I Fired My Stock Broker Today.....

I started investing with Morgan Stanley 10 years or so ago, and had a very good money manager. In that time the money has done a bit better than double. Just got a call from him that he is retiring...perhaps I need to think a bit.

 

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It's true, you never need a crystal ball -- all you need is hindsight.

So, anything else you might have expected to soar? Say, T, providing fiber and wireless connectivity to all those people working at home -- which tanked by like 25% right before the lockdowns hit, and since has gone nowhere?

No argument there!

 

Except you can go back and Ive been posting this since this time last year telling everyone to get into the stocks while there low so no no hindsight involved. Way up on all of them from buying when they were in the dumps

T sucks, always had probably always will.

But you just gave a great example of a major mistake people make. When you have a bunch of for sure stallions waiting in the gate you don't get cute with it spreading it out to low reward ponies. You load up on the studs and ride them.

It's literally an exact repeat of 2009 where some major stocks dropped down to the same levels, and guess what they're coming back strong just like they did after that.

As I've been saying for months and months it was literally the best buying period in over a decade and probably for the next decade or so if you just kept it simple and stuck to known winners. Wynn was never going to stay a $40 dollar stock, especially not with online gaming being legalized all over. Penn was never going to be a 4 dollar stock, United/Delta were never going to be allowed to go under, Boeing isn't a sub $100 stock, the major cruise lines aren't 7 dollar stocks etc etc etc. They all reached those levels and they were all easy money

 

Then get his cell phone number or have a backup Asst Advisor in the office.

Barring that, you should have online access to do trades.

 

Or better yet cut the fat do it yourself. Any broker thats not up at least 50% minimum after the last year isn't worth their fees

 

I had a similar thing happen to me about 15 years ago. The brokerage house made good through its insurance policy. I can’t recall what brokerage firms call the coverage, but such policies are generally known as errors and omissions insurance.

 

It's also part of the Trading Error Account.

17 yeas ago a major brokerage firm/mutual fund firm made an error on cash availability for an account I had. I had a check bounce on an IPO that was scheduled to be up 50% on Day 1. I was looking at a lost profit of almost $300,000. Fortunately, there was a recording of my call inquiring about cash availability with the firm that backed up my assertion that I was told the funds were available for use.

The firm bought the shares for me on the 1st day of trading....up 50% or so....made me 100% whole.

 

I don't know, I always felt if you took the time to do the research, why buy stuff? Or even sell? My financial advisor is there because I'm bad at math and she can crunch the numbers I need. She has recommended funds before that I didn't buy after doing the research.

Like life insurance, after some research I bought guaranteed renewable level term because it gave me more bang for the buck. I think if you're going to spend the money, you should know what it's for.

 

????

 

This i ls why I do not use brokers. I simply want a reliable brokerage account. If I want to sell I do so in a few seconds. OP, I would suggest the same, use a broker if you want to suggest trades, but keep the power to buy/sell in your hands. Its way too easy to have access to it nowadays, unlike years ago.

 

Wynn is more of a Macau play, so legalized US gambling is not really too much of a concern. However, since LVS, (which I own), just announced they are selling the Venetian, it is a better Macau/Singapore pure play.

Yeah, generically what you said about March 2020 is right, but as always details were sketchy. Many industries that should STILL be low rebounded on optimism way too early. I invested in the period, maybe 2/3rd of my cash, but I never borrow on margin. Even then there were surprises. I am shocked how well my miners are doing.

However, I believe all three of us are in complete agreement that small investors always panic and sell at the worst times, and buy at the worst times. Right now, only ongoing stuff like 401k and Deferred Comp is going into the market, I am holding on to cash in my "play money" account. I think its 60/40 probability down versus up this year, but I am not convinced enough to sell all and sit on sidelines. I am just holding, collecting dividends and watching at the moment.

 

Macau is definitely a big part for them. I actually ended up passing on them and went with Penn instead and my only regret is not just buying as much as possible. Penn will probably benefit the most from the online gambling but I know MGM, Caesars, and some others are getting into the game too.

What I liked more about Penn than those others is that the others have to pay a lot to advertise like DK and Fanduels giving them a high customers acquisition cost, where as Penn can spend basically nothing on advertising and gets a lot of it from their ownership stake in Barstool Sports.

I thought some of them came back a little early too, but now I’m not entirely sure. There’s no cruises for instance, but every time they open one up for the future they basically sell out immediately. Air travel still lags but really that’ll take care of itself with the openings giving people things to do and a reason to use them.

I haven’t bought anything that recently aside from apple after the split. It hasn’t done anything but I don’t really care right now. Every time it’s split it’s always been up in a year or two and once it starts taking off it’s a lot more expensive to get into. Couple years from now I have little concern that I’ll be happy with that double down point.

I try not to wait for the highest high to sell or the lowest low to buy, you almost always end up selling for less or buying for more when you're trying to catch the peak.

It’s definitely very true about small investors. So many people always buy when they should sell or sell when they should buy more. Once the lockdowns started I basically sold everything and then put it back not to long after when things were around their 09 levels while selling the coins I had that would be considered melt value to put more in.

A lot of them even know are still solid long term buys, the return would just obviously be less with a higher entry cost. Wynn would probably be the exception as it's sitting not that far off from its normal time highs. A lot of the ones mentioned even when they seem to correct going down seem to just go right back up a week or two later.

 

First, I do not work for Merrill. (They work for me.)

Merrill has two types of Investment accounts.

Managed – You have a broker who trades for you and sets up your account needs. You pay fees.

Unmanaged – Self-Directed. You do everything, buy, sell, etc.

With the Self-Directed Account, if the total of all your Merrill accounts combined (Saving, Checking, Equity, and IRA/401k) is over $50,000.00 you can elect to have a “Preferred Account” with no fees for anything. You get some good perks but the best one is you can make up to 100 FREE trades per quarter. You get access to all research and decided your own trades. You do it all online and do not need to talk to anyone. I have been a customer for ten years and have only spoken to an account rep once when there was a small error in a dividend return. You can setup DRIPs, IRA distributions, and bank transfers all online without any personal interaction. It has worked great for me. I do not want to be burdened by corporate bias.
If you go back to Merrill ask for this type of account.

 

Yeah, voice mail there as well, talk about unreachable

 

Might be some decent guys here. Not sure, but 7500.00 of WHAT ? 500K, or 70k ?

Some of the nasdaq fell quickly, tech, but if you had made 30K over the last year it is nothing. Everyones situation is different

 

Think your correct... The Market has been the place too be, and especially now with everything at ridiculous prices. Those that follow the FED, Market, Bonds, etc. know why things are the way they are today... Today being the point, and as long as the FED can continue Propping up the market thru the PPT, Blackrock as their buyer, they will. They are literally transferring ownership of the SP 500 into the FEDS corrupt pockets as we type. All in the name of keeping the economy going at any cost ! It can never falter under the new plans... No more washing out the bad corps. in the SP500, when someone runs into profit problems the FED Sends them millions in 1% loans, buys their junk bonds, and so on. It doesn't end until it finally does and we fall right into a 3rd world nation.

All those in charge will have houses around the world and a jet away from leaving. Amazing just how gullible our people are, our politicians are, and how easily it is to PLAY the American. Make what you can before it all falls apart.

Then again, maybe the FED and Government will just declare a Jubilee and wipe out all the debt. We can have Xanadu forever

 

When you take profits and bring them to the bank, they don't ask if it was from "ridiculous" profits or a deep-value play.

Profits are profits.

Uh.......no.

Uh......no.

And if that takes 50-75 years....you will stay in cash until then ?

The debt is a long-term problem, but so is an asteroid hitting the Earth.

 

Update; I finally heard from my advisor today a week an half later, he told me he was moving and didnt have his phone with him, kind of a poor excuse
I got ahold of his boss and demanded my investment back from the week
they have already assigned another advisor, I was actually going to take it and
move it, but wanted to get back in to the market since its been doing really well
and we like the ease of use with the app, so a complete change over would
be difficult and I would need to do some research first before making the switch.

 

I know I will be firing my acorns if they keep pissing around with my round ups!

 

Fire first and ask questions later...LOL