SO,

what do you think is a good enough investment in Sony right now to guarantee some profit in the mid-term or long term? 5000~6000 dollars sounds good? (I'm a college student; that's about as much as I can afford to invest;  also, I would expect 30 to 40 grand a year) Or do you think I need to do a little bit more? Furthermore, when would you think is the best time to invest???

He must rank very low in MS astroturfing courses...   

The funny thing is that the more ballmerboyz gloat about PSN breach and brag about the presumed security they think they are paying for, the more the probability of malicious hackers feeling challenged and attacking XBL too increases. It's like they totally ignore MS has a record long several decennia  of repairing very late (even years!) the holes in its products... For some reasons MS manages to get away with it without ever pay for damages, but Windows, Office and IE's scarce security are jointly responsible (with the ones actually committing the attacks, obviously) of the vast majority of breaches, thefts and other misdeeds and crimes committed in Internet (and they also managed to create dangers outside of the net, think about those highly vulnerable Windows based Diebold ATMs some years ago, for example).

Working as a business analyst myself i'd advise you to hold on to that money until the organisations investigating Sony have backed off i.e Homeland security, ICO, FBI, Senate, CPCI, the Iowa, Connecticut, Florida and Massachusetts attorneys generals, The Federal Trade Commission and all the European groups etc.

Because while users of this website try to portray a "it is no big deal" attitude the reality is it really is. Regardless of if credit cards were stolen or not personal data was stolen. That is fact. And the various investigations will determine if Sony did all they could to protect that data. If it is seen that they didn't then they could end up in deep deep shit. Fines/Lawsuits/Bans/Criminal investigations and so on. All that will have massive affect on share prices.

So i'd hold off until things start to die down. Right now things will get worse before they get better.

But when will be the best time to invest in Sony stock?  And what should we invest?

i have called Nsanity out on things like this (mostly worse things than this), thats about it.

you can check my post history if youd like.

theres very little if any unreasonable things i have said

edit:

is the bolded even a word. i believe the word is regardless.

ok.. there is a guy who seems to want to put ALL his free money into a single share and you advise.. To start with, if you really were a business analyst, you'd tell him that "putting all one's eggs into a single basket" (or whatever the correct term ist in english) is a complete no-no in every business school I know of...

(Reuters) - Shares of Sony rose on Monday, a day after the firm said it would resume some services on its PlayStation Network this week and offer customer incentives following the theft of personal information belonging to 78 million users.

Many PlayStation users around the world have been angered after the first warning of one of the largest Internet security break-ins ever came a week after Sony detected a problem with the network on April 19.

Shares in Sony were 2 percent higher at 2,306 yen in early trade on Monday, after tumbling 4.5 percent Thursday. Tokyo markets were closed Friday.

Sony said on Sunday it would offer some free content, including 30 days of free membership to a premium service to existing users and in some regions pay credit card-renewal fees, but added compensation would only be paid if users suffered damage.

The news sparked thousands of comments on the official PlayStation fan page on Facebook, some of them from users who said they would switch to Microsoft's Xbox Live games network.

The incident has sparked legal action and investigations by authorities in North America and Europe, home to almost 90 percent of the users of the network, which enables gamers to download software and compete with other members.

Sony is the latest Japanese company to come under fire for how it has disclosed bad news.

Tokyo Electric Power Co was criticized for how it handled the nuclear crisis after the March 11 earthquake. Last year, Toyota Motor Corp was slammed for being less than forthright about problems over a massive vehicle recall.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/02/us-sony-idUSTRE73R0Q320110502

I know plenty of people who put their eggs all in one basket.... The reality is you are gambling. Some call it by different names but that is what it is. If you spread your money out then most of the time losses in some of your investments will be countered by gains in another. Meaning there is a high chance of breaking even. If you have it in just one then your either lose money or gain more money then you invested. You don't play the market by following a "have to spread the investments" rule. Its like betting on a horse race. You normally have an amount your ok with losing. You then look at the guide and gain an idea of how the horses have done in recent history. Have a look to see what it has coming up in its future and see what competitors it has. After all that you place your bet on one of those horses. Business is exactly the same. If there is bad news stock falls. If there are good news i.e new product then they rise. If there is a scandal then they fall. If they have things over-shadowing them then there is a further possible fall ahaead. If you say bought a share for £1 now and then next week one of those investigators found something to incriminate Sony which could lead to a multi-million fine then the share could fall further. Next week it could be worth 80p meaning you lost 20% already. Meaning stock needs to then grow again by 20% just to get back to even.

However if you bought your shares when they were at the 80p and after the investigations you stand a higher chance of gains on your investment. A good example of this is the BP incident. Shares fell fast as the investigation loomed and once they got their fine they bottomed out. They went from 80 in 08 to about 22 at the end of the incident in 10. 4 months later and they are at 46 and continue to re-rise. If you bought them at their lowest you would of already have gained 100%, his £5000 would be worth over £10000 now. That is the gamble you take. Having it in various different companies does not lessen that gamble.

So this would be a good time to invest in Sony if you want long term profit then, since all the day traders are moving out