No wonder you are doing so well in the game, Bastitas have the touch :) Few more mos and you'll be up there w/ him. I'd like to see that family reunion.

No doubt last year was going to be a banner year for those poised to take advantage of it. I tried to get in there and do the best as I could, but I have nowhere near the resources and understanding of the world and business those guys do. The latter is what I really envy. I wouldn't want the burden and responsibility of so much wealth, but I wish I understood the world so much better than I do.
So much goes on at their level. I feel like I could be good enough at the game, if I only knew what game was being played and what the rules are. lol
Unfortunately, so much of the day is spent between work and family responsibilities, there is little time left to really spend trying to learn this stuff.

On my other stocks, I had picked up FHCO in Jan for ~$4.60 and was excited for that. Unfortunately I sold it off (trying to buy more in Feb.) I had put in a limit order at the same price to buy it back, but missed it as it was not GTC. Dammit. Let it slip my mind and didn't go back to it.

Looked at it today as its had moved nicely upto $7, went to go look at the earnings and remembered I didn't go back and put in another order. Ack..... should have just done a market order.:cry:

Its astounding, the mess we've worked ourselves into for the last 30 yrs. I bet 2009 will go down as one of the biggest wealth transfers in history.


I'm cautiously optimistic for 2010. What I am hoping to see is moderate eco and job growth starting in the next few months. Sounds like businesses have quite a bit of cash (the ones doing well at least) so there should be some interesting activity. I think the US eco will be fairly resiliant.

However, a few things to really watch for, or at least my predictions/guesses for 2010.

A.) Its an election year. Never underestimate the stupidity of politicians to screw things up (goes for any party) and sabotage a recovery for personal gain.

B.) Smaller world economies destabilizing. Greece, Spain, Iceland, etc. Greece had Goldman Sachs papering over their debt. Makes you wonder where else this will be discovered. Latvia sounds in a bad way too. Could be tip of an iceberg.

C.) The debt. I thought last yr Obama basically had two years to run the high deficits to try and get the eco going. We'll see how it works. No doubt tax increases, spending cuts and entitlement reform are coming next year. It will be as well recieved as the austerity cuts in Greece are being recieved now. It will also be up to Congress to make the cuts into law. It will be highly unpopular, and Congress is pretty disfunctional as it is just doing popular things.

D.) People and business are going to be pissed come 2011. Job growth is prolly going to be slow even best case scenario. Raising taxes and pension ages will not go down well. Not doing it will be even worse.

Overall, I am hopeful for 2010 as far as stocks go (dep on jobs/gdp growth.) As Nov comes around, I think things will get very dicey, and 2011 could be a very ugly year. IDK if I want to be in the market then (leaning towards no until the dust settles.) Lots of variables and unknowns can occur. I bet a lot a lot of other people will keep one hand on the exit door.

I don't know what you're talking about :lol:. I just got lucky in the game and I don't mess with stocks in RL anymore

My little one keeps me busy before school and after school. In between I try to relax and not let my clients bug me.

Most of the time I let my gut feeling do the trading and those are in the super green and the ones in super red are the ones I used my brain to pick :lol:. In the game I only do market orders.

If the real numbers (The actual known number) are posted, you can get a somewhat clear view of how deep it goes.

Official Unemployed: 14,909,693 (12:24 PM)
Actual Unemployed: 25,982,071 (12:24 PM)
Bankruptcies: 1,407,736 (12:24 PM)
Foreclosures: 857,700 (12:24 PM)

The Unemployed numbers would be much higher if the not legal to work was counted.

Also, some of the signs that things will take a while to get good is the problems with the Schools, Fire Fighter, Hospitals and all the Fed. jobs making more the $100K :lol:.

lol
The state and local eco's might get battered too next yr as the support from the fed gov wanes. Things will be ugly for a while I think.

My wife is a Forbes. We were sailing on the hudson once when his yacht was going by upriver (you know it when you see it.) I suggested we go by and see if cousin would let us on board and have a look around.
We just set a different tack to windward instead.

;)

:lol:
Should I change my name and forge my birth certificate? :lol: It is odd that the richest guy in Brasil was born in the same city I was, have the same last name and my grandfather used to work a Vale do Rio Doce (Ticker: VALE) :lol:. I just hope nobody starts a new conspiracy thread :rofl:.

If things do get to a point where it might get really dangerously ugly, Brasil will look good and you guys are invited.

After watching that pizza vid, I've already packed a set of bags. Now I know the right town to go to too. ;)

Grab a set of wheels for Harold, and we are out of here.

Its funny, as I've heard a lot of the "undocumented" workers have been leaving the US and going back to Mex bc contruction has just died off. If Slim keeps doing as well as he is, it may be Americans sneaking across the border south looking for jobs.:lol:

Yo conoce un poco de espanol, pero no tengo ningun idea de la lengua portuguesa.

That video is nothing :lol:. Want to see our Paparazzi (Paparazzo)? http://ego.globo.com/Entretenimento/...0-7195,00.html.

I tell a few people, before you retire, invest in a place where you're going to enjoy life to its fullest. The answers I get are usually if $2K-5K a month is good enough. I tell them they'll live like kings in Brasil :lol:.

I lot of Brasilians went back to Brasil and I saw on the Brasilian news paper here in NJ that a lot got deported :rofl:. Free flight to Brasil is not bad at all :lol:.

There are 4 languages thought in school down there: Portuguese (Of course :lol:), English, Spanish and French. So you'll be good :lol:.

Ha! I opened that link at work, had to close it quick lol! Will check out again later (another good use for the smartphone ;) )

My plan was to retire in Cape Town, SA, but you are making a very convincing arguement. The plane ride is much shorter too.

I just hope by the time I'm ready to buy a place that there hasn't already been a huge real estate rush to drive up all the prices. Europeans are starting to discover SA, and will probably continue after the world cup there this year. Then again, they may all be broke by then.

There are some absolute gems around the world if you are willing to live a little adventurously, and money goes much, much farther.



C is looking nice. We'll see where it goes. :)

Brasil is cheap to live and I think it will be for a long time. Think about, minimum wage there is close to 300 reals and some live on that.

You're right, there are some absolute gems around the world.

Too bad I don't have buying power, I would've bought way more shares then I did :lol:. One good call on my side is not bad :lol:. I'm still debating if I should sell some of my positions. It would suck if one that I sold got a good run afterwards :lol:.

Man, I starting looking into the financial sector, and it really has been on fire. I said earlier I've pretty much ignored it since Oct, but its really been moving here the last 2 wks.

I'll have to start paying more attn. Personally, I would feel nervous about moving into something that has had so much movement up lately, then again you never know.

I've got $2M to play w/. I'll have to watch the banking sector more closely and rethink my bias. Had a good run w/ DPTR, but I'm out for now. It may pop, but may slide down to ~$1.

Looking at some of C's competitors, they've all had good runs, but look a bit toppy. C looks like it has some room to run, but IDK short term. Its a wild stock. Maybe wait for a bit, watch for a pullback and buy some FAZ.

You will soon be right there with me. Last time I checked I had -$3M to play with :lol:. I should have some buying power soon :yes:.

Poor WAMUQ :lol:. I should went with my gut feeling :lol:. Lets see how far C will go before it goes up again.

I was watching CNBC to see what they would say on C, but heard nothing special. Now I heard some very interesting things though. One doctor went there to talk about the salt banning in NYC and boy he let some stuff slip that got the attention of someone real fast. One of the hosts was asking about what he said, someone caught it quick and once again they had to go :lol:. He said something in regards to the US Government paying for some medications that one of the hosts mentioned and the US was allowed to do what ever it wanted. He also said salt causes obesity. If that fool wants to do something, why not ban all the corp. fast food places then.

Also, it's funny how they (CNBC) claims the economy is getting better. They should not mix up the Stock Market with the real economy. Someone with some balls should buy all the media and let tell all the sponsors to go F themselves and talk about real stuff that goes on.

I'm going to post something in my other thread and I hope people won't get shocked.

I'm going to be a bit silly and short FAS. Buying FAZ kinda sucks for returns. Said I wouldn't do anymore shorts, but hey, its Friday and I'm feeling dangerous.
Might be a bit too early before the Q1 is over, but we'll see. Holding onto some cash otherwise.

Edit: Meant to post this this morning. I'll post it now and see how dumb this was....

W00t.. I did this on the open and am up a whole .6%!!!! I'm rich!!!!1 yeah!1111one


anyways... feeling very silly today. I'll have to read what you posted in the other thread luciano.

I should look into some ETF. I used to love the QQQ.

You'll be surprised about the think I posted in my other thread. I was.

I wasn't watching things yesterday, but I covered my short of FAS already. It did make about 5% which was nice for a day, but I'm not sure where things are going now. Looked like financials may break down a bit, but they look like they may be strengthing again. Have to keep watching.


My biggest position (CPE) is starting to move well. Up ~10% today. I bought in a little early (after being late originally... long story) but it is catching up again and looking good. Hope it continues. Need some green :)

When I reach $100 million again, I'll sell everything.

Aw come on.. I want to see you be another Billionare Bastista :gasp:

Maybe I am :oops:. Maybe I'm not :lol:. All I can say is, Brasil is fun.

In the game, $100 million seems good enough.

Any tips on becoming a sucessful independent business owner? I'd like to start one one day. Just not sure how to begin. No aims on billionare status tho! hahahaha


:p

It all depends on what you're good at and love doing.

I like electronics and selling, so I started selling electronic components after being a stock broker. Selling electronic components though is much better. My laptop is my office :lol:. If you have the resources to hire some nice sounding Spanish or Portuguese speaking ladies, you can make some nice cash.

I should've bought more DPTR :lol:. Lets see where it'll go from here.

lol I sold mine off last week for ~1.50. We'll see w/ them. They are a screwy stock, I really wonder if they will break much above $2.00.

My CPE closed above $5 today (in part funded by DPTR lol ). Tomorrow should be interesting w/ option exp and all that.

Another stupid energy stock got killed today. Its a speculative stock prone top wild swings. Today's -30% was a killer tho. If it wasn't for that I'd be back over $8mil.

Wonder how long this rally will last? I guess we will see what Apr brings

I'm going to hold until Fri. to see if I stay at around $90 million. After that, I'll sell some stuff and see what will bring me to $100 million.

I thinks all stocks are screwy to be honest, but like I mentioned before, any news will make a stock move.

I'm telling you, by he end of the game you'll be ahead of me.

I just hope it moves slightly up so I'll have $100 million :lol:.

We would have to make it a really really long game, and you sticking your $100M into and interest income fund. lol

Stocks are screwy. I've been having a bit of success, but its been an easy market to play in. I do feel I am a much better trader/investor than I was a year ago by bounds, otoh, I'm learning just enough to be dangerous.....

I'm going to wait a bit longer now :lol:. I'm trying to see if the positions I'm holding now will get me there again.

The market now is in a strange position. I like to stay long on most of the things I hold. I used to have a guy tell me something very funny, but true:

Smart and cautious investors will always loose or make little money, but dumb and dangerous investors will always make it big.

When the lows came, it was the perfect time to be a dumb and dangerous investor and it paid off big for a lot of people :lol:.

Ah man, I am trying to be a smart and cautious investor!
OTOH, I do things in the game much dumber/dangerous than I do in RL, and I have had better returns! lol!

Speaking of dumb, I did buy some DPTR back early this AM before my appreciated buying power went away with the down market was coming. (had no idea what else to buy atm) Bought in a bit high, but had to use to or lose it. The news was a letter of intent to sell, so maybe we'll see another spike when the closing is announced, or they do some other action trying to re-org.

Otherwise, it might be a while just sitting and watching things w/ no BP as the market heads down. Can't imagine we will go into next week hitting new 52wk highs for things again. A pullback seems overdue... IDK, who the hell knows.

Dang, the order never went through. Lost my buying power before it went in.

Bought a bit today, as well as some AONE. It looked like it was bottoming out a bit.

Honestly I can't believe the market is still heading higher. Nearly 100pts just today atm. Q1 is determined to finish strong I guess.

I'm just waiting for that magical number and then I'm cashing in :lol:. It looks like it'll be definitely forming the expected "W". With more and more manufacturing plants closing and jobs being lost, it'll be just a matter of time before someone sets off a panic.

AONE :lol: Last time I looked at it, it was at $14+. Maybe Fisker can crank up the production so A123 can supply a lot of cells and show some solid profit.

Yeah, went down to ~13.66. Better get their asses in gear. Lots of money they've been given. :P

Yes sir, lots of money. I just got some buying power and loaded some more C and CTIC. Hope it pays off.

Nice returns, $23B now? 0_o

Started selling my stocks yesterday. Sold ARTI which had no value, but it said it was worth $230+ a share, so basically I'm taking myself out of the game. I'll just let it go until the days are finished. I can also do a quick math to see how much I actually have as well.

Since I'm out of the game, I thought I would see what $46B of buying power can buy. I bought so many stocks that I can't go into my portfolio :lol:.

I think the game is pretty much dead otherwise. I may start one up w/ some co-workers tho. Its much more fun to loose play money