| STUCK MARKET - So you have just made a ton of NP from half price day. Now you are wondering how
this can be parlayed into a larger fortune. So off to the Stock Market you go
but to your dismay there are 51 different stocks. You didn't think choosing the one to buy would be this
tough. The ticker shows some are green (up for the day) and some are red (down)
then there are the rest, some kind of 'middle of the road' stock that has refused
to budge at all for this day. Well this ticker isn't much help but hey look there
is a 'Stock Tips' message board, one click and you are there.
The Stock
Tips board is full of different threads so we look through the titles
to see if one appears to have some content that can help us. This is getting
even harder now because most of these topics have nothing to do with stocks,
but wait! Here is one that shouts out with authority "BUY TNAH" hmmm… lets look
at that one. Peering inside the thread on this topic we find only the same two
words that was in the topic heading "BUY TNAH". Now I don't know about you but
this hasn't helped me much. Especially when I see TNAH is currently trading
at over 200 NP per share, which would be an investment of over 200,000 NP for
a daily investment of 1,000 shares. Does it really cost this much to play the
Stocks game? Of course not, if it did only the very richest of all the Neopians
would be able to play.
So when do you buy? This question is twofold for me. The first answer is 'every
day'. If you can earn a little extra NP each day playing games or working your
shop put some of it into stocks. The better you are at games or the more time
you have put in more. The limit is 1,000 shares a day and this is what I recommend
but if you have trouble getting that much start with 100 or 500 each day. Below
100 there really isn't going to be much profit so I wouldn't advise anyone to
invest less than this unless you are just looking into the game but are unwilling
to risk having you NP's tied up for some unknown period of time.
The second answer to this question deals with when to buy a particular stock.
Everyone has their own theories on this some are quite well founded on sensible
reasoning and some are just out of the blue hunches or gut feelings. Some just
buy whatever is at 15. Still others may be based on reports by Neopets themselves
brought to us as a random event in the form of a visit from Nigel the Chia or
the 'Stock Pick' of the day on the News/Research
page. Of all these I prefer to base my purchases on the historical movement
of a stock.
By looking at NeoDaq.com you can find history charts on each and every stock.
These go back almost five months now and they are updated on a regular basis
so the charts are always fresh. My investments tend to go into stocks that have
shown a point in there past where they have been over 40. This gives me some
security in knowing they at least have potential for providing the 100% profit
I look for. Now some of these stocks have never been above 40 in the time frame
this data has been gathered. This does not mean they never will and sometimes
this method has prevented me from buying into stocks that have gone on to stellar
heights. Fortunately it has also kept me from buying into stocks that have still
never moved above 25 so I think this is a fair trade.
Now you have done some homework and you have found a few stocks that have
done well in the past. But there are still a lot of stocks that fit this profile,
which one to buy? Always try to buy as low as you can. A stock has to be at
least 15 to be eligible to buy so that is the low end, most times there will
be more than a few below 20 so that is the high end. Sort out the stocks in
this range and look at a few things they will tell you. How high has this stock
gone? How long has it been down low? These questions will give some indication
about how high a stock may go again and how soon. Now this isn't an exact science
as there is no proof that a stock will ever repeat its history but it is a starting
point. The main thing is to buy as low as you can to maximise the possibility
of profit.
Another thing to consider in all of this is what you already own. If one good
stock is trading at 15 but you have a lot of it and another is at 16/17 then
it may well be worth the extra NP for the diversity. I feel this way because
after investing daily for over four months now I have built quite a substantial
portfolio. It has taken a lot of work to pour all those NP into this. If all
these stocks were in one or two companies I would make a killing on the sale
but I would be back to square one in the game as my portfolio would be empty.
Also if by some chance the one or two you chose to invest in went bankrupt or
just stayed low for a very long time by some rotten luck you might have to wait
forever for a sale. By purchasing into several different companies you will
have many more opportunities to have shares in a company on the rise. Regular
sales in the future are much more likely if you have a wide range of options.
With all this in mind, some NP you are willing to part with for the long term
and a whole lot of patience you are ready to start investing in the Stock Market.
Look here next week for the next article in this series for 'When to Sell',
Good luck and above all have fun playing the Stocks game. | 
