Have You Ever Invested in a Media Pumped Stock? No link.

JohnChisum

A weekend question. Stocks I consider as media-pumped include Panera Bread, Corinthian Colleges, Buffalo Wild Wings and Chipotle Mexican Grill to name a few.

Focusing on CNBC, these stocks might get their first recommendation from Jim Cramer, then during the course of a day will get mentioned several times by various other hosts. These stocks won't change the world but you would think they had just invented perpetual motion by some of their share prices.

scott

I'm long a very small amount of MBLY.

Absolutely not the kind of thing I usually go for, but the product actually serves a real need and they hold a majority of the market share.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-03/mobileye-gains-as-morgan-stanley-says-shares-may-double.html

JohnChisum

Something like MBLY I can see as it is a forward thinking company. Restaurant stocks are another thing altogether.

I haven't watched CNBC for a few months so I didn't know they were pushing MBLY.

Mark

FWIW, no. By the time the media hypes it the investing value is usually gone.

MJG

Hi Guys,

No, I have never succumbed to the investment advice of either well intentioned tipsters who I consider are just vested interest promoters or are outright charlatans. But my Dad did, and that was a lasting learning experience.

In the mid-1950s, my Dad was a dedicated radio fan with pencil in hand to Walter Winchell's Sunday broadcasts. Winchell gave stock tips that my father dutifully noted and then purchased the next Monday. These stocks were typically low price and thinly traded. Prices were up by the time my Dad acted. There were winners, but there were more losers, especially when costs were factored into the analysis. Later, Winchell was accused of front-running.

Much later ( like in the early 1980s), my Dad and I went to a Joe Granville investment extravaganza. It was an emotional show with Granville bouncing around the stage with the energy of a madman. He was absolutely positive that he held the key to stock selection and market direction secrets. He promised to make his loyal audience wealthy. By that time my Dad had learned his lessons well, and insisted that Granville was merely a terrific entertainer, but a deeply flawed investment guru.

I'm confident enough about my own financial knowledge and shortcomings, and in sufficient behavioral control, to make my own investment mistakes. That way, I know exactly who to blame.

I almost never watch the business news shows, thus avoiding any rapid fire temptations.

Best Wishes.

Tampabay

MSFT on Windows 8 and their own tablet, looking for a double and got peanuts,
moved on not losing anything..but time(value of money)

PRESSmUP

During the dot.com bubble I got caught up in the the trade with JDSU, which many on CNBC were touting, including the late Joe Battipaglia who said JDSU stood for "Just don't sell us".

I should have.

I made alot of money, and then lost it. It was an education, though a bit costly. If you screw up, you'd better learn something as a result. It prompted my shift to divi payers on the stock side, otherwise known as "stocks my dad would buy". He was smarter than I ever realized...

slick

I bought PLUG which was a momentum stock in late 2013 and early 2014. A friend of mine was familiar with the company, and although it was regularly panned by Cramer, I got in before it peaked and promptly got out to make a 45% return. I do have about 5% of my portfolio in smaller stocks, but never go over that amount. By far it was the most specualtive stock I have bought. I do have WWAV, which is regularly mentioned on Cramer's show, and heard about it I think on his show about a year ago, but did not buy it until 6 months ago. It is doing well, but as a spinoff of Dean Foods, I don't consider it as speculative as some that get mentioned on his show.