$1500 to spend, what should I buy?

[Jordan]

Find a company you like, with a product you understand, and use some free online tools to scan for a reasonably valued company.

I bought Hormel stock with some Christmas bonus money because they manufacturer food that people seem to eat, not to mention Spam.

The stock is not going to do anything whacky, but it is up around 15% for me and pays a small dividend (about 2% yield).

The last thing I would buy right now are PMs. If I had $1,500 of cash right now, I would wait until people are freaking out about the stock market falling, and watch as a good stock like Hormel gets dragged down with the dogs, and buy it then.

If we get some herd selling, good stocks get taken along for the ride, and that's when you can buy some good companies with great yields.

Repeating solid advice. Dividends are fantastic right now, and considering the upside in capital gains, I'd take a dividend stock over any fixed income.

Since its only 1500, I would put it in UGL Pro Shares Double Gold ETF which I own, or buy up some oil etf.
Oil prices are a bit stagnant now, but its been doing 5-8% lower than prices earlier this year, and probably is a great buy opportunity, and might be awhile before it picks up some steam.

Even if gold goes up 100% in the next year you're going to lose your ass unless it does it in a completely straight line, day in and day out.

you can open up an account at oanda.com and you can trade gold. It is paper and the spread is 30 cents or so, but you can go long up to 50:1 I believe. Its better than paying paying for leverage though, and there is no time decay(options) or negative compounding(leveraged ETFs).

Gold and silver are 30:1 through Oanda. So are their "exotic" plays and currency pairs. It's a moot point, though. Not much of a difference in 30:1 or 50:1 for long term plays.

Playing spot through Oanda is a much better idea than buying options or leveraged ETFs if you're in it for the long haul.

 

[Jordan]

Silver nor gold are anywhere near all time highs. Gold is nominally, but in terms of inflation adjusted value it is no where near all time high's...Silver is even further away from it's all time highs...Silver has been severly underbought/under priced for a while and it is STARTING it's correction upwards.

We're talking about 1500$ going into a very good base savings/investment. It is one of the lowest risk moves you can make going into PM in this type of market.

Yahoo is trading at 1/6th of its all time high. That's a buy all the way to $120, right?

Houses in some places are trading at a 1/3 of their all time high. That's a buy, right?

All time highs and lows are records, and just records. Just as you wouldn't expect a major league baseball player to hit .400 after doing it one season, you shouldn't expect that your investments will always return to their peak performance.

 

[Travlyr]

Junk silver.

Silver was used as money for what... five or six thousand years... up until 1964. It's a good bet that silver will make a strong comeback... as soon as the counterfeiting ends.

 

[Seraphim]

Yahoo is trading at 1/6th of its all time high. That's a buy all the way to $120, right?

Houses in some places are trading at a 1/3 of their all time high. That's a buy, right?

All time highs and lows are records, and just records. Just as you wouldn't expect a major league baseball player to hit .400 after doing it one season, you shouldn't expect that your investments will always return to their peak performance.

That was not my point. I was countering someone who said gold IS at all time highs and thus should be avoided. I was not using that argument as a FOR PM's, merely showing someone elses advice was not based on fact or historically accurate measures of value.

 

[fatjohn]

A plane ticket