Stocks & Mutual Funds Information
Choosing An Investment Stock Broker
If you want one.And I don't recommend any broker with whom to trade who will be giving you advice on what to buy and sell.
How Much Money Can I Make With Trading? What Account Size Do I Need To Start?
What account size do I need?How much money can I make with trading?First of all, let's clarify a common misunderstanding: You never risk your full account size. You always have a "catastrophic stop", and it is important to define the "ruin" before you start trading.
Momentum
One of the basic laws of physics states that a body in motion will continue in motion in the direction it is going until interrupted by another force.That basic physics law also applies to stocks and mutual funds.
Moving Averages
Every day on CNBC-TV they show a 200-day moving average line superimposed on the stock price history. It seems they give great credence to this manufactured line as it represents 10 months of price action.
Market Psychology
Today we are inundated with tons of information about the economy, stocks, government agencies and foreign governments. They show us charts and graphs of the increase/decrease in oil production over the last 5 years, the amount of maple syrup produced in Vermont for the past century, the time it takes to bounce a signal off the moon and all kinds of other nonsense that we can live without.
Market Timing?
The recent criminal fiasco in the mutual fund industry is being used by Wall Street to persuade investors that market timing is a bad thing. The late trading by Janus, Bank America and several other well known mutual funds is falsely being called market timing.
More Window Dressing
Two weeks ago I wrote about what the Securities and Exchange Commission was doing to regulate the mutual fund industry to help the small investor, the "poor folks". It really added up to zero.
Market Success
Who are the successful investors?There are those who follow the advice of their brokers and financial planners or those who choose to use their own good judgment? If you care to compare the results of the past 4 years from 2000 to now I believe you will see who as done the best job.In the old days at the Chicago stock yards they used to have an old sheep who led the lambs to the slaughter when they arrived on the train.
Mindset
In 1960 an engineer working for a watch company in Switzerland discovered that a small crystal would vibrate at a constant rate. He found this was so accurate that it could be used to calibrate time so he took it to company management and said it would make an entirely new kind of watch that had no springs and no gears.
Mousetrap
The spring-loaded rat catcher is the ultimate low-tech device invented more than 100 years ago and remains the best demouser in the world. It is so simple anyone can master it and best of all you can keep on using it year in and year out.
Investing in Dividend Paying Stocks
I was recently interviewed for a press release through a
financial question and answer format. One of the questions asked of me in the interview was:Where do you think the stock market is headed over the next five
years?My Answer!Charles M.
Traders, Defend Against the Dreaded Death Spiral.
It has often been said that there is only two ways to get hurt really bad on a stock trade, getting caught in a "death spiral" by not using DTM: Decisive Trade Management in the way of stop loses and having a stock halted on you. Halts you have zero control over.
Investment Research - The Dalbar Study
Very few people, even professionals, have heard of the Dalbar Study that originated in 1995. Its purpose is to determine the profitability of trading for the small investor of mutual funds.
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.
Investment Discipline
One of the great "secrets" of successful people is discipline and it doesn't make any difference whether it is manufacturing, processing, servicing or investing in the stock market.Before you can have that discipline you must have a successful plan and stick with it.
More Resources
Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exitingMore Stocks & Mutual Funds Information:
Related Articles
The Big Bad Bear
The big bad bear is stirring again. So far he has stretched, yawned and peaked out of his cave.
Seecrets on Investment: Tired of Making Huge Losses in the Stock Market - Part 2
Fundamental analysis.Fundamentals analysis says the best way to predict the future trends of a stock is to understand the financial figures of the underlying company.
Complacency
During the month of January the Dow Jones Industrial Average, usually referred to as the DOW, had an almost 1,000 point range, most of it down and the average investor has yawned and said 'so what, this has happened many times before'.Is there any reason to worry now?The terrible event of September 11 shocked investors who sold heavily and then watched the market climb back to where it was on September 10.
Trading Tips No 5: Stock Trading Curve Drawdown and Commitment
All stock trading and investing methods must deal with the inevitable drawdown from the most recent peak in one's stock trading curve to a bottom before reversing and making a new high. Seasoned systems traders are well familiar with the drawdown phenomenon and the importance of drawdown as a percentage of annual average returns in evaluating a trading system.
Parachute Investing
Ever jumped out of an airplane? It's OK if you have on a parachute. Pretty dumb if you don't.
Expense Ratios
Mutual funds and brokers are always preaching not to buy any fund with a high expense ratio. That is the annual costs of the fund to pay for trading of stocks within their portfolio, salaries, rent, telephone, analysts, etc.
Low Expense Ratio
One of the big advertising kicks today from mutual funds is to tell how low their expense ratio is and that you will make a great deal more money if you buy and hold with them. Partly true, but that is not the whole story.
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.
Stocks: Understand What You Buy!
"There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action!" Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)I don't really know how cars actually work. Not really! I know how to drive them, but if you asked me how they work, I would not really know how to definitely explain it.
The 1% Solution
You probably know the story of Sherlock Holmes and the 7% solution. He had a drug addiction.
What To Buy?
Now that you have some money burning a hole in your pocket and the stock market is going up you have decided to buy some stock or maybe a mutual fund, but you have the momentous decisions to what to buy.At this point you have three decisions to make besides which equity to buy:1.
Dollar Cost Averaging
Dollar cost averaging is one of the most popular ideas in the investment community. Everyone seems to like it and it has become a watchword among stock and mutual fund brokers.
Duct Tape
Did you run out to buy that duct tape yet? Don't forget the plastic sheeting, bottles of water, canned food and a couple of books to read. What are you waiting for? I know - things to get better so you can resume your normal life style.
No Load Mutual Funds or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)?
If you are fed up with early redemption charges and ever increasing mutual fund management fees on top of bad-performing fund managers, read on. There is a quiet revolution going on in the no-load mutual fund industry and you, the individual investor, may benefit from it greatly.
The Club
Yesterday I received my monthly issue of MONEY magazine. This issue has the special feature called "The Ultimate Investment Club" that highlights their picks for the top mutual fund managers.
How to Short Stocks? How to Make Money when Your Stocks Go Down by Shorting
The stock market can present you with a lot of hot stocks every day. Many of them are new technology stocks that come from the nanotech, biotech, voip, healthcare, homeland defense or internet sectors.
A Good Fund Manager
Every Wall Street analyst, financial planner and broker will tell you that the right way to pick a mutual fund is find a good money manager of a fund that has a long time record.Yes, I believe that too, but it is amazing that when you go back in time to see what this genius did with the mutual fund, you will find years he has had some terrible losses.
A Stock Market Investment Plan that Never Lets You Down
The bulls and bears of the stock market are both tempting and scary to the investors. Speculators are enchanted by the stock market's potential to help them in making quick money with a big M.
Stock Loans
Hedge current portfolio positions and gain access to capital resources through loans against free trading, aged affiliate or aged non-affiliate securities. Make proper use of your assets while waiting for performance and hedge your position should the asset move against you.
Oil Stocks As A Long Term Investment
The demand for world oil is increasing while world reserves are decreasing. This is a known fact.