Stock market investing | Anyone else dabble or interested?

As I've never asked on here before, I figured I'd see if there are other people in the community who invest in the stock market like me, or are curious about starting? Even if there is anyone into F.I.R.E?

Are you buying anything at the moment or are you hoarding in anticipation of some downwards movements and safety?

I'm largely in a safety position at the moment, but that is more an accident of timing than being a fully committed plan. I came across a super safe, pretty cheap money market fund to time me over for a bit. While the interest rates are on the up, it's doing way better than any bank account as it near-enough tracks the base rate while the banks are 1-2% behind the base rate.


I think that you guys in the USA are finding the current environment to be a lot more favourable than we are here in the UK/Europe. Are you feeling more rosy about the way things will pan out for the rest of the year? We are certainly hurting in the UK at the moment with government and central bank incompetency impacting the inflation rate - compare the US and UK true inflation rates https://truflation.com/

I had some fun with Gamestop stocks, and even made a bunch of money that way, it was pretty funny.

In terms of serious investing, I put my money into some tech stocks and ETFs, with ASML being the biggest share. ASML is the company that builds like 80% of semiconductor lithography machines, all cutting edge chips that require the latest process node are made on ASML machines. You can bet that all the processors in our old handhelds are also made using ASML machines.
Theres a really nice YouTube channel about semiconductor manufacturing that has extremely in-depth videos about the history and current processes: https://www.youtube.com/@Asianometry

Anyway, I have no idea what I'm doing really, but so far my investments yield consistently more than inflation, so I'm fairly happy with it. Let's hope the entire market won't crash again soon

As a teenager I was fascinated with the stock market, but that faded quickly once I got old enough to have to pay my own bills and barely had enough income for that.

Since I bought my first EV six-and-a-half years ago, though, the thought of investing in charging infrastructure has crossed my mind - that is, if I didn't still barely have enough income to pay my bills.

@Karpour I have seen the Asianometry on it a while back, it was quite interesting. Yes, I have known about ASML for a long while; though it sounds as though the vultures might be trying to circle with on-shoring to the USA and attempts to break their monopoly being afoot.

I tend to avoid direct stock investing, I prefer ETF and ETC index investing so that I don't have as much a headache with rebalancing. Ultimately, I'm lazy and no huge interest in doing financials research and because of that, I factor individual company investing as picking horses rather than any sound decision making. I feel that ETF basket investing across a wide portfolio is the safer option as you're buying 100's of companies with one trade and unless you're into some high risk funds, the chance of all of those companies vanishing completely is very tiny - all of the FTSE100, S&P500 or the DAX for example.

I avoid OEIC's (active mutual funds) like the plague. They're expensive and in the long-term are lining the pockets of soothsayer fund managers who empirically are unable to return better than a index tracker.

You timed the market with some meme stocks huh? You're a braver man than I. If I see a fad, I avoid it like the plague.

What else are you in? What are your favourite/core ETF's?

@CE Geek, you've got every incentive to start investing, even if it's just a few dollars every now and then. Trading expense ratios are so unbelievably cheap for you. You'll pay 0.07% while we pay 0.35% for the same darn thing over here in Europe.
I'm avoiding the S&P 500 at the moment because 30% of it is this AI fad that will pop sooner or later. Beyond the 6/7 companies that make up the AI fad, the rest of the S&P500 is on a downward slant in recent weeks and months. I don't what you can get in the US, but in the UK we are seeing free trading services with zero commission plus fractional share trading becoming fairly common for retail investors outside of pensions. So you can buy (say) $10 worth of $270 each Tesla stock without having to front the full $270. My broker I can literally put just £1 into pretty much anything!
Pension trading is still charged here, but mine are capped at £120/year for doing my own investments. So not too bad - certainly better than the eye watering 1% + fund charges I was suffering with a pension company - and add another 1% if you are dealing with an IFA.

Interesting thought about the EV infrastructure. The world seems to have gone fairly cold on renewable infrastructure now that the Ukraine shock is almost forgotten (not for us here in Europe it isn't!). My renewables fund got battered

My position finally seems to have recovered from the year long slump last year. Probably ought to move into cash before it falls off a cliff again.

@thenzero what sort of funds are you in?

Would you move into cash or put it into the money markets?

In the UK we have a tracker for the SONIA (Stirling overnight index average), which is roughly the base rate less charge. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/markets/Sonia-benchmark which provides largely risk free holding with nearly real time tracking of the base rate - unlike actual cash accounts which are 6 months behind on the base rate.

I'm not sure if you have something similar over there?

I know you have things like SHV, NEAR, BIL or GSY but they track the treasury yield rather than the base rate (cash rate do you call it?).

I've bought some NVIDIA stocks in the past, and some quantum computer related stocks.
I also invest in mutual funds for Indian market.

@stingraze Indian, that's quite a volatile strategy, but has been quite apt at a trade in the current climate. What is appealing to you? Have you been in for many years?
If you got in some years ago, you're laughing. I wouldn't go in at the moment, the Nifty's Shiller ratio is an eyewatering 32.42 - which makes the S&P 500 look cheap at 24.84

Your NVidia must be up a lot at the moment? Are you holding for the long term or looking to cash out at a certain point?

If anyone wants any free Trading212 shares, I have a 'up to £/€100' free share referral code:
https://www.trading212.com/invite/16ZqmyEiRk

I think it works everywhere apart from US/Canada. All you have to do is deposit one £$€

@C:Amie

I think what I invest in isn't really exactly the NIFTY 50. There are several types of mutual funds that invest in India where I trade, like high growth, infrastructure etc. I went to India this year, and thought that it will indeed be a good place to invest in for many reasons.

I got into NVIDIA several years ago and already sold it. I wish I had kept it since it went so high recently.

Edited by stingraze 2023-07-14 12:41 AM

It's certainly up and coming, that's for sure. 1.4b people and rising is a big market.
How have the returns been working out this year?

@C:Amie
Yes.

The returns were fairly good.
About +6% in 3-4 weeks -ish these days.

This year, the quantum computer field's return were better since although it went down a lot, but I bought more so.

-stingraze

Edited by stingraze 2023-07-14 9:32 AM

@stingraze You've had them for 3-4 weeks or you've got 6% every 3-4 weeks since you've had them?

Have you got any plans for what you want to do next, are you pulling money back into cash or going in for the buy?

@C:Amie

Well, for the past few months I’ve gotten somewhere between 3-6% every 3-4 weeks, then cashed out then put it in back again. The amount I’ve put in isn’t that much, you know. But then, if I had put in a substantial amount, it will be a good move…. But yeah.

Edited by stingraze 2023-07-14 12:51 PM

That's pretty impressive!

What's your next move? More of the same?