A Reader Writes "Can you tell me a little about it (Stock clubs)?"
Hello Friends! Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog, Stock Picks Bob's Advice. As always, please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please remember to consult with your professional investment advisors prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.

I very much enjoy receiving email from all of you readers! As I have mentioned earlier, I read all of the notes I get and try to respond to as many as possible. If any of you have comments or questions, please feel free to post them right here on the blog or email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com.

Matt P. responded to my JDSU comments posted earlier on the blog with another question. Matt wrote:

Bob,
I'm quite impressed with what you wrote about JDSU, what you said
made good sense. I'm going to start using more of your analysis
techniques. I'm a little wet behind the ears when it comes to stock
investing. I haven't had much luck with it since I don't have a ton
of time to devote to doing real research. You mentioned in your blog
that you belong to a stock club. Can you tell me a little bit about
it? I'd be interested in looking into something like that.

Thanks again!

Matt
PS: I read your article after I placed my trade! Haha, looks like
your advice so far is right too! Its down about 9 cents a share from
when a bought it.

Now that is a whole new discussion!

I can tell you a little bit about my club and I will point you over to the Better Investing Website which is a good place to start in learning about stock clubs. Our club is not actually a NAIC member, but they have a great strategy for newbies in the stock club arena.

My stock club is a group of about 9 members. We have eight guys and one gal, although I would really like to see us get a bit more diverse :). I hate to use stereotypes, but I think women and men seem to overall have slightly different perspectives in stock evaluation and management.

I joined about nine years ago, and I 'bought in' with a several thousand dollar investment to become a partner in the club. We hire H&R Block to get our taxes done each year, and do this out of the assets of the club. Since the buy-in is becoming a discouragement for new members, we have made this a stock type arrangement, with individual members owning different % of the club. In this way, we can offer new members the opportunity of buying in with only $1,000 instead of the larger amound if they had to buy a full "partnership."

Each month, we sit down after work and review the current holdings, kick in another $100, which is our monthly contribution, and decide if we want to buy or sell anything. One of the members is a treasurer and another monitors our holdings with some excellent spread sheets. It helps if you have a memember with a good accounting, or computer background.

We have tried to develop a schedule of presentations. Each month a member usually (?) presents a stock and another a topic to discuss in regards to investing. We have been using "Point & Figure" charts in the club and this was my first introduction to this way of recording price movement, which I now feel is quite helpful in understanding stock charts.

Originally, we used a traditional broker to make transactions. That became quite costly, and when we realized we could get all the charts we wanted on Stockcharts.com, we switched over to Fidelity.com where we save substantially on commissions.

Let me know if that answers your question! I would visit that Better Investing website and look further into stock clubs on the web as there are many resources available.

Bob