Need info for current value of historic stock purchases

[Patler]

In the past I knew of a website that would give current value of historical stock investments.
For example, you could enter some of the following and it would calculate the others:

Investment amount____ or # shares purchased____

Date of investment ____

Stock Symbol ____

Current Value ____

It would factor in splits, dividends, etc. It was kind of fun to play with, figuring what a $100 investment in Apple 20 years ago would be worth today, etc.

Anyone know of a similar site now?

[mraynrand]

It would factor in splits, dividends, etc. It was kind of fun to play with, figuring what a $100 investment in Apple 20 years ago would be worth today, etc. Anyone know of a similar site now?

Hey I know the answer to the Apple question, because I just cashed in all my shares. I'd help you in your quest, but I just purchased an 8,000 acre ranch/estate in Montana with the profits and am heading there for several weeks. Maybe when I get back....

[retailguy]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/krantz/2010-05-03-historical-stock-price_N.htm

[swede]

In the past I knew of a website that would give current value of historical stock investments.
For example, you could enter some of the following and it would calculate the others:

Investment amount____ or # shares purchased____

Date of investment ____

Stock Symbol ____

Current Value ____

It would factor in splits, dividends, etc. It was kind of fun to play with, figuring what a $100 investment in Apple 20 years ago would be worth today, etc.

Anyone know of a similar site now?

The guy with the time machine took that site down.

[mraynrand]

The guy with the time machine took that site down.


http://www.emergiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/timemachine.jpg

[Patler]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/krantz/2010-05-03-historical-stock-price_N.htm

Thanks retailguy. I think that just gives the stock price as of a date in the past. I have found that info on a number of sites, including a company's own site for most of them. But if you want to look at current value of a theoretical investment on that earlier date, you have to independently factor in splits, dividends, etc. I am hoping to find a calculator that does that automatically, at least for splits.

[Bretsky]

Patler,

You been dabbling into stocks recently ? What are you browsing at ? Remember when we were chatting about GE in the seven to nine range ? I think you jumped and I put money into Applied Materials (good one) and Bank of American (haven't made much there) instead.

Yesterday I saw Cramer recommending DD; I have little knowledge of the stock but it was easy to remember cause it's D Driver's initials

[Patler]

Patler,

You been dabbling into stocks recently ? What are you browsing at ? Remember when we were chatting about GE in the seven to nine range ? I think you jumped and I put money into Applied Materials (good one) and Bank of American (haven't made much there) instead.

Yesterday I saw Cramer recommending DD; I have little knowledge of the stock but it was easy to remember cause it's D Driver's initials

Bretsky;

I almost bought DD back when I bought GE, and have thought about it several times since, but never have.

Yup, stocks are my new hobby. I buy and sell routinely. It started with some "found money" in 2008. After years and years of litigation on behalf of employees of a defunct company, I received it from their mishandling of a 401K account. It was the depth of the stock market fall, I had money I never expected to have, and I figured some of the old blue-chip stalwarts would have to recover. Seemed like an ideal time to start dabbling. My first purchase was a couple hundred shares of GE at $9+ in Feb. '09. I bought more just under $7 in March '09. I was very familiar with GE and figured they would be safe, even if a bit slow to recover. They were in the high $19s about a year ago, then declined and I sold at $18.00 last May. No great call on my part, there were many, many other stocks of solid companies that did better during that time.

The rest of what I started with I used to buy and sell very actively, mostly small caps. Blind dumb luck had me in two different stocks that had huge overnight gains due to unexpected tender offers. A couple others I rode up to huge gains, got greedy, and rode them right back down to very moderate gains just a couple days later!

Over all I have done well, but the market has increased so much the last couple years that I don't think making money was all that difficult.

I've dabbled with stocks of Chinese companies and have lost every time. I'm beginning to think their information that we see is just too unreliable. I won't buy any more right now.

My hobby has grown to the point that I have divided it into a long term portion, and an active trading portion that is mostly small caps, but not completely. Two of my long term holdings right now are AAPL and CAT. My goal with the active portion is to find stocks that I can make 5-10% over a few months time. I don't buy much of any one company, so my really stupid decisions haven't hurt too badly! I probably make about 3 or 4 trades a month with the active portion.

I've learned a lot about my own shortcomings and the market.
I haven't yet dabbled in options, but that is my next venture, probably in the next few months.

[swede]

Sound fun, Patler. It's like playing a game in which money is how you keep score.

[Patler]

Sound fun, Patler. It's like playing a game in which money is how you keep score.

:lol: Ya, it sort of is. When its money you never expected to have, you don't worry too much about it.

[Bretsky]

Patler...how is the trading going ? If in your research you run into the next great forecasted technology plz share that info so I can read about it.

I've made a nice watchlist tonight of technology stocks (that is my interest) with high upside that includes NTAP, BRCM, EMC, GOOG, VMN, MU, BIDU, and LPSN. Many are richly priced so I'm hoping for a fallback. Most I look at are the high upside, high reward

[Scott Campbell]

My goal with the active portion is to find stocks that I can make 5-10% over a few months time.


Well, at least transaction feels have gone down for traders.

Short terms is way too unpredictable for me. Too many variables. Long term is much easier. It's all about earnings.

[Scott Campbell]

:lol: Ya, it sort of is. When its money you never expected to have, you don't worry too much about it.


I think some of the brokerage websites let you set up simulated accounts where people can make trades with funny money just to see how they do. I think some schools will hold contests with those.

[Bretsky]

Well, at least transaction feels have gone down for traders.

Short terms is way too unpredictable for me. Too many variables. Long term is much easier. It's all about earnings.

Scott

Are you more into growth or undervalued stocks ? Large or Small Cap ? Do you focus on any specific sectors ? Curiuous what avenues of research others use.
Any hot tips ?

[MadtownPacker]

I would recommend investing in agriculture.

http://www.chilliwacktoday.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/marijuana-crop.jpg

[Bretsky]

Mad....your a CAL dude

What's the latest and greatest in the technology revolution ?? The Cloud ? Something else ? Give me some juice to research. I think I might have missed the Cloud stocks by a year and now I'm wondering what's next

[Scott Campbell]

Scott

Are you more into growth or undervalued stocks ? Large or Small Cap ? Do you focus on any specific sectors ? Curiuous what avenues of research others use.
Any hot tips ?


I'm heavy on cash right now, and it's partly because I'm lazy. I don't even follow my core investing beliefs that much anymore. I'm in mutual funds and a couple of companies that I know really well because I used to work there. I was Warren Buffet'esque in the 90's, and Homer Simpson'esque in the 00's. But I'm also in a different phase of my life now. I'm big on preservation these days. I don't need to make a killing anymore.

I don't know that I have any great advice - except maybe listen to RG.

[Scott Campbell]

I kinda miss Partial for this stuff. He heard about new technology before most of the rest of us.

[swede]

The Cloud is a technology advance that leaves me not even knowing wtf it is. The only tiny clue I get is that it may be either software or a web-based ap that integrates personal technology use. Is that close?

[Bretsky]

The Cloud is a technology advance that leaves me not even knowing wtf it is. The only tiny clue I get is that it may be either software or a web-based ap that integrates personal technology use. Is that close?


Yes, and to be honest if we'd have invested 5G into the main stock beneffiting from that technology VMW ....we'd have did very well over the past couple of years

[Bretsky]

I kinda miss Partial for this stuff. He heard about new technology before most of the rest of us.


Myself as well. I occasionally keep in touch with him via facebook. He's a big Apple guy; hard to argue against that but it's trading at an insane price already. He also likes AHRMY but admitted he's not up to date on the cutting edge stuff right now

[Patler]

Patler...how is the trading going ? If in your research you run into the next great forecasted technology plz share that info so I can read about it.

I've made a nice watchlist tonight of technology stocks (that is my interest) with high upside that includes NTAP, BRCM, EMC, GOOG, VMN, MU, BIDU, and LPSN. Many are richly priced so I'm hoping for a fallback. Most I look at are the high upside, high reward

Apple is my biggest holding tight now. I keep looking for a company in a new technology, something that I think has break through possibilities; but I haven't found one yet that i was willing to put much money into.

[Patler]

Myself as well. I occasionally keep in touch with him via facebook. He's a big Apple guy; hard to argue against that but it's trading at an insane price already. He also likes AHRMY but admitted he's not up to date on the cutting edge stuff right now

I don't think Apple is trading at a high price. If you look at the price against forward earnings, it is quite low. One analyst wrote a compelling article that at this price the executives might be breaching their fiduciary duty to the company if they don't buy back a big chunk of the stock.. Based on projected earnings, many say it should be selling at $450 or more.

[Patler]

Well, at least transaction feels have gone down for traders.

Short terms is way too unpredictable for me. Too many variables. Long term is much easier. It's all about earnings.

Short term is all about earnings too. I look for companies with a significant positive earnings surprise in their last quarterly, with increased forward guidance, which leads to analyst upgrades. If you get it early enough, you can usually pick up a few points if the market is stable. If they have a decent positive earnings surprise the next quarter you can sometimes get a total 20-30% gain from a small cap that was undervalued initially.

To be sure, I am wrong as much as I am right on which to buy, but I limit my losses to 10% with stop loss orders and my overall return has been decent so far.

My biggest weakness is knowing when to sell stocks that have had good runs before their next earnings report. An example:

I bought RRGB at $24.01 after a good quarterly report in Feb. It had a nice run up leading into its next report. I got cold feet because I had had several that followed the same scenario, had reports that beat projections, but their share prices dropped non-the less for no apparent reasons. Analysts call it "priced for perfection." So:

I sold half on 5/18 at 28.54 the day before their next report. A nice gain, to be sure, but they absolutely knocked it out of the park with their next report and shares jumped to $35 the very next day after their report.

I sold the rest on 5/25 at $34.92 after it started to drift lower, thinking that the jump wouldn't hold. Now analysts are issuing glowing reports, with predictions of $45/share near term, and I hold 0 shares. I made a nice profit, to be sure; but it could have been oh so much better!

On the flip side, I have had several others in the same situation, with nice gains (10% or so) leading into their report, a very good report, and the stocks drop right back to what I paid. So not wanting to lose all of my gains, I got cautious with RRGB and it cost me a lot of money.

But, you should never regret selling for a profit, regardless of what happens after you sell.

[Patler]

For what its worth, the last 3 days brutalized my portfolio, but I am trying not to panic at this point. I had a couple stocks that I planned to sell, but was busy this week and didn't pull the trigger on them. Several got hit for 10% losses from Wednesday to Friday. I need to make some decisions today on how I will approach the early days next week.

[Scott Campbell]

The Cloud is a technology advance that leaves me not even knowing wtf it is. The only tiny clue I get is that it may be either software or a web-based ap that integrates personal technology use. Is that close?


Not exactly. I think businesses are bigger users.

[Scott Campbell]

Short term is all about earnings too.


For the most part I don't agree. Lots of other variables affect stock prices short term, and contribute to volatility. Most traders like the volatility. More than likely you suffered this week because of those other variables (disappointing jobs and housing reports), and not an earnings release or change to guidance. Investors tend to just dismiss this sort of short term volatility unless it impacts underlying fundamentals.

[Patler]

For the most part I don't agree. Lots of other variables affect stock prices short term, and contribute to volatility. Most traders like the volatility. More than likely you suffered this week because of those other variables (disappointing jobs and housing reports), and not an earnings release or change to guidance. Investors tend to just dismiss this sort of short term volatility unless it impacts underlying fundamentals.

Sure, that's true for the market as a whole regardless. My long term portfolio suffered as badly.

The reason I am not panicing after last week with either my long term or short term picks is because I believe my picks were good and will recover because they had solid earnings reports and are expected to again. But my objective with the actively traded portion is to find underpriced stocks that will have fairly short term bounces because of their financials, not because of investors emotions. Not a single one of my picks was based on emotional factors, they were all picked because of reported earnings or improved future earning guidance from the company.

I'm not talking about day trading. Basically I am trying to make money through one reporting period time frame, 3months, like my example with RRGB. Some I have held for over 6 months and longer, a couple I have gotten out of much sooner for both good and bad results. When the market punishes companies emotionally, you just have to hold them longer, which is what I will probably do with several. The worst thing I could do would be to dump stock in a good company just because of last week. Chances are that a good company's stock will recover when emotions get out of the way. It's happened for me several times.

[MadtownPacker]

I kinda miss Partial for this stuff. He heard about new technology before most of the rest of us.
I think a pardon should be issued. What you MFers think?

[mraynrand]

I think a pardon should be issued. What you MFers think?

I said a long time ago I thought Partial and Bigguns shouldn't have been banned. Too many crybabies had too thin skins. They'll never come back anyway - the action is too engaging over at the "Sportsbubbler"

[Scott Campbell]

I think a pardon should be issued. What you MFers think?


Only if he reached his goal weight.

[Scott Campbell]

Sure, that's true for the market as a whole regardless. My long term portfolio suffered as badly.

The reason I am not panicing after last week with either my long term or short term picks is because I believe my picks were good and will recover because they had solid earnings reports and are expected to again. But my objective with the actively traded portion is to find underpriced stocks that will have fairly short term bounces because of their financials, not because of investors emotions. Not a single one of my picks was based on emotional factors, they were all picked because of reported earnings or improved future earning guidance from the company.

I'm not talking about day trading. Basically I am trying to make money through one reporting period time frame, 3months, like my example with RRGB. Some I have held for over 6 months and longer, a couple I have gotten out of much sooner for both good and bad results. When the market punishes companies emotionally, you just have to hold them longer, which is what I will probably do with several. The worst thing I could do would be to dump stock in a good company just because of last week. Chances are that a good company's stock will recover when emotions get out of the way. It's happened for me several times.


Ok, I think I get it.

What caused you to get out of GE?

[Patler]

Ok, I think I get it.

What caused you to get out of GE?

It had climbed steadily to near $20, then had some weaker quarters, and gave lowered forward guidance in one of them. I had doubled my money so there didn't seem a reason to stay in at that time. In short, I wouldn't have been tempted to buy at that time, so it seemed to be a good time to lock in the profit.

Turned out it was a good decision as it continued on down to near $14. I almost bought back in when it did. Their bumps up on dividends are also interesting, both for their value and what it might do for their stock price. They are on my watch list to buy again.