In Which We Speak of Monetary Matters

[Metaliturtle]

Well, all of my dividends pay tonight, we will see how many days a year I don't need to work for a paycheck   (I am thinking it will be something like .2 days)

[Unorthodox]

You have any good advice for small-time investing. 

Basically, wondering about my Halloween budget (basically $120 a month, but any games or stuff I buy also comes out of this)  Typically this sits in my checking for months on end doing nothing, then a big splurge of purchasing.  If I were to take, say, $500 and put it somewhere fairly liquid, are there any decent options? 

[Buster's Uncle]

Short-term investments worth doing are inherently risky...

[Unorthodox]

I know it's commonly a joke, but I literally need a pumpkin futures contract. 

[Unorthodox]

Not so much a risk in my case, that.  I'm going to NEED 100+ pumpkins, if I could buy up to 500 of them (would prefer 200-250) now and guarantee delivery for a reasonable price, I can sell off the extras no problem.

[Buster's Uncle]

Talk to a farmer?

[Unorthodox]

The only farm locally I think would do that, I don't negotiate with.  Most the others are just family run little things. 

[Metaliturtle]

UnO, for that I'd tell you to put your money in an online savings account like this one https://www.gecapitalbank.com/en.html
That's where my SHTF money lives.  Nice thing about it is 1% interest with no minimum deposit.  Better than sitting it in Checking anyway.

[Geo]

Well, all of my dividends pay tonight, we will see how many days a year I don't need to work for a paycheck   (I am thinking it will be something like .2 days)

Must've been a pitiful amount since no update came for this.

[Metaliturtle]

It was more like .2 hours... guess I'm working some more

[Rusty Edge]

For what it's worth, I've had success with this approach in recent years, but it's not for small investors- http://www.thinkadvisor.com/2006/12/01/david-a-mallach

To be fair, lots of stock approaches have been profitable since the Great Recession, however, this still goes up when the market is stagnant or correcting.

[Metaliturtle]

What made you decide initially to invest with David, Rusty?

[Rusty Edge]

Our broker retired. We got a younger guy, same office. He was doing the strategy himself, and recommended it to us. I thought that was interesting, because while my dad was the youngest bank president in the history of the county where I was born, and I was around financial talk much of my life, a lot of financial guys want to sell you the products which make them the most money, rather than the ones they use themselves. The broker  made us( me ) read the book first to understand it. The light bulb turned on for me. Markets are more about expectations than fundamentals.

It was an easy sell to my genius wife , who was a big firm public accountant, and then a CAO that worked on a lot of acquisitions. To here it was obvious that stock prices were about expectations, so an investment strategy designed to capitalize on that seemed sound to her.

[Buster's Uncle]

As the point Eddie Murphy's character in Trading Places made, the market's at least half gambling, not all sensible investment.

[Rusty Edge]

Yes. The speculation factor.