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 Compass
Ancient Light
Registered: 10/17/06
Posts: 836
Loc: The Border of Reality
Last seen: 13 hours, 48 minutes
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 Setting up a play money portfolio
#8407033 - 05/15/08 09:03 PM (4 months, 26 days ago) |
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Had some beginner questions. First time doing any sort of stock / investing thing. Setting up a fake portfolio on one of those stock simulators.
So...
- Can I do commodities like corn? Is this corn: http://finance.google.com/finance?q=corn
- How do I find good funds for getting exposure to emerging foreign markets or small caps?
- How about betting for/against the euro? Do I do that just by investing in a foreign company?
- Am I able to look into bonds on sites like these and would I want to?
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mshrewsb
Stranger
Registered: 10/01/07
Posts: 3
Last seen: 13 hours, 35 minutes
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Re: Setting up a play money portfolio [Re: Compass]
#8408250 - 05/16/08 03:45 AM (4 months, 26 days ago) |
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1. For commodities go to www.cbot.com it is the exchange for them,at the top they have a education drop down where you can learn more about trading commodities.
2. For trading currency you have to have a forex account,a site that has a free forex trial account is www.fxcm.com
3. You can go to www.updown.com and they have a contest going on for stock trading it should be good practice,also www.cnbc.com is having a contest where you can trade stocks,futures ETF's and forex.
Hope This Helps
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GnosticWarrior
Hermit
Registered: 03/11/07
Posts: 195
Loc: Oahu, Hawaii
Last seen: 1 day, 17 hours
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Re: Setting up a play money portfolio [Re: Compass]
#8408278 - 05/16/08 04:17 AM (4 months, 26 days ago) |
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That link you provided is a quote for a investment product that trades like a stock and is meant to follow the performance of an index and probably does this by buying futures contracts. It trades on the London Stock Exchange. Just in case you didn't know.
I follow fund managers here: http://www.gurufocus.com/
A couple of them run international and small cap funds. A fund has to file reports and disclose their holdings.
Buying Foreign Companies is an indirect play on betting on currencies. A debased USD might benefit export driven companies while hurting imports. Opposite with a strong currency. Never traded on FOREX, but I know you can buy foreign currency ETF's. http://www.currencyshares.com/home/CurrencyShares.rails
I have never owned a bond. My assumptions is that you need big money to really invest in bonds. Especially distressed ones.
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geokills
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Registered: 05/08/01
Posts: 13,287
Loc: city of angels
Last seen: 19 hours, 3 minutes
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 Re: Setting up a play money portfolio [Re: Compass]
#8408944 - 05/16/08 10:55 AM (4 months, 25 days ago) |
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Just a quick advisory note; I wouldn't trade that LSE Corn ETF, it trades on very thin volume, which can lead to very high volatility. Not to mention, you want to have the greatest access to timely information, so unless you live in England and are fully appraised of their marktes, you will want to invest in the major market where you live instead.
If you want exposure to small caps, consider the following funds:- Rice Hall James Micro Cap Portfolio (RHJSX) run by Thomas W. McDowell Jr.
- Buffalo Small Cap (BUFSX), run by Kent Gasaway.
- FBR Small Cap (FBRVX), run by Charles T. Akre Jr.
Remember that actively managed funds are great because you won't have to do the research.
However, a fund is only as good as its manager, so you will need to keep an eye out to make sure your proven manager hasn't left the fund!
If you're looking for a pure play on the direction of currencies, you'll want to do it through the Forex market as previously suggested (www.forex.com should allow you to setup a practice account).
You can also use your thesis on the direction of a currency to invest in companies with foriegn exposure, but it's a little more complicated than you might think. For example, in today's market where the dollar has been falling and is at a very low value, US businesses with a lot of overseas exposure will experience a favorable exchange rate once their international sales are converted back into dollars for their financial reports. Therefore, even if their sales haven't increased, there will be a favorable comparison to the year-ago period, since 1 euro now fetches more dollars than it did a year ago. Therefore, a weak dollar actually helps US companies that get the majority of their revenue overseas.
If you're less than 30 years old, forget about bonds. They are way too conservative and the yields right now are nothing impressive since the core Fed Funds interest rate is so low. Bonds are a stable investment this is true, but because of the minimal risk, there is also minimal potential for gain. When you're young, you want to take a riskier position for potentially great reward, because even if it doesn't pan out - you have your whole life to make up for it. When you get closer to retirement age, that's when you want stable fixed-income assets like bonds, because you simply don't have the time to afford the potentially large short-term losses that you may incur in riskier assets such as stocks.
PS. Buy Jim Cramer's Real Money and Stay Mad for Life if you want some good education on the subject.
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