NVDA & AAPL

[Sandman11154]

I bought into Apple a couple of days before the last stock split. Had a muni bond come due earlier then expected unfortunately, so had $25K just sitting in my brokerage account with no where to put it. Someone mentioned Apple since it was due to split any day now and since all my tech products are Apple, decided to purchase 50 shares. Once the split happened, ended up with 200 shares and they've now become part of my long term holdings. Am pretty much invested in a few REITS, so didn't want to put more funds into those holdings. Have always been a dividend investor and have been saving for a new vehicle as my current one is now 10 years old.
But since there's nothing out there I really have to have & my current vehicle is running fine, decided to take some of my excess funds and invest in Nvidia. Bought 50 shares Monday and plan to keep it also as another long time investment. Don't really understand the whole "A I" thing, hate to invest in something I don't understand, but took a chance here to see what the fuss is all about. A good friend of mine is a growth investor and also encouraged me to take a small position also. Just hoping I did the right thing here. Would appreciate any feedback from the group here.

[Wiggums]

This is not a stock pickers forum.

We hold the three fund portfolio and treasuries

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio

[Normchad]

The key to “Buy high, sell low” is to buy high in the first place.

No, you shouldn’t do this. Spend some time reading the wiki and the forums. Educate yourself on this stuff, and then determine a long term plan for *you* that meets *your* needs.

Whipsawimg from one hot stock to the next is a sure path to avoiding wealth creation. Where are those JDSU folks?

[steadyosmosis]

I prefer VTI myself.
Single-stock risk is one I can easily avoid.
And since you've been reading here for more than nine years ...

[aristotelian]

You can buy diversified index funds with essentially the same expected return but with much less risk. Not sure why you would do this but good luck.

[BogleMelon]

Why you are "dividend investor" when there is nothing really special about dividends.
Why you are trying to find the needle in the haystack rather than buying the haystack? Did you know what experts say about individual stocks vs. mutual funds? if not, look at this collection:
viewtopic.php?t=157391

Alpha Architect: "Between 1983 and 2006, around 73% of firms had a drawdown larger than 50% (the S&P 500’s maximum drawdown during this period was around 44%). Holding one individual stock can be very risky!"

Barber and Odean Study: "Of 66,465 households with accounts at a large discount broker during 1991 to 1996, those that trade most earned an annual return of 11.4 percent, while the market returned 17.9 percent."

Michael Batnick, CFA: "Ordinary investors would be well served if they thought for a second about who they were transacting with. Over 90% of today’s volume is done by institutions, so chances are that your counter-party has done their homework."

Brett Arends, Wall Street Journal columnist: "Buy individual stocks only as a gamble."

Benjamin Graham: "I have little confidence, even in the ability of analysts, let alone untrained investors, to select common stocks what will give better than average results."

Bill Bernstein, author of The Four Pillars of Investing: "Picking individual stocks is like volleying with the Williams sisters."

Jack Bogle: "Attempting to build an investment program around a handful of individual securities is, for all but the most exceptional investors, a fool's errand."

Adam Bold, author, adviser: "Mutual funds don't have the pizzazz of the hot stocks of the moment. If you're looking for entertainment, go gambling in Las Vegas. But if you want to accumulate real money for your retirement and other goals, mutual funds are the safer bet."

Warren Buffett: “I don’t think most people are in a position to pick single stocks.”

James Dahle, MD, financial advisor, and author of The White-Coat Investor: “Think you know how to pick stocks? Then guess again. Every time you buy or sell the person on the other side of the trade likely has an IQ of 160, spends 70 hours per week analyzing his industry, and has access to computing power and databases you can only dream of.”

Dalbar Research Report (July 15, 2003): "The average equity investor earned a paltry 2.57% annually; compared to inflation of 3.14% and the 12.22% the S & P 500 index earned annually for the last 19 years."

Charles Ellis author of Winning the Loser's Game: "If you, like Walter Mitty, still fantasize that you can and will beat the pros, you'll need both luck and prayer."

Evanson Asset Management: "Unfortunately, stock trading is a form of gambling and has the same outcome."

Kenneth French: Former President of the American Finance Association: "The market is smarter than we are and no matter how smart we get, the market will always be smarter than we are."

Sy Harding, Forbes contributor: "My advice – avoid individual stocks! Even experienced full-time professional money managers, with staffs of trained people performing research, with access to data, software, and corporate contacts that most part-time investors could not come close to duplicating, struggle to match the market’s performance by buying, holding, or selling individual stocks."

Danial Kahneman, Nobel Laureate: "There is general agreement among researchers that nearly all stock pickers, whether they know it or not-and few of them do-are playing a game of chance."

Kiplinger Personal Finance “Eight Stocks to Buy Now” in the January, 2015 forecast issue under-performed its “Five Stocks to Sell” twelve months later.

Michael Lewis, former bond broker and financial journalist: "A vast industry of stockbrokers, financial planners, and investment advisers skims a fortune for themselves off the top in exchange for passing their clients' money on to people who, as a whole, cannot possibly outperform the market."

Mathwizard: The vast majority of trades you would make are between you and a professional investor. Both of you are assigning a value to the stock, and one of you thnks the price is high and another thinks it is low. Who do you suppose is more likely to be right.

Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's partner: "Teaching young people to actively trade stocks is like starting them on heroin."

Mike Piper, CPA, Financial Author: "Don’t invest in any individual stocks unless you can honestly state that you know something the market doesn’t. (And don’t underestimate the depth and breadth of the market’s knowledge.)"

Standard & Poor's: When the S&P 500 index was officially formed in 1957 to its 50th anniversary in 2007, only 86 of the original 500 companies still remained.

Larry Swedroe, author of many financial books: "Owning individual stocks and sector funds is more akin to speculating, not investing."

David Swensen, Chief Investment Officer of Yale University: "There's no way that spending a few hours a week looking at individual securities is going to equip an investor to compete with the incredibly talented, highly qualified, extremely educated individuals who spend their entire professional careers trying to pick stocks."

Eric Tyson, author of Mutual Funds for Dummies: The notion that most average people and non-investment professionals can, with minimal effort, beat the best full-time, experienced money managers is, how should I say, ludicrous and absurd."

[Sandman11154]

I'm already in both Fidelity & Vanguard funds, with about $300K in Fidelity right now. I have mutual funds in my IRA's there plus a 401K through Enterprise. I just like monthly dividends so once I do retire again, I'll still have income coming in besides my government pension and my social security. Once we both retire, the goal is to live off our pension & social security and watch our portfolio grow. Right now, we're both too young to take any RMD's. I know we don't have to, but we'll leave our kids a nice inheritance as we've always lived below our means and have taught them the same thing. With my vehicle being ten now and having just about 78.5K miles, plan on replacing it within a year or two. Her's is a 2023 model so no issues there.

[Rocinante Rider]

Anytime you buy individual stocks you're taking on avoidable unsystematic risk. Maybe you'll be lucky, but you are being undeniably risky. If you believe that you can beat the market and you're comfortable assuming unnecessary additional risk and potentially greater losses, then you really don't need feedback from a forum filled mostly with people who pursue market returns with only systematic risk.

[an_asker]

OP, for what it's worth, both are worth holding for the long term.

Like others have piped in, most likely not a good idea to buy them as your main retirement fund. But if this is part of your 5% fun portfolio, I really don't see anything wrong with it. I have both AAPL and NVDA in my fun portfolio but - do not laugh - my NVDA holding is a single (O N E) share lol. AAPL also was originally a single share but I think it has split since then

PS: asking me why I hold a single share would be like asking a climber why he/she climb peaks. Just for the thrill of it I guess.

[MrJones]

Someone mentioned Apple since it was due to split any day now and since all my tech products are Apple, decided to purchase 50 shares.

You bought an individual stock because:
- someone mentioned it
- you have an iPhone
- because the stock was about to split

If this is a troll, it's a very smooth troll, great job, congrats. If not, the above would easily make the "worst reasons to buy individual stock" list.

I suppose you made a killing in that split?

[Hacksawdave]

Whipsawimg from one hot stock to the next is a sure path to avoiding wealth creation. Where are those JDSU folks?

The JDSU folks who bought JDSU at $242 a share back in 1999-2000 when gold futures were at $240 are now buying $2,800 gold……

[Hot Sauce]

Someone mentioned Apple since it was due to split any day now and since all my tech products are Apple, decided to purchase 50 shares.

You bought an individual stock because:
- someone mentioned it
- you have an iPhone
- because the stock was about to split

If this is a troll, it's a very smooth troll, great job, congrats. If not, the above would easily make the "worst reasons to buy individual stock" list.

I suppose you made a killing in that split?

Yup… 4-to-1= 400% return! Woohoo, lol

[watchnerd]

Top signal.

People buying NVDA for 'AI reasons' and admit they don't even know what AI is.

[random_walker_77]

Don't buy individual stocks. If you've bought the total stock market index (such as VTI), then about 6% of your money is already in each of Apple and Nvidia. That's 12% in just 2 stocks. You weren't missing out on apple and nvidia. Again, if you already own the market index, these were already your two largest holdings.

Since you weren't missing out, why are you doing it? Presumably, you're making additional bets on individual stocks for the reason everyone else does: to increase returns by beating the overall market. Outperforming the market is difficult. Don't try to beat the market.

[Rocinante Rider]

Outperforming the market is difficult.

I agree with everything you said, but I'd add that it's mathematically impossible, not merely difficult, for the average returns of actively managed portfolios to outperform an index fund in the same market.
https://web.stanford.edu/~wfsharpe/art/ ... active.htm

Individuals who pick their own stocks without paying fees to "advisors" or salespeople at least avoid the expenses of paying an active manager, but the odds are still stacked way against them. Only 2-4% of stocks account for the market's return in excess of treasury bills. One has to be very informed, incredibly lucky, and willing to take on significant risk to find those needles in the haystack. Most investors who buy individual stocks will underperform the market.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... ry%20bills.

[dogagility]

I wouldn't invest in any single company stock. My advice is for you to do the same, unless you don't mind the higher risk of a permanent loss of money.

[FootballFan5548]

Top signal.

People buying NVDA for 'AI reasons' and admit they don't even know what AI is.

Thank you for this post. I was honestly considering buying NVDA this morning.... FOMO and all that. Instead i went and looked at my VTI and SPY holdings of which NVDA is 6%, did the quick math, and i'm happy with my exposure to NVDA overall. no need to add more

[Parkinglotracer]

Some people enjoy researching stocks and consider joining investment Clubs. www.betterinvesting.org is a great place to learn how to evaluate stocks to invest in.

I used to be a member of a club and learned a lot. I have about 10 stocks that are 12% of my portfolio. It is fun to watch how they do. The rest of the 53% of my portfolio in equities is in VTI and VXUS.

Jensen Huang the CEO of Nvidia may be one of if not the most successful businessman in American history. I’d at least buy 1 share. I bought 20 shares a few years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jensen_Huang

[Sandman11154]

Do have some extra funds to invest. So, is investing in VTI a good investment right now? Thanks for all the comments up to now. They've been quite helpful.

[chassis]

I bought into Apple a couple of days before the last stock split. Had a muni bond come due earlier then expected unfortunately, so had $25K just sitting in my brokerage account with no where to put it. Someone mentioned Apple since it was due to split any day now and since all my tech products are Apple, decided to purchase 50 shares. Once the split happened, ended up with 200 shares and they've now become part of my long term holdings. Am pretty much invested in a few REITS, so didn't want to put more funds into those holdings. Have always been a dividend investor and have been saving for a new vehicle as my current one is now 10 years old.
But since there's nothing out there I really have to have & my current vehicle is running fine, decided to take some of my excess funds and invest in Nvidia. Bought 50 shares Monday and plan to keep it also as another long time investment. Don't really understand the whole "A I" thing, hate to invest in something I don't understand, but took a chance here to see what the fuss is all about. A good friend of mine is a growth investor and also encouraged me to take a small position also. Just hoping I did the right thing here. Would appreciate any feedback from the group here.

Good individual stock choices. Holding individual equities is applauded and encouraged.

[watchnerd]

Do have some extra funds to invest. So, is investing in VTI a good investment right now? Thanks for all the comments up to now. They've been quite helpful.

If you don't need to touch the money for 10+ years, sure.

If you want to access the money in <5 years, less so.

[dogagility]

Jensen Huang the CEO of Nvidia may be one of if not the most successful businessman in American history. I’d at least buy 1 share. I bought 20 shares a few years ago.

I'm sure I own several NVDA and AAPL shares through an index fund. It's satisfying to me knowing that I don't have to pick stocks, yet I own all of the winners.

[HooCares]

Jensen Huang the CEO of Nvidia may be one of if not the most successful businessman in American history. I’d at least buy 1 share. I bought 20 shares a few years ago.

I'm sure I own several NVDA and AAPL shares through an index fund. It's satisfying to me knowing that I don't have to pick stocks, yet I own all of the winners.

And you own dozens of losers for every winner. Fortunately the limited winners have been able to overcome the drag of the 1000s of losers.

[watchnerd]

I'm sure I own several NVDA and AAPL shares through an index fund. It's satisfying to me knowing that I don't have to pick stocks, yet I own all of the winners.

And you own dozens of losers for every winner. Fortunately the limited winners have been able to overcome the drag of the 1000s of losers.

Historically, the big gains of the stock market have been driven by a tiny sliver (something like the top 2%) of stocks.

The rest just keep up with inflation.

[dukeblue219]

OP, I'd suggest you read your own post as though it were from a friend and consider how you would respond. Does it sound like a good plan?

[HooCares]

And you own dozens of losers for every winner. Fortunately the limited winners have been able to overcome the drag of the 1000s of losers.

Historically, the big gains of the stock market have been driven by a tiny sliver (something like the top 2%) of stocks.

The rest just keep up with inflation.

I believe the stat it is 4% of US stocks have driven all the gains of the stock market beyond the short term treasury rate. So the rest of stocks have delivered treasury returns with certainly not treasury safety.

[watchnerd]

Historically, the big gains of the stock market have been driven by a tiny sliver (something like the top 2%) of stocks.

The rest just keep up with inflation.

I believe the stat it is 4% of US stocks have driven all the gains of the stock market beyond the short term treasury rate. So the rest of stocks have delivered treasury returns with certainly not treasury safety.

Thanks!

So don't buy the bottom 96%.

[angelescrest]

Sounds like you’re investing on instinct, and it’s concerning that you’re investing in something that you don’t understand. As mentioned earlier, this is the wrong place to discuss stock picking. Read the boglehead wikis and understand the purpose of this forum, and how index funds work. VTI would be a great investment, and ultimately it should help you get out of the mindset of market timing. But you need to understand what you’re investing in. VTI is buying the entire stock market.