Tennisjon2002

I am about to buy some stocks and mutual funds. Just wondering what you thought of these. They have all been rated highly by Morningstar:

Mutual Funds:
FICDX - Fidelity Canada Fund
FDFFX- Fidelity Independence Fund
FIGRX- Fidelity International Discovery Fund
FLVCX- Fidelity Leveraged Company Stock Fund
FDFAX- Select Consumer Staples Portfolio

Stocks:
LOW- Lowes
BBBY- Bed Bath and Beyond
KMX- Car Max
TAP- Coors Brewing

Renegade

Stocks look at: All of these have global demand and their products will be very necessary worldwide for a while.

PBR

FCX

CF

doopstr

Retail is a not a happy sector right now. With BBBY and LOW, are you hoping to catch the bottom at this level or just throwing your hat in the ring?

I'm going to wait for a another pullback on goldman sachs and then pick some up.

Tennisjon2002

Well I was watching a morning star video thing and they were saying with the housing market etc so low right now they have no where to go but up. But idk

moonraker

on mutual funds, don't necessarily let past performance or morningstar ratings be the sole reason you're buying the fund. look at the expense ratio, how diversified the fund is, who the manager is... etc etc

also, i have to echo the sentiment already expressed regarding housing/retail stocks. retail will bounce back before housing does, but even so, it could be a little bit. when they say they have nowhere to go but up, they mean eventually haha. predictions now are that the housing problems will last through the end of 2008 easy and prob into 2009. You willing to sit and let those stocks decrease in value for another year? lowes is tough to call though just because they have a good core business and a decent balance sheet they're just hit with the whole housing problem... i'd stay away for a while longer though because bottom picking/knife catching is no fun.

i like the idea of FCX that someone already mentioned. Precious metals and mining... not to mention they acquired phelps dodge a while back for very very cheap. It should see 120 easy based on fair valuations. It's kind of been trading between 90 and 110 recently too so pick it up closer to 90 if you can.

what are your goals, is this short term holdings or long term? what's your risk tolerance? gotta give us some background in order for us to be able to help you

kmx could be decent but are you only looking at it because warren buffett owns it? don't get me wrong that's a good reason to own any name but ya gotta do some more research behind it.

my recommendations for 08 would be oil drilling especially RIG or DO for deepwater drillers (wait for a pullback though they've had a run-up recently). ESV or HERO for shallow water or different types of oil rigs.

And also agriculture will be huge with supply/demand issues and the ability for the fertilizer producers to gain pricing power. plays for ag i like are: POT (wait for a lil pullback though... huge run recently) and AGU is the cheapest of the bunch on valuation.

give us some info on what you're trying to accomplish here and your timeframe, that'd determine a lot of what ya need to be doing. risk shouldn't really be an issue for you since you're so young... but, you could need this cash in the short-term so give us those details

GenXET

I am in the same shoe, I have about $5k - 6K and want to invest, my time frame is about 2-3 years. what are my options ?

Thanks in advance.

Tennisjon2002

I am looking long term. I am young so I can stand some risk, that is why I am looking at a balance of mutual funds and stocks. I have alot of money sitting in my FNBO direct account making 5% and I just want to do better. I have no immediate needs for this money, my only next big purchase would be a house in a few years. I will be inheriting a large chunk of money then that will more than cover a down payment on a house.

GenXET

im on the exact same boat... anyone that can advise us ?

taz98spin

Alot of people are saying STAY AWAY FROM CHINA!

But I believe that China is going to keep on growing and growing no matter what the government tries to do.

Especially with the 2008 Olympics coming up, I think China is a good bet.

I own Badiu (BIDU) the Chinese Google, or some say Google is the US Badiu,

Soho.com (SOHU) internet Media company. All Olympic related adds must go through them, so I have been very happy with this stock.

China 3G Group (CHCG) the BestBuy of China. US BestBuy even has a contract with them, to help them get into the Chinese market. It's been taken a beating lately unlike my other Chinese stocks, but every time it take a dip, I buy more because I am in for the long run. + most of the people who are buying this stock are betting on this stock to get into the NASDAQ


If you are scared to invest outside of the US,
I think Starbucks could be a good bet. They've been beaten down soooo much,
the price is cheap and hopefully they will start going up instead of staying down

doopstr

BIDU CFO just got wacked, I mean, he had an accident. Hope a disappointing quarter isn't coming.
http://www.fool.com/investing/high-g...-of-a-cfo.aspx

moonraker

umm, wishful thinking indeed. there's a reason starbucks has been beaten down so much... they absolutely suck. saturated their own market, seeing decelerating/slowing growth, etc. would not touch that name with a 10 ft pole. in fact, the first sign to get out of starbucks was when they deviated from coffee and tried to do music (wtf?).