My Investing Notebook :: Learning from the pros; making decisions on my own. ::

OK, you might have noticed that I stopped updating my stock lists. The main reason for that is that it was becoming painful to update the XML file with the picks (that’s how I stored them). I have not given up on stocks — I don’t think that will ever happen. I’m going to make my picks in this Stas on Investing blog, under the My Buy List category.

Investing in stocks is exciting. Although, I have to tell you that I bought some mutual funds and some ETFs, just to diversify a little more. OK, I’ll tell you which ETF I bought in the list below, as I think it is a good time to buy ETFs. What is an ETF? Exchange Traded Fund, that’s the name. It is basically a mutual fund traded like a stock. Get a little more info on ETFs here. I’ll explain how and where I’m putting my money in a seperate, later entry.

Nokia (NOK)   » Communications Equipment: ($13, S&P Rating: 4 stars): I think that it might be a good time to get into buying this wireless equipment leader. This stock got hummered because they missed the analysts’ expectations. However, this is a very good long term play.

Standard & Poor’s Depositary Receipts (SPY)   » S&P Index: ($110): I want to diversify my exposure to stocks a little bit. A good way, I think, is to buy an index fund. This ETF is basically the whole S&P index: it’s like owning every stock in the S&P Index. They have a 0.1% fee, which is low when compared to a reasonable 1% mutual fund fee. Index funds beat all of the mutual funds in the long run — that’s a fact.

Humana Inc (HUM)   » Insurance: ($15.8; S&P Rating: 5 stars): Managed care company that’s oversold. S&P raised its rating on it from 3 to 5 stars (the highest) and they recommend buying it. It went down a lot.