same.
Need help with
investing.
Jerry - posted 6/16/2005 3:56 PM
---
Is there a good place to go to a lot learn investing. I have been
investing got about a year now, and one of my stocks split (TSM). I do not know
anything about stock splitting, and I see no changes to my online
broker account. Thanks
R. Michael (Moderator) - posted 6/17/2005 8:20 AM
---
Hi Jerry. You can read specifically about splits
on this page: http://www.amateur-invest.com/us_splits.htm - About
investing in general, you can use the software program Amateur
Invest to train, and learn many of the tasks involved in choosing
between securities to invest in. Unfortunately my book "make
money by investing" isn't available in English, but
hopefully some day it will be. Regards, R. Michael.
Setup questions.
John Holland - Fri, 4 Mar 2005 22:16:35
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1) In the Admin window help screen, it indicates that registered
users can create additional portfolios.
Is this where you would set up a different portfolio for each of
your brokerage accounts?
2) Also, I didn't see "ticker
symbol" associated with each stock in the Portfolio window.
Is appears that this "ticker symbol" is the same as the
import code used in the Securities window. If this correct, is
there a way to have it appear in the Portfolio window along with
the stock name? If not, could you simply edit the stock name in
the Securities window, such as from "CitiGroup" to
"C - CitiGroup" and from "Microsoft
Corporation" to "MSFT - Microsoft Corporation".
Thanks again, John
R. Michael
---
1) If you would like to keep your different brokerage accounts in
separate portfolios, then in the admin window you can create new
portfolios, and switch between them. The result (the current
portfolio) is then shown in the portfolio window.
2) The ticker symbol is the same (for the US at least) as the
import id. There is no way to have this show up in the security /
portfolio window - except as you suggest, by renaming the name in
the securities window. - There should be no problem in doing that
- you go into the securities window, select an item in the list,
and click the "Edit" button - just change the name, and
everything will be ok.
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