Stocks & Mutual Funds Information
Shorting Stocks - The Basics, Part I of II
What does it mean to short a stock?This means that you borrow the stock from your broker to sell to a third party. The idea is to buy back the stock at a lower price, returning the shares to your broker while leaving the remaining cash in your account as a profit.
Shorting Stocks - The Basics, Part II of II
After the publication of the first part of this two part series, I had a few questions asking if shorting stocks is legal and I will quickly reply with a big YES. Some people believe that shorting shares of American companies is not patriotic or does not seem like the right thing to do.
Trading as a Business
What can I expect to make my first year of trading?We get questions like this one quite often. We find that most aspiring traders don't have a clue as to what to expect from the market.
Bollinger Bands Strategies
The Bollinger Band theory is designed to depict the volatility of a stock. It is quite simple, being composed of a simple moving average, and its upper and lower "bands" that are 2 standard deviations away.
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.
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.
Kick The Tires
Before you buy another car you walk around the lot, kick the tires, slam the doors and look at the mileage indicator. That's an odometer.
How To Buy And Hold
One of the most believed bits of conventional wisdom from Wall Street is to Buy and Hold. Any stock or mutual fund should be put away for eternity and never sold.
Rebalance And Diversify
The stock market has not been very kind to your investments lately. Your broker knows this so you may have received a call from him suggesting it is time to 'rebalance and diversify' your portfolio.
Social Insecurity
Just about everything you have been told about Social Security is an obfuscation. That is a big word for convoluted truth or lie.
Risk Control
Everything you invest in has risk so you want to do your research before you put your money on the line.For example, when McDonald's opens a new restaurant (please, don't call it a hamburger joint) they will investigate as many of the relevant facts as possible.
Protect Your 401K
Checked your 401K lately? Going back to about a year ago many of these retirement accounts have shrunk by 30%, some even more. What Happened?You have been putting money in for years and your employer may have been contributing to your plan also.
One Way Street
Ever turn down a street, get half way and suddenly realize it is one way and you are going the wrong way? Is that the way you feel when you look at your stock brokerage statement?In either case don't panic. You can get out of that one way street by carefully backing out.
Top 25 Growth Funds
On Monday, November 25, 2000 Investor's Business Daily listed on page B1 the Top 25 Growth Mutual Funds for the last 36 months along with their performance for the year 2000 to date. Only four showed a profit this year of 21% and the other three had increases of 12%, 5%, and 5%.
How To Pick A Mutual Fund
Mutual funds by definition are a mixed bag of stocks, bonds and a little cash. Their price per share is the NAV, Net Asset Value of the total amount of money in the mutual fund divided by the number of shares.
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Investing in the Stock Market
From the book 'The Stockopoly Plan' by the author Charles M. O'MeliaThere are several factors an investor in the stock market should consider:1.
Where Is The Beef?
Where is the beef? Or maybe it should be where is the bull? Market, that is? The chief investment strategists and analysts of the major brokerage houses have been promising us a new bull market.So far the bull hasn't come in from the distant pasture.
Stock Market Diversification
In one of my previous articles (Investing in the stock market -9 powerful tips), tip number one was:1. Do not spread your money too thin.
10 Tips For Creating Wealth From the Stock Market
1. Do not spread your money too thin.
Time Out
Are you paying any attention to your retirement savings? Do you have it in cash or an account with a broker? Maybe you have a professional manager who is investing your money as you add to it every month.Is your account increasing in value every year? If it isn't why are you letting anyone else invest for you? There is no point having a loser in charge of your money.
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.
Your Job
There are so many kinds of work that needs to be done and you are doing one of those jobs right now - unless you are one of those two and a half million that have been laid off during the past 3 years. The press continues to blame China and India for stealing away all these forms of employment, but they don't have it right.
Selection Vs Direction
As I have said many times before in this column it really doesn't make any difference what you buy - stocks, funds or indexes - it takes smarts to know when to sell. Direction of the general market is more important than selection of any equity.
Whitewater Stock Market
Ever done any whitewater rafting or canoeing? Long periods of tranquil river followed by short periods of terror. Suddenly the water grips your vessel and you are pushed and shoved by massive currents over which you have no control.
Stock Options Trading Strategies - Lean
Professional stock options traders use the term lean to refer to one's perception about the directional strength of the stock. When you own a stock option and intend to hold it for a period of time, you are aware that you will probably be holding it while it goes up and while it goes down.
Box Of Chocolates
Ever have one of those sample boxes of candy? Each little piece is beautifully wrapped in colorful foil or decorated with an interesting design. Taste just one.
What Can Model Airplanes Teach You About Trading?
I was devastated!I just couldn't believe it. I was 10 years old and my dreams were shattered.
Using Sector Funds to Construct Diversified Mutual Fund Portfolios
'Sector funds are too risky.' 'I doubled my money with Fidelity Select Technology in 12 months!' 'Avoid sector funds.
Emotional Trading
The single most expensive stock market trades are those made with emotions, but, of course, you are not an emotional trader are you?Before you bought that stock, mutual fund or Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) you did your research to be sure that what you were buying would return a good profit over the long haul. You bought it and over time you look at it less and less.
Overvalued & Underbought
With all the bad news that has been dumped upon the economy for some reason the stock market is going up. Why?The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) has just set up new guidelines for core earnings.
How to Evaluate Load vs. No Load Mutual Funds
If you have been dealing with mutual funds for any length of time, you undoubtedly have faced the question of which is better: Load Funds or No Load Funds. If you are new to investing, "load" simply refers to the commission paid to the broker selling the fund.
Trading Tips No 8: Picking the Best Stock Market Price
Carefully thinking through your goal as a trader is of prime importance, when picking the best stock market price. It is very difficult if not impossible to meet a goal that is ill defined.
Mid-Cap Stocks: Asset Class with an Identity Crisis
Much like the middle child, mid-cap stocks have long struggled to find their identity. Carved out from the upper echelons of the small caps and the lower end of the large caps, the mid-cap sector has a rough definition of stock with a market capitalization of greater than $2 billion, but less than $10 billion.
Robert Rodriguez Weathers the Stock Market
Robert Rodriguez likes to buy stocks at their lows. When there are not enough stocks hitting new lows, he closes his fund and piles up cash.
Basics of Stock Market
Financial markets provide their participants with the most favorable conditions for purchase/sale of financial instruments they have inside. Their major functions are: guaranteeing liquidity, forming assets prices within establishing proposition and demand and decreasing of operational expenses, incurred by the participants of the market.