Member Introductions

A simple question

alfredholzheu — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:21:41 GMT

I am a small business owner (an upscale Supermarket) in the Santa Ynez Valley (the home of the that incredibly stupid movie "Sideways") and have been reading John's newsletter "for free, thankyou John" for the past year. Truth and reality are a nice change to the general stupidity of the official business press. But I have a question that no financial guru of any sort has been able to clear up for me. Why is the stock market considered an investment. Bets on the table at the local Chumash Indian Casino can yield an "investment" return, but is it an investment. When I spent $50K on a sushi bar in my business, I was banking on a return that depended on attracting new customers who would by a product for more than its cost to produce, ie. we added value to the fish and rice that we bought. In what way is that part of an investment in a stock that does not at least pay dividends, why is our country so focused on this illusory metric. For the most part, except for the IPO market or expansion fueled by equity, companies can not even benefit by the movement of the stock market. I just don't get it, from a real perspective.

Alfred Holzheu

Howdy!

JCHarper — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:21:23 GMT

This is a relatively new discussion site so I'll just introduce myself and lurk until I get the feel of the place. If it rises to the quality of Mauldin's comment and letters, it will be a fine board.

I chose to use my real name for an ID because anonymity tends to encourage irresponsible posters and provocative rhetoric. I posted for several years on the Yahoo! message boards as TwoHoot920 and, more recently, on the Investor Village boards as TwoHoot. Anyone interested can do a simple search and see the things that interest me in the markets.

I earned BS and MS degrees from Texas A&M University in the 60s. I have been in and around the markets since 1974 when I got a CFTC ticket as a retail commodity broker. I retired in 1987 and have done nothing but manage my own (and no one else's) money since then.

A number of friends and relatives sometimes ask my opinion about the markets since they know I am actively involved. To answer those questions all at once, I maintain a personal website at http://www.jcharper.net. It is for fun and for free - I am not buying or selling anything.

Introduce yourself

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:43:00 GMT

Hello everbody!

I just signed up to the forum. I hope this will be a good medium to have an intelligent discussion. I thought I'd make an introduction thread so new members can introduce themselves.

As for me, I graduated from college recently with a CS major. I have been trading actively for the past 4 years, and trade full time now. I currently manage money professionally for a few clients. I have been reading Mr.Mauldin's writings for atleast a year now and value his insight tremendously.

I specialize mostly on big caps and trade a variety of equity/index futures options strategies around my views. Have fun, and welcome!

- RJ