# To Buy or not to Buy FB stock????



## AquaGangster (May 17, 2016)

Well i am turning 18 and looking to forward to invest to stock market and the amount of information that i have came across is impeccable and unbelievable. I am huge fan of tech stocks and by looking at the tech stocks i look at Facebook and twitter and looking forward to invest in FB stocks,but the recent scenario has left me in complete haze whether to go for it not.Facebook is just starting to find a way to leverage its other products, including Instagram, Whats App, and its own Messenger. These assets are predicted to help the company’s stock prices, only when Facebook monetizes them.

I hope the scenario changes that will help the economy and help me in a great deal.

Source: FB Stocks


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## william the wie (May 17, 2016)

This comment is not specific to Face Book but rather about getting into the stock market in general:

AAII sells lifetime subscriptions and since their average subscriber is in his 40s or older and you are less than 20 it should last you about 60 years. Value Line is the other highly respected advisory service. AAII predates Pearl Harbor and Value Line predates JFK becoming president. Neither one advertises.

Numerous firms offer training wheels accounts. If you have not yet tried one of these accounts I would advise that you do so.

What you are proposing is buyig companies with a firm franchise, not my area so I will close with good luck.


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## boedicca (May 17, 2016)

I would not buy FB stock because I find their business model to be repugnant.

The real question is what is your investment goal?  If you are looking to save and invest for the long term, there are a lot of no load Vanguard funds that are quite well managed.


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## william the wie (May 17, 2016)

boedicca said:


> I would not buy FB stock because I find their business model to be repugnant.
> 
> The real question is what is your investment goal?  If you are looking to save and invest for the long term, there are a lot of no load Vanguard funds that are quite well managed.



Definitely understand your position but the real risk of not finding out the pitfalls when young enough to recover from the learning curve problems is an even bigger problem. I witnessed my father and eldest brother lose their money in the nifty fifty era of the 60s and 70s. Me, I write puts against dividend issues and I am quite happy to have them put to me so I can write calls and collect dividends until they are called away from me. But I doubt a teenager wants to play in royalty trusts, REITs and utilities even if he can make 15-30% cash on cash.


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## DarkFury (May 17, 2016)

*I myself am just glad to see youth take such an interest. 
Bravo young man!
Fury*


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## william the wie (May 18, 2016)

DarkFury said:


> *I myself am just glad to see youth take such an interest.
> Bravo young man!
> Fury*


The one problem I see is the lack of mention of use of a covered put to either reduce cost of acquisition or produce out sized yields.

If FB is a franchise then buy it and say nothing. While I I have not had an SEC proctoscope diving so deep it popped out of my mouth, I have seen the SEC in action, like the OP is just what the doctor ordered for filling up the quota for some SEC investigator. A pump and dump accusation can keep an investigator here in FL instead of auditing the North Slope royalty trust. Being cautious about what you say in the stock market is not just about or even primarily about frontrunners it's about avoiding a car showing up where you live.

Michael Millkin took a deal to keep his dad out of jail. There was no evidence that he did anything illegal and plenty of evidence that some of his clients had.


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## DarkFury (May 18, 2016)

william the wie said:


> DarkFury said:
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*I think the most important thing we could do is tell this young man what we stay OUT of. For me I would say Muni's because that market is about to crash HARD.*


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## william the wie (May 19, 2016)

DarkFury said:


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DarkFury said:


> william the wie said:
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Avoid tax favored accounts set up a not for profit corporation instead. Most places it doesn't cost all that much and as long as your marginal tax rate does not break 15% the restrictions on what you can do reduces your returns more than you can save on taxes. 

FB may generate 15-20% annual returns for the foreseeable future which is quite good but six month out covered puts above or below current  price yield either 19.5% or gets you in at a dip where you can lower your cost of acquisition by writing calls. The downside such as an interest rate hike is of greater importance than upside potential.


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## xband (May 19, 2016)

AquaGangster said:


> Well i am turning 18 and looking to forward to invest to stock market and the amount of information that i have came across is impeccable and unbelievable. I am huge fan of tech stocks and by looking at the tech stocks i look at Facebook and twitter and looking forward to invest in FB stocks,but the recent scenario has left me in complete haze whether to go for it not.Facebook is just starting to find a way to leverage its other products, including Instagram, Whats App, and its own Messenger. These assets are predicted to help the company’s stock prices, only when Facebook monetizes them.
> 
> I hope the scenario changes that will help the economy and help me in a great deal.
> 
> Source: FB Stocks



I won a fortune in the stock market and never put my money where all the money is headed. If everyone is buying FB then I would never consider buying that stock because it is at the top of the market. Buy low and sell high and a fortune can be made in penny stocks but watch out for "pump and dump". I never went to college or read stock market for dummies.


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## william the wie (May 19, 2016)

xband said:


> AquaGangster said:
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> > Well i am turning 18 and looking to forward to invest to stock market and the amount of information that i have came across is impeccable and unbelievable. I am huge fan of tech stocks and by looking at the tech stocks i look at Facebook and twitter and looking forward to invest in FB stocks,but the recent scenario has left me in complete haze whether to go for it not.Facebook is just starting to find a way to leverage its other products, including Instagram, Whats App, and its own Messenger. These assets are predicted to help the company’s stock prices, only when Facebook monetizes them.
> ...



Very good advice. Also make sure your exit strategy is idiot proof because we all become idiots to some degree when the market turns on us.


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## xband (May 19, 2016)

william the wie said:


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Greed got me in trouble more than once in my life and ended up homeless more than once but always bounced back. Playing the stock market is nothing more than a high stakes poker game. Watch business channels and take what they say for a grain of salt, read the business pages examine the graphs in the Wall Street Journal. Watch national news about current events and strike when the iron is hot, jump all in when you think the time is right and jump out when you think the time is right. Take profits and pay capital gains. The most I ever made in the stock market was fifty thousand dollars in one day and I am not and never will be a day trader.


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## william the wie (May 19, 2016)

xband said:


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I am much more cautious than you. I like writing covered options on low Beta issues with a decent dividend yield in case they are put to me. But I find that the higher the option yield the lower the risk. It is kind of like the way short interest acts as a brake on how fast and how far a stock can drop when bad news hits.


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## SYTFE (Jul 2, 2016)

boedicca said:


> I would not buy FB stock because I find their business model to be repugnant.
> 
> The real question is what is your investment goal?  If you are looking to save and invest for the long term, there are a lot of no load Vanguard funds that are quite well managed.



What exactly is so repugnant about their business model?  I personally hate facebook as a platform, can't sand Zuckerberg, so I'd never buy their stock either.  But their business model seems fine....selling adspace.  I really don't see anything wrong with that model, it's perfectly acceptable for a tech/media company.  It's what they all do.  But I am curious to hear your reasoning.

I know Jim Cramer owns FB in his charitable portfolio...and he's a smart guy.  But I know that people are leaving facebook, and it's really just a matter of time before it becomes the next myspace.  People are very fickle and no social network can last forever.  There are much better companies out there with much better moats to invest in.  If I were buying a tech stock, I'd go amazon over FB.


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## boedicca (Jul 2, 2016)

SYTFE said:


> boedicca said:
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What I find repugnant is the extreme violations of privacy and the attempts to dupe users.

In addition, FB censors users whose opinions are not in sync with their progressive agenda, and censors news with its biased "curated" articles.


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## william the wie (Jul 2, 2016)

SYTFE said:


> boedicca said:
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> > I would not buy FB stock because I find their business model to be repugnant.
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Amazon is a retailer, FB is a low content media company why do you consider them comparable simply because they started on line? Sounds like comparing Wal-Mart to an independent TV station since both are sticks and bricks.


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## boedicca (Jul 2, 2016)

william the wie said:


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Amazon sells products to people.  FB sells people as products to advertisers.


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## Zander (Jul 2, 2016)

My advice: 

Do not buy facebook or any other individual stock.  EVER. 

Buy Vanguard's Target Retirement 2060 Fund  (or similar) and add money every month religiously.  Do not worry about daily, weekly, monthly or even annual fluctuations.Just keep buying every month. Don't do any trading whatsoever. Only check the balance once a year at most.  The find automatically adjusts as you age and gives you a perfectly balanced portfolio with exposure to all of the worlds major markets. 

Meanwhile focus on either starting your own company or getting an education that leads to a High paying job as a lawyer, doctor, cpa, etc..  Even then, being an employee should be viewed as a temporary situation until you can learn enough to start your own gig. . Entrepreneurship is the fastest way to wealth. Investing is to preserve wealth, not create it. Otherwise you're just a gambler................


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## SYTFE (Jul 2, 2016)

william the wie said:


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I don't.  They're totally different companies.  But both are in the "tech" category.


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## SYTFE (Jul 2, 2016)

boedicca said:


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Ah.  I see what you're saying, and I agree.  Facebook has been able to monetize _people_, which is kind of an amazing (yet repugnant) accomplishment.


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## SYTFE (Jul 2, 2016)

Zander said:


> My advice:
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> Do not buy facebook or any other individual stock.  EVER.
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Yup.  Or buy an index fund that invests in the S&P 500, which would likely outperform any mutual fund and won't kill your gains with outrageous fees.  I have an index fund, but I also like to speculate in individual stocks.


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## HenryBHough (Jul 2, 2016)

At such a young age take a good hard look at The Vanguard family of funds.  Overall performance is not superstar but on the whole have proved safe and reliable.  Strongest favourable is that their fees are minuscule.  Over the number of years you have ahead to see money grow the seemingly slight difference in fees can amount to tens or hundreds of thousands in end results.  Assuming, of course, you start a regular (dollar cost averaging) program and stay with it paying no attention to temporary market ups and downs.


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## boedicca (Jul 2, 2016)

SYTFE said:


> boedicca said:
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It's repugnant, but not amazing at all.   Authoritarians and power mongers have exploited people for millennia.


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## boedicca (Jul 2, 2016)

HenryBHough said:


> At such a young age take a good hard look at The Vanguard family of funds.  Overall performance is not superstar but on the whole have proved safe and reliable.  Strongest favourable is that their fees are miniscume.  Over the number of years you have ahead to see money grow the seemingly slight difference in fees can amount to tens or hundreds of thousands in end results.  Assuming, of course, you start a regular (dollar cost averaging) program and stay with it paying no attention to temporary market ups and downs.




Agreed.  Vanguard has a wide variety of funds suitable for various ages, investment goals, and risk profiles...and the lack of big fees is quite compelling.  I've had my account for a little over 10 years, and am very happy with it.


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## SYTFE (Jul 2, 2016)

boedicca said:


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Amazing in the sense that they've managed to convince people to allow themselves to be the "content creators" that enables FB to turn a profit.  Amazing that FB has been able to convince people to _voluntarily_ give up huge chunks of their privacy for _a for profit business_.  Amazing that FB has been able to convince other companies to build their business on another man's land.  I am constantly amazed at what FB has been able to accomplish, how they've been able to twist the meaning of 'privacy' and convince people to surrender it in the name of FB's mission of making the world a more 'open' place.  I'm amazed at how far their reach extends, how it's permeated into the consciousness of virtually everyone, become an addiction for many, and spread very much like a virus.

That kind of amazing.


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## william the wie (Jul 2, 2016)

Me, I will continue to speculate with covered options on high flyers like HRML, CAG and BMS. It's just the way I roll.


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## Toddsterpatriot (Jul 2, 2016)

Still confused about the difference between covered options and naked options I see.


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## sjay (Jul 3, 2016)

xband said:


> AquaGangster said:
> 
> 
> > Well i am turning 18 and looking to forward to invest to stock market and the amount of information that i have came across is impeccable and unbelievable. I am huge fan of tech stocks and by looking at the tech stocks i look at Facebook and twitter and looking forward to invest in FB stocks,but the recent scenario has left me in complete haze whether to go for it not.Facebook is just starting to find a way to leverage its other products, including Instagram, Whats App, and its own Messenger. These assets are predicted to help the company’s stock prices, only when Facebook monetizes them.
> ...


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## sjay (Jul 3, 2016)

xband said:


> AquaGangster said:
> 
> 
> > Well i am turning 18 and looking to forward to invest to stock market and the amount of information that i have came across is impeccable and unbelievable. I am huge fan of tech stocks and by looking at the tech stocks i look at Facebook and twitter and looking forward to invest in FB stocks,but the recent scenario has left me in complete haze whether to go for it not.Facebook is just starting to find a way to leverage its other products, including Instagram, Whats App, and its own Messenger. These assets are predicted to help the company’s stock prices, only when Facebook monetizes them.
> ...


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## james bond (Jul 22, 2016)

I started with individual stocks and a broker, but eventually didn't like the broker because his recommendations clashed with my interests and what I wanted to buy.  Afterward, I moved to Charles Schwab and managed my own account.  Next, I found Bob Brinker and followed his advice on no-load mutual funds.  I think his newsletter and listening to him is a great way to start, i.e. build up a foundation and knowledge base first.  Once, you start to make more money, then you can do the riskier/more reward trades like some of those in the hi-tech industry.


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## james bond (Jul 22, 2016)

SYTFE said:


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It IS amazing the lengths they go through to get this info.  We read these scandalous stories about FB and other social media in the news, but the internet isn't exactly a safe haven and now with mobile devices where do people keep their private information?  Hard drives you have to physically destroy to make sure the data is gone.  I'm more of a Twitter user than FB.


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