I've been following this stock ESPH for 2 1/2 years now

[PokerDoc]

Ecosphere

I bought it at around .70 in 2008 and watched it go all the way down to 9 cents, suffered with it for years because I saw potential in their patents, figuring if they cant pull it off, someone would buy them out and make it work.

its doing pretty well now at over $1.30.. you guys should check it out.. They have patented water purification technology and it appears they are close to signing contracts to help with the oil spill cleanup since their technology can separate oil and water without any harmful by products..

real exciting stuff! I'm glad I stuck with then... I think itll be a $2+ stock sooner than later.

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[southerndoc]

Get stock tips from random Joe on the internet is pretty risky.

 

[ChainStreet]

Ecosphere

I bought it at around .70 in 2008 and watched it go all the way down to 9 cents, suffered with it for years because I saw potential in their patents, figuring if they cant pull it off, someone would buy them out and make it work.

its doing pretty well now at over $1.30.. you guys should check it out.. They have patented water purification technology and it appears they are close to signing contracts to help with the oil spill cleanup since their technology can separate oil and water without any harmful by products..

real exciting stuff! I'm glad I stuck with then... I think itll be a $2+ stock sooner than later.

You are speculating with this business. It might or might not go to $2. Thats irrelevent because no body knows. I don't see any solid underlying business with track record to suggest that its an investment. Speculations, yes... you can do that

Investment, well can you answer the followings,

1) Has this business produced free cash flow ever?
2) does it have zero or no debt?
3) Is it run by honest and shareholder friendly manager?
4) What is the liquidation value of this busniess?
5) What is the ongoing value of this business?
6) Is it selling at big discount to its intrinsic value?

on and on.....


I can look up and check all the points but I simply listed few points for you to consider before investing. Remember I am checking the price of the business/stock almost in the end because first you need to uderrstand the business and if everything is good then estimate its true value and then check if its selling at discount.

Now price can go from 9 cents to 2 dollar but if business is worth only 4 cents then its overvalued all the time but if business is worth 4 dollar then its undervalued even at $2 price

My two cents.....

 

[deleted116380]

Don't play with individual stocks unless you know the company very very well (almost to the point where you can call it insider trading ).

I'd stick to aggregate indexes (they are also etfs so not expensive to trade).

DIA - Dow
SPY - S&P
QQQQ - Nasdaq
AGG - US Aggregate bond index

To short some of those, you can buy the inverse index:
SH - S&P short
DOG - Dow short
PSQ - Nasdaq short

etc...

 

[ChainStreet]

Don't play with individual stocks unless you know the company very very well (almost to the point where you can call it insider trading ).

I'd stick to aggregate indexes (they are also etfs so not expensive to trade).

DIA - Dow
SPY - S&P
QQQQ - Nasdaq
AGG - US Aggregate bond index

To short some of those, you can buy the inverse index:
SH - S&P short
DOG - Dow short
PSQ - Nasdaq short

etc...

You are right about not buying any stock unless you know the business in and out. But problem with buying index is that you are basicaly buying bunch of good busnisses,some average businesses and some horrible businesses together.

So for know-nothing investor , I will still say, its better to buy index as opposed to individual businesses because you will have the mix instead of randomly buying only horrible businesses.

If you are know-something investor then buying index doesn't make any sense.

But its important to make sure that you know where you belong. If you buy index and have no problem with passive investing then you will still beat 80% of population. It's not bad but if you know how to analyze the business and have patience as well then you can do much better. Simply said if you are above average investor and have patience then you can't help but get rich.

My two cents.....