The Trials and Tribulations of Online Stock Trading, Part 1 -- Getting a Good Starting Point

I am going to clue you in on something: if you know how to play fantasy sports, stock trading is not that bad. I was always interested in investing in stocks as far back as 1999 when I was a college student. Even then, I remember asking my good friend Diggory's father about it. He was a good stock man and was playing with mutual funds, IRAs, and just regular stocks. I couldn't get in the game back then for money reasons. It seemed to me that you had to have at least five thousand to start with, if you really wanted to do anything. I was very close of getting into the Vanguard 5000 back then with help of my parents' money, but I decided against it since I would have had no real flexibility. I'd just put the money in and leave it alone. Unfortunately, Internet stock trading was just crawling onto the scene and I would have to wait ten years to get my chance again.

Now fast forward to 2009 and I -- let's refer to me as Mr. Potter -- have lots of free time on my hands! Not that I had a choice in the matter. Anyway, I decided to try my hand in stocks. I got some advice from some of my friends that were already mixed up in online stock trading. My friend Ron helped me immensely with deciding which stock website to go with. I mean, if you think about it, there are tons to chose from: Share builder, Etrade, CharlesSchwab, Zecco etc. I decided to go with Zecco. Ron told me it was the best of both worlds, you can trade as much as you want and they only charge you $4.50 a trade. Not to mention if you make 25 trades a month you get 10 free trades the next month. For me though, best of all, was there was no minimum to invest with so I started off with $500 of my own money while borrowing some from my father-in-law, my father and my brother. With my wife Ginny's blessing, I was on my way! The first advice came from my good friend Hagrid. We had both been doing fantasy basketball for years now and he gave me the best piece of advice. He said, "Treat stocks like fantasy basketball pickups! Look at Stats, word of mouth, daily news and trends to decide what stocks to pick up and what not to touch." Ron also told me not to get involved with a stock you know nothing about. A rule I would break later on.

I had a good framework and some confidence, but I was left ultimately asking myself, "What stocks should I go for first?" First I had to decide, "Was I a long term kind of guy?" Would I buy a stock that's low today and look at it five years later, praying it went up, or would I be a daytrader, looking to make quick profits and taking small gains. In the end, I cheated myself, saying "I can do both!" Well let me tell you, you CAN'T! Actually let me correct that. You can if you have the money, but if you're a guy with $800 to start with, then you can't. Anyway, I got my first stock tip from my friend Percy who has been a good friend of mine since my high school days. He had been mixed up with stocks for years and told me that banks were the way to go. For my first transactions, I bought 25 shares of Citigroup, Inc. and 25 shares of Ford. Both of those stocks took me on a crazy rollercoaster ride. They taught me not to get greedy and to take profits when you can. The last stock I purchased is the one I'll tell you about in Part 2 of this blog. My buddy Ron told me about it: AUY aka Yamana Gold, Inc. It saved my bacon in the early stages.

The Agony of Being a NY Mets Fan Part 2 How I would Fix the NY Mets

So what's the answer? I know, as many Mets fans out there do, we all have our theories. For me though, first you have to decide: is this a win now team, or a team that needs rebuilding? Personally, I think it's a win now team, if for no other reason then the fact that Santana, Beltran, your two best players, are in their prime at 30-plus years of age. With that in mind, I would say to myself as owner "We are a win now team. So let's spend and give it our best shot, even if we have to eat some contracts and over-pay a bit." So here is my plan for the 2010 New York Mets.

• I would try to trade Castillo and eat some of his contract. It's only for two years now and he had a good bounce back season so a team should want his services.
• I would undo a terrible wrong and sign Orlando Hudson like we should have done.
  
• I would make Murphy our full time 1st baseman with no excuses, maybe just a utility man to give him a day off every three weeks (Tatis?).
• I would seriously see what the market is for Jose Reyes and if I can get some major pieces for him, I would move him (It hurts me to say it. I mean I have the guy's autographed baseball, so I'm not a Reyes-hater).
• I would look over our entire outfield. Jeff Francoeur looks like a player so I would give him a full season. For left field, I would make my first major off-season acquisition and sign Matt Holiday
  
• With Beltran's status up in the air, I would go two ways. If he's good to go but has to miss some of the beginning of the season, I would use a stopgap player (Pagan?). If he's out for 2010, I would start looking for a major league centerfielder (Wells, Crawford, Bay?).
• As for catcher, I would keep Santos. He's a solid backup but for our starting catcher, I would go after Benji Molina as a stopgap until we go after Victor Martinez or Joe Mauer in 2011.
  
• As for the rotation, Santana is a given. Aside from trades, I would sign John Lackey, release Maine and Livan, put Neise in and give him the whole season, and try to move Perez. Then I'd go after Bedard or try to trade for Kazmir, Holiday or Webb.
• As for our GM, I would give him one more year with free reign to spend what he wants for that season. It's make or break for him.
  
• And the Manager.....well I could give Manuel one more shot.. or I could go after Bobby V with an all-star squad Hummmm?
  

In the end, those are just fantasy dreams, like any other Mets fan. After daydreaming, you open your eyes. You remember that you are a Mets fan. This is your team and you know what you're going to expect from them, don't you? But you hold out hope with the simple phrase in the back of your head repeating: "Hey! If I make it through these tough years and all this suffering, it's going to be so sweet when they win it all!" I never believed that until the Giants won it all two years ago and that phrase was proven true to me. So I say to all those Mets fans like me: keep watching with "cautious worry," and think, hey it could be worse, we could be talking about the New York Knicks.... oh don't get me started on them!!

The agony of being a NY Mets fan Part 1 Why they suck!

Well what is there to say about being a Mets fan since the late 80s? Simply put it's...... as I like to put it "cautious worry." If only I knew that the catch by Endy Chavez was gonna be the pinnacle of this cast of characters, or if I knew that Mike Hampton being held up by all of his teammates as fireworks echoed at old Shea, was going to the the high note for the Mike Piazza lead teams. Then I would have enjoyed it more but I didn't...why? because I am a Mets fan and I'm always cautiously worried until that last pitch is thrown. That's not to say I don't get pumped up on a big home run or a game winning hit cause. I do. It's just that underneath it all, I am just waiting for that ball to drop. I have been around the block so many time with this franchise that I know it's always gonna be a battle to the death and it's not gonna be a laugher unless we're the ones getting blown out.

It's not just that though, cause I'm sure there are other franchises with bad times in their history. Even the mighty New York Yankees were awful in the late 80s. That is not what sets the Mets apart from other franchises where their fans are left to ask every season "what just happened?" or "You have got to be kidding me!" I think ultimately what tortures this franchise is that we the fans are left scratching our heads on all aspects of this franchise, from the owners to public relations to the scouting to the GM and Manager, and of course, the players. Whether it's the notorious name of our owner "Fred Coupon" or having a press conference to announce that Mike Piazza is not gay or our GM always saying during the off season "Well I didn't see a player that we could get for fair market value...you know what I'm saying? But this does leave us to make a major upgrade before the trade deadline cause now we have flexibility," then the trade deadline comes and goes and he tells us "Well, based on the market and the asking prices we didn't feel there was big impact value for us to part with any of our prospect chips" Huh? So conceivably, our crafty GM can say this every year! I mean, if you don't want to over-pay and you don't want to give up chips, then what are your options? Should I even start to get into the team's Medical Staff? Why bother, I mean I can write a whole blog on that alone!

Then, of course, there is our faithful Skipper, who I cant lie isn't that bad, but to be honest, he is nothing to write home about either. I mean whether it's him laughing up a storm with the media (which I know loves him) while the team losses it eighth in a row, or his patented "putting a player who just got called up that day right into a key spot to make or break a game" and more times than not he fails. His statements that don't mean anything, however, are the best. I remember watching a spring training press conference with excitement and him saying "Hey if you produce, you play. It's that simple." Well I don't know about you, but remember Ryan Church was producing and then the Skipper benched him for like 4 games and he was never the same. The same can be said about poor Daniel Murphy. I mean, I don't understand. The guy goes on a 5-game hit streak, he has two doubles in his last game and then the Skipper benches him because the team is up against a lefty? I don't know, but last I checked, Murphy is actually pretty good against lefties.

Anyway, last but not least, our players. If it's not Wright not coming up with a clutch hit or Church missing a bag or Murphy falling in the outfield or yup, Castillo dropping the game ending can of corn catch.... yeah I know all you Mets fans remember that one. I mean I can go on and on. I mean what more can I say, this is the only franchise that screws up the unveiling of a new ballpark! Jeez can we have a statue or two? I'll even settle just for a few more Mets logos around the ballpark. Also, last but not least, do we have to be the baseball franchise with the lowest number of retired numbers? What do we have, TWO?? And the last two numbers that we have are for a building and a number that all teams had to retire! I mean, you can't make this stuff up! Mr. Wilpon, can we at least retire players that won us a championship? Like Carter, Keith, Doc and Strawberry and not to mention Piazza, who resurrected a dead franchise? Or how bout Koosman for Godsakes!

Stay Tuned for part 2 of my story where we will answer "How do we fix the Mets?"