# good stock to buy? couche tard or patient home monitoring?



## cnnx (Mar 26, 2015)

which one would you choose? PHM or ATD.B ? or something else this week? looking for constant long term and near term growth


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

You buy stocks on a _weekly_ basis? How on earth do you read all those financial statements... that's a huge time commitment.


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## cnnx (Mar 26, 2015)

I'm fairly new to stocks, I purchased CPG (oil comany) and lost a little bit before I sold it (not time to buy oil stocks I learned).. then recently I purchased Dollarama and I'm up over 4% so far on it so I'm happy with that purchase, looking for another good stock to add to my portofolio.. i just want 2 or 3 stocks in my portofolio and I only have one right now.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

How long do you intend to hold the stocks? If you're holding them only for brief periods, it's more or less just a casino -- not a horrible thing, but it just becomes random gambling


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## cnnx (Mar 26, 2015)

well i'd like to have DOL long term seeing it has done very well over the years.. if i goes back down to my book value I will sell, I won't take another loss.. so my strategy is buy, then hope it goes up at the beginning enough so even if it drops again its still above the book value.. if it goes the other way from the beginning thats not a good sign for me and I would leave it, most professionals limit their losses to 2% when they manage big funds from what I read on investopedia, however for long term you should tolerate a bigger percentage like 5-10% fluctuation


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## supperfly17 (Apr 18, 2012)

cnnx said:


> well i'd like to have DOL long term seeing it has done very well over the years.. if i goes back down to my book value I will sell, I won't take another loss.. so my strategy is buy, then hope it goes up at the beginning enough so even if it drops again its still above the book value.. if it goes the other way from the beginning thats not a good sign for me and I would leave it, most professionals limit their losses to 2% when they manage big funds from what I read on investopedia, however for long term you should tolerate a bigger percentage like 5-10% fluctuation


 From what you write, it doesnt sound like you are suited for individual stock buying.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Everything I describe below is part of stock speculation strategy, I don't consider it investment and I think you should only use "gambling money" with such things. Because really it's gambling.

True, DOL has done extremely well. And you are correct that you should limit your losses.

However given the way DOL moves, you will realistically need a much larger % amount to limit your losses. This thing can move 15% in a single _month_. Don't take this as a recommendation of DOL, but personally if I was buying this stock, I'd set my loss limit at around $42 which would be a -40% decline from today's price.

Faster moving (more volatile) stocks need larger loss limits. The flip side of this is that you expect higher returns from them. This thing could easily decline 30% even while its strength continues and then blast higher.

The problem with setting small loss limits is that they will be easily and frequently reached, making you abandon a stock position even though it's doing a normal (volatile) movement.


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## cnnx (Mar 26, 2015)

What method of investing in stocks do you consider non-gambling then?


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## Butters (Apr 20, 2012)

buying the index.... they hold hundreds of stocks

Like the VCN .. VXC 2etf combo listed on couch potato


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

cnnx said:


> What method of investing in stocks do you consider non-gambling then?


Here's a quick test... if it feels thrilling or exciting, you're probably gambling 

Things I don't consider gambling are buying the stock index or individual stocks that you hold for long periods, like a decade or more. i.e. it's boring


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

And let's face it, when you're new to the stock market you are inevitably going to dabble in some stock gambling.

Everyone does it; we've all done it here.

I've heard people refer to this as your "tuition" in the university of the stock market. I'll tell you from the start, it's going to cost you: you are going to lose money. But you'll probably still do it. I was told the same thing, and I still did it and lost money too. I bought stocks for short periods, thinking I can make some easy profits. I bought and sold ETFs to try and ride "trends" (didn't work). I tried a lot of different things, sometimes made money, but overall - net - lost money.

The best advice I can give you is to limit the amount of money you put into the stock market, until you gain more familiarity with what's going on. Just keep the dollar amounts low.


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## jcgd (Oct 30, 2011)

james4beach said:


> And let's face it, when you're new to the stock market you are inevitably going to dabble in some stock gambling.
> 
> Everyone does it; we've all done it here.
> /QUOTE]
> ...


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## Moneytoo (Mar 26, 2014)

jcgd said:


> I just wanted everyone to read this tid bit again. And add that many people don't make it past this stage. Not even convinced I have yet.


Which reminds me - must.un.sub.scribe from all the lists - here's today's "hot tip":

"*Engagement Labs (EL.V; $0.64) *announced two pieces of encouraging news recently. First, it closed its financing, raising $8 million. The financing was oversubscribed, which is also encouraging. The company now has the funds to finance an aggressive growth trajectory."

As for OP's question, couche tard is in the same sector as dollarama. Just sayin'


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## Synergy (Mar 18, 2013)

jcgd said:


> james4beach said:
> 
> 
> > And let's face it, when you're new to the stock market you are inevitably going to dabble in some stock gambling.
> ...


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## familyman (Apr 6, 2015)

james4beach said:


> And let's face it, when you're new to the stock market you are inevitably going to dabble in some stock gambling.
> 
> Everyone does it; we've all done it here.
> 
> ...


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## fstamand (Mar 24, 2015)

james4beach said:


> And let's face it, when you're new to the stock market you are inevitably going to dabble in some stock gambling.
> 
> Everyone does it; we've all done it here.
> 
> ...



Could not have said it better. It only takes one sour stock (in my case VRX) and hello red territory. It's gambling.


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