Investors of IDO

Does anyone here dabble in stock trading or cryptocurrencies? The craze has really seemed to spread in the last year with a ton of opportunities to make $ (or lose it). I’m pretty new to the game and stick to the main idea of “never investing what you cannot afford to lose.” I have some of my fun money in and if I want new gear, electronics, etc I pull from there. I’ve had some nice gains in the cryptocurrency world, but don’t trust it and sell out gains with weak hands pretty quickly before using profits to by plain stock. I would love to hear people’s takes on it.

-What are your thoughts on cryptocurrency? I’m an old school guy who lives with cash, but this market is crazy to follow. Has anyone really cashed in on it?

-Has anyone went through the process of filing taxes with capital gains from stocks and crypto? I was sent the piles of documents and generally understand the differences, but doubt my accountant will be excited to flip through it all.

Sorry Bucky (what?? ), I’m of no help. I’ve always been a long hauler, aggressive in the mutual funds. I’ve done well.

I typically just let the big investment companies handle mine. That being said tesla did just buy 1.5 billion dollars worth of bitcoin… You may be able to watch that subreddit wallstreetbets and jump in early on a game stop kind of deal early. I hear 9mm is pretty crazy price wise now too

Denny O wrote:

Sorry Bucky (what?? ), I’m of no help. I’ve always been a long hauler, aggressive in the mutual funds. I’ve done well.

I’m not an expert either. 99% of my investments are like most peoples’ through moderate or low risk mutual funds that I keep my hands off of as well. This small time crypto stuff and small stock purchasing is more of a random hobby than anything. I was just wondering if any people around here are into it at all. I’d rather share ideas and talk about it with IDO members than crazy people on Reddit.

Litecoin was good to me in the past week. I was able to pocket a couple days’ wages with about 10 clicks on my phone. I’ll be sitting out of the cryptocurrency world until either Litecoin or Bitcoin drops again, then jump back in.

I also only dabble in bitcoin a little, I just sold/converted into cash in my crypto wallet (only $500 Original Investment) when it hit $47,000 and hoping it will go back down around or under $30,000 so I can buy back in again. I am pretty, pretty sure me selling ALL my bitcoin has it trending down now like Elon did to run up the price (sarcasm).

marcolson13 wrote:

I also only dabble in bitcoin a little, I just sold/converted into cash in my crypto wallet (only $500 Original Investment) when it hit $47,000 and hoping it will go back down around or under $30,000 so I can buy back in again. I am pretty, pretty sure me selling ALL my bitcoin has it trending down now like Elon did to run up the price (sarcasm).

That’s a pretty impressive gain! My son’s buddy’s dad apparently is making a haul mining it right now. He is a complete computer savant and apparently has a massive farm of super powerful computers and is making like $500 a day. They are spendy to build and from what my son says they get burnt up pretty quick because of all the heavy processing.

What is going on with Dogecoin is fascinating. I am very tempted to throw a $1000 down and see what happens.

I’ve been investing in Dogecoin for a while, and it’s gonna pay dividends. If you’re looking to go into investing, invest Dogecoin once the stock drops a bit, and buy a lot.

I maybe I said that wrong. I bought $500 worth when it was at $28,000 and sold it all when it hit $47,000 the other day. So very small scale but nice gain. It got up to 48,500 or so before it started falling.

I take the slow and steady approach and just pump my 401(k) mutual funds, pay off debt aggressively, and invest in property. I’ve been following Crypto for a while, but am hesitant to invest anything in it, as I don’t believe it has a legitimate financial foundation and also don’t see the gate keepers in Gov’t ever allowing it to be a legitimate main stream currency, plus there seems to be a significant theft threat from hackers (but may be wrong here). That said you sure can make quite a bit of money in a short period of time playing the market.

marcolson13 wrote:

I maybe I said that wrong. I bought $500 worth when it was at $28,000 and sold it all when it hit $47,000 the other day. So very small scale but nice gain. It got up to 48,500 or so before it started falling.

Ah gotcha! Still nothing to complain about.

I started last dabbling last June. I knew nothing when I started and 9 months later I can’t say I know much but I have managed to make 43% on what I originally invested. I wish I would of decided to start in March instead.

95% of my investments are in etfs and mutual funds. 5% of my “fun money” i buy stocks and i also hold some bitcoin.

My problem is that my fun money, i end up buying stocks that i never want to sell. which isn’t really a problem. GME was really the first stock I bought with the intention of selling right away. It ws the first stock in 5 years i’d taken a short term hit on.

Stocks I bought the past 2 weeks – IFF, NVAX, and LYFT. Goal is to hold long term.

TurboTax makes pretty quick work of 1099’s. Stay away from crypto but know there is a future there. Started playing options last year, not for the risk adverse. Very lucrative when you get the greeks down.

A company we can all appreciate would be Visto Outdoors in Anoka (VSTO). With the run on ammo, profits will be sky high for the next 4 years. HR 127 will probably provide a catalyst of sorts too.

Regarding Bitcoin. Agree with Warren Buffet. (Google warren buffett bitcoin) >>> Warren Buffett blasted Bitcoin as a worthless delusion and ‘rat poison squared.’

Right now I’m very Bearish on the overall market. Prepare for a major correction here soon. Very few stocks will be sparred IMO. Cash is king.

-J.

Jon Jordan wrote:

Regarding Bitcoin. Agree with Warren Buffet. (Google warren buffett bitcoin) >>> Warren Buffett blasted Bitcoin as a worthless delusion and ‘rat poison squared.’

Right now I’m very Bearish on the overall market. Prepare for a major correction here soon. Very few stocks will be sparred IMO. Cash is king.

-J.

I agree. And with any of the latest get rich quick fads, I try to keep the Buffett Bet in mind
https://money.cnn.com/2018/02/24/investing/warren-buffett-annual-letter-hedge-fund-bet/index.html

I’m a huge fan of index funds. In fact my entire world revolves around them daily in my job.

-J.

I think everything is truly hinging on things getting back to normal re: covid. i would be bearish on the market if so many of these earnings numbers coming out weren’t beats. its kind of nuts. obviously the service industries are still taking massive hits (bought HLT (Hilton), IGT (intl gaming) and more LUV(southwest airlines in late January)

I don’t typically take large positions. the majority of my holdings are in VTSAX (work 401k) and VTI (Roth’s) so i know i already hold all of these in some manner. I just tilt towards companies i think are decent and have a long runway for growth.

oh also, disclaimer : i have no idea what i’m doing and for handful of years i’ve been doing this, i’ve only slightly beaten the market.

hnd wrote:

oh also, disclaimer : i have no idea what i’m doing and for handful of years i’ve been doing this, i’ve only slightly beaten the market.

That’s pretty much where I am too hnd. The vast majority of my $ is with my cfp, and what I do by myself is mostly for fun.

Bought Qualcomm (QCOM) when it fell last week. Hoping between the chip shortage and their 5G technology it will take off.

I wish I had knowledge in any of this. Im a dummy when it comes to this world. But I have cash to throw at something lol. I want to make easy boat money.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I wish I had knowledge in any of this. Im a dummy when it comes to this world.

Max out your 401k. Max fund a Roth IRA. (Funds invested in S&P500 index accounts) Accumulate 6 months to one year after tax annual salary in cash. Ok to have this sitting in a bank money market fund. (Secured by the FDIC) Once you have that nailed down then go gamble on stocks with any additional funds you have available.

-J.

I too am a firm believer in the government “boxing out” cryptocurrencies in the United States, but the world beyond that may be another story and still presents a lot of opportunities. I think the juvenile cryptos will constantly come and go. Risk can payoff or leave you hurting. Bitcoin is really starting to dig in. I think its valuation will always be all over, but I’d be shocked if it’s not around 5-10 years from now.

For now, I’m sticking to my strategy of buying some stocks to hang onto longterm while also sticking significantly smaller sums into crypto when the moment seems right. I am not a financial advisor, but won’t hesitate to share my strategies for better or worse. I’ve got a favorable position on a few airlines (Delta and Spirit) and think there’s longterm potential for growth with the recovery. There are a few EV stocks I’ve seen some growth on as well but was a bit late jumping in (Late December versus this Fall). As far as cryptos go, I sold some Litecoin recently at about $189 a coin after buying in well beneath that. I haven’t touched Doge, because that thing is so unpredictable and I wasn’t falling for the FOMO on it (for now). I look to position in some additional Bitcoin if the market gives me a semi predicable reentry point. Right now Bitcoin seems like a complete coin toss to holding its gains versus receding quickly.

I am a pretty active trader and what has been going on the last couple of months in the small cap, micro cap and penny stock space is unreal. Normally there are dozens if not hundreds of companies on the 3 major exchanges with a share price under a dollar but as of yesterday there were only 15 left total. Keep in mind that penny stocks are penny stocks for a reason, they are usually trash companies but people don’t care they keep buying everything in sight. Most people are aware of the GME AMC situation the last couple of weeks because it made the news but the giant speculation bubble forming in penny and small cap stocks has flown under the radar unless you follow the market closely. I agree with what Jon said above I believe a major correction is coming likely in the next couple of months if not sooner. Until it happens I am going to keep “making hay while the sun shines” I’ve never had returns before like what I’ve experienced recently but you need a disciplined risk management plan or when the market turns you will be crushed.

Jon Jordan wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
I wish I had knowledge in any of this. Im a dummy when it comes to this world.

Max out your 401k. Max fund a Roth IRA. (Funds invested in S&P500 index accounts) Accumulate 6 months to one year after tax annual salary in cash. Ok to have this sitting in a bank money market fund. (Secured by the FDIC) Once you have that nailed down then go gamble on stocks with any additional funds you have available.

-J.

Good advice from Jon. Contribution limits for 2021 – 401k $19.500, 401k catch up (over 50 years old) $6,500; IRA $6,000, IRA catch up (again, over 50) $1,000.

Jon Jordan wrote:

Max out your 401k. Max fund a Roth IRA. (Funds invested in S&P500 index accounts) Accumulate 6 months to one year after tax annual salary in cash. Ok to have this sitting in a bank money market fund. (Secured by the FDIC) Once you have that nailed down then go gamble on stocks with any additional funds you have available

Are you a financial advisor Jon? Because that is basically exactly what mine tells me to do too.

IMO, Lots of pumping and soon to be dumping with the cryptos. Too much unknown surrounding those for me to put any money into them. Fun to watch, though.

Ive been interested in the pot stocks recently, wish i would have jumped on TLRY, when a buddy told me about it, but 20/20 hindsight will drive you nuts.

IMO, One big driver to this bull market is exactly what we’re seeing on this site, more people are dipping their toes into the market outside of the traditional 401k, 403b, IRA, ect. Its much easier for a simpleton like myself to throw a couple bucks at a ticker. Robinhood for example has made it so easy and pioneered the free trade trend that more or less was picked up by most if not all traditional trading platforms.

I used to have to pay $10 to buy a stock no matter what my initial investment was through e-trade. So it was tough to justify investing anything less than $500. Free trading gives the confidence to take a shot.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>marcolson13 wrote:</div>
I also only dabble in bitcoin a little, I just sold/converted into cash in my crypto wallet (only $500 Original Investment) when it hit $47,000 and hoping it will go back down around or under $30,000 so I can buy back in again. I am pretty, pretty sure me selling ALL my bitcoin has it trending down now like Elon did to run up the price (sarcasm).

That’s a pretty impressive gain! My son’s buddy’s dad apparently is making a haul mining it right now. He is a complete computer savant and apparently has a massive farm of super powerful computers and is making like $500 a day. They are spendy to build and from what my son says they get burnt up pretty quick because of all the heavy processing.

Regarding these “super powerful computers”, check out this company in Edina that has farms of them: Compute North, https://www.computenorth.com/
Disclaimer: I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THIS STUFF. But I do know that my local pub prefers cold, hard cash.

Index funds. Don’t they just mirror certain sectors of the market? What good is that? And it shouldn’t take a financial adviser to provide that service. IMO

gimruis wrote:

Are you a financial advisor Jon? Because that is basically exactly what mine tells me to do too.

I am not a financial advisor. I do work with and support advisors in creating/updating financial plans. I hold the same SEC licenses to trade securities as advisors. Financial planning includes a lot of tax planning. (Getting funds out of accounts tax free for example.)

My comments as a starting point for any investor would be widely agreed upon by most reputable brokerage firms. If you did open an account and did not meet those minimum requirements, most will either not work with you or require a signed release of any liability. Most of these reputable firms have new account minimums $10k to $25k. Might seem like a lot, but you (me too) would be surprised by the number of people who have an extra $200-500k laying around.

From the OP:

buckybadger wrote:

-Has anyone went through the process of filing taxes with capital gains from stocks and crypto?

There will be a lot of new investors (Day traders) shocked by the tax bill on short term capitol gains. Some exceeding 50% when you include some states portion. (Based on your tax bracket) Then trading fees. Your $1000 gain on a trade may only translate to $450 without a good overall financial plan.

buckybadger wrote:

I too am a firm believer in the government “boxing out” cryptocurrencies in the United States,

One only needs to look at what happened on “Black Friday” in the on-line poker world as an example. Don’t ask how I know….

-J.