Airline stocks
 

XJT stock at 81cents.... RAH stock down 60%..... where is the bottom here.??

I am almost tempted to buy 500 shares of XJT as a "flyer".... hell if it ever went back to even 2 bucks a share..... would pay for a nice weekend vacation...

Herc,
Take it from me. Stay FAR away from airline stocks. Much better ways to fund the family vacation.

$0.00 in bankruptcy.

Stay away............................far away...............................

Invest overseas!

All of the same people probably said the same thing in 2002 when AMR was at $2.00. I personally don't think we are at the bottom, but if you want a really long term investment, I would shop some airline stocks.

oh I was just throwing it out there.... the only airline stock I ever owned... and will have every directly owned was TWA back in the day.....never again.

There is a lot to be made or lost with airline stocks...... Personally I have been riding the bounces of one airline and it has worked out nicely. I work on 10-20% gain/loss as the sell/buy goals. I don't really look for the actual high/low.

I use the down by 8%, up by 16% sell method.
Always keeping in mind "Pigs get fat, Hogs get slaughtered

i know what you are saying.

pinnacle stock: in one year has gone from 21.00 to 3.32

skywest stock: in one year has gone from 29.00 to 12.68

northwest stock: in one year has gone from 24.00 to 5.35

delta stock: in one year has gone from 21.00 to 4.80

i know several guys here at pinnacle who think now is the time to buy some pinnacle stock. if we do get a contract and delta says we can keep flying with them that should give the stock a boost. even if it just went up to 10 dollars you just tripled your earnings. i knew several people that bought a lot of our stock after nwa filed for bk and bought our shares at a couple dollars a piece. then when we signed the new contract with nwa it went from 3 dollars to 21 over night.

What are you using as your trigger points to get in or out?

Uhhh........WHAT? Long term as in hopefully your great grandkids will possible benefit.

There is a biiiiggg difference between AMR at $2 and XJT at .80.... Put $500 on XJT if you can afford to lose it all. Quotes for AAI, ALK, AMR, ... - Yahoo! Finance
As of 11am, everyone is up 5-10% except XJT which is down 10%...
Airlines arent good long term investments. If you bought AMR 4 yrs ago then you would have lost $1.30/share compared to todays price.

i think skywest at $13 and Delta under $6 is a steal. buy it, theyre not going bk

ANY airline stock is a crapshoot. My financial guy has had standing orders (for years) to not buy airline stocks.

There is nothing about their past performance that would make one believe thay are a good long-term investment, and there is certainly no reason to be optimistic looking forward.

The industry is just too fragile, and subject to too many outside forces. It is not reliably predictable, and it can change dramatically overnight...or in an hour as happened seven years ago.

If you want to use it is a short-term speculative vehicle, sure why not...any equity wich goes up and down can be used for that. Pretty much like betting on the NBA playoffs. Plus since you have some industry knowledge and connections, you MIGHT be able to see something coming before the rest of the speculators.

But if you must dabble in airline equities, PLEASE do not bet the farm on your own company...
1) You are emotionally biased...ie you will probably make stupidly optimistic decisions.
2) When your company takes a big hit, you will be downgraded/furloughed AND lose your savings.

Again speculate if you can afford to, but no long-term nest-egg investments.

while i wont go as far as to say they are not going to go bk (although i don't think they will, oops ended up saying it anyway) you are right that this is a steal. i don't think their stock will go to much lower. now may be the time to buy some up, let it peak out and the sell.

you are right. the industry is fragile. and the airline stocks are never good for long term investments. but i would use it right now because i think pinnacle along with skywest have bottomed out. it would be a good time to buy some, look for the peak, and then sell it all and take the profits.

I have been playing with DAL, last buy was just above $5, I normally sell between 10%-20% gain. I then wait for the stock to decline from my sell point by at least 10% and then depending on oil I buy back in. As with anything there is a risk but so far it is paying out...... I would not consider any airline stock for a long term objective, heck I hardly view any stock right now as long term!

rick,

skw pilots still get something like a 25% discount on skyw stock correct? if thats currently the case you guys should be seriously buying it up, as much as possible

You can contribute up to 15% of your pay. At the end of the half, they look at the closing price on the first day and the last day and we get a 15% discount off the lower of the two.

I agree no airline is a long term investment, But if you get lucky you can make some quick cash. You just have to get up early in the morning and watch the Foreign markets. Most of the time you can get a good feel for ours unless there is a jobs report or a fed meeting that day.

It's not that good of a deal (see above) but the even if it were, what happens to SKW stock if UAL enters BK? More than a 25% drop I'd wager...along with your downgrade or furlough.

Maybe short-term, but in this environment I consider that to mean weeks.

Man, even short term trades in airline stocks (day or swing trade), unless you are using technical indicators in addition to Level II quotes, is a complete gamble (they call it dumb money). Can you make money without? Yes but its luck and if your in to gambling go to Vegas........at least you can get free drinks while you're at it!!!!

That is exactly what the market is, a gamble. You just hope that your decision is correct, because most of the time you base your trades on what sectors or analyst are saying or doing and what the future holds. If you really what to gamble play options, the payoff is bigger. Sometimes!
The free drinks are nice!

If you base your trades on what analysts are saying then you are exactly the fool they like to see. The problem is there is very much a way to take the gamble out of trading stocks and minimizing risk but it takes a bit of study and some bucks to do it (unless you are hired by a firm that will teach you). Most folks aren't interested in doing this so yes, it remains a gamble for 90% in the market.

Hope y'all are shorting the airlines today, oil is up almost $4 already

I agree! Doing homework and smart trading is the only way to make money. Thanks to goog, aapl, smp, rimm and a few others I paid for flight school.

G,

I assume you weren't anywhere near that incident in Belgium?

rick, no i wasnt there (im on mil leave right now for c17 upgrade) but im glad the crew made it out without any serious injuries. n704ck was a great airplane, one of my favorites, well maintained and clean inside and out.

Glad to hear it, have fun with the upgrade.

I would rather just invest in the companies that the airlines and other industries HAVE TO USE. Plus companies that have Dividends are always great (Free money) I mean really why buy and airline when you can buy Boeing? (plus has a military contract) Or say JP Morgan, who has one of the big stake in Oil when that goes up. Hell why not invest in the QQQQ. How many priius are going to start selling this summer when gas hits over $5 or $6 a gal.

For me I would rather put my money in the long term gaining dividends and not having to pay taxes on short term trades and just collect and reinvest for more dividends down the road.

My question would be how high does gas have to go before we start actually riding the bus to work, or riding our bikes.

It is tempting to ride my bike nowadays.

Ive started taking a bus to the airport for my trips. It is 110 miles round trip and the bus offers 5 round trips per month for $93. My only regret is that I didnt start taking the bus sooner! Having that extra hour to sleep on the way to/from work is priceless, and cheaper than driving.

Ride the Bus
 

Before much longer everyone will be riding the bus and just skip the airplane altogether. It seems that trains will also be big in the future.

Maybe in 10 years this site will be called "Tran and Bus Driver Central".

SkyHigh

hahah thats great. Its a sad day when its cheaper to fly then drive.............

Not likely. Buses are too slow for long distances. Fast trains require massive infrastructure which becomes very expensive after a few hundred miles. The Euros and Japanese can justify it because their major population centers are very close together...try to run to numbers on a maglev from LAX to DEN (don't forget an extra 250 Billion dollars to drill a straight tunnel through the rockies.

High speed trains are also a security problem...you can't protect thousands of miles of track. Airliners are are only vulnerable from the outside if you can hit a high-speed target in the T/O or final approach phase...with a very powerful weapon (hand-held = too small). With a train, you don't have to hit the vehicel, just the track. A mortar round or satchel charge would probably derail a high-speed train...and at 300 mph that's the same as the wings coming off a plane: smoking hole.

http//:www.alaron.com
 

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