What Do Geeks Invest In?

Future Linux-Guru asks: "When Microsoft's stock price took a dive on the news of the judgment [last week], I wondered how many geeks were affected -- either because they held stock in MS, or because it was a holding in one of their mutual funds. What stocks do Geeks invest in? And how do Geeks invest for the future?"

Mostly index fund

[El Volio]

60% of my 401(k) goes to a S&P-500 index fund, which has done quite well. The remaining 40% is split evenly between a bond index fund and an overseas fund just for the fun of it.

Since most mutual funds don't even do as well as the S&P500, and I'm a firm believer that just investing in tech is a bad idea (the last week is an example of why), this fits me perfectly. A little bit of risk in the overseas fund is offset by the relative stability of the bond index fund.

Investment

[Phil Thomas]

I'm still in college and since I had so many scholarships, my parents just handed me the medium sized ~$4000 chunk of cash they had saved to pay for my college. So, I invested it. I had tried out BeOS a while back and really really liked it, so I plunked down the majority of my money into it. If I knew then what I know now, I probably would not have done that (which would have been a big mistake). I bought around 400 shares x $6.25 and waited. I think that I was going to wait for it to go up to 8 or so and then sell it...until lo and behold, the ruling against microsoft and it shot up to a high of $39!!! Once again, if I knew then what I know now, I would have sold it at $30 or $35...but I didn't (which was sort of a bad thing), it deflated quite dramatically, and this last tech stock scare really hit it hard...but it hasn't dropped below $12.50...so pretty much, my investment has doubled no matter what. And I am resolute in my belief that it will go back up to the $30's when the final ruling against ms comes out...Dunno what the moral of my longwinded story is, maybe just invest in a company with a product you like...and hold on to it, I kept BEOS for maybe 4 months before I saw any results...in fact, before it hit it's high, it dropped to around $3 a share, I can't say that this didn't scare me, but you have to hold on to it...almost all stocks have a general upward trend and tech stocks seem to rise the fastest. I got really lucky, and you might to but the chances are pretty slim.

Mostly non-tech stocks

[Erisian]

Well, I'm a late 20's geek who missed out on this stock market things for most of the 90's. (Lazy, stupid, poor, take your pick) I try to avoid funds since 90% don't even match the market (and you *PAY* them for the priviligde of them not doing well). The only funds I have are index funds in my 457 (I work for a state controlled hospital, it's kinda like out 401k.)

With most tech companies so high to begin with, I've largely been avoiding them (my one exception, AMD. They seem to have gotten their stuff straight and the Athlon rocks. But I digress...)

Smaller biotech and medical services companies are what I've been looking at for the high growth portion of my portfolio and a couple bigger more established firms as anchors.

Since I've got a long horizion (35-40 years) I'm making only a few big investments instead of lots of small ones. I can only lose 100% in the worst case, whereas my winners can go up 200% or more.

I have my money split between a straight investment account, my Roth and my rollover IRA. Short term transactions (under 2 years) I do in the Roth or IRA and long term stuff in the regular investment account. (I *HATEHATEHATE* taxes, so unless I plan to hold for at least a few years I buy in the tax deferred accounts.)

Check out http://fool.com for some good advice. Also read about the "prank" ZDNet played on April 1. I understand many investors got burned because the just traded on a tip. If a stock is a good stock today, it'll still be a good stock tomorrow. Do you research!

Erisian

Re:Mostly non-tech stocks

[dkritz]

Why invest? With so much nonsensical behavior in the market, you can just trade instead.

the Fool

[spoonyfork]

This comment doesn't address so much on "what" to invest in but "how" to invest. One of the best investing books I've ever read was from a couple of geek brothers that started the popular fool.com [fool.com] website. The book I am referring to is their second book titled "You Have More Than You Think". This book quite accessible for both the experienced investor as well as the newbie. It provides excellent and more importantly sound techniques for investing the stock market.. the Foolish Four and First Bank of Coca-Cola are great chapters. I do not believe there is an online version so you might have to snag it in meatspace. Best of luck!

Geek's choose Linux

[sharph]

I think most geeks don't invest stocks in ms. They're usally investing in Linux.

Another sort-of related question:

[Wakko Warner]

How much money do you need, initially, to invest? I'm thinking of investing a few hundred dollars -- will any of the online brokers let me open an account with only this much in it? Or will I have to spend a couple thousand or so?

- A.P.
--

"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad

Re:Another sort-of related question:

[Mark F. Komarinski]

E-Trade accepts a min. amount of $1000, and most others sounds to be the same.

For those of us that know the tech sector well, there's plenty of opportunity to turn this into something.

Example:

Say it was about 6-8 months ago. Buy 100 shares of Corel at 4, 100 shares of Xybernaut at 6. Corel peaked at 44 (it's now at 10) and Xybernaut hit about 24 or 26 or so. Assuming you hit the peaks and sold, you'd have $7000.

Alas, knowing when to sell is the hard part....

Re:What I invest in??

[unitron]

Anonymous coward posts get a zero by default.
Logged-in users get a +1 by default.
Logged-in users whose karma is over 25 get a +2 by default, but each time they post there is a check box that allows them, if they so choose, to forgo that extra point and just get a +1.
Many of us wish it worked the other way around so that we didn't have to worry about forgetting to check it off, but had to check it to *get* the extra point.
For more information see the Moderator Guidelines [slashdot.org].

And furthermore...forgot to mention

[unitron]

Not only did it not get scored one way or the other except for the default, this particular "Ask Slashdot" 's reply thread shows no sign of having even been noticed by anyone currently moderating.

What I invest in.

[Nonesuch]

I buy stock in companies whose products I use and like- so right now I'm bullish on Cisco, FedEx, and of course, Coca-Coal.

And no, I don't own any 'Linux stocks'. Not just because of persona prejudice, but because I don't hold any high-risk stocks at all.