Some of my portfolio consists of:
VTI, VOO, VXUS (Vanguard ETFs)
AMZN (Amazon)
GD (General Dynamics - Defense)
NFLX (Netflix)
V (Visa)
STZ (Constellation Brands - wine, spirits, etc)
FB (Facebook)
SBUX (Starbucks)
PANX (Palo Alto Networks - high risk high reward)
APPL (Apple)
NKE (Nike)
LMT (Lockheed Martin)
Thinking about buying some Boeing - they just won a lot of contracts at the Paris Air Show and lots of jets will be replaced in the next 10 years. Lots of MD-80 through MD-90 fuel hogs and the new planes with the lighter weight materials in the coming years will pay for themselves very quickly over the old models.
Really wish I had about $10k to throw at AMZN back in 2008 when I first thought they were going to take over the world, which I still think. It'd be worth $125k now. But I was a poor college student, so....
Can any of you guys tell me about expected returns?
I'd like to start doing some trading and even considering daytrading? I've got a good amount of cash sitting around doing nothing but I haven't the slightest idea as to where/how to get started.
Currently I'm working on some bitcoin/ethereum web projects and it's just got me back in the mode of thinking about finally investing into some stocks.
So I guess my questions would be (1) how much capital do I need to invest to actually make real money? (2) I'm fairly young and I'm open to risk, I'm young and the only debt I have is student loans and modest condo back in Waikiki; (3) what should I be looking at doing and where/how do I get started?
If you're going to day trade, that has to be your full time job.
Keep in mind if you buy and sell a stock within a 1 year time span, you're paying full tax on whatever your gains are, vs. 15% tax on your gains if you sell it after owning it 1+ year.
I would recommend investing in companies that you feel will have tremendous growth long term, and putting the money in them for at least 5 years. If you want to make a ton of money quickly, you really have to get quite lucky. If 5 years ago you used Netflix and said, "wow, this is going to blow up in the future, and start shutting down the cable companies, everyone will have it in 5-10 years" and bought $10k worth of NFLX stock, it'd be worth $160k now. Same thing with the AMZN deal, which I think still has a ton of long term growth and have more money in it than any of my other stocks. Nvidia has had similar growth since they make a lot of the VR chips.
I would think with you being so into tech, you may be able to see things like this better than most for predicting the next Netflix, VR headset provider, etc. Maybe you have a 3D printer company to recommend??
Personally, I've had some winners and some losers, just like anyone. In the future I'm planning to go with limited individual stocks and more in the Vanguard ETFs. If you pick ETFs or mutual funds, Vanguard is one of the best as they have the lowest expense ratio (basically a yearly fee on your holdings which pays for them to pay professionals to manage the funds). VTI has an expense ratio of 0.04%... which means if you have $100k in the fund, you pay $40 a year to have it professionally managed. Compare this to a broker picking individual stocks for you.... probably is a $50 a year fee plus $30-50 a trade (may do 20 trades a year... $1k to manage).
At the end of the day,
@Ob1 has it right, IMO. Put most of your money into index funds (which will mostly follow the market)... if you just follow the S&P 500, you'll average 9-10% a year over the course of say 15 years. You can pick a few stocks if you want, that you think will continue to grow over the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years (for me, Amazon, Netflix, Facebook are all 5+ year holds). Some people say FANG stocks are the way to go (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google)... or FAANNG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Nivida, Netflix, Google).
Personally I think defense stocks are a good pick during a Trump presidency. The company that makes the cruise missiles, Raytheon, is up 22% since Trump's win in November.
I haven't looked enough into Costco. I do however agree that the whole amazon thing is an iteration fear. People can't be buying all of their groceries through a website. So Kroger, Costco, Walmart etc. are probably all buys right now.
Also Footlocker is another super under-valued stock I looked into recently. Definitely thinking about exposing myself to a portion it.
EDIT: the more I think about groceries delivered to the doorstep the more wet I get. This could be a fucking brilliant business plan. Has anyone tried to take this on yet? A website where you pick everything you want, they deliver and unload it, after you've already paid online.
Could honestly be something here.
Absolutely no way I'm touching any of those except perhaps Costco, but even them, not more than a couple years. Amazon just signed a huge deal with Nike. Footlocker will be dead in 5 years, like most brick and mortar.
Amazon bought Whole Foods to learn the grocery game. They aren't planning to deliver groceries to my knowledge (to answer your question re: delivery, there's at least one app that does that, Shipt). They already have a crazy grocery concept going, where there are no checkout lanes. I forget the exact details, but essentially you go and shop, and when you exit the store, everything in your cart is scanned (RFID?) and charged to your credit card. Buying Whole Foods gives them more data and lots of buildings already standing where they just have to implement their technology. At worst, they have a successful grocery brand that they can re-sell. At best, their tech takes off and they can build more "normal" (aka not so expensive) grocery stores to compete with Kroger, etc.
Amazon is just on some next level shit. Bezos is a crazy and ruthless man. Brick and mortar is going to be blimps in the sky if Amazon has their way. 30 minute shipping. A giant blimp sits above every metro area (multiple blimps in some perhaps) and drones just fly back and forth to grab your orders. Meanwhile other drones refill the blimp shelves. Obviously some items can't sit in a blimp, but they want to put lots of items up there where people may want it in 30 minutes.
I'm actually worried that we'll be seeing the elimination of a lot of jobs very quickly due to Amazon, but I might as well make some money off of their success. If they have their way, cashiers will be a thing of the past.
And who's going to go to Footlocker when you can buy your Nike's from the blimp, have a drone deliver them, try them on, and if you don't like them, the drone comes back, returns to blimp, and gives you a different pair (if wrong size or something)?