Anyone invest in the stock market?

[Jim Oaks]

I never have, and don't know that much about it.

I was looking online for Planet Fitness about my gym membership, and saw a link about their stock being $55.59 a share.

Out of curiosity, I checked Ford's, and saw theirs was $5.37 a share.

Looking a little deeper, it appears that Ford stock has been on a decline for the past 6-7 years.

Surprising GM stock is $24.06 a share, but started the year around $36.

Ford only started the year just above $9.

Apparently Ford profits have been dropping, and scaring investors.

Must be why Ford is trying to introduce so many new vehicles. I personally don't think Ford has had an original idea since the 2010 Raptor. The Ranger is in response to the Tacoma and Colorado. The Bronco is in response to the Jeep Wrangler, and Ford has allegedly considered a pickup version of the Bronco to compete with the Jeep Gladiator. I personally think it's stupid. I think Ford should build a better offroad package for the Ranger, and stop following what Jeep and everyone else is doing. They've been following instead of leading. Time to lead.

Ford would die without the F-150. Hopefully they don't decide to try and turn everything in to a pickup. I don't know that I'm ready for a Mustang pickup.

Anyways.......

With all these uncertain times, I was wondering if anyone here has seen this as an opportunity to buy stock at cheaper prices?

 

[Uncle Gump]

Did someone say Bronco?

I'm not an expert... but I'm done with the stock market.

I lost everything in my personal portfolio basically overnight. My 401k investments lost about 50% at the same time. It was a leaning experience... a hard one. My grandparents lost all of theirs too... north of a million to junk status. It's a volatile place.

 

[adsm08]

Ford's stock has been in a long decline for a while. Part of the problem is that Ford is at a point of needed to invest a lot of money in their factories for re-tooling, part of the problem is that Jim Hackett is a moron, part of the problem is that Allan Mullaly was an even bigger moron before Hackett.

A big part of Ford's stock price drop this year is that last year Hackett took almost all of Ford's CoH and invested it in getting into the Chinese car market.

Frankly, I'm waiting for it to drop near a $1 and then I'm gonna just buy a butt load and hope it goes back to the $5 area.

 

[adsm08]

Did someone say Bronco?

I'm not an expert... but I'm done with the stock market.

I lost everything I my personal portfolio basically overnight. My 401k investments lost about 50% at the same time. It was a leaning experience... a hard one. My grandparents lost all of theirs too... north of a million to junk status. It's a volatile place.

Sit tight and be patient. I know it's hard when all that red is on the page.

Historically the US stock market has been the best place to invest money. Sometimes we hit a big ol' bump, but it has never not recovered.

Check this out:

How Fast | Markets Recover | historical analysis | potential

An historical look at how fast stock markets recover in consideration of the current potential of recovery.

atlantawealthconsultants.com

 

[Jim Oaks]

It's crazy to think that stock for such a huge company could drop that low, but it fell below $2 in 2009.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I totally understand...

However... in the case of my portfolio... or my grandparents... there was nothing left (EDS and GM). All of it was gone.

Diversity and long term investment strategy is the way to play the game.

 

[adsm08]

It's crazy to think that stock for such a huge company could drop that low, but it fell below $2 in 2009.

Ford's lowest stock price was in the 80s. $.67/share.

I'd throw in $500 if it got that low again.

 

[G8orFord]

IIRC, Fords highest stock price ever was only near $40/share. There's a LOT of shares. Yes, they've been on a decline, largely due to all of the recalls in the recent past and seemingly continuing on presently. I'm no investor, but I've been looking at Ford stock here lately. It was under $4/share when the market dipped a couple of weeks ago. I don't think it's necessarily a stock you want to buy/sell a lot, but more of a long term investment where you can enjoy some dividends and sell only when you feel it's time.

 

[19Walt93]

If I'd known in 2009 when Ford stock was about $1.20 that it wasn't going to zero like GM did, I'd have mortgaged my house and bought a pile of it. A few years later it was around $19. I've had money in the stock market since the 90's, mostly in mutual funds and now in index funds. I've had a couple of stocks drop to zero but on the whole I'm ahead. It's pretty sickening to watch it drop, but so far it's always bounced back. You haven't lost anything unless you sell when it's down or slimy companies like GM break their debt off into a separate company and screw their stock holders. If you try to save using a bank account inflation will eat all your gains and some of the principal. You can make money buying and selling real estate- except if you were over extended this spring and got stuck with property you couldn't sell and loans you couldn't pay. Just hang on, it'll pass.

 

[19Walt93]

Ford's stock has been in a long decline for a while. Part of the problem is that Ford is at a point of needed to invest a lot of money in their factories for re-tooling, part of the problem is that Jim Hackett is a moron, part of the problem is that Allan Mullaly was an even bigger moron before Hackett.

A big part of Ford's stock price drop this year is that last year Hackett took almost all of Ford's CoH and invested it in getting into the Chinese car market.

Frankly, I'm waiting for it to drop near a $1 and then I'm gonna just buy a butt load and hope it goes back to the $5 area.

I disagree about Alan Mullaly, he improved Ford's cash situation before the bottom fell out and sold all the weird brands that Jack Nasser bought-Aston Martin, Jaguar, Volvo,etc and got back to Ford building Fords. The expensive,almost impossible to fix CVT came from Ford of Europe, as did the leaky Volvo based PTU. He insisted common platforms be used, before than Ford built cars- Focus for example- in Asia, Europe, South and North America that shared almost nothing. Henry Ford figured out in the early 1900's that if he used common parts and built a bunch of them he could build them better and cheaper.

 

[adsm08]

I disagree about Alan Mullaly, he improved Ford's cash situation before the bottom fell out and sold all the weird brands that Jack Nasser bought-Aston Martin, Jaguar, Volvo,etc and got back to Ford building Fords. The expensive,almost impossible to fix CVT came from Ford of Europe, as did the leaky Volvo based PTU. He insisted common platforms be used, before than Ford built cars- Focus for example- in Asia, Europe, South and North America that shared almost nothing. Henry Ford figured out in the early 1900's that if he used common parts and built a bunch of them he could build them better and cheaper.

He also oversaw a shift in attitude from "We sort of kinda at least pretend to care if our products can be serviced and fixed" to "Screw this, our cars are perfect and anyone who chooses to try working on one deserves to suffer horribly".

A lot of Fords worst designs of the last 20 years were drawn up, green-lit, and produced on Mullaly's watch. While it may not be his fault directly it speaks to the kind of people he choose to have in positions of power, and in my mind that reflects poorly on him.

 

[pjtoledo]

yep, I'm in what's left of the stock market.
I'm going to ride this out like I always do.
the market has already recovered about 30% of recent losses, I hope for much more soon.
in retrospect I do wish I had bought Vaseline early last March. and Tums.

the big deal this time wasn't economic conditions, they had nothing to do with this drop.
it was all outside forces. I'll only mention the "virus" , you guys can fill in the other blanks.

Ford stock is unique, the family owns 51% (or at least used to) and plans to keep it.
to them that makes dividends more important than the stock price.
yeah, I know, you have to sell products to yield a dividend.

I do have a small amount of Ford. it's the asterisk at the bottom of the page.

 

[sgtsandman]

I’m bot in directly but I do have a 401(k) and Roth IRA. I’m not looking forward to what my next statement is going to look like. It’s a good thing I have years before retirement so it can possibly rebound. I imagine those who are retired are craping bricks right now.

 

[Dirtman]

I'm heavily invested in Enron. Haven't checked on my stocks in a while though.

 

[sgtsandman]

Stock tip from the Clintons?