em2nought wrote: Mon Aug 05, 2024 8:25 am
My buddy who knows much more than I do on the subject says I should have my money in a bank that's too big to fail, and that Chase is the biggest. Is it smart to be in a too big to fail bank?
Do you mean cash deposits or investing in the stock? JPM is fine as a bank to put your money in. However, if you you're looking to put in over $250K, you probably want to talk to a financial advisor.
If you mean the stock, it's just off an all time high in mid-July. Still one of the best bank stocks.
I'm talking about having cash deposits under $250k, and a certain worry about access to safety deposit boxes too. My current bank isn't one of the too big to fail banks. I've also got a Schwab account just for being able to use the debit card overseas and get ATM fee refunded. I'm glad I'm not a trader trying to use a Schwab account today.
Cash deposits under 250k, as long as the bank is FDIC insured, are protected whether or not the bank is too big to fail.
em2nought wrote: Mon Aug 05, 2024 8:25 am
My buddy who knows much more than I do on the subject says I should have my money in a bank that's too big to fail, and that Chase is the biggest. Is it smart to be in a too big to fail bank?
Do you mean cash deposits or investing in the stock? JPM is fine as a bank to put your money in. However, if you you're looking to put in over $250K, you probably want to talk to a financial advisor.
If you mean the stock, it's just off an all time high in mid-July. Still one of the best bank stocks.
I'm talking about having cash deposits under $250k, and a certain worry about access to safety deposit boxes too. My current bank isn't one of the too big to fail banks. I've also got a Schwab account just for being able to use the debit card overseas and get ATM fee refunded. I'm glad I'm not a trader trying to use a Schwab account today.
Cash deposits under 250k, as long as the bank is FDIC insured, are protected whether or not the bank is too big to fail.
I wonder what that means though? If a bank fails do the bank facilities close until they get picked up by a bigger bank? Do you temporarily not have access to your funds or safety deposit boxes?
Troubled Colonial BancGroup will be bought by rival BB&T Friday, the government said after state regulators closed the bank whose assets had been frozen by a federal judge.
The Montgomery, Ala., bank, which has 346 branches spread across Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Nevada, and Texas, is the sixth largest bank failure in U.S. history and by far the largest failure of 2009.
With $25 billion in assets and $20 billion in deposits, Colonial is 100 times larger than the typical bank to have failed this year. BB&T (BBT, Fortune 500) will buy $22 billion of Colonial's assets, as well as its deposits and branches, leaving the remaining assets in the hands of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Did I mention that my work project for the last 18 months has been working with them??
On Friday, April 26, 2024, Republic First Bank dba Republic Bank (“Republic Bank”) was closed by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver. No advance notice is given to the public when a financial institution is closed. Fulton Bank, National Association (N.A.), Lancaster, PA, assumed substantially all deposit accounts and substantially all the assets.
...
The full balance of all deposit accounts has been transferred to Fulton Bank, N.A.
You may continue to use your checks and ATM/Debit card. Direct deposits like paychecks and social security benefits will continue as usual.
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If You Had a Loan
You should continue to make payments, including escrow payments, as usual; the terms of your loan will not change.
If your loan is currently in process or you had a line of credit, contact your loan officer.
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Safe Deposit Boxes
You will have access to your safe deposit boxes during normal business hours. Any changes will be communicated by Fulton Bank, N.A.
Fed cuts by 50 basis points. Bad news is good news so the market is rejoicing. I'm going to lose a bit of covered call here. I'm OK with that. I can use some more liquidity even if I don't get market rates. I will have to start re-evaluating my growing TBill and CD positions. Not sure how yet.
A federal judge in Oregon blocked Kroger’s proposed $25 billion tie-up with Albertsons, ruling that the largest merger in US supermarket history would limit competition and harm consumers.
,,,
The merger, announced in 2022, sought to combine the fifth and tenth largest retailers in the country. The companies own dozens of grocery chains, including Safeway, Vons, Harris Teeter and Fred Meyer.
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Kroger and Albertsons employ mostly unionized workforces and said they wanted to merge to be more competitive against non-union giants such as Walmart, Amazon and Costco. The grocers also face increased pressure from Aldi, the fast-growing German discount supermarket chain.
The merger would accelerate “our position as a more compelling alternative to larger and non-union competitors,” Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said when the deal was announced in 2022. Kroger committed to lowering grocery prices by $1 billion following the merger.
But Judge Adrienne Nelson rejected that argument.
In her ruling, she said that supermarkets are “distinct from other grocery retailers” and are not direct competitors to Walmart, Amazon and other companies that sell a wider range of goods. The merger would eliminate head-to-head competition between Albertsons and Kroger, potentially raising prices for consumers, she said in the ruling.
That is strange to me as Kroger is most expensive of the Big Box grocers and has been for several years. I even dared to step foot in a WalMart not that long ago and found them to be 'meh' on pricing and went back to Meijer as my primary grocer. Aldi is my second when I don't care about off brand purchases. BJs (closer to me though not as good of version of Costco) is my go to choice for bulk dry goods for as long as I'll have a membership. I watch Kroger for an occasional supercheap Kroger coupon event on a couple of things and that's about it. I think denying Kroger are competing with big box general marts is just an excuse or at least that's what it would be around here. Though I've never seen an Albertson's. OtOH, I know the Kroger said it would allow them to leverage pricing and I think that's a crock. As I said before, they are the most expensive of the large retail grocers around here, possibly because they have a zillion locations and that makes for a lot of overhead. It makes them convenient, but if convenience over pricing was that important, then more people would just continue to pay to ship to their house.
I recently made the decision to learn how to invest in the stock market. By that I don't mean a 401k or mutual fund. I mean actually researching stocks and buying and selling based on my own decisions. I'm not going to start big. More than likely I will deposit $500 or so (I would keep it to my disposable income for that month) into a something like ETrade and see how I do over the course of a couple of months.
I sit at a desk with a computer all day and for all intents and purposes I am my own boss, so I have plenty of time to read up on things and monitor the market during the day. I have a separate pension and mutual fund that I will continue to fund that won't be a part of this. I'm also not going into this looking to get rich or earn a living, I really just want to see if I can learn how to invest in the market and create some extra wealth.
With all of that said, does anyone have any pointers that they would give a total novice?
Make sure your account has zero-fee trades. I assume etrade does. With smaller accounts fees would eat up gains.
Don't be afraid to cut losses. Pick a loss limit and stick with it. Especially in the learning stage where you want to develop good habits.
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton MYT
LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Dec 11, 2024 12:09 pm
Make sure your account has zero-fee trades. I assume etrade does. With smaller accounts fees would eat up gains.
Don't be afraid to cut losses. Pick a loss limit and stick with it. Especially in the learning stage where you want to develop good habits.
Yes Etrade is 0 fee. I already set up an account with them but I haven't funded it yet because they make you wait for test deposits into your funding account.
Are there any websites that I should be reading on a daily basis to help make decisions (other than the obvious ones)?
WRT income equities. If the a dividend is too good to be true, then everybody knows something is wrong but you. At the same time be careful of the publishing experts. They're not acting as fiduciaries. They are looking out for themselves, not for the consumers of their time on media.
Really, if I were to do it all over again, until I learned how to really understand an individual equity, I'd stick with the broadest of market ETFs, like SPY or VTI. Lord knows I have not out earned either from some pretty big bad moves that outweigh all of my good ones combined (unrelated to broad market ETFs)
If/when you eventually get to larger sums of money and start working with derivatives. Don't sell call on things you have no intention of divesting, no matter how much upside you think you may getting. Individual equities tend to move all at once, very quickly in one direction or another, often on earnings reports, which is something you should learn for equities you are interested. First the published books and second the earnings call.
Finally, I don't know nothing, so don't pay attention to me...
LordMortis wrote: Wed Dec 11, 2024 12:25 pm
WRT income equities. If the a dividend is too good to be true, then everybody knows something is wrong but you. At the same time be careful of the publishing experts. They're not acting as fiduciaries. They are looking out for themselves, not for the consumers of their time on media.
Really, if I were to do it all over again, until I learned how to really understand an individual equity, I'd stick with the broadest of market ETFs, like SPY or VTI. Lord knows I have not out earned either from some pretty big bad moves that outweigh all of my good ones combined (unrelated to broad market ETFs)
If/when you eventually get to larger sums of money and start working with derivatives. Don't sell call on things you have no intention of divesting, no matter how much upside you think you may getting. Individual equities tend to move all at once, very quickly in one direction or another, often on earnings reports, which is something you should learn for equities you are interested. First the published books and second the earnings call.
Finally, I don't know nothing, so don't pay attention to me...
Yeah like I said I'm not doing this for retirement. I have separate safe funds for those. So I don't think an ETF is what I'm after. I also don't want to just lose money every month. So my hope is that I can learn how to be a smart investor while using money that I won't really miss If I end up being dumb or unlucky.
LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Dec 11, 2024 12:09 pm
Make sure your account has zero-fee trades. I assume etrade does. With smaller accounts fees would eat up gains.
Don't be afraid to cut losses. Pick a loss limit and stick with it. Especially in the learning stage where you want to develop good habits.
Yes Etrade is 0 fee. I already set up an account with them but I haven't funded it yet because they make you wait for test deposits into your funding account.
Are there any websites that I should be reading on a daily basis to help make decisions (other than the obvious ones)?
I prefer to find my own news rather than relying on a financial news agregator. I turn on CNBC every morning to get a sense for the days markets but do my own research.
Get to know fundamentals. Both corporate (business sector, revenue, profit, region, etc) and market (shares outstanding, P/E, technicals, etc).
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton MYT
Isgrimnur wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2024 9:28 pm
Why risk failing to beat the market when you can just play the market as a whole?
To learn. To gamble. To have a shot at great wealth. To prove you're the smartest person in the room. To support companies you believe it. To not support companies you don't want to have support.
S&P down 2.5% in the last less than two hours on an already small down week. Since TD turned to Schwab the news that just flowed is no longer there. I wonder what's up, but not enough to go looking for answers.
Edit: Unexpected rate cut, presumed proactive. I wonder why they would be bracing for inflation. Also, I thought you raised rates when inflation is the primary concern.
Edit: Nearly 3%. Time to start trickling up my index funds, I guess.
Also, I thought you raised rates when inflation is the primary concern. 