2009 is arriving and I am curious what will be opportunities to invest?
Amid all the mess and meltdowns around, it is an exceptional time which hardly any investment may look safe and reliable, howevr as usual, any crises can also mean opportunity!
I just sort out some investment options be low, so will be nice to have a debate on what sounds better for coming year:

1-Stock

2-Real estate

3-Oil related inv.

4-Precious metals

5-Bonds and similar stuff

6- Inv. Funds

7- Saving account

8- Forex

9- Pillow!

Comments are appreciated.
cheers.

My opinion:
1- 2009 might see bottom of the bear market, however very hard to say. No doubt many governments will make strict rules for fin. inst. so they won't be able to make big short term returns in short period, unlike before. In long term this ma mean lower risk, however we may not see any more, the same return as last decades.

2- CH housing may get influnecne slightly for a while, but it should catch up to normal 2-3% return yearly. UK, US, Spain,.. may see bottom of crash and get again worth of buying, if any loan is attainable. Dubai is seeing correction but it may get interested again late in the year.

3-Oils sounds cheap to me, and in long term I beiliev it will more expensive, though in short term can go down further. Anyway, only 5-10% of price up and down can be due to real supp. demand (which changes very little even in case of recession) but the rest is due to speculations and funds buying and selling it.

4- After near 2.5 decade of stagnation, last a few years Precious metalls doubled but again it is stabilizing.

5- Ah boring as usual, however for low risk takers, bonds and money market funds are an option.

6- Which fund can return better? value, growth, big caps, tech. ...? big questions.

7- Interest rates are low however cash can be the king sometimes.

8-Currency fluctuations are very volatile and even harder than before to predict anything. Personally I see currene rates of USD,EUR and CHF reasonably priced as long term approach.

9- Good for Ikea ! :-)


Welcome to the discussion.

Commodities:
1. Gold
2. Smoke
3. Pancakes

How active do you want to be in managing your investments yourself?

Are we talking our own money or someone else's?

I mean ordinary investor, on our own money.
During last couple of year, professional investors did even worse than average people indeed! Quite many fund managers and bank prof. investors lost even more than main stock indexes. They just followed each other like sheep of the herd.
Main reason can be high greed due to short term incentives and benefits, vs. cautious and long term view of average investors.
Therefore advices from people like us can make more sense than mistaken analysts,...

Buy Kalashnikovs and baked beans.

If you have money, I would just count it for the moment - assuming it's in Swiss francs...

You can't go wrong with this advice

Those who know, ain't telling!

Often telling the others helps to increase the investments! example, buying certain stock or commodity. The more buyers, higher the price.

Previously Turkey wasn't bad, but now?:
Most countires don't want capital flowing out of the country- especially now so they will put all kinds of barriers in the way.

I would say look at countries- it is high risk that why, of course, don't invest!

That sounds like professional investment advice.

Invest in your friends, treat them to a nice dinner or something. Who knows, if things keep going in this direction they might help you find a new job later on - in the unfortunate event that you get down-sized.

Madoff Panzi funds, the place to be

Oh I thought you said 'Mice dinner' '-cause times are getting rough. I have to stop muti-tasking/typing/ reading. I was waiting for someone to mention Madoff Panzi, which charities lost money?

Actually, i would like to do a variation of what I prupose to do on the 'Proper Christmas Dinner thread, which is 10 birds one stuffed in another. I would invite a load of investment bankers after they had eaten, I would bone them then and stuff them one inside the other. It reminds me of a speciality where a tin is buried and the maggots crawl in, but they can't get out. One by one they start to eat each other until only one maggot is left. Then the tin starts knocking, as the big maggot struggles to get free and that's when you dig it up.

10. My own company. I only invest in things I understand and can have influence on...

How does one pronounce "Madoff"? The BBC were pronouncing it as "Made off". How appropriate I thought, as in "Made off with our funds".

P.S. It's Ponzi, not Panzi.

Ponzi Scheme

Well, thanks for that, slightly embarrasing- I thought Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme was a strange name
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/15/bernie-madoff-ponzi-schem_n_151018.html

I believe it is spoken as it looks - mad-off.