Is Your Garage Full Of Junk?
I have a 2-car garage. There are nice shelves on one side and a good practical workbench with a vice on the other side. Plenty of room for 2 cars yet I have to be careful when I pull in so I won't run over stuff stacked on each side. Sound familiar?
Kinda reminds me of the investment portfolio of many people. Full of junk. If I threw out almost all of that stuff I really wouldn't miss it. For whatever crazy reason I still have a stock certificate of 100 shares for a copper mine in Cuba. You know how much that is worth. Fortunately, I don't have any of those now defunct dot.com company shares.
Oh, I did own a lot of technology issues in 1999 and into 2000, but when they started down I put in my stop-loss orders and someone bought them from me. I sure hope he still doesn't have them. Some have no value at all now and others are worth less than 10% of their high prices. I remember Priceline.com when it went to $104 and then took a nosedive to $2.00. I even made a nice profit in the mutual fund Janus 20 that took off from $40 and went to $93. Today it is $37. The Buy and Hold crowd have become the Buy and Prey people. Needless to say your broker did not call you to sell out with a profit. No, he said, "Don't worry the market always comes back". Maybe not in your lifetime.
I have not been very careful about keeping the junk out of my garage, but I have not collected many pretty stock certificates that have no value. Once each month I have taken about 15 minutes to see what is going on with my money. That is what is supposed to take care of me when I do not choose to work any more and I know Social Security is not going to be enough.
When that bull market was raging I made sure that I was not going to give back the profits I made. I placed following loss limits on each of my securities every month. You really should do it weekly, but I did not seem to have the time. A good friend of mine taught me to place what is called Good 'Til Cancelled Stop-Loss Orders. The are also called GTC stop orders. This has been the difference in my having more money in my retirement account today. If I had not done this I would have less than half of what I have now. Don't let that happen to you.
If you have a lot of worthless securities or those that are still going down I think you should give serious consideration to cleaning out that portfolio and putting those funds in a cash money market account until you can find something that will make you some money.
You can live with a messy garage, but you can't live with no money in your retirement account. Clean out the weak ones now before they become worthless.
Al Thomas' book, "If It Doesn't Go Up, Don't Buy It!" has helped thousands of people make money and keep their profits with his simple 2-step method. Read the first chapter at http://www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why he's the man that Wall Street does not want you to know.
Copyright 2005
al@mutualfundstrategy.com; 1-888-345-7870
More Resources
Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exitingMore Stocks & Mutual Funds Information:
Related Articles
Peer Groups
Whenever I see mutual fund comparisons in the trade publications and in the financial section of the newspaper they almost always mention a specific fund and tell you how good it is in relation to its peer group. A peer group is a specialized sector of mutual funds that all invest in about the same type of stocks or areas of the world or size of companies or some such categorization.
Long Term Investing
In his wonderful book, 'Multiple Streams of Income', best selling author Robert Allen advises Investors to divide their Stock Market investment and trading capital into three portions -50% invested long term (forever) in an Index Fund, 30% invested in Accelerated Stock strategies and 20% in options or high risk investment strategies.This article will discuss long term investing and how technical analysis can alert us to points in time when it is prudent to take profits and exit the Stock market.
I Love You, Warren Buffet
Sometime around 1980, can't remember exactly, there was a flight of money from many countries to Switzerland. The clock makers had so much money pouring in that the banks took interest rates to zero and even for a period of time were actually making you pay ½% interest to them to put your money in their banks.
The Secret Method to Selecting a Winning Trading System
Every successful trader has a winning system. There are of course, as many systems out there, as there are traders.
Invest In The Stock Market For The RIGHT Reason, Using The RIGHT Choices
Invest in the stock market for the RIGHT reason, using the RIGHT choices!Investing in the stock market is not purchasing a stock at 25 dollars a share, hoping it will go to 35 so you can sell it, then hoping it will drop back to 25 so you can buy it back, so that you can sell it again at 35, and so on and so forth.In my opinion, that is gambling.
Discover the Retirement Breakthrough the Federal Government Created for You - The Roth IRA!
If you don't know what a Roth IRA is then stop everything, print this article and read it carefully as this will certainly be the most valuable information you read this year. This next retirement account is to your net worth what light bulb was to electricity.
Whos Calling?
Its dinnertime and the phone rings. It's Joe Noname with SuchNSuch Investment Company and has he got a deal for you.
Mutual Fund Ball and Chain
The broker told me not to sell because the mutual fund I owned had a 2% redemption fee and they would penalize me if I did.I got to thinking about it and did some simple math to see what that would cost me if I sold.
Trading Tips No 2: The Big Lie in the Stock Market
It is commonly reported that the stock market averages about 10% per year return over the long term (decades). So the investor that buys and holds a diversified portfolio of stocks or mutual funds is led to believe that their portfolio will grow by 10% per year on average.
Two for the Money
Look back over the years and try to remember how many different stocks and mutual funds you have owned. Suppose you had owned only 2 different equities during that entire time.
Stock Trading - Daddy, Why Arent We Rich?
One Saturday morning, while he was sitting at his computer studying the market, David's 7 year old daughter came up, tugged at his shirt sleeve, and said, "Daddy, why aren't we rich?" He looked his child in the eye, and thought to himself, what a great question - Why aren't we rich?As she stood there expectantly waiting for an answer, he struggled to come to terms with the realization that, although he had focused his complete attention on trying to create wealth for more than 10 years, he had never actually made any real headway.He had bought and sold many Stocks and several properties over those years, but had never made any real money.
The I Word is Coming to a Town Near You
Hello Inflation, it has been awhile, I see you on your way back again. Inflation? What inflation? Oh things like; Energy, diesel fuel, Aviation Fuel, Gasoline, Natural Gas, Milk, Wheat, Corn, Beef, Poultry, Hogs, Soy Beans, Building materials, paper, housing, Auto Prices, Health Care, Insurance, etc.
Adding Funds
Someday you may want to retire and continue to live in the life style to which you have become accustomed. According to conventional wisdom you will need less money because you will have fewer expenses than when you had to go to the office every day.
Why This Bear?
People are constantly asking me why is the stock market going down. What is causing this bear market? It is relatively simple so don't ask an economist.
Commoditizing the world
Let's discuss commodities; with the latest Enron situation, it is important to understand the way things work. A commodity is anything useful, especially a transportable agricultural product or mining product.
Direction
It is difficult to make money in a bull market, but what do you do when you are in a bear market? In what direction should you go not only to make money but to protect what you have from loss?Almost immediately investors think what should I buy that will help me reach my financial goals? This answer may not be the one you will like. It is really not important what you buy as long as you know the rules of the game - the stock market game.
Exchange Traded Funds Primer
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are a group of passive index funds that trade on an exchange like an individual stock. At the time of writing there are 162 ETFs with $220 billion in assets under management trading on U.
Never Lose Money
Never lose money in the stock market again. Yeah, I know.
Hedge Funds: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Alfred Winslow Jones started hedge funds in 1949. He was a pioneer of non-traditional investment strategies.
Quality Investment Information: Standing Firm In the Face of Opposition
THERE'S SOMETHING TO BE SAID FOR standing firm in the face of opposition. Interestingly, most of the best stock decisions have come at times when the mainstream is saying precisely the opposite.