lol, here's the tutorial:

Buy for value or for growth - your choice.
Diversify.
Be patient.
Don't be dumb.

And that, ladies, is all anyone knows

@ Gladiator.

You have to go back to the beginning of the thread.

You dont say, "Give me something to invest in."

You say, "What do you all think of this company?"  And give a reason or two why you like, or dislike it.

You are breaking the cardinal rule of the exchange of information concerning investment.

Im not a guru, not even a long shot.
But look how Windows and myself have had our exchanges on C and BAC, or even yell tossed out a company, and why he likes it.

You have to come to the table w/a few yourself.

But, dont ask, people to give you something to invest in.   
On an investment forum, you would get beat up, and no one would pay you any mind after that.

lol understood

i'm a noobie to this...and u guys seem experienced atleat ..and i really want that prize it's an ipod touch .. so maybe now you can see my desperation LOL

kk let me open my account and i'll throw some companies your way

EDIT:

ok some companies i like (tell me what you guys think of my reasoning and if you guys like em, if not why, if so why?)

KFT(Kraft Foods) - i like them for one reason, they've done great for me, it's a stable company, buffet bought it;) , and i really think during a recession this is what people will be buying and they have a great line of products and oh i plan to buy some on monday since they've come down a bit

GOOG (GOOGLE) -- one of if not my favourite stock...ALWAYS makes me tons lol ...i love this company, for one thing they're really stable, they're competition is falling very behind, they're always coming out with new stuff, expanding on stuff already there, and all together a great run company, i bought some on friday when it came down...this is how i make money off it..wait for it to come down..buy it...wait for the peak..sell it..i've done this about twice now. For this competition i think it's a great way to make money in a small amount of time

JNJ (johnson and johnson) -- i havent bought it yet..waiting for it to come down, but no explanation neccessary i feel, they have a great product line, always expanding, and buffet bought it

LINE -- winME reommended it i think?, it's done great for me, i don't know much about the company other than it's made me money

AAPL (Apple) -- i was guna buy it, then thought about, was flipping chanels and hit CNBC, there they were talking about apple and how it's not really worth where they are...and they should be coming down to the 120s ...and that kinda makes sense to me...i wanna wait for it to come down even more..and then try my luck with it..other than that..absolutely great company

VMED(virgin media) -- i like the company , it took a hit on thursday i think, and i bought it after it's fall..they're wayy off there 52 week high..and i think it'll be rising..and i bought it..it's been rising so far

MCD(mcdonalds) -- i think during the recession they will beat startbucks, in there little fight..ppl will be turning to mcdonalds for cheaper coffee that might now have the exact same taste as starbucks..but it'll do good for there cravings..but i invested in them once..i pulled out as soon as i made a LITTLE profit..they were doing horrible for me..and if i had stuck in there, i would've lost a lot the next day .so i like to think i made a good move..i'm a little hesitant to buy more of them thought..what do you guys think?? should i buy them?? around what price would you say is a good price for them?

as i said i'm a newbie at this

what's options trading?? , the rules are preety free..you can do almost anything you want

what do you have in mind if options trading is allowed..first of all what is it?

other than that, i get what you mean, but i have no clue as to where to even begin ...

and you're right i am looking for that big bounce and then i sell ..that's my strat .i think it's the only effective one for this competition

Aren't options, like with Apple, if you think in a week it should be lower at around 120, you make a deal with somebody to sell it in 7 days for 130.  Then if you're right that person owes you more than the stock is worth at that time, but if you're wrong he gets the stock at a bargain. Is that options or am I thinking futures?

What you need to do is find what Hillary has in her own name and do that

Option:

I pay (or receive) a premium for the right (or the obligation) to be able to force the owner of the stock to sell to me (or buy from me) at our predetermined price at a future date. 

Give or take, that's about as simple as I can make it - leaves out a bit, but that's good enough

I.E.

Apple is at 100

I think it will go to 120 within a month

You think it will stay where it is.

You sell me an option to buy 100 shares of stock for 100 dollars in a month for 10 dollars per share.

If I am right, and it indeed goes to 120, i force you to sell to me at 100, you keep your premium, and i make 10 dollars per share, or 100% from my original investment by immediately selling - Invest 10 dollars of premium, purchase and sell instantly and 110 and 120, meaning i made another 10 dollars.

There's a picture of the available leverage you can get.

So if you're right, and it stays at 100, then i choose not to exercise my option, because I'd be losing money to do it.  You keep my premium of 10 dollars per share - and you make 1000 dollars since we agreed on 100 shares.  I lose 100%.  There's you the other side of the leverage.

You can use more complex varieties of options to create positions, hedges, spreads, straddles, butterflies, and god knows what else, but we certainly won't be getting into that. 

What i demonstrated above was the two sides of a "call option" - but that's about all you need anyway

"On an investment forum, you would get beat up, and no one would pay you any mind after that."

You New Yorkers...:P

"Your first night on the forum, kid, you gotta flame a troll.  Else you get no respect from nobody."

ok good topic to begin --

Google -- GOOG
on thurday they apparently are going to report there results one day before there april options expire on friday, to top that off google and yahoo are looking for a parnership and yahoo wants this to dodge a takeover by microsoft or atleast drive the price  of the take over up, if that makes any sense..

SO...my question to you guys out there is, do you think after all that google's stocks are guna stay the same, go up, or go down, and elaborate on that!

i bought more google today, and you guys can help me make my decision..the article i read reallly seems to be saying google's very high priced right now and might plunge due to all these factors mixed in, i see it as a risk, either they'll bounce A LOT or they'll drop a lot..i will PROBABLY sell it before thursday, but what do you guys think, i havent made my mind up yet.

for any of you curious the article's here: http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN1435701420080414
oh and BTW i might have mis-understood some parts..but i think i got it right

going up?? really?

i thought i'd be getting flat no's

with recession, poor markets, and microsoft prlly edging out on yahoo and turning yahoo around to really give google a run for there money

i think google stocks will plunge soon ...but interesting to see what you really think about it

Wow, I have realised who completely bad I am at trading stocks, I find myself buying quite random numbers for various corporations and businesses

Banks report this week.

Should be interesting.

Google and Yahoo wont merge.

The Banks will be a surprise.....most are saying numbers are all over.

I think Citibank will not be as bad as all are thinking. 
/me crosses my fingures.