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So all I have is a dinky etrade account. Whats the best way to buy some of this? Specifically if I put in an order the night before will it be executed sooner

So all I have is a dinky etrade account. Whats the best way to buy some of this? Specifically if I put in an order the night before will it be executed sooner? Should I do a market order or a limit order?

seagreen 15y ago
Never buy individual stocks. Buy mutual funds.
- rfurmani 15y ago
  I feel much more comfortable investing in a few companies that I feel are strong than investing in a mutual fund that will roughly end up tracking the market as a whole, and invariably ending up with a dangerous bet on the market going up. (unless it's perhaps a fund like FNSAX)
  - seagreen 15y ago
    You almost certainly know more about this than I do (I had to google FNSAX), but here's my issue with this strategy: You don't make money off stocks by investing in strong companies. You make/lose money by investing in companies that do better/worse than expected. Because of this, when you invest in specific stocks, not only do you have to know whether or not the company will do well (not that hard to figure out) but also how this compares to the current expectations for that company (very difficult). There are tens of thousands of people who are smarter than me and who sit around all day trying to guess whether companies like FB will do better or worse than expected. Unless I'm a genius, there's no point in engaging them in a field where they have all the advantages, inside knowledge, practice, etc. and all I have are guesses. (Though come to think of it FB might be the one exception to this as people on HN may have a better idea of where the world's going than others. Even then you'd have to be willing to hold for years for your strategic "software is eating the world" knowledge to kick in and become more important than the financial people's exquisitely tuned formulas).
getsat 15y ago
Trailing stop loss order.
- tocomment 15y ago
  I don't see that choice. Would it have another name?
michaelochurch 15y ago
Stay out. Investment bankers (henceforth, "eye-wankers") underprice IPOs as a way of skimming money into the paws of their scumbag clients, but if you're not well-connected in scummy circles and therefore can't get allocated into the IPO, then by the time you can purchase the stock (not participating in the IPO, but trading on the open market in the following day) this opportunity has vanished. IPOs are a disaster for ordinary investors. If the IPO's good, banks will reduce your allocation to let important clients in. If it's a dud, they'll let you get in as deep as you want. So you face adverse selection. Also, definitely do not make a market order on the day of an IPO.

seagreen 15y ago

Never buy individual stocks. Buy mutual funds.

rfurmani 15y ago
I feel much more comfortable investing in a few companies that I feel are strong than investing in a mutual fund that will roughly end up tracking the market as a whole, and invariably ending up with a dangerous bet on the market going up. (unless it's perhaps a fund like FNSAX)
- seagreen 15y ago
  You almost certainly know more about this than I do (I had to google FNSAX), but here's my issue with this strategy: You don't make money off stocks by investing in strong companies. You make/lose money by investing in companies that do better/worse than expected. Because of this, when you invest in specific stocks, not only do you have to know whether or not the company will do well (not that hard to figure out) but also how this compares to the current expectations for that company (very difficult). There are tens of thousands of people who are smarter than me and who sit around all day trying to guess whether companies like FB will do better or worse than expected. Unless I'm a genius, there's no point in engaging them in a field where they have all the advantages, inside knowledge, practice, etc. and all I have are guesses. (Though come to think of it FB might be the one exception to this as people on HN may have a better idea of where the world's going than others. Even then you'd have to be willing to hold for years for your strategic "software is eating the world" knowledge to kick in and become more important than the financial people's exquisitely tuned formulas).

getsat 15y ago

Trailing stop loss order.

tocomment 15y ago
I don't see that choice. Would it have another name?

michaelochurch 15y ago

Stay out. Investment bankers (henceforth, "eye-wankers") underprice IPOs as a way of skimming money into the paws of their scumbag clients, but if you're not well-connected in scummy circles and therefore can't get allocated into the IPO, then by the time you can purchase the stock (not participating in the IPO, but trading on the open market in the following day) this opportunity has vanished. IPOs are a disaster for ordinary investors. If the IPO's good, banks will reduce your allocation to let important clients in. If it's a dud, they'll let you get in as deep as you want. So you face adverse selection. Also, definitely do not make a market order on the day of an IPO.