Stock Markets Exposed

dummy question about investing?

we all know visa is coming out with an ipo i want in but i am new to investing just started maybe a yr ago and doing alright but i do not have millions of dollers or any connections so if i want visa @ the IPO price it is not going to happen visa is owned by a lot of other banks so if i would buy stock in these "other banks" would the visa ipo drive the other banks stock up or down? i am thinking of buying stock in the smaller banks that own visa like national city(7% share of visa) or should i just wait untill visa hits the market and buy it

Public Comments

1. Have you considered investing in a Canadian bank, for example, CIBC. Because the banking system is drastically different than the one in the states, then the profits are spread out amongst fewer banks (i.e. there are five major banks in Canada - "the big five" - and not all of them use Visa as their major card - well, only one) It's something to consider. I know that CIBC specifically have 381M gain on news of the Visa restucturing. On top of this, Canadian banks are really attractive thanks to the strong Canadian dollar and its economy; not to mention to comparative strength relative to the shakey US situation. The big five are: -Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) - Toronto Dominion (TD) - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) - Bank of Montreal (BMO) - Scotiabank Check it out, do your research, talk to someone who knows something about investing.
2. The first thing you probably ought to do is answer the question,"Why do I want to buy an IPO"? Most are only profitable as short-term trades. Why would you want to buy VISA? Pretty much every thing there is to know about this company is known. Including but not limited to; They are in the financial services sector which is in a strong downtrend, they are in the business of consumer lending at outrageous interest rates (given the current state of the credit markets do you really think this is a company that will be showing strong revenue and earnings growth over the next couple of years)? They and their member banks just lost a major lawsuit to American Express the settlement of which is going to result in many, many, many millions of dollars disappearing from their balance sheets and ending up in Amexs' accounts. The smartest thing for you to do at this time is keep your money in cash. The key to money management is not loosing it. You don't buy stocks because there is a possibility of a significant rise in price. You buy because you have determined that there is a strong probability of a significant rise in price. I don't see that here.