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
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Related Articles
Why Change Funds?
On November 17 I bought 7 different mutual funds and went to a 100% invested position. One of the funds I bought was Robertson Stevens Information Age (RSIFX) and it has made money as have the other six.
Picking Mutual Funds to Outperform the Market
With over 6,000 mutual funds available, it may be tempting to pick funds from a popular star or index rating system. Savvy investors, however, balance multiple factors in their selection process.
Hill of Hope
Just about now everyone is confused as to which way the stock market is going to go - up or down. For the past 3 years it has been headed south, but the Wall Street experts have told us that the market never goes down 4 years in a row so this has to be an up year.
Invest, Be Wrong, and Make Money in the Stock Market
I have been trading for several decades and was an exchange member and floor trader for 17 years. You learn fast there or you go broke in a hurry.
Look Out The Window
Quick, look out the window. It's raining.
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.
Defining a Long-Term Investment in the Stock Market
For some "long term" would mean holding a stock position over the weekend. For others, it may mean holding a security for at least 1 year for the purpose of declaring a long-term capital gain, thus saving on taxes.
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.
The Surgeon General
The Surgeon General of the United States says that smoking cigarettes is harmful to your health. It is printed on every pack of smokes you buy.
Struggling Stocks, Booming Commodities
04/28/2005NASDAQ dropped -12.5% year to date in 2005.
The Stock Market - Part 1: Believe It Or Not, Its Always Been Your Best Friend And Always Will Be
Regardless of the fact that the world's stock markets have shown absolutely no growth between the date of writing this article (Late April 2005) and the late 1990s, they should still be looked at with more than just a sideways glance.Speak gently to them, speak well of them to your friends, learn to trust them, cuddle up close and get to know them - and they will reward you in a way that the banks, mutual funds (Unit Trusts in the UK), pension funds and insurance companies never can or will.
The Information Age
It is wonderful to be alive in the information age. We know in a matter of seconds the change in the value of gold in Switzerland, the death of a world leader or the birth of a peasant in Israel.
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.
Understanding a Stocks PEG Ratio
A PEG ratio cannot be used alone but is a very powerful tool when integrated with the basics (price, volume and chart reading). You must enjoy crunching numbers and have a calculator handy to estimate your own PEG ratio.
Market Globalization
Just 30 years ago the stock market was a shadow of what it is today. There were many fewer shareholders and the daily volume was a fraction of what it is at present.
Hold Em and Fold Em
When most analysts, financial planners, fund specialists and investors try to decide whether to buy a particular stock they immediately go to the financial statements to determine the growth potential of the company. Numbers and more numbers.
Stock Market Investing Odds
The greatest stock market myth is the idea that investing in stocks is a form of gambling!The financial markets are often compared to a casino. Put some money on X stock and you might as well be playing craps!If that's your impression, and it's keeping you out of the markets, consider this: If investing is organized gambling, it's one of the rare kinds where the odds are stacked in your favor!Why is that?Corporate profits are the key to understanding the investor's edge.
Fake Money
Reach in your pocket and take out that big roll of bills. Depending on how many of them you have you feel pretty good.
A Stock Market Investment Strategy
I feel that an investment strategy in the stock market can instill in the individual investor not only an assured confidence in all future stock market investments, but also an almost Zen-like sense of peace and well being. A stock market investment strategy spelled out, proven, and instilling within the investor the power to succeed in the stock market with an assured confidence.
Long-Term Investment In Todays Market?
The stock market is very unstable at this time going up and down while interest rates are so low you want to be a borrower and not a lender. Would you like some suggestions on how can you get the most out of low interest rates while being assured your principal will not disappear while you are trying to make some money? Of course, there is always the danger of borrowing the money and then spending it just because it is there.