One AAPL share worth $448?

[bigpoppamac31]

I wouldn't go to a financial site to get a smart phone recommendation .

That said, a quick google of Mutual/ ETF shows probably the highest percentage of AAPL is Powershares "QQQQ that tracks the NASDAQ 100 index and holds a 21% stake in the tech stock". QQQQ last quote $67.14.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2012/03/05/5-vanguard-etfs-juiced-up-with-apples-stock/

Ticker now QQQ and AAPL holdings 13.4% .......

http://www.invescopowershares.com/products/holdings.aspx?ticker=qqq

I have no idea what any other that stuff means on those site. LOL In any event I was just curious. If I knew I could invest in something that in the long term would give me some financial stability that would be great. But either way I don't think I have that kinda coin.

 

[TPadden]

I have no idea what any other that stuff means on those site. LOL In any event I was just curious. If I knew I could invest in something that in the long term would give me some financial stability that would be great. But either way I don't think I have that kinda coin.

If you can afford Apple products you can probably save until you could afford 10 shares of QQQ (and I'm not making any ETF recommendation). Starting out, I'd look at the Fund holdings and if I'd buy the products, I'd buy the Fund.

 

[jknight8907]

Are you seriously crying about high stock prices being a facet of 'the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer'?

 

[bigpoppamac31]

If you can afford Apple products you can probably save until you could afford 10 shares of QQQ (and I'm not making any ETF recommendation). Starting out, I'd look at the Fund holdings and if I'd buy the products, I'd buy the Fund.

And 10 shares of QQQ is how much? LOL I only see percentages in the list. I'd likely have to save for a long time. I had to save for a year to buy my 2011 15" MBP.

 

[725032]

And 10 shares of QQQ is how much? LOL I only see percentages in the list. I'd likely have to save for a long time. I had to save for a year to buy my 2011 15" MBP.

If you cant afford at least 100 then its not worth it to be honest.

I was lucky and sold a bulk of my shares several weeks ago before they dropped. I wasnt sure at first but it really paid off.

 

[TPadden]

And 10 shares of QQQ is how much? LOL I only see percentages in the list. I'd likely have to save for a long time. I had to save for a year to buy my 2011 15" MBP.

That'd be $671.40 plus any fees .....About 1/3 the price of your MBP .

----------

If you cant afford at least 100 then its not worth it to be honest.......

Not true, everyone has to start somewhere.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

That'd be $671.40 plus any fees .....About 1/3 the price of your MBP .

Hmm. I guess that's not terrible. But obviously that will change depending on how much AAPL is at the time.

 

[laurim]

You also need to look if the mutual fund has a minimum initial purchase. Many only let you buy if you initially invest $1,000 or $2,500. After that, there might be a $100 minimum for new shares.

Here's what I did when I went freelance. I took the 401k I had with my employer and rolled it into a Traditional IRA account on eTrade.com. If I had known about Roths I probably would have done a Roth but it's not bad to have both kinds. I've also opened a Roth account. The IRS limits your total contribution to those retirement accounts at $5,000/yr. Since I have some catching up to do before I retire, I've now opened an investment account that I can put more money into every year.

The trick to investing is to set up an automatic payment to your investment account. The whole "pay yourself first" thing. Every month (or whatever frequency you set), a certain amount goes from your bank account to your investment account. Eventually, you'll adjust your spending and you won't even notice it happening. When you get enough money in your account to make a minimum buy in, you buy shares of the funds or stocks you want. Resist the urge to constantly check it and be tempted to sell when they temporarily fall in value. You'll drive yourself crazy. Buy and leave them alone, at least until you learn more about the market.

 

[TPadden]

You also need to look if the mutual fund has a minimum initial purchase. Many only let you buy if you initially invest $1,000 or $2,500. After that, there might be a $100 minimum for new shares......

.... and learn about / research ETF's as well as Mutual Funds. One important thing to look at when choosing a Mutual Fund is sales and/or management fees - look for no-load meaning no sales or annual fee after purchase for management.

Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) are traded as stocks and don't have minimum investments, only trade fees often as low as $5-7 per trade. You can purchase or sell as little as one share of an ETF at a time.

 

[GermanyChris]

It has been my experience that when investing especially when starting out ETF's are the way to go. My reasoning is simple; the folks running those funds want to make money, if they do I do. I don't know more about their job than they do so why pretend. At this point I have a variety of differing investments but if I were to stumble into 10K for example and I was 29 5K would go to a money market for the ohh crap the car is kaput fund and the rest would go to my scottrade account for the I'm going to retire at 50 fund.

But I'm not a particularly smart guy and I'm quite sure folks here will find a flaw to my plan. But for now 15% of my salary goes to TSP, 5 percent goes to scottrade, and my fix your computer money goes to the money market. The biggest thing is I DON'T BUY NEW APPLE PRODUCTS! they are costly and unnecessary

 

[AngryGerbil]

Clearly I've started a pointless argument and clearly no one here knows how stocks work cause no one has answered that for me. Guess I'll have to slum it through Google.

Learning how stocks work is like learning C++.. there is no easy way. The difference between the 2 is that C++ is based on logic and the stock market is based on emotion.

 

[LethalWolfe]

What is the difference buy one for $448 or 10 for $44.8 ? Of course you could buy just 5, but why ?

If the stock price goes up in price $1 and I own one share my investment gained me $1. If I own 10 shares my investment gained me $10. Volume is meaningful when it comes to stocks.

 

[TPadden]

...... Volume is meaningful when it comes to stocks.

Percentage gain or loss is meaningful and volatile, volume is a fixed factor determined only by what is affordable.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Percentage gain or loss is meaningful and volatile, volume is a fixed factor determined only by what is affordable.

And the volume of stock you own impacts your losses or gains. Spending $500 on one share of stock Y is not the same as spending $500 on 10 shares of stock X.

 

[dukebound85]

If the stock price goes up in price $1 and I own one share my investment gained me $1. If I own 10 shares my investment gained me $10. Volume is meaningful when it comes to stocks.

I dont think so. It is all about the %. In your first case, assuming equal investment of a portfolio worth say $10, you have a 10% increase. The second case (10 shares at 1 buck apiece) you have a 100%. It would be equivalent if it went up only 10 cents

And the volume of stock you own impacts your losses or gains. Spending $500 on one share of stock Y is not the same as spending $500 on 10 shares of stock X.

I would argue it is for all cases aside from initially buying in (affordability)

 

[TPadden]

Spending $500 on one share of stock Y is not the same as spending $500 on 10 shares of stock X.

Not true. No matter how many shares you purchase if you spend the same amount and the stocks return the same percentage, volume doesn't matter. If either stock goes up or down 10% you make or lose the same amount.

In one case the one share goes up $50, in the other ten shares goes up $5 each; doesn't matter which you bought with a 10% gain, you gain $50 with your $500 investment.

 

[LethalWolfe]

I dont think so. It is all about the %. In your first case, assuming equal investment of a portfolio worth say $10, you have a 10% increase. The second case (10 shares at 1 buck apiece) you have a 100%. It would be equivalent if it went up only 10 cents

Not true. No matter how many shares you purchase if you spend the same amount and the stocks return the same percentage, volume doesn't matter. If either stock goes up or down 10% you make or lose the same amount.

Right. And if the stocks perform differently in terms of percentages but the same in terms of currency then there is a difference in owning 1 share vs owning 10 shares.

All other things being equal I'd rather have 10 $50 shares than one $500 share because the odds of that $50 share reaching $100 are a lot better than that $500 share reaching $1000.

EDIT: I think this semantic horse is just about beat to death.

 

[TPadden]

All other things being equal I'd rather have 10 $50 shares than one $500 share because the odds of that $50 share reaching $100 are a lot better than that $500 share reaching $1000.

EDIT: I think this semantic horse is just about beat to death.

You are the one doing the beating ....... Sorry, but your understanding of stock performance just isn't accurate. Penny stocks should be your cup of tea though, think how many shares you can buy, stay away from Berkshire Hathaway BRK-A..

 

[eric/]

Hmm. Looks like some bad statistics going on here...

 

[LethalWolfe]

You are the one doing the beating ....... Sorry, but your understanding of stock performance just isn't accurate.

Hey, y'all keep coming back so I'm certainly not the only one next to this dead horse. In all seriousness though enlighten me. Or feel free to pawn me off to your favorite Stocks for Newbs site since I apparently can't get past 10 one dollar bills being more money than one one dollar bill.

Penny stocks should be your cup of tea though, think how many shares you can buy, stay away from Berkshire Hathaway BRK-A..

You are right to assume that if I had 152750.00 burning a hole in my pocket buying one share of stock is not what I'd do with it.

Vegas, baby!

 

[TPadden]

You are right to assume that if I had 152750.00 burning a hole in my pocket buying one share of stock is not what I'd do with it.

Vegas, baby!

From a historical perspective: If you had $152750 burning a hole in your pocket there are few things better you could do with it ....and that is why you refuse to be enlightened, it's all about percentages not price.

"The company averaged an annual growth in book value of 20.3% to its shareholders for the last 44 years, while employing large amounts of capital, and minimal debt. Berkshire Hathaway stock produced a total return of 76% from 2000–2010 versus a negative 11.3% return for the S&P 500".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkshire_Hathaway

 

[LethalWolfe]

From a historical perspective: If you had $152750 burning a hole in your pocket there are few things better you could do with it ....and that is why you refuse to be enlightened, it's all about percentages not price.

I'm not refusing anything. My previous request was sincere but my attempt at levity might have come off as being flippant.

I understand the difference between percentage and price. The question, "What is the difference buy one for $448 or 10 for $44.8?" was posed and while it was probably rhetorical I decided to answer it anyway. I'm not arguing stock strategy, I'm just answering the question by pointing out a possible difference between buying one share of stock A at $448 or 10 shares of stock B a $44.8. Nothing more, nothing less.

If ChristianJapan meant what's the difference between buying one share of appl @ 488 or buying 10 shares of appl @ $44.80 then of course there is no difference (other than maybe sticker shock) because it's a $480 investment either way.

 

[TPadden]

I'm not refusing anything. My previous request was sincere but my attempt at levity might have come off as being flippant.

If ChristianJapan meant what's the difference between buying one share of appl @ 488 or buying 10 shares of appl @ $44.80 then of course there is no difference (other than maybe sticker shock) because it's a $480 investment either way.

The only meaningful difference between stocks is individual stock performance, price differences, assuming accurate valuation, mostly account for psychological differences.

When stock prices get high, providing a psychological barrier to trading, some companies decide to split to reduce that barrier, some companies, like Apple and Berkshire (which does have a "cheaper" BRK-B) prefer to keep prices high to reduce trading and keep institutional prices (mutual fund, retirement fund, etc. owned) less volatile.

The price psychological barrier seems to be wall that is hard for you to get over, company performance is what counts most but as others have said you can't remove the psychology or emotion from stock trading either, so you aren't completely wrong.

 

[E.Lizardo]

I have no idea what any other that stuff means on those site. LOL In any event I was just curious. If I knew I could invest in something that in the long term would give me some financial stability that would be great. But either way I don't think I have that kinda coin.

Sounds like you would really benefit from a good book on investing basics.Before you put your hard earned money at risk a small investment in knowledge will pay off big time and prevent some bitter regrets.Just search Google for beginning investor and Amazon for such and read the reviews.As others have said mutual funds are much safer from huge losses than individual stocks,and among mutual funds,look for "no load" funds.I wouldn't risk any money until I knew what that meant.
Good luck and congratulations for looking to your future security!

 

[LethalWolfe]

The only meaningful difference between stocks is individual stock performance, price differences, assuming accurate valuation, mostly account for psychological differences.

When stock prices get high, providing a psychological barrier to trading, some companies decide to split to reduce that barrier, some companies, like Apple and Berkshire (which does have a "cheaper" BRK-B) prefer to keep prices high to reduce trading and keep institutional prices (mutual fund, retirement fund, etc. owned) less volatile.

The price psychological barrier seems to be wall that is hard for you to get over, company performance is what counts most but as others have said you can't remove the psychology or emotion from stock trading either, so you aren't completely wrong.

Thanks TPadden.

For whatever reason last night I got tunnel vision and couldn't see the forest for the trees.