Category: Learning to Invest
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Sunday, December 22, 2024
STOP LOSSES / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
A Patron asks -
"Hi Nadeem, How do you plan for the unforeseen? In RUS-UKR context, recent Russian declaration/updating of Nuclear Doctrine. That a Non-Nuclear state can be nuked under this doctrine. This may or may not happen. However that is not the point. I have not put the Stop Orders on any of the shares, may be being a rookie. Should there always be a Stop Order for each share I own to hedge against black swan events? Would negative 20% Stop Orders make sense? I am saying 20% just as a random number. "
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Sunday, December 22, 2024
Never Buy an IPO / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Here's a reminder of why you should never buy IPO's. not worth the risk. IPO's are accompanied with a huge amount of sales and marketing hype so that the insiders can offload their shares to retail crowd at an inflated valuation where the figures in the financial statements tend to be pure fantasy conjured out of thin air by the merchant banks.
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Sunday, October 27, 2024
The Power Law in Venture Capital: How Visionary Investors Like Yuri Milner Have Shaped the Future / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
In The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption (2022), Sebastian Mallaby delves into the transformative impact of venture capital (VC) on industries worldwide.
The book examines how some of the most successful figures in the field, such as billionaire Yuri Milner, have harnessed the power law to secure massive returns. These investors have played a key role in shaping the future of technology and innovation.
Monday, February 05, 2024
Learn How to Accumulate and Distribute (Trim) Stock Positions to Maximise Profits - Investing 101 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Most investors obsess over trying to buy THE bottom or try and sell THE top and thus they either end up holding nothing or are weak hands eager to sell everything on every rally. Here I teach a simple mechanisms that stops one from obsessing over tops and bottoms but instead goes with the flow by trimming into rallies (banking profits) and accumulating on the dips with little thought on trying to buy the bottom or sell the top.
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Saturday, January 27, 2024
Investing in the Stock Market is Like Boxing With Mike Tyson - Investor Psychology / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Most market participants soon learn that stock market investing isn't as easy as the clowns on the CNBC cartoon network sales pitches present it to be. Investing is like getting into a boxing ring with Mike Tyson, become arrogant and you will get knocked out in the first round. Whilst all those fund managers and analists on the financial cartoon networks never even fund set foot in the ring. Think of the stock market as Mike Tyson, it will knock you out! All one can do is to learn through experience to dodge as many as those punches as possible, that is the way to win in the stock market.
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Sunday, January 07, 2024
Investing in the Stock Market is Like Boxing With Mike Tyson / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Most market participants soon learn that stock market investing isn't as easy as the clowns on the CNBC cartoon network sales pitches present it to be. Investing is like getting into a boxing ring with Mike Tyson, become arrogant and you will get knocked out in the first round. Whilst all those fund managers and analists on the financial cartoon networks never even fund set foot in the ring. Think of the stock market as Mike Tyson, it will knock you out! All one can do is to learn through experience to dodge as many as those punches as possible, that is the way to win in the stock market.
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Saturday, September 30, 2023
10 Tips To Get The Best Return From Your Investment / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Every investor in financial development looks for the secret to maximizing returns. But how can one ensure their money works as hard as they do in the face of a constantly changing economic landscape? You've arrived in high income investing, where clever tactics can dramatically increase your earning potential.
Balancing risk and reward is not just about storing your money; it's about using it wisely to generate the greatest returns. In this post, we'll share 10 doable suggestions for improving your investment strategy, guaranteeing that you're not simply saving money but also significantly increasing your wealth.
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Wednesday, September 06, 2023
Reasons Why You Should Build Your Portfolio and Live Like Rich People / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Living like rich people is often seen as a fantasy that only a select few can achieve. However, building your portfolio can give you the opportunity to live a life of financial freedom and abundance. The advantages are undeniable, from wealth accumulation and passive income generation to financial security and access to exclusive opportunities. Here are several compelling reasons why you should build your portfolio and aim to live like rich people.
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Sunday, September 03, 2023
Why you’re Hardwired to be Pessimistic About Markets / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Fear is creeping in.After a blazing-hot start to the year, in which the Nasdaq notched its best first half in 40 years...
And the S&P 500 rallied 20%...
Stocks just slammed into a brick wall.
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 are each down around 3% this month. And investors are on edge.
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Thursday, June 29, 2023
Mark Denning’s 6 Effective Strategies To Ensure Success / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
Entrepreneurs must recognize that building a successful business requires dedication, resilience, and a willingness to adapt. It's a transformative journey, one replete with both triumphs and trials. While these lessons are often best learned through experience, it’s worth heeding experts like Mark Denning, a leader in global finance who has helped manage more than $300 billion of investors’ money.
By staying focused and committed to their vision, entrepreneurs can navigate the winding path, overcoming obstacles and inching closer to their goals. While preventing business failure is never guaranteed, implementing these strategies provides a robust foundation for success. By constantly evolving, learning from mistakes, and staying passionately dedicated to their venture, entrepreneurs can breathe life into their dreams, create an enduring impact, and leave an indelible mark on the dynamic tapestry of the business world.
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Thursday, June 22, 2023
How to Profit From the Smart Money Footprints / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
By Justin Spittler Imagine you’re sitting at a bar in Manhattan.
As the bartender’s making your drink, you overhear a conversation from the table behind you.
Two well-dressed men are talking. One looks familiar. He’s a hedge fund manager you’ve seen on TV.
You don’t recognize the other guy. But, from the sound of it, they work together.
Monday, June 19, 2023
Why Most investors Underperform the Indices / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Time and time again I hear this mistake in the comments section, S&P is going down down should I sell x,y,z, stock and buy back later. As I often voice the indices such as the S&P are a red herring, ask anyone heavily invested in the likes of Apple, Nvidia or Microsoft and so on, The S&P is definitely not of much use for timing purposes in terms of accumulating and distributing as we saw this past week opps to distribute in the likes of MGNI and accumulate in the likes of Qualcom. So keep things in perspective, the indices are just that indices, a metric to gauge the direction of travel on an average basis and to perhaps swing trade the index but they are not that useful for buying and selling individual stocks, in fact can prove highly dangerous! For instance if the S&P looks toppy and a stock breaks higher then the investor might sell the strong stock. (META) as the index was heading lower. Similar for when the index is going up and a stock starts falling and the investor buys on perception that the stock is now cheaper (SVB).
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Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Financial Advisors Take Heat for Market Losses (Will Anger Intensify?) / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Was 2022 an aberration for the 60/40 allocation?
Many financial advisors steer clients who are willing to take some risk toward a 60% stocks / 40% bonds portfolio.
Alas, investors who followed that strategy in 2022 saw the value of their portfolios decrease substantially.
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Thursday, February 23, 2023
What to Do When Making an Initial Investment / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
When you have decided to make an initial investment, there are many steps that you need to take beforehand to ensure that you are able to do this without a hitch. As such, here is what you should do when making a financial investment in 2023.
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Sunday, February 19, 2023
HOW to INVEST - THE POWER OF TRIMMING! / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
As a reminder when I see an opportunity to buy target stocks at deep discounts then I don't tend to flinch and buy the panics, the falling knives, even if takes me to well beyond my target exposure as has been the case for many stocks during the bear market of 2022 because of what will likely follow, a rally to TRIM.
The objectives is to bank profits and free up cash for future buys, as my target is to be approx 15% in cash (current 7.2%), as with many things I take trimming for granted and assume everyone does the same to some degree i.e. the more target stocks fall the more I buy with a view to engage in trimming during a subsequently rally. If you don't trim then it is something you need to adopt as part of your investment strategy as over time it does add up! Substantially for two reasons -
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Wednesday, December 21, 2022
CHANGE the Way You Think About Profit and Loss / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
From the comments section many patrons appear eager to trim holdings. However, this is a dangerous game and mindset to have one of selling on a few percent gain on fears that that smaller profit will evaporate into a loss.
Think about it?
If you follow this investing mindset what kind of portfolio will you end up with?
You will have a portfolio where you have sold all of your winners and are only left holding losers!
This is probably down to the way humans are hardwired to avoid pain, i.e. eat the food now rather than it be stolen or lost in the future.
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Monday, September 19, 2022
STOCKS BEAR MAKRETS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PAINFUL! / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The bottom line is that bear markets are supposed to be PAINFUL! And I can tell many investors feel that PAIN from the comments as they post the latest price of say Intel or AMD or TSMC or any other stock trading lower as if I have a magic button to press to make the stock go higher. So if you are feeling PAIN then go read my earlier recent articles on the psychology of investing in bear markets because bear markets are PAINFUL where the degree of pain experienced depends on what time frame on is focused upon.
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Monday, July 18, 2022
The Psychology of Investing in a Stocks Bear Market / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Every bull market is followed by a bear market and every bear market is followed by a bull market, where courtesy of the electron and inflation mega-trends the general indices are on an upwards exponential trend trajectory. Thus all bear markets are living on borrowed time and thus ones focus should be on accumulating positions in good stocks i.e. those that actually generate earnings and have good prospects for continuing earnings growth that courtesy of bear market negative sentiment results in prices trading to under value stocks i.e. to under X18 earnings, where everything above X18 is carrying a premium which is why I completely sold out of many stocks last year such as Amazon and Nvidia even though they had yet to peak due to the risks of a valuation reset as I covered in my in-depth analysis of August 2021
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Tuesday, May 10, 2022
How to Ensure Financial Stability for Your Family / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
Financial stability is crucial in maintaining a happy and healthy family life. Everyone knows that having money is beneficial, and the lack of it can make life very difficult, whether you are single or raising children. Having a family carries a lot of responsibilities because you no longer think only for yourself but also for your spouse and children. They need the assurance that they can live comfortably in a healthy home environment, eat healthily, and not lack in their essential needs. In addition, the children should be able to study to ensure a better future. These are responsibilities that come with raising a family.
Financial stability means consistently meeting household needs and living a comfortable life while having enough set aside for emergencies. It is not about being rich; rather, it is handling whatever finances you have on hand responsibly.
Monday, May 09, 2022
Making Wise Investment Decisions / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
Looking to up your investment game? Here are some great tips to do so.
1. Draw a personal financial roadmap
Before you even begin your path to investing, take the time to sit down and examine your financial circumstances and your investment capacity. This is especially important if you are investing for the first time.
The first step is all about figuring out your personal goals and your level of risk tolerance. This can be done on your own or with the help of a professional financial counselor. There is never any guarantee that you will come out winning from your investments. But if you begin your investment journey with realistic goals and a clear idea of the risks you can handle, you can expect financial security and more control over your investment plan as it is set in motion.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Learn to Value Stocks Using the Earnings Growth Factor / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
After the current panic passes I will revert to posting my primary AI stocks table as the main table for data, presently the table retains my original pre-panic buying levels as of 22nd November 2022 for comparison purposes with levels achieved in red against those that remain pending. Remember all of these levels once upon a time seemed far out of reach, who could have imagined Nvidia would fall from $336 to $236 over a couple of months! Google to $2625! Microsoft to $282, Intel to $48, okay I'll give you Intel, but many of the levels have now been achieved and then some!
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Thursday, February 24, 2022
How to invest your money long-term / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
Are you planning to invest long-term? Before jumping right in, it is always recommended to have a good knowledge on the matter, because otherwise you would be risking your money. Making the right choices is the key for a good investment and for having safer returns. It is never late to start a long-term investment, either for after your retirement or for eventual future needs. There are different options available to be considered. This way you will understand what is right for you and what is your investor’s profile. A piece of advice: always have some funds in an emergency fund for any urgency you may have to face in the future. Aside that, it is advisable to find accounts that let you to have access to your money at all time. While making your research and reading through some materials, most likely you are going to find these two options, so let’s see the difference between SIPP and ISA.
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Wednesday, December 22, 2021
FREETRADE - What Value FREE SHARES Can You Expect to Get When Signing Up? AMD, Apple, Microsoft? UK / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
FREE TRADE is probably one of the best UK trading platforms for Stocks and shares ISA's, with it's commission free trading and fractional shares and low F/X fee of 0.45% AND they give a free share currently worth between £10 and £200 when signing up through a referral link. However what free share can people expect to get will it be an AMD? Apple, maybe a Microsoft as I show what my 7 FREE shares were that I got via referring others to FREE TRADE, so this is a good realistic expectation of what one is likely to get from FREE TRADE.
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Saturday, December 04, 2021
INVESTING LESSON - Give your Portfolio Some Breathing Space / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Investing is accumulating positions in good corporations for the long-run and not trying to swing trade as some appear to be doing. My primary tools for monitoring my portfolio are Excel spread sheets that I only tend to update prior to posting an article that contains the list of AI tech stocks as I am used to not constantly looking at the state of my portfolio i.e. in years past I would update the prices usually once every couple of months or so given that it is a manual exercise.
Folks, you need to give both your portfolio and yourselves some breathing space, peace of mind as staring at the your stock tracker app's blinking red and green is going to drive you nuts! Don't use trackers, don't use app's. Just use a spread sheet and update your holdings manually once in a while then get on with the rest of your life, don't let your portfolio rule your life!
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Saturday, November 27, 2021
Stock Market Investing LESSON - Buying Value / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
INVESTING LESSON - BUYING VALUE
Remember folks when investing one is not trying to buy the bottoms, one is trying to buy VALUE! There are many metrics for measuring value but for most investors the easiest way to measure value is the P/E Ratio, it is simple and easy to determine and virtually every investment site features the P/E ratios for stocks. Though from my experience many of the sites posted P/E ratios tend to out of date or inaccurate i.e. I calc virtually all of the PE ratios myself by dividing the share price by the earnings per share for the last 4 quarters and that is how one gets the P/E ratio i.e. how many YEARS it would take for the corporation to EARN it's share price.
Now there are many more metrics than that which can be just as important such as whether the corporation printing it's own shares Powell style, Brrrr, so shareholder dilution is another metric I watch among 15 that go towards generating the EC ratio, a quick way to see how expensive or cheap a stock is.
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Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Investing Tips For New Investors / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
1. Know Your Investment Goals
There are several key questions every potential investor should ask themselves before venturing into the industry. Your reasons for investing and how long are two of the key questions you should have an answer to before you can venture into the stock market. Are you looking to grow your wealth, saving for retirement, or hoping for a house deposit? It is only after identifying and defining your investment goals that you’ll be able to determine what stocks to invest in and for how long.
Saturday, November 13, 2021
Tips For Investment Success / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
We live in an information society - however, the information that we receive cannot always be relied upon. That information is supplied by the mass media and is often the product of pundits in cyberspace - that obviously might not be those who are the best sources of information. However - as a logical human being you may very well have more logical ideas. But - even given that insight there are some hints and tips that can provide guidelines that will improve the performance of your portfolio.
So here are some hints and tips from those who know a portfolio and how to make it provide them with an income in a time of high uncertainty.
There is a tremendous amount of information that is available to those who want to enter into the realm of cyberspace. The print media still has a gravitas that is not easy to match. Then there are friends and family - and they can be tremendously influential in shaping your thoughts. Given all these inputs, how do we find that path towards a personal investment that actually delivers,
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Friday, November 12, 2021
FREE TRADE the Best Stocks and Shares ISA? / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
There is a UK based fractional share ISA solution called FREE TRADE, that similar to Etorro offers a commission free fractional shares platform that has two crucial differences that makes it a far better INVESTING platform to Etorro's TRADING platform.
1. An ISA tax free wrapper at a cost of £3 per month along with their FREE general investing account (non ISA). Though there is a way to offset their monthly fees completely via their plus account by keeping £4k in cash on account that earns 3% / £120 per annum..
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Thursday, October 14, 2021
How to Protect Your Self From a Stock Market CRASH / Bear Market? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Stock Market CRASH / Correction
We will soon be moving into the window for a stock market correction where I penciled the probable expectations for it to take place sometime between Mid Sept to Mid October, though it could start earlier hence why I was not willing to wait around and de risked ahead of the window.
How much could the general indices such as the Dow drop? I have in mind a drop of somewhere between 15% to 20% as being the most provable outcome, though it is early days, so it could be less or it could a more but 15% to 20% is what I have had in mind for the likes of the Dow for some time.
Whether it will be just a correction and resume it's raging bull market or signal start of a bear market proper is uncertain, probability favours continuation but this is not 2011 when we were in a hated stealth bull market that few took seriously instead now every tom dick and harry thinks that stocks can only go up! And so will assume that buying the dip is a one way bet to stock market riches. Which is why one needs to focus on VALUATIONS! Buy when Stocks are CHEAP! For it allows one to survive BEAR MARKETs and not end up with a 20 year Dead Parrots like Cisco and Intel!
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Thursday, October 14, 2021
Why "Losses Are the Norm" in the Stock Market / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
"I can measure the motions of bodies, but I cannot measure human folly."
Did you know that Sir Isaac Newton "lost his shirt" in the South Sea Bubble of the 1720s?
This great scientist and mathematician lost more than the equivalent of a million 2021 dollars.
Here's a brief description of Newton's investment actions from Robert Prechter's landmark book, The Socionomic Theory of Finance:
[Sir Isaac Newton] invested a little bit early in the trend and "wisely" took a small profit. Watching the trend continue, he finally bet heavily and "wisely" held on for the long run. He eventually sold out at a near-total loss.
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Thursday, September 30, 2021
Should you include ESG investments in your portfolio? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The coronavirus pandemic has undeniably altered society in many immeasurable ways. It’s even had an impact on the world of investment. Indeed, it proved to be a major turning point for ESG investing as the pandemic not only altered the way we interact with one another but societal values too.
The experts at Saunderson House recently ran a study on financial well-being and put a greater focus on responsible investment. Their results reveal that, from a moral perspective, there is a major appetite right now for ESG or responsible investing. But what is ESG and why should you include them in your investment portfolio?
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Tuesday, August 10, 2021
How To Make the Right Investment Decision – The Ultimate Guide / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
Given the current market events, you're wondering whether to change your investment portfolio or not. It has been a great concern because various investors - including mattress stuffers and bargain hunters - make rapid investment decisions without planning long-term financial goals.However, we can't tell you how you need to manage your investment - particularly during a volatile market. But we can provide you an alert to help you make an informed decision.
Since the pandemic hit the world, the world of investment has become challenging. So, as an investor, you need to be concerned about consumer demand points to a strong economic recovery.
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Tuesday, August 10, 2021
What Are The Benefits Of Dividends? Everything You Must Know / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
What are dividends? And what is the importance of dividends? Or downside?
Dividends paying firms distribute a portion of net income to shareholders of their stock. These are paid yearly, and the remaining amount of profit, the company, reinvests back into the business.
Dividend stocks make regular payments to shareholders, therefore a great way for an investor to earn a passive income. Moreover, dividend stocks have a number of benefits beyond the allure of receiving passive income.
Before buying in, you should understand and examine both the advantages and disadvantages. You can weigh the two and make an informed decision.
Let's explore the benefits of dividend investing:
Monday, July 12, 2021
An Investing Truth: Roughly 80% of Stocks Are “Duds” / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Today I’m spilling the beans on something very important. It’s a “truth” about investing almost nobody understands. This truth explains why most investors struggle to make any real money in the stock market… while a few achieve life-changing gains.
The truth is: most stocks are horrible investments. Let me show you what I mean, and how you can turn this truth into an edge that’ll let you beat 99% of investors.
Thursday, July 01, 2021
INVESTING LESSON - AI Stocks Relative Strength - Why Selling Google or Facebook is a Big Mistake! / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Stock market corrections are useful in gauging what is going on under the hood of corporations long before any information makes it into the public arena. For instance looking at the relative strength of the top 5 AI stocks shows Google and Facebook showing relative strength, whilst Apple and Amazon are showing relative weakness with Microsoft in the middle. What this is saying is that one should definitely NOT make the mistake of....
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Tuesday, April 13, 2021
How to Get Rich with the Pareto Distribution - Tesco Example / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
PARETO distribution! Never heard of it, well watch the video and learn something important as you get another one of my insights into how the world actually works and so how to adjust what you do so as to meander towards riches in this lifetime as opposed to the after life which many billions have resigned themselves towards. WATCH the VIDEO and LEARN something new that could change how you progress through life!
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Wednesday, April 07, 2021
Stock Market Perceived Vs. Actual Risks: The Key To Success / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
By Rida Morwa: One common criticism of high-yield investments is that they are high-yielding for a reason, making them risky. Often, there is a reason why a security has a "super" high yield. However, just because the market dislikes or fears a particular investment does not mean it is a high-risk investment. With our “Income Method”, we search for investment opportunities that pay a substantial dividend that is well covered by the business's operations, but that the market disfavors for the wrong reasons. This strategy combines immediate-income and value investing.
The Difference Between Perceived Risk and Actual Risk
Perceived risk is a subjective assessment of risk or uncertainty, based on our limited perspective. Others' perceptions will influence ours, and actual probabilities of adverse events may differ significantly. The market is often a key determiner of perceived risk. A recent sell-off, or misunderstood earnings news, or persistent negative "sector sentiment" can all be indicators of a high level of perceived risk. When such events occur, this can open the door for some great buying opportunities, especially when Mr. Market's perception is wrong about the risk factor, and when the fundamentals are strong.
Monday, October 26, 2020
Try The “Compounding Capital Gains” Strategy Today / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
By Justin Spittler : Super-genius Albert Einstein called it “the eighth wonder of the world.” Legendary investor Warren Buffett attributes his $81 billion fortune to this force. And it’s how investors from all over the world have turned small stakes into millions of dollars.
I’m talking about “compounding.” But not in the way you’re probably thinking. Most of us learn about the power of “compound interest” in school. Back in the “good old days” when banks actually paid interest, you could put your money in a savings account.
Slowly but surely, it would grow. $10,000 compounded at 5% per year grows to $16,289 in 10 years, $26,533 in 20 years, $43,219 in 30 years.
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Monday, August 31, 2020
Tips to Get Started in Stock Market Training / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
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Friday, August 14, 2020
A Short Guide To Making Your First Stock Market Investment / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Global financial markets have become increasingly volatile amidst the turmoil caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This year the FTSE100 saw some of its biggest losses since the stock market crash of 2008. Sure, it sounds a bit like a doomsday scenario, and for some investors, this may very well be the case. On the flipside, however, is that market falls are often the best time to find yourself a good bargain. For the novice investor, the time may be perfect to make your first foray into the stock market as long as you follow a few golden rules.
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Thursday, July 16, 2020
From a Stocks Bull Market Far, Far Away, Virus Doomsday Scenerio! / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
It took me some 6 years from late 1987 to Early 1994 before the cookie finally crumbled and I understood the how to invest in stocks that has subsequently been tested in EVERY bear market and market collapse since, an understanding that has proven to be RESILIANT, so unless the worlds is about to end, or the West turns communist and starts seizing or heavily taxing capital, then the contents of this extensive article should shine the way towards profitable investing for decades to come. With the usual disclaimer that investing in the stock market is high risk. And that you are responsible for your investing decisions and any profits or losses that may occur.
Investor psychology tends to be the exact opposite to that which is required for successful investing i.e. Investors tend to fail to buy when they should buy i.e. when stocks are relatively cheap, instead most tend to buy at the worst possible time in terms of the bull / bear market cycles. And even if they do manage to hit the buy button near the right time, soon afterwards tend to become fearful of every dip, bad news event that erodes the few percent of paper profit they may have gained and thus tend to sell out of their investments too early on hopes that they can buy back later at a lower price, which rarely happens, so are left chasing stock prices ever higher as good stocks are good because they tend to go UP in price!
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Thursday, July 16, 2020
How to Find the Best Stocks to Invest In / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Everyone wants to get an extra buck for their livelihood. It enables one to pay their bills more comfortably, live a good life, and throw some pennies into their savings account. Now, as you may already know, the stock market has been and still is a cash cow for many. Apart from just a side hustle, many people earn a living from stock trading. Some have even managed to accumulate huge wealth, thanks to being strategic and resilient. If you’re just getting started in stock investing or are considering diversifying your investment basket, you probably can’t help but wonder which stocks are the most profitable.
If that sounds anything like you, you are definitely on the right track. But there’s one big challenge as far as stocks investment is concerned. Although you can profit massively from trading stocks, there’s always a certain degree of incurring a loss. This is because the market keeps fluctuating and considering the many stock options out there to pick from, choosing the most profitable stocks can be a real frustration. Read on to discover how to find the best stocks to invest in.
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Sunday, June 14, 2020
When to Sell Your AI Tech Stocks Investments / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
I get many comments asking when to sell the AI stocks given the sharp rallies over the past 6 weeks so as to capitalise on their gains. Which in my opinion defeats the whole point have having invested at deep discounts for 20-30% or so gains from March purchases, which is trading stocks rather than investing and in my opinion is nothing compared to what is to come, for instance imagine all those who bought Amazon at say $1700 and then sold it at $2000, and now are regretting doing so at $2375, hoping that it will fall to $2000 again so they can buy back in, which just illustrates investors in the AI mega-trend need to adjust their mindset.
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Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Ways to Invest With your Spare Cash / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
If you only have a small amount to invest, it doesn't have to mean that you have less likelihood of a good financial return. There are plenty of excellent ways to save for the future and watch your money grow even by just investing some of your spare cash. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
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Thursday, December 19, 2019
Investors: Are You in Danger of Emotion-Driven Decisions? You're Not Alone / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Or...Your Defense Against FOMO
As the winter holidays draw near, many of us will fall victim to the affliction we call "S.N.O.M.O." -- the Sudden Need of More Objects (to own, play with... and eventually, store in the basement).
Lists and budgets are no match for SNOMO once we take our first steps into a big-box store with its flashing signs and blazing blue lights. Within minutes, a powerful urge takes over and suddenly we're leaping in front of an old lady with a cane for the last cat-massage combing kit despite not knowing a single person who owns a cat, self included.
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Friday, December 06, 2019
Why Every Investor Should Be Politically Flexible / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Things used to be so simple.
You buy a stock, the government cuts taxes, the stock goes up.
Actually, things still are that simple.
And yet vastly more complex. We cut taxes in 2017, but future tax increases—large ones—are likely.
The Federal Reserve is lowering interest rates because it is told to by the president.
Wednesday, December 04, 2019
Calculating Your Personal Cost If Stock, Bond and House Prices Return To Average / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
We currently have well above average prices for stocks, bonds and homes. This raises a simple question - what would happen to the average retirement account and to home equity for the average homeowner, if valuations were to return to what long term averages show us are normal valuations?
Using decades of valuation information on stocks, bonds and homes, this analysis develops numbers in each category that show how much of current national stock, bond and home prices represents average values, and how much is a premium above normal valuations.
Using those historical values and the illustration of an example homeowner and retirement account investor, it is demonstrated that the current premium is around 59% above long term average valuations. How the loss of such a premium could have life changing implications for tens of millions of homeowners and retirement account investors is reviewed.
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Thursday, November 28, 2019
Don’t Look for Investing Advice in the Media / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
When I was a trader at Lehman Brothers, I was told not to talk to the media under any circumstances. If a reporter calls and says, “I’m so-and-so, and I’m from The Wall Street Journal,” you hang up. Click.
There doesn’t seem to be a good relationship between the traders and the reporters who cover them! I wonder why that is?
You might have heard about the incident at the Des Moines Register a month or two ago. A young man went to a football game and held up a sign on camera, asking for money for beer, as a joke. He got $1 million. He donated it—to a children’s hospital.
A reporter at the Des Moines Register decided to do a story on the young man. He dug up some old racist tweets from this guy—the guy that donated $1 million to a children’s hospital—and published them, in an attempt to “cancel” him.
Thursday, November 07, 2019
FREE eBook - The Investment Strategy that could change your future / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Out of 35 closed trades have 31 winners with a return on capital of 17% already."
Dear Fellow Trader,
With the right strategy, you could make a huge income from the financial markets. The key is a simple, rules-based approach, which is exactly what Trendsignal provides. Our Award-Winning Investment Strategy generated a fantastic 10,709 pips last year! Trading at a modest £3 per pip, that's £32,127 tax-free annual income. And best of all, our Strategy takes as little as 20-minutes trading each evening to achieve great results like this!
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Tuesday, October 29, 2019
How You Can Buy the Same Stocks as Elite Hedge Funds / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
I’m sure you’ve heard of hedge funds, maybe on shows like Billions or in movies like The Big Short.Hedge funds are a special type of investment company. They pool money from many investors and use complex strategies to invest, often aggressively.
Most people can’t invest in hedge funds—only high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors. So it seems like every time you read about these funds, there’s some really rich guy in the story, flying around on private jets, making splashy deals.
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Tuesday, October 29, 2019
When the Stock Market Gets Expensive, Invest in Yourself / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
The Federal Reserve has embarked on QE4—sort of. They are buying Treasury bills.
Here we go again.
There is a genus of financial commentary that revolves solely around the Fed and its relentless pursuit of credit expansion, and how it will result in inflation. I know, because I used to do this.
This made for a good trade, from 2009-2011. Now it is mostly people being angry. But there is still a pretty huge appetite for this angry, anti-Fed commentary, so I will indulge in it, a little.
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Investing lessons from the 1987 Stock Market Crash From Who Beat it / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
It's that time of the year again when the stock market doom merchants are at their most vocal as they focus on the historic apex of the darkest day of the darkest month for stocks of the year, October 19th, the 32nd anniversary of the 1987 Black Monday that saw the stock market crash by an unprecedented 22% in one day that few saw coming but ever since many prophesies the repeat of each October, regardless of what the stock market has actually done thus far each year as the perma bear crowd can always be seen literally jumping up and down like demented rabbits proclaiming that a crash is once more imminent, pointing to a myriad of harbingers of the imminent stock market apocalypse. Against which the historic record paints a picture of a coin toss having proved infinitely more accurate than the perma crash is coming calls awaiting their broken clock moment to proclaim their success.....
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, September 29, 2019
The Non-Nonsense Guide to Getting Started With Stocks / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
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Friday, June 07, 2019
The Risky Stocks Big Lie That Keeps Many Investors Poor / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Today we’ll bust a big lie about investing.
This big lie keeps many investors down. Belief in it is a tall hurdle to building wealth.
How many times have you heard a statement like this?
“The only way to make big profits is to take big risks.”
This is the conventional wisdom. It gets repeated in classrooms, on TV, and by stockbrokers over... and over... and over again.
The problem is, it’s complete nonsense.
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Don’t Check Your Investments P&L More Often than Once a Month / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
When you check your brokerage statement, how does it make you feel?
If it’s up since the last time you looked, it probably feels pretty good.
If it’s down, it makes you feel bad.
People don’t like to feel bad. So if the market has been going down for a while and they think they’re losing money, they’ll stop checking it.
If the market has been going up for a while, they’ll check it every day. In fact, most people will check it multiple times a day.
For all the spreadsheet jockeys out there, you know that if you press the “F9” key then it recalculates the spreadsheet.
Saturday, May 04, 2019
How to Invest in AI Stocks to Profit from the Machine Intelligence Mega-trend / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
This is my latest analysis in my machine intelligence investing mega-trend series that warns to prepare for EVERYTHING to change EXPONENTIALLY when average machine intelligence surpasses average human intelligence following which it will be off to the races. When the pace of change will leave everything that has happened before far behind. And in my opinion that key date will occur sometime during 2022, i.e. in less than 4 years time! Which means if you have not already got your act together by getting onboard this investing gravy train then you really need to take action or kick yourself many years down the road, when you will be asking yourself why I did not invest in those AI stocks before they went stratospheric!
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Friday, February 22, 2019
This Simple Investing Formula Is All That Most Investors Need / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
“Buy and hold” is a great, time-tested investment strategy. It works on two conditions, though.
You have to allow it sufficient time. And you have to stick with it. The problem is very few investors can stick with it.
They see their net worth shrinking, get scared, and bail out. And they do so at the wrong time. Then they re-enter at the wrong time. And the cycle repeats.
Asset diversification doesn’t help here. Because it still leaves you at risk of making a mistake on emotions.
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
This Little-Known Strategy Will Double Your Dividend Income at No Risk / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
By Robert Ross The Wall Street Journal called it “the largest corporate cash disbursement in history.”
It was 2004, and Microsoft was one of the biggest companies on the planet.
Besides, they had a great year. So great that the company decided it would return $75 billion to shareholders.
Microsoft boosted its dividend by $3 billion to $0.32 per share. That was a dividend yield of 1.2%.
But the bigger news was the one-time dividend payment of $3.00 per share. This “special dividend” raised the dividend yield to 11%!
Thursday, January 10, 2019
How Unrealistic Return Assumptions Are Ruining Your Stocks Portfolio / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
There is no shortage of stupid things in the financial market. But probably the worst thing people can do is to have unrealistic return assumptions.Question to you: On a long-term basis, what annual returns do you expect in a broad-based stock market index?
- 6%
- 8%
- 10%
- 12%
Wednesday, November 07, 2018
Here’s Why Most People Never Achieve Financial Independence / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
Everyone strives to be financially independent. By “independent,” we mean not dependent on another person or another entity for our financial well-being.When we are children, we are financially dependent on our parents.
At 16, some teenagers will get jobs and achieve a degree of financial independence. Although that is less and less common.
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Tuesday, November 06, 2018
What Every Investor Can Learn from Gamblers / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
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Friday, July 20, 2018
Diversifying Your Stock Investing Strategies is Smart Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
When you look to invest, you will find that there are a wide range of options to choose from and also a few types of investments you can make. The range of Investments vary from real estate, to stock Investing, bonds, commodities, new companies, and even Bitcoin. Each of these has its own set of parameters and investment guidelines. An investor can also approach investing from a standpoint of risk/ reward. Typically speaking any investment that has a higher reward scenario will be more risky than one that offers less reward.
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Wednesday, May 02, 2018
Warren Buffet: Stock Market Lesson In Passive Investment / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Every year I religiously read Warren Buffett’s letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. I find them a treat,
a mine of information and knowledge. It always inspires me to review, in his famous introduction, how each year since 1965 he has been able to achieve such spectacular returns with a relatively simple long term investment strategy. Over the past 52 years Berkshire has returned a staggering 20.9% compound annual return. Thus 1,000 dollars invested with Mr. Buffett at the outset of his career is now worth 11,144,735 dollars. And what is the over-riding advice he gives to enable such fortunes to be made? The secret is stated boldly on page 13 of the 2017 newsletter:
Monday, February 26, 2018
A Newbie's Guide to Investing in Stocks / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The stock market can be a daunting experience for a beginner. However, investing in shares will provide you with an opportunity to gain greater returns. There are two different ways to have an access to the stock market: investing directly or indirectly.
Investing Directly
Direct investments mean you are buying shares from a single company and become one of their shareholders. There are many available broker services. Some offer tailored advice and bespoke services like Redmayne Bentley, Killik & Co, and Charles Stanley. However, there are also others who only execute share dealing services.
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Thursday, February 08, 2018
Invest by Watching News? Accept These Pitfalls / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Many investors "operate under the assumption that events dictate market movements." They don't.
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Thursday, January 25, 2018
Four Skills You Need to Learn Before Investing in the Stock Market / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Successful investing isn’t just about mastering math formulas, accounting skills, or cash flow models.
Those are certainly helpful if you want to buy individual stocks or bonds. But successful investing is more about developing the right mental attitude.
The way you can develop it is by mastering a specific set of skills. The good thing is that if you start building these skills now, you’ll be on your way to becoming a better investor.
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Saturday, January 20, 2018
Top 5 Trader Information Sources for Timely, Successful Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
5 Information Sources All Traders Should Follow and Understand
Investors have no shortage of information available to them. In fact, the sheer magnitude of it all can be overwhelming. The key to informing yourself isn’t just a matter of finding information. It’s finding the right information and doing it quickly and conveniently.
Life is too busy to spend all day trying to sift through all the fluff to discover what you need to know. Moreover, you must understand how to use each source of information to its greatest potential. After all, there’s a big difference between the type of statement you’ll find in a company’s own press release and what you’ll learn from a third party stock analysis.
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Thursday, January 18, 2018
If You Want to Invest in the Stock Market, You Need to Master This Skill / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Let’s start with the bad news first…
There’s a finance theory called the efficient market hypothesis. One of the titans of finance, Eugene Fama, developed it back in 1965.
In short, it says that stock market prices fully reflect all current information. In other words, stocks are always trading at their fair value.
If that’s true, it means that there’s no way for investors to find undervalued investment opportunities or know when to sell when stocks are trading at overvalued prices.
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Thursday, December 07, 2017
Following 6 Critical Rules will make you a better Investor... / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Face the facts -- investing isn't easy. If it was, everyone would be successful. Successful investing takes hard work and discipline.
Famed financial analyst Robert Prechter has identified the 6 critical rules successful investors follow. Learning the rules is the easy part -- putting them into action is what will make you a success.
Read Prechter's free report, Six Critical Money-Making Rules for Investors, now.....
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Thursday, December 07, 2017
Bitcoin - Please, Please, Please, Don’t Let Fear Of Missing Out Lead Your Investment Decisions / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
BY JARED DILLIAN : This tweet was getting retweeted all over the place last weekend. Apologies for the bad language.
For starters, the guy’s Twitter handle is “bitstein.” But anyway. This is the fable of the grasshopper and the ant.
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Friday, October 20, 2017
The Greatest Investing Lesson Learned from the 1987 Stock Market Crash / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
It's that time of the year again when the stock market doom merchants are at their most vocal as they focus on the historic apex of the darkest day of the darkest month for stocks of the year, October 19th, the 30th anniversary of the 1987 Black Monday that saw the stock market crash by an unprecedented 22% in one day that few saw coming but ever since many prophesies the repeat of each October, regardless of what the stock market has actually done thus far each year as the perma bear crowd can always be seen literally jumping up and down like demented rabbits proclaiming that a crash is once more imminent, pointing to a myriad of harbingers of the imminent stock market apocalypse. Against which the historic record paints a picture of a coin toss having proved infinitely more accurate than the perma crash is coming calls awaiting their broken clock moment to proclaim their success.....
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Investment Advice for My Children & Grandchildren / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Okay, so I don’t have grandchildren yet, but I want to increase the odds you read beyond the title if you are old enough to have grandchildren. Should the investment advice we give to someone young truly be different from that given to someone old? And given where asset prices are, is it responsible to tell anyone to pile into the markets? Here are my thoughts on the topic, hopefully applicable not just for my children:
Hedge fund manager Ray Dalio likes to say he chose the first stock he ever bought because it cost less than $5 a share, given that his savings from caddying at the time were, well, five bucks. That story is a great icebreaker but also highlights with what’s wrong with our industry: when we think about investing, we immediately think about the stock market. Let’s take a step back.
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Sunday, September 10, 2017
The Rules of Angel Investing From Someone Who’s Tried / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Salesmen rarely make good managers or business owners. But that doesn’t stop them from trying.It used to be a hallmark of American business that successful salesmen were promoted. The logic is obvious. Whatever makes Joe or Amy great at selling the company wares should be emulated by others, thereby making the company more successful.
But selling and managing require very different skills, much like playing a sport and coaching are different.
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Friday, August 11, 2017
What Makes Women Better Investors / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Remember that book, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus? It sold more than 50 million copies in the ‘90s!It brilliantly shed light on some of the biggest differences between men and women in terms of each gender’s typical traits, thought patterns, communication styles, and behaviors.
Sure! It garnered some criticism for perpetuating stereotypes, although I’m sure the author never meant to suggest that all men are problem-solvers, for example, or that all women are good at multi-tasking.
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Friday, August 04, 2017
How to Win Against the Dangerous Stock Market Investor "Herding Impulse" / Stock-Markets / Learning to Invest
We all love a bargain...
...Except when it comes to stocks.
The reason boils down to uncertainty. We know what our fruits and vegetables should cost at the grocer's -- but we're far less certain about how much to pay for a blue-chip stock or shares in an S&P 500 Index fund.
So how does our mind work in decisions that involve certainty vs. uncertainty?
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Friday, August 04, 2017
The Books You Most Likely Read about Investing Taught You Nothing about Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
BY JARED DILLIAN : Lots of people ask me for good beginner books about finance.
That’s one of the hardest questions I get.
I think back to when I was learning about finance—one of my Coast Guard shipmates had these things called “mutual funds,” so I found some free literature about mutual funds and started reading.
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Tuesday, June 13, 2017
How To Use Emotions To Make Better Investment Decisions / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
BY JARED DILLIAN : There are a lot of times in my life where I wish I was just a computer and didn’t have feelings. I’d probably be a much better trader.
And that’s what this piece is about. We’re all human beings, trading and investing, trying to make money, but these things called emotions get in the way.
Most trading experts will tell you to get rid of your emotions altogether, to get as close to being a computer as possible.
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Thursday, April 06, 2017
The Myth of Market Shocks / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
An Excerpt from Chapter 1 of The Socionomic Theory of Finance
By Robert Prechter
Few people find a new theory accessible until they first see errors in the old way of thinking. Part I of this book challenges the universally accepted paradigm under which humans' rational reactions to exogenous (external, or externally generated) causes purportedly account for financial market behavior. The current chapter explores whether dramatic news events affect financial markets.
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Friday, October 21, 2016
Stock Market Investment Success Through the “Investment Rule of 72” / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The issue of successful stock market investment affects us all. Even if we are not directly engaged in the industry, all of us will need some form of pension to fund our retirement. Whether we like it or not most of our retirement funds will find their way into the financial markets. For this very reason, the issue of pensions has moved politically centre stage; in particular the investment strategies used to administer pension funds. Due to mismanagement, mainly over the last decade, many retirement portfolios have become under-funded at best, or, at worst, totally bust. This situation is a direct result of the managed funds having been speculated rather than invested. Many cynics will say that the whole investment environment today has more of the characteristics of a casino than of a professional market of equities and, therefore, they doubt that one can ever achieve a faithful and fair return on capital. However, this view is erroneous. This essay sets out to explain how to achieve superior pension investment returns through a simple yet powerful investment rule: “the rule of 72. This rule is based on investment and not speculation yet if you faithfully apply it your returns, over time, will be spectacular. Many believe that such degree of return is only possible through “speculative activity”. They are wrong and I will explain.
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Wednesday, May 18, 2016
An Incredibly Simple, Rarely Used Way to Book 170% Investing Gains / Interest-Rates / Learning to Invest
By Dan Steinhart
Editor’s note: You’ll find a very important theme running through the Dispatch over the next five days…
We’re going to discuss the secrets of Casey Research founder Doug Casey’s wildly successful investment strategy…one that has made him tens of millions of dollars in the markets. For each of the next five days, you’ll receive an essay about how this strategy can potentially add tens of thousands of dollars a year to your investment returns…
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Thursday, December 03, 2015
How to Win in Any Market: 9 Rules for Contrarian Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
"A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle." ~ Kahlil Gibran
When it comes to investing, the first rule thing you need to learn is effective management of your emotions. It is impossible to eliminate the impulse to act when euphoria or panic are in the air. While you cannot eliminate the emotion that pushes to you react, you can control your reaction. You can choose to run with the herd of fight panic and stand aside while the herd stampedes. The most important rule is to never let your emotions do the talking. This means not succumbing to panic or euphoria. If you fail here, then nothing can help you. All the rules in the world will fail to alter your outcome.
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Friday, September 11, 2015
Decision Theory - The Certainty Equivalent / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
By Jared Dillian
One of my students met me in my office the other day. He is a ROTC cadet; that’s Reserve Officer Training Corps, in case you don’t know.
He knows I have military experience, and he wanted to pick my brain about how he could use his MBA while working for the government.
“Uh, you can’t, really,” I said.
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Friday, August 14, 2015
7 Key Rules Contrarian Investors Should Adhere To / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
"Given a sufficient number of people and an adequate amount of time you can create insurmountable opposition to the most inconsequential idea." ~ Anonymous
Contrarian investing is a dynamic field and not a static one. The assumption that it's a static field is held by the new breed of fashion contrarians, whose only donation to this field has been to glamorize it and distort the correct notion of being a contrarian investor. These fashion contrarians are no different from those with the mass mindset; they only pretend to do things differently, but the moment fear or uncertainty is in the air, they flee for the exits like bandits being chased by the hounds of hell. A true contrarian in most cases understands the basic rules of mass psychology. If you are not familiar with these rules, you are doing yourself a disservice and should catch up on them ASAP.
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Saturday, August 01, 2015
Why Your Brokerage Account Isn’t as Safe as You Think It Is / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
By E.B. Tucker
Imagine logging into your brokerage account tomorrow and finding out that it’s frozen.
Not just your account… every customer account at your brokerage is frozen.
You can’t buy stocks. You can’t sell stocks. You can’t move money out of the account.
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Saturday, July 18, 2015
Market Orders - The Most Powerful Total Wealth Tactic of All / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
MoneyMorning.com Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: When I started Total Wealth, I made you a promise that we were not only going to cover the events of the day and the opportunities they create, but also the specific tactics you need to maximize profits and build Total Wealth.
Today I want to keep that promise with a look at the single most powerful Total Wealth Tactic of all.
It’s simple, easy to use, and takes only an extra second or two to put in place.
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Sunday, July 12, 2015
One of the Most Important Lessons When Buying Stocks / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
You're not going to succeed in the stock market by just buying the world's best businesses...
For the past several years, my colleague Dan Ferris and I have urged Extreme Value readers to buy great businesses... Businesses that gush free cash flow, reward shareholders, have great balance sheets, earn consistent profit margins, and have high returns on equity.
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Friday, June 26, 2015
Stock Market Investors Avoid the "Herd" Like the Plague / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Porter Stansberry writes: If you've been following my series this week, you know we're working our way through the desert – the Rub' al Khali.
Wednesday, June 03, 2015
How to Handle a Short Attack on a Stock You Own / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
MoneyMorning.com Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: An anonymous individual writing under the name “The Pump Stopper” launched a vicious attack on Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc. (OTC:EKSO) yesterday that immediately pressured the stock and caused it to drop 24.28% to close at $1.36 a share on heavy volume. Understandably, that makes a lot of people nervous.
Here’s the thing, though.
If you’ve been in this game long enough, you know what to look for and why stuff like this isn’t a big deal in the scheme of things.
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Friday, May 22, 2015
Investing is About Identifying Gifted and Talented Camps / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Jared Dillan writes: I was a “smart kid” growing up. I got used to being the smartest in the class, every year; I also got used to being left out socially and being bullied a bit. It wasn’t bad, though. In 9th grade, I transformed from a little pork chop into a tall, decent-looking kid. I had lots of friends in high school, and life was good.
Before that, though, it was tough. I put up with my share of indignities. One summer, in 7th grade, I was sent to gifted and talented camp or, more specifically, the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY), where I could be around other geeks like me.
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Thursday, March 12, 2015
The Real Secret to Warren Buffett's Investing Success... / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Porter Stansberry writes: Fair warning, gentle reader... the next two DailyWealth essays are, in all likelihood, a waste of your time.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
How To Invest With $5,000 to $10,000 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Investing with limited funds can present many challenges.
Let’s face it, if you had $1,000,000 to work with the number of opportunities and a reasonable dollar allocation would be much easier. Who would not like to have this problem?
Friday, March 06, 2015
The Anthropology of Finance / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Jared Dillian writes: When I was 11, my grandmother liked to hang out in Bee Bee’s Dairy and smoke cigarettes and drink coffee.
The air quality in that place was like modern-day Beijing, with all these old people smoking and shooting the breeze. I used to get ice cream sodas there, what you would call a “float” in other parts of the country.
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Thursday, February 19, 2015
Investing in Stocks - Safety in Numbers, Protection in Options / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
By Andrey Dashkov
If you want to fail as an investor, the possibilities are endless. Buying stocks on a whim, holding on to the losers for too long, and dumping winners too soon are just a few ways to start.
Options, like anything else, can cost you money or make you money. Due to the leverage employed when trading options, they often add both a layer of potential profit and a layer of risk on top of their underlying assets. But a less-known benefit of trading options is that they can serve as a hedge or form of insurance.
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Tuesday, February 17, 2015
How to Determine the Best Place to Invest Using Technical Analysis / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Christopher Rowe writes: Over the next five minutes, I’ll teach you one of the most successful investment approaches in history... one that can tell you which part of the stock market you should be in right now.
Its success has been documented in more than 100 independent studies over the last few decades. And it’s been back-tested for over a century.
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Tuesday, February 03, 2015
What's The Best Asset Allocation? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: My friend Meb Faber just wrote the book on asset allocation.
Monday, February 02, 2015
Don't Make This Fatal Investing Mistake / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
William Patalon III writes: As I wrote this for you folks last week, my part of the country was bracing for Winter Storm Juno, a blizzard that could bring wind gusts of 65 miles per hour while dumping as much as three feet of snow on some of the biggest cities in the Northeast. (We were spared its brunt, but New England could claim no such good fortune).
With the early warning systems we have today – giving us the ability to prepare – the human toll from Juno was held to a minimum.
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Friday, January 23, 2015
Keep Your Risk Managers Away From Me / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Jared Dillian writes: This week’s big news, of course, continues to be the massive revaluation of the Swiss franc (CHF). It’s perhaps the first instance of a G10 currency going up 16% in a single day.
From a strategy standpoint, there really is only one way to interpret this, as many people already have: it’s the end of central bank omnipotence.
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Thursday, January 15, 2015
Learning This Simple Concept Could Make You Rich / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Brett Aitken writes: There is a simple path to wealth...
It doesn't require much work. It doesn't require much knowledge. You don't have to be lucky, or even all that good.
You just have to learn one simple concept: capital efficiency.
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Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Investment Lessons TO a World Champ / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: I met a legend over the weekend...
He's a now-retired international sports hero.
I don't want to share his name today, because he told me quietly that he could use some financial help, and he probably wouldn't want that word out in public.
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Wednesday, December 17, 2014
The Real Reason It's Tough to Beat the Stock Market / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: The latest research from DALBAR is very graphic…
Over the past 20 years, individual investors averaged a measly 2.53% a year, versus the S&P 500, which chalked up 9.02%. In other words, your average annual return was 6.49% less than what it could have been each year. Ouch.
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Friday, December 12, 2014
Central Banks and Government Policies Control the Markets Myth / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Don't Get Ruined by These 10 Popular Investment Myths (Part X)
Interest rates, oil prices, earnings, GDP, wars, peace, terrorism, inflation, monetary policy, etc. -- NONE have a reliable effect on the stock market
You may remember that after the 2008-2009 crash, many called into question traditional economic models. Why did they fail?
And more importantly, will they warn us of a new approaching doomsday, should there be one?
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Wednesday, December 10, 2014
The Stock Market Timing Secret I Wish Everyone Knew / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: Many investors are trying to time the markets, especially lately with concerns over low oil prices, global woes, and Chinese growth in the headlines.
I totally get where they’re coming from. The idea of picking market tops and bottoms is very seductive.
But they may as well try to catch falling knives…
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Friday, December 05, 2014
Shareholder Value Maximization - The World’s Dumbest Idea? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
In today’s Outside the Box the redoubtable James Montier of GMO lifts his lance to prick the underbelly of the Mighty SVM. (That’s Shareholder Value Maximization, for you newbies.) “The world’s dumbest idea” (among many candidates in the world of finance), says James, citing none other than “Neutron Jack” Welch in support.
After noting that taking on SVM “is a little like criticizing motherhood and apple pie,” James sets right to work, tracing the monster’s birth to an editorial by Milton Friedman in 1970, in which Saint Milton wrote, “There is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits...”
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Tuesday, November 18, 2014
The Free Trade Stock Investment Strategy / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
A big grin lit up my face when I opened my trading screens recently.
I was looking at the chart for Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc. (OTCBB: EKSO). The company was trading at right around $1.81 per share at midday on Monday.
That means it was close to a double from where I initially recommended it as our first human augmentation target to members of my Total Wealth research service.
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Friday, November 14, 2014
The Most Valuable Stock Market Investment Secret of All / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Porter Stansberry writes: Today, I'm going to show you one of the most advanced investment skills you could ever master...
But I don't want to tell you upfront what today's lesson is about. I want to see if you can figure it out yourself. So don't skip ahead.
Think of today's essay as a test. As I always say... there is no such thing as teaching, there is only learning. And there's a hugely valuable investment lesson – the most valuable secret of all – below...
Saturday, November 08, 2014
The Most Important Trade You'll Ever Make / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Shah Gilani writes: Seasoned investors know there are ways a trade can go wrong for you – that's why thorough research and tight investing discipline are so important.
But, the truth is, there's only one surefire way to lose your shirt, only one move that's absolutely, positively guaranteed to cost you money.
And it's a shockingly easy play to make. In fact, as of 2014, more than 52% of Americans have made this fatal trading mistake.
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Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Don't Get Ruined by These 10 Popular Investment Myths (Part VIII) / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Interest rates, oil prices, earnings, GDP, wars, peace, terrorism, inflation, monetary policy, etc. -- NONE have a reliable effect on the stock market
You may remember that after the 2008-2009 crash, many called into question traditional economic models. Why did they fail?
And more importantly, will they warn us of a new approaching doomsday, should there be one?
This series gives you a well-researched answer. Here is Part VIII; come back soon for Part IX.
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Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Risk Management - Why I Run “Ultimate Trailing Stops” on All My Investments / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
You’ve spotted an unstoppable, trillion-dollar trend. You’ve identified the stock that’s set to benefit most and made a trade using the tactics that will squeeze the most profit out of it.
Nicely done.
Now it’s time for the final piece of the Total Wealth strategy.
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Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Don't Get Ruined by These 10 Popular Investment Myths (Part VII) / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Interest rates, oil prices, earnings, GDP, wars, peace, terrorism, inflation, monetary policy, etc. -- NONE have a reliable effect on the stock market
You may remember that after the 2008-2009 crash, many called into question traditional economic models. Why did they fail?
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Tuesday, October 07, 2014
Why Shareholders Should Fear the Hasty Corporate Marriage / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
I never understood why Sears bought Kmart. Sears was a giant retailer, the dominant tenant in shopping malls throughout the US. Kmart was the spawn of S. S. Kresge’s dime stores. They served different consumer groups—different strata. When they came together, they combined a lot of the same merchandise in their stores, and they both lost their identities. I don’t see either surviving much longer.
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Thursday, September 25, 2014
Don’t Be a Freedom Wimp: Live from the Casey Research Summit in San Antonio / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
By Doug Hornig, Senior Editor
On Day Two of the Casey Research Summit in San Antonio, the emphasis was decidedly on the “deep state,” as Doug Casey termed it: what it is, what it’s doing, and how to thrive despite its ubiquitous reach.
The deep state begins with government, an institution Doug describes as intrinsically evil and destructive. That’s because it’s empowered by enforced coercion—one of only two ways in which humans interact with one another (the alternative being voluntary cooperation).
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Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Don't Get Ruined by These 10 Popular Investment Myths (Part IV) / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Interest rates, oil prices, earnings, GDP, wars, terrorist attacks, inflation, monetary policy, etc. -- NONE have a reliable effect on the stock marketYou may remember that during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, many called into question traditional economic models.
Why did the traditional financial models fail? And more importantly, will they warn us of a new approaching doomsday, should there be one?
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Thursday, August 28, 2014
How You Can Play to Win When Market Makers Are Calling the Shots / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The American Legion sponsored a carnival every summer when I was a young lad. My dad was a legionnaire, so each year I had a job. Beginning at age 12, I hauled soft drinks and food to the various concession booths well into the night, which probably violated some labor laws.
Dad warned me about the carnival barkers, telling me to never play games where you try to win a giant teddy bear. They were rigged, he said, and no one ever wins—“So don’t waste your money.”
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Thursday, August 14, 2014
Don't Get Ruined by These 10 Popular Investment Myths / Interest-Rates / Learning to Invest
Interest rates, oil prices, earnings, GDP, wars, terrorist attacks, inflation, monetary policy, etc. -- NONE have a reliable effect on the stock marketYou may remember that during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, many called into question traditional economic models. Why did the traditional financial models fail?
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Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Trip through TSA—When Stock Diversification Gets out of Hand / Portfolio / Learning to Invest
There are only a handful of ways to protect your investment portfolio, and proper diversification is chief among them. No matter how well you do your due diligence on a single investment or how disciplined you are at executing trades, if your portfolio looks like a bridge party among pals who’ve known each other just a tad too long you’re in trouble.
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Thursday, July 31, 2014
Short Selling / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
When you buy your shares of apple at $ 100 i sell short to you.
You wanted the stock and bought at $ 100. My short acts to support that judgment.
I am providing true liquidity to the market, because once i short/sell those shares to you, i must be able to buy them back from you at all times, whatever the price.
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Tuesday, July 01, 2014
The Art of Stock Picking / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
By Andrey Dashkov
If you’re a typical small-time investor, chances are you prefer to let a team of analysts fuss about such irksome things as correlation and beta. Maybe you’ve bought a stock because your brother-in-law gave you a hot tip, maybe you heard something about it on a financial news show, or maybe you just loved the company’s product.
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Thursday, June 26, 2014
Stocks Portfolio Correlation Based Diversification / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
A Guy Leans on a Lamppost… and You Make a Buck
To paraphrase Scottish novelist Andrew Lang, some people use statistics like a drunk uses lampposts—for support rather than illumination. Numbers can be twisted and abused to support false claims, and even correct data is sometimes misinterpreted.
For example, you may often see claims like “an expert opinion poll showed that inflation next year will be 2.65%.” Looks legitimate, right? We have experts and a precise number; what else do we need? Well, there are at least three potential biases at work in this short statement:
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Friday, June 13, 2014
Robert Prechter - How and Why Markets Fool Investors - Video / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Bob Prechter explores price action in crude oil to deliver an important investment lessonEditor's note:
The following is a timeless clip from Robert Prechter's presentation at the Social Mood Conference.
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Monday, June 02, 2014
How Stocks and Bonds Are Related: Investor Step Toward Market Mastery / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Shah Gilani writes: Over the past couple of months, I've been sharing with you some tips about how new investors can break into the market. And I think it's the perfect time for our next lesson - looking this time at the inextricable connection between stocks and bonds.
Although I tend to write about the stock market as if it were a singular entity, I'm usually talking about the markets in the plural. Not just the Dow Jones Industrial Average, or the S&P 500 Index, or the Nasdaq - when I'm talking about the stock market or stocks, I am talking about ALL the indexes.
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Friday, May 23, 2014
3 Effective Tools for Navigating International Markets - Free Webinar / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
FREE WEBINAR:
"3 Effective Tools for Navigating International Markets"
Thursday, May 29, 2:00 p.m. Eastern time
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: Free
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Five Investor Tools to Turn Choppy Stock Markets to Your Advantage / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Back in the late 1990s, my wife was expecting our second daughter and we were really anxious to buy a home.
But the real estate market was soaring … prices were insane.
I can’t tell you how many times we lost out on a house we really liked because some other buyer was willing to pay 25% or more above the asking price – or was an “all-cash” buyer.
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Saturday, April 19, 2014
Hope and Regret: An Investor's Worst Enemies / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Alexander Green writes: It's often been said that the average investor's downfall are fear and greed. He tends to be too greedy to sell at market tops and too fearful to buy at market bottoms.
Yet fear and greed aren't an investor's worst emotions. Indeed, they have much to recommend them.
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Tuesday, April 08, 2014
Learn to Trust Your Own Financial Judgment / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Keep this goal in mind as you read on: solid income and growth with minimal risk and no catastrophic losses. Just tuck it in the back of your head.
Subscriber Brian A. wrote sharing a common concern:
"I subscribe to your newsletter for the purpose of diversifying my portfolio as well as taking more responsibility for my investment future. … I look at the soaring S&P and Dow and wonder if both are appreciating from strong fundamentals, or from the Fed's easy money policy. … I listen to my broker who spouts out information of a resurgence of manufacturing coming back to US soil and (says) equities are the place to be for the near future. The other side spouts banks are insolvent, businesses are closing, (and) if it wasn't for the Fed propping things up we would be in a recession. Some say we are in a recession. I would like to see you devote an article on the subject of the 'don't worry be happy' crowd verses the 'doom and gloom' crowd."
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Friday, April 04, 2014
Investing - What Is Worse Than Being at Risk? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
You may have heard the old adage: “What is worse than being lost? Not knowing you are lost.” In that same vein: What is worse than being at risk? You guessed it! Not knowing you’re at risk.
For many investors, portfolio diversification is just that. They think they are protected, only to find out later just how at risk they were.
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Friday, March 28, 2014
How To Overcome Stock Market “Investing Fear” And Finally Get Started / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Shah Gilani writes:Today, I want to tell you a story.
It’s a true story that also illustrates how the advice I often give to investors can help them reach their financial goals.
As you know, I have more than 30-years professional trading experience (I mean real big money trading). And folks often ask me, “How do I get started?”
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Wednesday, March 12, 2014
5 Red Flags to Notice When Working with an Financial Advisor / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
You don’t have to be an expert at ferreting out a bad financial advisor; if you were, you probably wouldn’t need one in the first place. Thankfully, you don’t need to become an expert in finance to spot the red flags. We’ll go over a few key warning signs here.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Why You Should Not Trust Your Broker / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Shah Gilani writes: I've written about the dangers of relying on stockbrokers before.
You see, most stockbrokers aren't traders, and they aren't analysts, but salesmen. They usher clients into financial products with little regard for their individual financial situation or the broader markets.
That doesn't make them bad people. In fact, I have friends who are stockbrokers, and they're nice people.
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Wednesday, March 05, 2014
Wells Fargo: A Stock Investors Lesson In Dealing With Fear / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
What would you do if we told you that a financial crisis was coming? Specifically, let's drill down to a single bank stock and say that we knew for certain that Wells Fargo's (WFC) share price would drop by more than 70%. Moreover, this price decline wasn't necessarily going to be capricious in nature as Wells Fargo's earnings would also drop by roughly 75% for the year. We didn't know when this time would come, but rest assured it was coming.
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Monday, December 23, 2013
The "$5 Rule" Stock Investing Rule Gives You a Powerful Edge over Goldman Sachs Traders / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Robert Hsu writes: We hear it all the time, this notion that professional traders at top-tier Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and HSBC have tremendous advantages over smaller, individual investors.
The system is rigged...
Too-big-to-failbankers are getting richer at the expense of the little guy...
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Monday, December 02, 2013
Short Selling - The Worst Trade You Can Make / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Alexander Green writes: Last week, The Wall Street Journal ran an article titled “Tough Year for Short Sellers.”
I’ll say…
Short sellers bet that stocks will fall rather than rise. You already know, for instance, that if you buy a stock at $20 and sell it at $25, you make $5 a share. But if you short a stock at $25 and buy it back at $20, you also make $5 a share. However, this has been an awfully difficult game to play this year.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Investing - Can You Have Too Much of a Good Thing? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
I have received numerous emails from subscribers asking about individual stocks and how much they should buy. While I am not licensed to give individualized advice, each time I read these questions, the experiences shared seem eerily similar to my own.
, Back in 2008 many retirees had their CDs called in overnight. They had a large amount of cash and an urgent need to do something to recover the 6%, low-risk income that no longer existed. Many thought moving all of their capital into the stock market was all that they needed to do. Oh boy, they were in for a surprise.
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Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Investors' Toolkit - Trailing Stops: Why You Need Them and How to Use Them / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Here at Money Morning, we're big proponents of using trailing stops as an easy and effective way to mitigate risk and boost gains.
And yet a surprisingly large group of individual investors don't use them, or have never heard the importance of trailing stops explained.
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Thursday, November 21, 2013
Investor Street Smarts - Staying in the Game / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
Fifty-eight percent of workers have not even tried to calculate how much they need for retirement, let alone put a plan in place. To stay in the game, you have to get in the game. As a reader of articles like this, you are already past that hurdle.
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Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Common Investing Mistakes to Avoid / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Garrett Baldwin writes: It's been a great year for investors who stayed in the market, and stayed disciplined. The S&P 500 is up more than 25% on the year, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 21%.
But making money isn't just about finding stocks/investments that will increase in price. It also involves avoiding the common investing mistakes that prevent retail investors from enjoying record-high markets.
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Thursday, November 14, 2013
The Investment Rule of 72 for Successful Stock Market Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The issue of successful stock market investment affects us all. Even if we are not directly engaged in the industry, all of us will need some form of pension to fund our retirement. Whether we like it or not most of our retirement funds will find their way into the financial markets. For this very reason, the issue of pensions has moved politically centre stage, in particular the investment strategies used to direct pension funds. Due to mismanagement, mainly over the last decade, many retirement portfolios have become under-funded at best, or, at worst, totally bust. This situation is a direct result of the managed funds having been speculated rather than invested. Many cynics will say that the whole investment environment today has more of the characteristics of a casino than of a professional market of equities and, therefore, they doubt that one can ever achieve a faithful and fair return on capital. However, this view is erroneous. This essay sets out to explain how to achieve superior stock market investment returns through a simple yet powerful investment rule: “the rule of 72”. This rule is based on investment and not speculation yet if you faithfully apply it your returns, over time, will be worthwhile. Many believe that such degree of return is only possible through “speculative activity”. They are wrong and I will explain.
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Monday, November 11, 2013
Are Investors Getting Dumber / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
I’ve long lamented that basic financial literacy is not a routine part of a high-school education in this country. Students routinely graduate without understanding compound interest, IRAs, mortgages or why we even have a stock market.
And so they trundle out into the real world, saving little, investing poorly (or not at all) and – typically – paying 18.6% annual interest on their credit cards. Within a few years, they are deep in a hole, trying to dig themselves out, and telling anyone who will listen of the essential inequity of the capitalist system.
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Thursday, October 31, 2013
The "Painful" Truth About Portfolio Diversification / Portfolio / Learning to Invest
Robert Hsu writes: Portfolio diversification is one of the most widely advocated concepts in investing. Almost all financial planners recommend it.
But it's also one of the most misunderstood concepts.
Traditional diversification isn't a real-world way to create big wealth.
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Friday, October 25, 2013
How to Be a David to Wall Street Goliaths / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Does the little guy ever really stand a chance in the market? Well… did David take down Goliath?
The mainstream media likes to peddle stories about the little investor who always loses money in the stock market. When the mechanics or teachers or dentists of this world try to compete with the big boys on Wall Street, they always seem to fail. Ordinary people like you and me appear doomed to lose our shirts when we try to compete against folks with sophisticated trading tools (and mathematical geniuses to run them). But are we?
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Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Tweeter - Why You Should Triple-Check the Ticker Before Buying That Stock / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
By Dan Steinhart, Managing Editor, The Casey Report
A simple misplaced letter can make a world of difference.
Two weeks ago, on an otherwise quiet Friday, voracious investors piled into the most anticipated tech IPO since Facebook. Buyers bought over 14 million shares of social media giant Twitter, sending its price soaring over 1,000%.
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Monday, September 23, 2013
Why the Mega-Rich Get Richer / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Alexander Green writes: With unemployment high and the economy still sputtering, economic insecurity in the U.S. is rampant right now. The 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), the longest-running survey of its kind, reveals that the percentage of workers who feel confident they have enough for a comfortable retirement is near record lows.
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Monday, September 23, 2013
The Power of Compounding - How to Create Huge Wealth With Little Risk / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Tom Dyson writes: We’ve seen compounding referred to as “the most powerful force in the universe,” “the royal road to riches,” and “the greatest mathematical discovery in human history.”
Albert Einstein called compounding the eighth wonder of the world.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
The Illusion of Safe Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
By Dennis Miller
Retirees are often more concerned with the return of their money than the return on their money. It's understandable; after our peak earning years have passed financial safety becomes our primary concern since the opportunity to earn back investment losses is essentially over.
Saturday, August 03, 2013
See Dr. Ron Paul Up Close and Personal at the 2013 Casey Summit / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
He’s never voted to raise taxes. He’s never taken a government-paid junket. And he’s never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He’s Dr. Ron Paul, and he’s always led by example. During his 36 years in Congress, he tried to convince his colleagues to vote along with him against any measure that ran counter to the Constitution. Unfortunately, they seldom did.
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Thursday, August 01, 2013
Five Point Test for Every Investment / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The issue is no longer one of waiting to see what the government is going to do; the real issue is what are we as investors going to do?
When I say the investment paradigm has changed, I’m referring to a combination of factors. There are no more solid, safe investments paying any kind of decent yield that most retirees could possibly live on comfortably. Re-read that if you have to. Investors are being forced to take on more risk for yield. Some are doing it using an income strategy, some are not.
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Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Growing Wealth With Stocks: Expectations vs The New Reality / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The number one reason why stocks are a core component of most long-term financial planning strategies is their purported ability to reliably compound wealth over time.
How has this theory been working out in practice?
The world has been going down a vastly different economic and financial path than what many people in the 1980s and 1990s assumed it would. And within this new reality, there is a key question to be asked: how has real-world performance compared with typical projections of what average investors could expect when it comes to the growth in value of their investment portfolios over the long term?
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Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Should You Invest with Borrowed Money? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
It’s high time investors heed the yellow caution flags waving in front of their margin accounts. Much like the NASCAR driver who pumps his brakes to avoid disaster when he sees the caution flag, it's time for us to slow down. My friend and colleague Ed Steer, editor of Ed Steer's Gold & Silver Daily, recently highlighted a must-read Wall Street Journal blog post focusing on the record-high levels of margin debt, and it sure made me pause to think.
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Wednesday, July 17, 2013
How IPOs Are Priced: An Overview with Shah Gilani / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Tara Clarke writes: An initial public offering, or IPO, is the first time a stock is sold by a private company to the public.
Typically you will see IPOs being issued by younger, smaller companies seeking capital to expand. Sometimes, however, larger companies that wish to become publicly traded will also issue IPOs.
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Saturday, July 06, 2013
Investor Lessons from Bell Labs / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Investors seek that elusive substance called alpha. It is too often remains hidden from them, and instead they find some form of beta, or simply what the market gives everyone. Sometimes, in secular bull markets, that can be plenty and investors feel secure. But in the secular bear cycles investing is a difficult task and one that at the end of the day may find you distressingly close to where you started.
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Thursday, June 20, 2013
Are You Preventing Yourself From Getting Rich? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: "Why is it that people seem to plan for everything except success?"
My colleague Bill Patalon who heads up Private Briefing made that comment to me recently during one of our after-hours chats. We've held them almost every day for the past 7 years since we started working together.
Long after the markets have closed and most of the team has gone home, "BP" and I talk about the events of the day by phone. No matter where I am in the world, I look forward to the 15 or so minutes we spend together.
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Thursday, June 06, 2013
The Hidden Investing Secret of the Top 1 Percent / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Garrett Baldwin writes: It's rare when an investing secret becomes so obvious that it looks us in the eye...
And nearly all Americans completely miss it.
But one such secret has been so greatly underestimated that Nobel Prize-winning economists, investing legends and those considered to be the "best" minds in finance are now finally waking up to its possibilities--and its astonishing track record.
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Thursday, May 23, 2013
Doug Casey’s Primer on Investing Internationalization / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
As many of you may know, International Man has its roots in the book of the same name. It was first published in 1978 by best-selling author, speculator, and renowned world-traveler Doug Casey.
The original intent of that book was to give readers a general sense of the exciting and opportunity-rich world that lay outside of their national borders, with a review of over 100 countries, valuable "opportunity intelligence," and the resources that anyone could follow to realize these opportunities.
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Monday, May 13, 2013
How to Profit from Insider Stock Transactions / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Moe Zulfiqar writes: If an executive of a publicly traded company buys or sells shares of their own firm, should this be taken as a signal by investors about what might happen to the stock prices? This question has taken center stage these days, as the markets are reaching new highs on a regular basis and insiders—those who hold some of the key positions in a company—are selling their shares.
Thursday, May 02, 2013
Are Billionaires Smarter Than You? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Carl Delfeld writes: Do you have to be a genius to be a billionaire?
I certainly hope not.
But a recent study by Jonathan Wai of Duke University suggests a strong link between brains and billions. The study says “the top 1% in wealth highly overlaps with the top 1% in brains.”
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Monday, April 29, 2013
Top 10 Secrets of Successful Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Steve Christ writes: For Sir John Marks Templeton, the road not taken really did make all the difference in the world.
A true contrarian, the legendary investor became a billionaire by "avoiding the herd".
He bought low, sold high, and was always working against the grains of extreme bullish and bearish sentiment.
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Saturday, April 27, 2013
Stocks When to Buy a “Buy” / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Buy, sell, hold, or pass altogether? This is the dilemma we face as investors, particularly if we subscribe to one or more investment newsletters. If a company was recommended in a previous issue, are we too late? Did the price escalate rapidly, or is it still a good choice? I subscribe to many newsletters myself, so it's an issue I deal with often. Fortunately, the answer is likely the same no matter how many different publications you read.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
How to Beat the Market / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Marc Lichtenfeld writes: As I write this, we have a house full of my daughter’s friends for a sleepover birthday party. Despite the nonstop chattering (and shrieking), I still have no idea what 9-year-old girls talk about. I assume the main topics were puppies and Justin Bieber.
All I know is I have two jobs for the party. 1) Make my famous baked ziti. 2) Go upstairs and remain unseen for the rest of the evening.
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Friday, April 05, 2013
Investor Wall Street Q&A - Everything You Wanted to Know And Weren't Afraid to Ask / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
William Patalon III writes: We'll have a Q&A session today, covering everything from precious metals to reserve banking to the derivatives markets.
Let's start with a very interesting question about gold and silver.
Q: Advisors frequently tell us not to be invested in gold/silver exchange traded funds (ETFs) as they could collapse and leave the investor with nothing but paper. Can that happen when one is invested in ETFs which are backed 98% by gold and/or silver bullion, such as the Sprott Physical Gold and Silver funds)? ~ Virginia R.
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Friday, April 05, 2013
Stock Market Investors Beware of Deadly Dollar Cost Averaging / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Moe Zulfiqar writes: If the price of a stock or any other financial instrument is headed downward, should you buy more or sell? Investors are faced with this question every single day when they see their holdings decline in value. In situations like these, investors sometimes make a mistake of buying more of something when they should have been selling it—this is often referred to as dollar cost averaging.
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Tuesday, April 02, 2013
Three Critical Mistakes Investors Make / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Moe Zulfiqar writes: When it comes to investing for the long run, investors must make sure that they make their investment decisions based on extensive analysis—not buy on rumors or “inside information.” Through thorough analysis, an investor can gain peace of mind.
If you avoid these following common investor mistakes when investing, you can be a better investor over the long run and can witness your portfolio grow.
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Friday, March 29, 2013
Golfers Make This Tragic Mistake… And So Do Investors / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Alexander Green writes: Watch an amateur golfer miss a putt and you will see two frequent errors.
The first is that the putt will finish on the low side of the hole. (That’s golf slang for saying the ball broke more than the putter was anticipating.) Statisticians say it’s the reason for nearly two-thirds of amateur golfers’ missed putts.
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Friday, March 22, 2013
How to Miss the Biggest Investment Opportunities of Your Lifetime / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Alexander Green writes: At our 15th Annual Investment U Conference in St. Petersburg last week, I spoke to the few hundred people in attendance about “How to Lose Money and Miss Opportunities.” For some reason, I was the only presenter who chose to speak on this topic. So I had the field all to myself.
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Friday, March 08, 2013
How to Safely Hedge Your Stocks Portfolio in Uncertain Times / Portfolio / Learning to Invest
David Eller writes: What a year 2013 has been. The S&P is up 6% and we’re 3% away from all-time highs. The Dow Jones broke through 14,000…
Can things get better from here? Can they even stay this good? Nobody knows where the markets will go, but there are ways to protect yourself and sleep easy at night.
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Should You Buy Stocks at New Lows? Or New Highs? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: You might not agree with today's lesson... But it's based on numbers going back nearly 100 years.
Last month, I told you even though stocks are way up and hitting levels that have preceded major corrections in the past, it is NOT time to sell.
Monday, February 25, 2013
The Biggest Stock Market Investing That You Actually Believe / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Steve Sjuggerud writes: You hear it all the time... but it's completely wrong.
I know, I know... It sounds so right and sensible, it must be true. But it's completely false.
It drives me nuts.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Are You An Investor Who Suffers From Hyperopia? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Alexander Green writes: During the housing boom a few years ago – while home equity values were climbing – American consumers went on a world-class spending spree. The personal savings rate dropped to zero, then went negative. Consumers were actually spending more than they were earning.
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Monday, February 11, 2013
Petrobras a Timeless Lesson on Investing With the Government / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Brian Hunt writes: Sometime in the past decade, Americans who should know better embraced a horrible investment idea...
If you've ever bought a stock because an investment guru told you it was "state owned" and backed by the government, chances are good you fell for a common mistake... And chances are good you lost money on the deal.
In today's essay, I'll show you why this is the case... and why you should always be leery of investing with "state owned" companies.
Friday, February 08, 2013
The Key to Investing Success / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Shah Gilani writes: If there's one single, indispensable key to successful investing, it's to go with the flow.
That's my distillation of well-worn market mantras that you're probably familiar with.
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Saturday, January 05, 2013
The Single Greatest Stock Investing Secret Ever! / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Porter Stansberry writes: Let's make a fundamental point about investing...
Most investors obsess about growth. They want a story about a company that's poised to experience massive growth. And yes, growth is very good. But you can't forget that the point of growth is to generate capital for shareholders.
Friday, January 04, 2013
Five Critical Criteria for Every Investment / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
A recent reader question is from Alex L, who is a member of my Super Sports Roadster club, a “collaborator-friend,” and big help in getting the Miller’s Money Forever project started:
“Dennis, you started actively managing your portfolio when your CDs got called in and you were sitting on cash. What do you suggest for people who already have a portfolio but might want to rearrange it a bit?”
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Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Investors Need Strong Stomachs… Not Big Brains / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Alexander Green writes: It’s great fun to read heroic investment stories about individuals who made fortunes as a result of exceptional insights or sheer genius.
No one is better at telling these than Michael Lewis, the bestselling author who devotes much of his book, The Big Short, to Steve Eisman, a brilliant and eccentric hedge fund manager who made hundreds of millions in the recent financial crisis by buying credit default swaps on the triple-B-rated tranches (slices) of subprime mortgage bonds.
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Wednesday, October 31, 2012
How to Make Money No Matter What the Stock Market Does / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Marc Lichtenfeld writes: This weekend, I was at a boxing match, talking with someone affiliated with the show. He used to work on Wall Street. I asked him if he missed it. “Hell, no,” he said quickly. “Wall Street makes boxing look like an honest business.”
After the financial collapse, flash crash and various scandals, that’s the way many people view Wall Street.
And that’s despite the current bull market being the ninth longest in history – out of 26.
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Sunday, October 28, 2012
Dividends, the Only Sure Way to Get Rich in Stocks / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Porter Stansberry: Most people think Warren Buffett became the richest investor in history – and one of the richest men in the world – because he bought the right "cheap" stocks.
Legions of professional investors tell their clients they're "Dodd and Graham value investors... just like Warren Buffett."
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Facebook Crash Illustrates the Investment Opportunity Scam, Nadeem Walayat's Investing Lesson / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
With the Facebook stock price trading about 50% below the IPO price, read on if want to know why so many investors were zuckerberged into investing in Facebook and how such costly mistakes can be avoided in the future.
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Tuesday, October 02, 2012
Free Cash Flow - The Best Company Valuation Metric / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Why Read and Watch: Because Free Cash Flow is indeed the best valuation metric for established companies that generate cash flow from operations.
Featured Article and Video: A recent short article with an accompanying video purports to explain what 'free cash flow' is, and why and how it is important as a business valuation metric. On balance, the video does quite a good job of this - and hence is worthwhile watching and listening to.
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Tuesday, October 02, 2012
Don't Let the Stock Market Play You For the "Greater Fool" / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
William Patalon writes: More than a decade has passed since the dot-bomb implosion, and many of us are still amazed that so many investors got sucked into such an insane speculative financial mania.
The thing is, it has happened many times before.
For instance, in the mid-1600s Holland literally drove itself to ruin over flowers - tulips, to be precise.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Don’t Be a Stock Market Racist, Investing Lesson / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
There is no shortage of pundits and prognosticators willing to offer their opinions (rarely based on facts) as to whether or not stocks are cheap or expensive, or as to whether the markets are going to rise or fall. In every case, the opinions and prognostications are directed as generalities such as stocks or markets. In this context, the implication is that all stocks are the same, and therefore will all behave in the same manner or in tandem.
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Friday, September 07, 2012
Misconception on Foreign Funds Causes Increase Volume / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Volume had long been an important indicator in the study of market sentiment. A bull market accompanied by heavy volume indicates commitment among investors and is usually regarded as healthy and will help prolong the run. Whereas a bull run with light volume indicate less commitment from investors and eventually the trend will run its course much sooner than expected. However over the past there had been much misconception among investors regarding the volume of shares in a particular stock market.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Forecasting Future Earnings The Key to Stock Market Returns / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
In Part 1 and Part 2 of this three-part series, we established the basic principles of valuation and provided evidence that backs those principles up. Then we demonstrated that valuation is a function of soundness based on the current earnings yield that any given level of earnings offers you. From there, we illustrated how the future rate of earnings growth, in conjunction with fair valuation, will be the primary determinants of future returns.
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Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Investors Learn to Think Nonlinearly / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Is your portfolio limited by linear thinking? We believe so.
Many linear thinkers believe that to solve a problem, you need to follow a simple, logical path, a step-by-step sequence involving two variables. One and one is always two. Here's a diagram depicting the progression.
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Saturday, June 30, 2012
How to Know What Rate of Return to Expect from your Stocks: Part 1 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
We believe there are two critical attributes that the prudent investor should consider before investing in a company (stock). Furthermore, these same two attributes can be used to calculate a reasonable expectation of the future return the stock is capable of generating on their behalf. These two attributes are valuation and the rate of change of earnings growth. Valuation indicates whether or not the company's current earnings power compensates you for the risk you take, while the company's future rate of change of earnings growth will be the driver of future returns.
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Monday, June 18, 2012
Are Stocks Underperforming the Index? Case Study - Indonesia / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
There is always a believe that by holding Defensive Stocks and Blue Chips will enable you to weather the storm during a Financial Crisis. What we will be doing now is to build a case on whether holding on to stocks will outperform the Market Index. To do this we will use the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 as a backdrop in our study. We will be using the Jakarta Stock Exchange as a Case Study and our study will be based on the following assumptions.
- Period of comparison is from the 2007 High to Current value.
- Stocks in study will be the 10 largest listed companies in the JSX as of 2010
- Stock split and bonus are taken into account
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Investor Lessons to Learn from the Facebook Fiasco / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Doug Casey, Casey Research writes: We have been accused at times - rightfully so - of being largely focused on the trials and tribulations of the newfound political economy. Given its place as one of the biggest contributing factors to the performance of the investment markets these days, it makes sense. However, there is one area of the economy that continues to grow, largely unabated by the foolish risk-taking of investment banks and the constant flow of bailouts and "easing" - it's the technology sector. This week, I had a chance to sit down with Doug Casey to get his thoughts on a subject that has long been near and dear to him as an investor and as a person, starting with the most talked about tech story of the past month, Facebook.
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Monday, June 04, 2012
The Tragic Investing Tale of "Big Al" Clifton / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
By William Patalon III writes: One of our core messages here at Money Morning - and one that we tend to repeat over and over - is that it is crucial for you to take control of your own financial destiny.
To underscore just how important this is, allow me to share a personal story I guarantee will drive this point home.
I've massaged the biographical details on this one a bit to protect the folks who are involved. But the rest of the facts are true.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Is "Mastering the Gap" the new suckers trap? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
My email box is full offers for webinars that will teach me to master the gap. Some may provide useful information.
Could buying just because prices have filled the gap be a trap for uneducated investor that generates frustration and losses?
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Stock Market Turning Points: Has Wall Street Ever Warned You in Time? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
In the play "The Secret to Freedom," Pulitzer prize writer Archibald MacLeish had a character say this:
The only thing about a man that is a man is his mind. Everything else you can find in a pig or a horse.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
How to Invest Like the Market Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffetts Rules / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Patrick Vail writes: For months, the Obama administration has been using Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A, BRK.B) Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett's considerable name recognition to try to change how America's top earners are taxed.
The fate of the so-called "Buffett Rule," which would apply a minimum tax of 30% to individuals making more than $1 million a year, still has yet to be determined. Chalk it up to politics as usual.
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Sunday, April 29, 2012
Why "Boring" Businesses Are More Profitable Than "Exciting" Ones / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Dan Ferris writes: This spring, a reader wrote to me with a complaint...
He was irritated with my coverage of "World Dominating Dividend Grower" stocks (WDDGs).
These stocks are too "boring," he said. Why pay to hear how these companies continue to do the same darn thing day in and day out?
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Investing Advice, Five Ways to Conquer Gambler's Ruin / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: The relationship between investing and profits seems simple enough. You buy low, sell high and your portfolio grows -- or so goes the story.
In reality though, success comes down to something called "Gambler's Ruin."
Most investors have never heard the term but understanding its implications can mean the difference between heartache and success, especially now.
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Friday, April 20, 2012
Investing Diversification: Is It All It's Cracked Up To Be? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Investing Diversification: Is It All It's Cracked Up To Be?There's an old cliché about real estate investing that states that the three cardinal rules are: location- location- location. Clever pundits have borrowed upon this refrain and glibly state that the three most important or cardinal rules of investing are: diversify- diversify- diversify. However, careful analysis will reveal that diversification is a multifaceted concept that has different meanings, benefits and even risks depending on how it's used and what its ultimate purpose is. Therefore, my goal is to examine this ubiquitous investing concept from various angles and perspectives.
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Thursday, April 19, 2012
Are Share Rollbacks: Good or Bad for Investors / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
As a general rule, we hate to see an announcement of a share rollback, however, there exceptions which we cover below. Investors should always be aware that if a company has, say over 150 million shares outstanding, in our opinion, it is a potential candidate for a rollback and the announcement should not come as a surprise.
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Tuesday, April 17, 2012
A True Stock Investor’s Most Important Performance Measurement / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Although most people either fail to realize it, or simply refused to accept it, every stock portfolio has two separate and distinct performances. The first, and in my opinion, the least important, is stock price movement. If you buy a stock at $10 a share and it goes to $15 a share it’s a good stock. In contrast, if you buy a stock at $15 a share and it goes to$10 a share it’s a bad stock. Meanwhile, the operating performance (earnings results) is mostly ignored while often irrational price gyrations are excessively fixated upon. Of course, I understand why people behave this way, but I still can’t help but be very frustrated by this behavior.
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Saturday, April 07, 2012
It's Time to Change the Way You Think About the Stock Market / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Friday, April 06, 2012
Don’t Look to the Stock Market for Advice / Stock-Markets / Learning to Invest
In the classic book The Wizard of Oz, the Wizard decreed that everyone who entered the Emerald City wear green-tinted glasses. Visitors and citizens were told that this was to protect them from the “brightness and glory.” In truth, though, the Wizard had lost his mojo and become a run-of-the-mill charlatan. There was no brightness and glory, just an ordinary city built out of stone and glass.
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Tuesday, April 03, 2012
The Best Exit Strategy for Any Investment / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
So... when do YOU sell?
What? You don't know? How could you not have any kind of plan?
Let's say you hold shares of Apple today at over $600 a share. You bought them a couple months ago below $400 a share. When is the right time to sell?
Monday, March 26, 2012
How to Think Like a Mad Man, Find your Edge & Risk Little for Lots / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The enigma that is eccentricity can be unravelled by grasping of this single statement; that which you perceive is both a matter of the object of your perception (in this case; the eccentric person) and your apparatus of perception. Eccentricity, then, is as much a quirk of the popular mind as it is of a particular person. So with the assumption that you seek creativeness and intrigue — here’s how to think eccentrically, find your edge and risk little for lots.
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Friday, February 10, 2012
The Investment Lesson Behind the Kodak Bankruptcy / Companies / Learning to Invest
Martin Hutchinson writes: The recent bankruptcy of Eastman Kodak reminds investors they don't make companies like they used to.
Founded in 1892, Kodak shows that very few of these 19th century giants exist anymore.
Companies, like washing machines, just don't have the staying power they used to. Even the largest companies these days are unlikely to outlast a 40-year investing career.
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Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Do Low Interest Rates Power Stock Markets Higher? / Stock-Markets / Learning to Invest
Back in the day, one of the first things I "learned" about investing was that low or declining interest rates are good for stock prices.
I've since had to "unlearn" this.
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Tuesday, February 07, 2012
The Value Trap of Deeply Cyclical Stocks / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Just as it is easier to draw straight lines than to think in nonlinear terms, it is simpler to buy stocks that have gone up a lot over the previous decade than to remain committed to the ones that have done nothing. However, linearity is for suckers. Success in investing comes from being able to see not what is in front of you but what is lurking just around the corner.
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
Cause and Effect, the Stock Market Is Not Physics / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The following series is excerpted from two classic issues of Robert Prechter's Elliott Wave Theorist. Although originally published in 2004, the valuable series has been re-released in the Independent Investor eBook, along with over 100 pages of other reports that challenge conventional economic thinking.
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Friday, December 23, 2011
The Stock Market Is Not Physics: Part II / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The following series is excerpted from two classic issues of Robert Prechter's Elliott Wave Theorist. Although originally published in 2004, the valuable series has been re-released in the Independent Investor eBook, along with over 100 pages of other reports that challenge conventional economic thinking.
Here is Part II of the series. You can read Part I here. Check back in a few days to read Part III, or you can download your free copy of the Independent Investor eBook here.
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Sunday, September 04, 2011
Money: How to Get It and Keep It / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Doug Casey, Casey Research writes: Even if you are already wealthy, some thought on this topic is worthwhile. What would you do if some act of God or of government, a catastrophic lawsuit or a really serious misjudgment took you back to Square One? One thing about a real depression is that everybody loses. As Richard Russell has quipped, the winners are those who lose the least. And as far as I’m concerned, the Greater Depression is looming, not just another cyclical downturn. You may find that, although you’re far ahead of your neighbors (you own precious metals, you’ve diversified internationally and you don’t believe much of what you hear from official sources), you’re still not as prepared as you’d like.
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Friday, July 15, 2011
When To Buy A Stock That’s Been Correcting / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
At some point, a stock that’s been on a big run, will turn tail and go into a correction. Such behavior is normal, it allows investors to take profits and buy again or add to their current position at lower prices.
But often the initial selling can be intense and scary, making it difficult to navigate the ideal time to buy the stock as no one likes catching a falling knife. For those who understand chart pattern recognition, the ideal time to buy eventually becomes clear. SLV below offers a good example:
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Stock Sound Bases Vs. V-Shaped Bases / Companies / Learning to Invest
Don’t get us wrong, we are all for buying breakouts into new highs. But we do so with a catch and that is — OFF OF SOUND BASES VS V SHAPED BREAKOUTS.
Below is TSCO which is a good example of a sound breakout.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Lessons that Will Change the Way You Invest Forever / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Greetings Investor,
"Successful market timing depends upon learning the patterns of crowd behavior. By anticipating the crowd, you can avoid becoming a part of it."
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Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Time to Get Rich, the Compounding Process / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
"If I had just known at age 18 what I know today!" That lament is among the most universal among people aged 50 or older. Is there any society in which it cannot be heard?
I was reminded of this when I watched a video of half a dozen of coach John Wooden's most talented basketball players. It was produced in 2010, just after his death at age 99. He had retired 35 years earlier, yet he was still remembered and admired.
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Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Confessions of an Investor, the Problems Modern Portfolio Theory / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
“Tail risk (the risk of large losses) is dramatically underestimated by many investors and the tools we have available to manage such risks are hopelessly inadequate. Financial theory which is taught at business schools and universities all over the world is plainly wrong.” This week we turn to my friend Niels Jensen of Absolute Return Partners in London for our Outside the Box offering, in which he looks at tail risk, Modern Portfolio Theory, and a risk he identifies as Birthday Risk. It is a lively and easy read, which is also designed to make you think about your basic investment principles.
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Thursday, March 31, 2011
How to Beat the Stock Market by Following Five Simple Rules / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: Most investors operate on some variation of the "set it and forget it strategy."
And that's why - more often than not - they're surprised by the terrible things that happen to their money when the stock market stumbles.
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Tuesday, March 22, 2011
The Seven Immutable Laws of Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
I am in London this morning, just a few miles (in theory) from the writer of this week's Outside the Box. James Montier, now with GMO, is one of my favorite analysts. I read everything he writes, and my only complaint is that he does not write enough. Today he offers us his thoughts on what he calls the "7 Immutable Laws of Investing."
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Thursday, March 10, 2011
Investing Mantra, Not to Convince, But to be Convinced / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The most valuable mantra in investing goes by: “Not to convince, but to be convinced.” A good investor does not take unnecessary chances and then convince himself that everything would be alright. Rather, he would wait until the right opportunity comes by and convinces him that it is the choice to make. In other words, a winning investor always abides in stillness until a high-probability signal dawns on him.
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Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Game-Changing Companies Eat People / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
This week’s Outside the Box is a little unusual, even for me. But it will be fun, informative, and thought-provoking. My friend Andy Kessler has written another irreverent, gonzo book called Eat People: And Other Unapologetic Rules for Game-Changing Entrepreneurs. He has graciously allowed me to copy his introduction as this week’s missive.
Andy gives us 12 Rules and a Bonus Rule that characterize game-changing companies. They are: Scale, Waste, Horizontal, Edge, Productive, Adaptive, Eat People, Markets, Exceptionalism, Market Entrepreneur, Zero Marginal Cost, Virtual Pipe, and Highest Return. Find a company that embodies these rules early, and you get in on the ground floor of the next Apple or Microsoft.
Monday, February 07, 2011
The Case Against Investor Portfolio Diversification / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Talk with an investment advisor, and what's the first piece of advice you will hear? Diversify your portfolio. The case for diversification is repeated so often that it's come to be thought of as an indisputable rule. Hardly anyone makes the case against diversifying your portfolio. But because we believe that too much liquidity has made all markets act similar to one another, we make that case. Heresy? Not at all. Just because investment banks and stock brokerages say you should diversify doesn't make it true. After all, their analysts nearly always say that the markets look bullish and that people should buy more now. For a breath of fresh air on this subject, read what Bob Prechter thinks about diversification.
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Thursday, January 13, 2011
Five Investor Strategies to Control Market Greed / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Many of us (myself included) are drawn to the markets by the same force that can destroy our accounts: greed. While there are several ways in which greed can hurt us, there are five personal strategies that we can employ to control the market greed that is woven into our social fabric.
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Thursday, January 06, 2011
Getting Rich Investing... No Special Skills Required / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: Want to get rich investing?
Today, I'll show you how I've succeeded... The great thing about what I do is you can do it too. No special skills are required.
You don't need to be a math or computer whiz. You don't need to spend all your waking hours watching stock quotes on your computer or CNBC.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
New Year's Resolutions That Will Bolster Your 2011 Investment Portfolio / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Shah Gilani writes: If everyone kept their New Year's resolutions, most of America would be thin, fit and rich.
That's because the three most popular resolutions tend to involve dieting, working out and improving the family finances.
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Friday, December 17, 2010
Why It's Dangerous to Diversify Your Investment Portfolio / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
A free report from Elliott Wave International reveals the risks of portfolio diversification
Despite near-unanimous endorsement among mainstream advisors, the strategy of portfolio diversification has a huge, glaring flaw: Namely, when large sums of liquidity begin to flow into global investment markets, formerly disparate trends become strongly correlated. And markets that go up together ultimately go down together; in turn, the value of diversified portfolios goes down with them.
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Wednesday, December 08, 2010
How the Banking Industry Works - Xtranormal Video / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Julia Sanders interviews Thomas Lloyd, an investment banker of ABC Wealth Management, resulting in a satiric exposition of the banking industry.
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Doug Casey’s Secret to Finding Winning Stocks / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Doug Casey – The Eight Ps of Resource Stock Evaluation : I’ve been asked “What’s the secret of finding winning gold, silver, and other natural resource stocks?” more times than I can even begin to count. And for over 20 years, my answer has remained pretty much the same: the Eight Ps.
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Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Time to Fine Tune Your Investment Portfolio / Portfolio / Learning to Invest
In my last couple of columns, I told you about two different portfolios that I’ve been running, both of which contain dividend stocks and have been performing very strongly.
That prompted some of you to write in asking what differentiates these two portfolios. It’s a great question and it raises the bigger issue of how you can tweak your own portfolio to better suit your goals and individual tolerance for risk.
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Sunday, November 07, 2010
Understanding Contrarian Stock Market Analysis / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Traders have employed contrarian type analysis methods for years in an effort to garner market profits. Over the years the indicators that can be employed by the contrarian have grown but the major theme has remained the same and that is focus on what the majority is doing right now as well as what particular directional bias they currently possess. Contrarian analysis seeks out potential buying and selling strength by measuring investor expectations.
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Tuesday, November 02, 2010
How to Protect Your Portfolio with Stock Options Insurance Policy / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Larry D. Spears writes:If you don't deal a lot with stock options in your investments, you probably don't realize just how versatile options actually are.
In fact, stock options can be used:
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Thursday, October 28, 2010
Investor Portfolio Diversification is Essential, Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The natural resource sector has been performing extremely well of late and we are of the opinion that we are still in the early stages of an explosion in share prices. Gains of 100's of percent will be common but not without some risk.
Each investor must decide their own level of comfort and risk tolerance as measured again the potential gains to be made in the coming months.
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Thursday, October 14, 2010
How to Invest for Just Half the Year And Beat The Stock Market / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: It's crazy, but true…
You can invest for just half the year and take the other half off… and beat the market.
It sounds crazy, but it's worked extremely well over the last 60 years.
Sunday, October 03, 2010
Flash Stock Market Crash, the Dark Side of Stop Loss Orders / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
We are proponents of persistent percentage trailing stop loss orders to protect against significantly declining markets. If more investors used stop loss orders, fewer investors would have been devastated by the the 2008 stock market crash. Just like seat belts and airbags that save lives in auto crashes, stop loss orders save portfolios in market crashes. However, in a small minority of cases, seat belts or airbags are a partial cause of injury in an auto crash. Similarly, in a small minority of cases, stop loss orders are a partial cause of investment losses.
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Friday, August 27, 2010
Three Elements of Investment Success / / Learning to Invest
1. Compounding
Success in a career in investing requires knowledge, patience, focus and discipline. It is not a path to “getting rich quick”. When you see such “quicky” schemes advertised for any investment “product” you should run a mile. “Quick rich” schemes aside, disciplined investing can offer excellent returns when married to the “magic” of compounding.
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Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Defensive Investing: Use Dollar-Cost Averaging to Reduce Volatility Risks / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Larry D. Spears writes: Dollar-cost averaging has long been a strategic staple among mutual fund buyers. Longer-term investors use it to smooth out the effects of short-term price fluctuations, but the tactic seldom has been practical for purchasers of individual stocks - that is until now.
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Tuesday, August 10, 2010
How to 'Stress Test' Your Investment Portfolio / Portfolio / Learning to Invest
Jack Barnes writes: Back when I was a portfolio manager, I was always looking at ways to "stress test" my portfolio. In other words, I was on the constant lookout for ways to hedge my holdings, guard against risk, and to anticipate anything the market could throw at the stocks, bonds, options and other investments contained in my portfolio.
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Friday, July 30, 2010
Cruise Control Hedging: The Basics of Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Most people enter the investment arena thinking that "Risk" is a board game they played in college. Today, I would guess that the majority of investors have never owned an individual share of common stock or a Municipal Bond.
The popularity of investment products has heightened the risk for all investors and has indirectly led to many of the policy errors that threaten both capitalism and the economic fabric of America. Market prices are increasingly and inappropriately influenced by decision-making based only on the derivatives that contain them.
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Friday, July 30, 2010
Ten Risk Minimization Strategies / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
In the recent financial crisis, a very small percentage of (I bought my house to live in) homeowners stopped paying on their mortgages. Still, the hysteria over the bursting housing bubble (i.e., lower market values) led to financial institution road-kill because of ridiculous accounting rules.
When the dot-come bubble destroyed "new economy" gladiators in a gory spectacle destined to repeat itself over time, what investment portfolios cheered unscathed from the coliseum bleachers?
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Saturday, July 24, 2010
The Number One Reason You Should Learn How to Short Stocks / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
There are many good reasons to learn how to go short. One of the best ones is maintaining objectivity.
The vast majority of investors will never short a stock (or an index, a commodity or a currency for that matter). A modest contingent will experiment with options and inverse ETFs. But very few will ever take the time and effort to truly explore the “dark side” of financial markets.
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Investment Grading Equity Analysts: Failed & Over Bullish for 25 Years / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Investment analysts' upgrades/downgrades have historically served as benchmarks for the markets, and could mean life or death to stock prices. However, the story of a 15% price swing in ATP Oil and Gas's (ATPG) stocks due to a $450-million math error by a JP Morgan (JPM) analyst probably has prompted some to question the value and validity of analysts' forecasts.
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Thursday, July 15, 2010
Seven Golden Investor Rules To Keep You Safe in Today’s ‘New Normal’ Stock Markets / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Shah Gilani writes: Pundits are talking about the "New Normal," a not-so-subtle hint at the sub-par growth that's expected from the U.S. economy.
Those pundits have picked the right book. But as far as investors are concerned they're reading from the wrong chapter. The "New Normal" isn't just about the economy. It's an epic story about not-so-great expectations - for the financial markets.
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Monday, July 12, 2010
Habits for Confident Investors / / Learning to Invest
A New York Times columnist is calling for another depression, volume is rising on the “double-dip” recession debate, and a well-known technical analyst is predicting that a 90 percent plunge is coming for the Dow Jones average.
Ambitious doom-and-gloomers are racing to the bottom to conjure up the most apocalyptic market scenarios – it’s small wonder why many investors are curled up in the fetal position.
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Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Eight Ways to Tell If You Should Hold or Fold Your Mutual Fund Investment / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Larry D. Spears writes: With the whipsaw patterns U.S. stocks have experienced in recent weeks - both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor's 500 Index are down 12% from their highs for the year - even the most ardent buy-and-hold investors are studying their portfolios, searching for holdings to cull.
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Monday, May 24, 2010
Stock Market Investors Don't Go with the Flow / / Learning to Invest
Anyone who follows financial markets has to wonder at times, "What are people thinking? How did they come to make those decisions?"
It's hard to imagine that John Muth and Robert Lucas came up with what's known as the "rational-expectations theory," wherein, as explained in Wikipedia,
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Thursday, April 15, 2010
Stocks Sell Now, Buy Later the ABCs of Short Selling / Stock-Markets / Learning to Invest
By Jake Weber, Editor, The Casey Report writes: The catch phrases “Buy low, sell high” and “The market fluctuates” are probably the two most frequently used clichés of the investment world. The latter statement is hardly astute, and the former far easier said than done. What both of these simplistic ideas overlook is a third concept largely ignored by the investing public, “Sell now, buy later.”
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Tuesday, April 13, 2010
How To Buy Stocks In An Extended Market / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
What should you do with an extended market or shall we say a market that doesn't pullback? When you look at the indexes, that's what we have right now.
But first let's talk corrections and consolidations -- specifically of issues that are in clearly defined uptrends. We define clearly defined uptrends a stocks that make higher highs and trade above the 50-day moving average.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
How to Set Stop Loss Levels / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
We increasingly receive questions about how to set stop loss levels. Let’s look at one objective, data driven way to do that.
You may be a better way, and that’s good thing, but if you don’t have a way, and you need a way, this discussion may be a helpful starting place to design your own stop loss setting method.
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Monday, March 22, 2010
Stock Market Lessons From Legendary Small Cap Investors / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
It has been said that Shelby Davis was one of the best investors the public has never heard of—unlike the well known Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway fame.
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Sunday, March 14, 2010
What's Your Investment IQ? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Many of the things you think you know about investing are part of a mythology designed to make you bounce around between investment products. Modern day "conventional wisdom" just isn't all that its cracked up to be. Concepts you worship are inaccurate; indices and averages you trust do not tell the complete story; the basic investment concepts still work --- but Wall Street won't tell you what they are.
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Thursday, March 04, 2010
How to be a Contrarian Stock Market Investor / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain
Contrarian investors believe that following the crowd leads to losses and missed opportunities. When the crowd reacts to news or speculation about a stock or the market, the price can rise of fall so far, that has mis-priced the value of the company or the market.
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Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Buffets Berkshire Hathaway New Investing Lessons for 2010 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Warren Buffett (and his business partner Charlie Munger, too). That’s why I eagerly await the release of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder reports.
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Thursday, February 18, 2010
Sign-up for Perfect Portfolio Investing 2010 Webinar this Friday / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
On Friday, Adam is going to go into detail about this hypothetical
portfolio and it's conservative strategy. This set-up is "perfect"
for those of us who don't want to look at our brokerage accounts
every day.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Income Investing And What You Really Know About It - Survey Results / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The results are in! Roughly 260 people took the time to respond to the income investing survey and I thank y'all very much for being so generous with your time. First, the generalizations:
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
How to Profit in Any Kind of Market / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: When it comes to the global financial crisis, many so-called "experts" think the worst is behind us. But I don't buy it.
And I'm not alone.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Stock and Bond Investors Perils of Relying on Black Box Price Data / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Investors today rely greatly on web data sources, but must for their own safety never forget that while most of the time most of the data is good, sometimes it is not — or is not what you think it is. Before taking capital risk based on web data, use basic logic as a reality check and alternative sources for confirmation that what you are viewing is reasonable.
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Tuesday, December 29, 2009
The Market Cycle Investment Management (MCIM) Program / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
During the past sixty years, most economic, market, and interest rate cycles have lasted from two to five years, peak-to-peak. Rarely have any of the cycle-tracking market indices moved in tandem, and none of the cycles are considered to be particularly predictable.
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Saturday, December 26, 2009
End of Year Stock Market Portfolio Rebalancing 101 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Year-end is always a time of reflection, a rare opportunity where the usual psychological boundaries of time crumble. For a couple weeks, the tyranny of the present yields to a heightened consideration of the past and the future. This rift in our everyday thought patterns leads many investors to ponder the composition of their portfolios, making this time of year the primary season for portfolio rebalancing.
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Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Robert Prechter Exposes the Ten Most Dangerous Stock Market Myths / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Free 33-page Investment eBook: Our friends over at Elliott Wave International have just released a brand-new ebook to help you sell and fold bad investment advice forever. EWI's 33-page Market Myths Exposed eBook takes the 10 most dangerous investment myths head on and exposes the truth about each in a way every investor can understand. Please learn more about the 33-page Market Myths Exposed eBook, and download your copy now.
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Monday, December 21, 2009
Stock Market Myths Exposed / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Free 33-page Investment eBook: Our friends over at Elliott Wave International have just released a brand-new ebook to help you sell and fold bad investment advice forever. EWI's 33-page Market Myths Exposed eBook takes the 10 most dangerous investment myths head on and exposes the truth about each in a way every investor can understand. Please learn more about the 33-page Market Myths Exposed eBook, and download your copy now.
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Stock Market Sector Equal Weight Investing Strategies / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Many successful investors follow sector investing. Some of the largest funds and ETFs including the SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY) base their portfolio allocation on the capitalization weighted S&P 500 index. This sector investing strategy allows you to match the market as defined by the S&P 500. Another sector investing method is to weight each sector equally.
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Monday, November 30, 2009
Stocks & Bonds Price Returns vs Total Returns / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Price return is one thing, and total return is another. Most securities charts show price performance.
Total return for yielding securities is greater than price return, because it considers both price changes and investment income. Because some securities are yielding and some are not, and because some securities have low yields while others have high yields, total return is a better indicator of the value of owning a security than price return.
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Monday, November 23, 2009
Initial Public Offering, IPO Investors Primer / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Here's a stock and an education all wrapped up in one.
This week's stock update: Since March, the market has rallied strongly and leaves many stocks in various set ups. As I'm sure you're aware, it would be great to have a time machine and go back to March and bet the farm. In hindsight, that would be the best time to trade stocks breaking out of bases. We don't have the luxury of hindsight, but we do have stocks in various setups in the wake of this advance. We'll talk about them here and how best to trade them.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Top 10 Rules for Successful Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: With all the financial woes in the global economy, the worst thing an investor can do is to “freeze up.” With all the ups and downs in the market, it’s all too easy for investors to allow their emotions to take control. That’s when the smallest mistakes turn into the biggest mistakes.
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Sunday, November 08, 2009
Mistakes When Investing With A Commodity Trading Advisor / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
There are exist numerous mistakes when investing with a commodity trading advisor. After being on both sides of allocating to commodity trading advisors as well as being one myself it has become very clear to me some of the mistakes that investors make.
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Monday, October 26, 2009
Hedge Fund Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Monty Agarwal writes: Hedge funds and the managers who run them have been getting a lot of publicity lately — and not of the flattering kind.
We have massive Ponzi schemes, equally massive losses and outsized systemic risks that are enough to frighten away even the hardiest of investors.
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Sunday, October 25, 2009
Forecasting and Trading, Nadeem Walayat's Trading Lesson's / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Over time one learns the important difference between forecasting, which is scenario building and trading, which is reacting to price movements in real time. Why forecast ?
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Do You Really Have a Diversified Portfolio? / Portfolio / Learning to Invest
I have heard so many times when speaking to investors that they have a diversified portfolio. I ask further and I have been told that they maintain a diversified portfolio of stocks consisting of both domestic and international companies. My immediate question is, are you really reducing your risk? Especially in these times it is paramount to have a diversified portfolio and try to mitigate some of inherent risks.
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Friday, October 02, 2009
MEB, the Stock Market Investing System That Beats the Market / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: If I weren't working on the same research myself, I wouldn't have believed it's possible...
The results of this system are so powerful, I hesitate to share them with a large audience. But I get paid to share the best investment ideas I find. So I feel compelled to tell you about this one...
Thursday, September 10, 2009
How to Outsmart 75% of Other Investors / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: Back in mid-June, more than 75% of the investors responding to a CNNMoney poll said they were planning to buy stocks - many of them aggressively.
Of the 41,572 people polled, it now looks like those 31,179 bullish investors kept their word.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Investment Performance Expectations And Broker Account Statements / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
As impossible as it is to predict the future of the markets, it's relatively easy to anticipate what you are going to experience when you view your next brokerage account statement.
Whether you go the discount route through Schwab, Ameritrade, Fidelity, etc., or enjoy a higher level of service through an independent like LMK Wealth Management, you should never be surprised by the market values reflected on your monthly statement.
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Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Golf and Investing: Optimism, Focus, and Education / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
You knew it the moment it left the club, that spark at contact when you catch it just right. You look up. It's just reaching the top of its climb--- and heading down right at the pin, a pin positioned left of center on the elevated green, much too close to the water.
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Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Dollar Cost Averaging Stock Market Investment Strategy Still Works / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Nilus Mattive writes: More than a year ago — when the S&P 500 had begun to wobble but still sat comfortably near 1,400 — I wrote a column right here in Money and Markets talking about dollar-cost averaging.
I said that the strategy “puts time on your side, and allows you to kick back and relax a lot more in the process.” I went ahead to say that “it’s a great way to deal with the kind of bumpy markets we’re seeing right now.”
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Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Rocky Balboa on Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Rocky Balboa actually never talked about investing, but while preparing for a fight he said ” It ain’t how hard you can hit. It’s how hard you can get hit.”
Those words from a simple man are a simple explanation of part of our approach to investment decisions for those of our clients who have completed the accumulation stage of their financial lives, and now rely on their assets to support lifestyle.
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Friday, July 24, 2009
Investment Portfolio Diversification & Risk / Portfolio / Learning to Invest
The cliché’s are plentiful and well known. Putting all of one’s eggs in a single basket is probably the most popular example. One of the biggest manifestations is when an investor looks at their portfolio and realizes that it is grossly underperforming a particular market index or that the same portfolio has performed much worse than a given benchmark. Even if you’ve done everything right and selected the right themes, industries, and firms, if you get the portfolio mix wrong, you can still have problems. This is one of headaches that mutual funds are generally supposed to relieve investors of, but for a litany of reasons, it doesn’t seem to always work out that way. In truth, every individual portfolio is a mutual fund of sorts, and so the same rules apply.
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Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Is Your Stock Portfolio Under Water? / Portfolio / Learning to Invest
Let’s be honest, these are very challenging times to be an investor. Regardless of all of the positive spin from CNBC and from many newsletter writers and analysts this has not been the best of times to be ‘in the game’.
For those of us who are ‘in the game’ the question now is what do you do? How do you proceed today? How can you limit your risk going forward?
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Saturday, July 11, 2009
Basic Financial Markets Analysis Part3 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Before we begin, it must be understood that there are many perceptions of value. In fact, if you took 10 investment professionals polled them individually; you’d likely get several very different definitions of value. If you put them together and forced them to come to a consensus, you would do well not holding your breath waiting for an answer. While there is no one right definition – especially in the investing world, what we are looking to do is select a metric or some group of metrics that applies to our particular situation. Again, investing should not be approached with a ‘one size fits all’ mentality. It must also be said that this list is not a comprehensive one, but rather a sampling of some of the methodologies available for ascertaining value.
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Thursday, July 09, 2009
Three Investing Lessons From the Tour de France / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Ron Rowland writes: The Tour de France is underway! Here in Austin many of us are fans of local hero Lance Armstrong. His record-breaking seven Tour victories are an inspiration to anyone facing a big challenge.
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Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Investors Follow the Herd? Or Reason? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Kieran Osborne writes: How do you diversify when all asset classes are moving in tandem? This was a key question many faced at the height of the financial crisis, when all asset classes were plunging together, but is an issue that remains today. We have long held concerns over the increased tendency for the values of different asset classes to move in the same direction simultaneously, as was the case leading up to the crisis, throughout the crisis, and today. In fact, according to Bloomberg, the correlation coefficient that measures how closely markets rise and fall together has reached the highest level ever.
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Thursday, July 02, 2009
Basic Financial Markets Analysis Part2 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Last time we discussed the concept of valuation for some different types of investments and the formation of themes that can be used to help zero in on potential areas for focus. This week we’ll take a look at some ways of breaking down industries and sectors, sizing companies, then connecting the dots between economic themes and investment needs.
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Thursday, July 02, 2009
Understanding The Dangers of Leveraged ETFs / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Ron Rowland writes: You’ve probably heard about leveraged ETFs: Funds designed to deliver twice or even three times the return of their benchmarks.
Just last week, ProShares launched the first triple-leveraged ETFs tied to the S&P 500 index. ProShares UltraPro S&P 500 (UPRO) is a 3x ETF for bulls, while ProShares UltraPro Bear S&P 500 (SPXU) is a 3x leveraged inverse ETF.
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
May The Investment Force Be With You / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Investment markets got you down, Bunkie? Been blown away by derivative stun guns? When will portfolio market values move back to 2007 levels--- and then what will you do about it?
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Stock Market Investing Long-term Buy and Hold Still Bad Advice / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
In spite of what you hear from main stream media and self-serving advice from Wall Street, an investment philosophy of long term buy and hold is not what it's cracked up to be.
Unfortunately, many boomers headed into retirement are finding that out now, at the worst possible time. Moreover, looking ahead, I doubt the next decade is not going to be much better than the last.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Investors Don't Get Trapped in the Next Asset Bubble / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Gary North writes: I have identified the next bubble. It has already begun. It is in full swing.
Investors want to identify the next big bubble. Some investors want to buy in now, maybe using borrowed money (margin loans) to make a killing. They are confident that they will sell out near the top. They won't. Other investors just want to avoid getting trapped. They prefer to let the first group bear the uncertainty of profiting from a bubble sector.
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Saturday, June 20, 2009
Investor Downside Risk Protection, Stop Loss Orders vs. Protective Put Options / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
If you have been investing for a while, you know it is good practice to have a stop loss in place. You might have heard that pros use protective put options to reduce their downside risk. It is always important to have downside protection on any stock position you own. Investors use stop loss orders and protective put options to provide this protection. The stop loss is the most popular. However, many professional investors use protective puts to insure against losses. Which is the best method for you?
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Saturday, June 20, 2009
Basic Financial Markets Analysis – PartI / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
In an age of green shoots, fluff, and spin, it is probably worthwhile to put our feet on the ground every so often and take a look at some old fashioned ways that we might value a project, a firm, or capital stock. Too many times over the past 15 years in particular, investors have been lured into various valuation traps. Probably the most noteworthy was the dotcom era of the late 1990’s and the first part of the 21st century. Not a great start to a new millennium. And so the trend has been that each time the investing public deviates from the ‘old fashioned’ rules of finance and analysis, there is always a good whipping waiting just around the bend.
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Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Managing Your Investment Expectations / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
In all aspects of our lives we need a plan, an objective or a roadmap for managing our expectations. This extends to our investing and financial objectives as well as expectations and challenges of dealing with family issues. Here we would like to chat about investor’s expectations, especially those investors in the natural resource sector.
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Friday, May 29, 2009
How to Stay Safe in this Stock Market / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Is this a “normal” market?
GM is bankrupt. Unemployment is rising every month. Oil prices are up 90% in six months. And the market goes up.
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Tuesday, April 28, 2009
I Hate Reverse Stock Splits / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
I started to title this piece, ‘These Guys Are Killing Us’. Where I am coming from is that over the last eight months or so many of the junior mining companies have required additional financing to meet current requirements. In better times and at substantially higher prices, the raising of additional monies and the issuance of more shares and warrants could have been accepted, at least reluctantly, by shareholders.
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Thursday, April 23, 2009
Investment Performance Evaluation Re-Evaluated: Part Two / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The Working Capital Model (WCM) looks at investment performance differently, less emotionally, and without a whole lot of concern for short-term market value movements. Market value performance evaluation techniques are only used to analyze peak-to-peak market cycle movements over significant time periods.
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Investment Performance Evaluation Re-Evaluated: Part One / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
It matters not what lines, numbers, indices, or gurus you worship, you just can't know for certain where the stock market is going or when it will change direction. Too much investor time and analytical effort is wasted trying to predict course corrections--- even more is squandered comparing portfolio market values with a handful of unrelated indices and averages.
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Thursday, April 16, 2009
Why Warren Buffett Doesn’t Matter, Lessons in Investor Sheep Herding / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Without a doubt, Warren Buffet is one of the leading investors in the world. There’s no disputing that. But let’s face it. His skills have been over-exaggerated by the media. Of more detriment, the media continues to deliver the message that what Buffett invests in matters to you. As you will see, he has been made into a god-like figure by the financial media for very precise reasons.
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Friday, April 10, 2009
Wall Street's Secret to Investing Success / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: Studies show that most investors - even ultra-wealthy ones - lose money over time because they don't, or can't, stick to a well-defined set of rules. For some, this is driven by reckless personal behavior in search of profits. For others, it's the constant shift between bad decisions and bad advice that creates whopping errors and poor performance.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Stock Market Investing, Careful Risk Taking / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
What is “risk” for investors? We think it is a broader, more important and more perilous issue than most investors have recognized for many years.
A typical “measure” of risk in stock markets has been standard deviation of return (the variability of returns around a long-term mean). Yet, a typical “measure” of risk in the bond market has been credit quality (the likelihood of payment default or bankruptcy).
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Friday, March 20, 2009
Stock Market Investing Risk versus Financial Condition and Financial Stage of Life / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Here are several archetypal situations that illustrate the differences in appropriate risk taking with respect to stocks depending on the financial condition and financial life stage of the investor — there are, of course, more profiles, but these cross a wide spectrum:Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Investors Guard Yourself Against Wall Street Deception / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: If you're like many investors, you are probably sitting on the sidelines right now, unsure of what to do. If you want to buy, you may be thinking “let's wait a little longer.” If you want to sell, you might be concerned about “missing out.”
Either way (and even if you don't plan on making either move anytime soon), having a sense of what got us here can keep you from repeating the same mistakes and even help you make smarter financial decisions - particularly when it comes to repairing your portfolio and even growing it in the years ahead.
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Monday, March 09, 2009
Filling the Investment Education Void With Web Workshops / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Now more than ever, you can appreciate the need for comprehensive investment education. All of a sudden, fifty percent of your nest egg has disappeared--- and the bad news? There never was a plan for income generation. Ouch!Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, March 02, 2009
Why Watching CNBC Could Destroy Your Portfolio / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
August 2007 - Dow Jones 13,000 - What did the CNBC Talking Heads Recommend Investors Should do ?
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Stock Index Trading: Learn to Trade with the Trend / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Today we looking at trends and how important they are in trading.In particular, we're going to be looking at the DOW (DJI) and how it has continued to trend since June of '08.
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Friday, February 13, 2009
Investment Performance Expectations: Fine Tuning Working Capital Model / Stock-Markets / Learning to Invest
Contrary to popular belief and Wall Street propaganda, investing is not a competitive event. Rather, it is a uniquely personal, goal-directed activity that individuals must organize and control for themselves. Too few appreciate that it is a long-term enterprise and only a handful, at best, have discovered that DJIA and S & P 500 numbers are only useful at their extremes.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Is the Media the Perfect Contrary Stock Market Investing Indicator? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Capitulation theory holds that when everyone throws in the towel and is “sure” the market is going further down, that it will then actually go up. A derivative theory, the front page/cartoonist theory holds that when you finally see doom and gloom on the front page of newsmagazines or in the cartoonist's columns, then literally everyone “knows” the market is going down further and, yep, at that point it starts to go up… or so goes the theory.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Working Capital Model Portfolio Investment Strategy / Portfolio / Learning to Invest
No investor should ever be surprised by the changes in market value that appear on his or her monthly brokerage account statements. In general, media noise throughout the month should lead to a feel for what has been going on and investors should understand that the market prices of investment securities are constantly changing.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 02, 2009
Mike Shedlock (Mish) Vs Peter Schiff: Analysts Clash / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Mike Shedlock last week fired a broadside attack onto Peter Schiff (Dr Doom's) record of financial forecasts for 2008, which culminated with a statement that illustrated and implied that many of Peter Schiff's clients may have actually lost between 30% to 60% of the value of their portfolios during the volatile trading and investment environment of 2008.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Investing in 2009, Six Mistakes You Must Avoid / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
“Our first priority is managing risk.”
Seven months ago I had a chance to attend a presentation by investment manager David Burrows. You're not going to find his name in the Wall Street Journal or a quote in a Bloomberg news article, but that doesn't mean he's not worth listening to. He is.
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Stock Selection Fundamental vs Technical Analysis / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Every once in a while, I like to flip the TV channels and watch Jim Cramer on CNBC. It's not that I think that Jim Cramer is a spectacular trader, I just think he is a talented and amusing guy. The last time I tuned on the tube, CNBC's Jim Cramer was naming his top five picks to get you through these recessionary times.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
How to Ponzi Scam Proof Your Stocks Portfolio / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
I've been in the financial arena for over 30 years. I must say I that I am appalled to see scum like Bernie Madoff stealing money from honest people. In many ways he's committing one of the most heinous of crimes. He's destroying the financial standings of unsuspecting victims for his own selfish greed.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Dumb and Dumber, Taking Investment Advice from Wall Street / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Dumb and Dumber is the title of the 1994 comedy film starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. The title could also be applied to the current behavior of both institutional and individual investors. Both type of investors are cowering in the corner, afraid of the bogeyman – deflation. Both types of investors are eagerly purchasing Treasuries at zero per cent or even negative interest rates.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Stock Market Index Investing Using Moving Averages / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The art of index investing. How to optimize index funds with simple moving averages. Warren Buffet got it right. Arguably, the world's best know investor has for years been advocating to both private and professional investors that the simple index funds offer superior returns to actively managed portfolios.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, December 26, 2008
The Working Capital Model Investment Process / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Most people enter the investment process tip first. They hear something, grab an idea from a popular blog, accept a Cramerism or some motley foolishness, and think that they are making investment decisions. Rarely, will the right-now, instant-gratification, Internet-generation speculator think in terms that go beyond tomorrow's breaking news.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Portfolio Investment Management Strategy- Put More Smart Cash In Your Future / Portfolio / Learning to Invest
The stock market is a dynamic place where investors can consistently make reasonable returns on their capital if they comply with the basic principles of the endeavor and if they don't measure their progress too frequently against irrelevant indices.
The income securities market is most often a less dynamic place where investors can consistently make reasonable returns on their capital if they understand the basic principles of the endeavor and if they focus steadfastly on the income produced by their holdings.
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Monday, November 17, 2008
FINANCIAL PLANNING: My Guess Or Yours? Why It’s Absurd And Doomed To Fail From The Very Start / Personal_Finance / Learning to Invest
Upon reading that title, I'm sure some of you are thinking that I must have completely lost my mind. Well, of course that's not true. But, how could something as universally accepted, widely followed, and apparently “innocent and necessary” as financial planning be setting so many of those who unquestioningly apply it on a course toward a miserable financial future?Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
This Stock is Getting Ready to Fly / Companies / Learning to Invest
This stock may be getting ready to fly.I was looking through our email alerts recently and this stock just jumped out at me. I want to share my thoughts about what I expect will happened to this market in this short video. We've discussed this pattern before on several other videos and all have worked out very successfully.
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Five Misunderstood Stock Market Terms / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Nilus Mattive writes: There's a lot of confusion out there in the markets right now. But I want you to know that my stance hasn't changed one bit — I continue to think dividend superstar stocks are a great way for income investors to lock-in attractive yields right now, and potentially reap even bigger gains down the line.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, August 29, 2008
Investor Psychology Cycle Swinging From Greed to Fear / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
As the pendulum swings between greed and fear, investors typically become over-enthusiastic during bull markets and over-despondent as the bear's growl grows louder.
It stands to reason that in order to be a successful investor, it is important to distance yourself from the herd mentality and to take objective decisions based on fundamental reasons.
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Thursday, August 21, 2008
Investor Declaration of Independence / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Yesterday I was talking to a moderately wealthy business acquaintance in Sydney, Australia, he was complaining that the shares in his Super Annuation (pension) account with Insurance and Pension giant AMP had lost $30,000 in value in the last 2 weeks and so he had taken all his funds away from AMP and placed them in cash deposits at the bank.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, August 04, 2008
Preventing Investment Mistakes: Ten Risk Minimizers / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Most investment mistakes are caused by basic misunderstandings of the securities markets and by invalid performance expectations. The markets move in totally unpredictable cyclical patterns of varying duration and amplitude. Evaluating the performance of the two major classes of investment securities needs to be done separately because they are owned for differing purposes. Stock market equity investments are expected to produce realized capital gains; income-producing investments are expected to generate cash flow.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 25, 2008
Importance of Long-term Trending Markets in Investment Risk Management / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Long-Term Investors Need Trends to Make Money - Most of us would prefer to be investors instead of traders. Investors, with an intermediate to long-term time horizon, must be aligned with a positive trend in order to make money. This is true even for value investors who focus on a company's valuation rather than a trend that can be seen on a chart. For the value investor to make money, eventually the position must turn up.
The chart above is not designed to convey that spotting a trend reversal is easy. It is not, but as more evidence gathers as to the probable legitimacy of the new trend, the less risk you need endure to participate. If the stock or market does not trend upward for a significant period of time, long-term investors do not want to participate.
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Stocks Boosted by Tracker Buying on Entering Major Indices / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Nilus Mattive writes: I love scouring the market for attractive stocks with smaller market capitalizations (the number of shares outstanding times the current stock price), especially ones that pay nice dividends.
That's because smaller stocks tend to have better growth prospects. After all, it's easier to post big gains when you're starting from a smaller baseline. Most investors recognize this simple concept.
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Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Good News For Income Investors / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Looking for good news in today's markets is like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Needless to say, practically all investment grade equities and nearly all closed end funds that specialize in providing regular recurring monthly income have been reduced in market value by this prolonged correction. The quake has spread in all directions form its financial epicenter, and the mounting doom and gloom has taken its toll on even the most rational investment decision makers. Try to keep in mind that the purpose of income investing is the income that your portfolio produces not an increase in the securities' market values---Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Advice from Warren Buffet for Investing in Difficult Times / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
There is an alleged ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.”
While there is no historical proof of the origin of that curse, there is ample current proof in the securities markets that we are living in interesting times. It's simply nasty out there — or at least it feels that way.
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Thursday, July 03, 2008
Secrets to Succeeding at Stocks Bear Market Investing / Stock-Markets / Learning to Invest
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is already in the bear's grasp. And the U.S. economy may well be headed for a recession. But here's the ultimate irony: Bear-market investing offers a direct pathway to the biggest profit opportunities most investors will ever see.
History shows time and again that the worst returns come to those who buy at - or even near - market peaks, like those of 1928, 1969, 1999 and 2007, when Price/Earnings (P/E) ratios are typically higher than “normal.”
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Friday, June 20, 2008
Learn to invest by Recognising Our Mistakes / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Each of us believes we learn to invest by recognizing our mistakes. When we make a losing investment, do we recognize our mistake and learn from it, or do we attribute it to some outside factor, like bad luck or the market? To beat the market, we must recognize our mistakes and then learn from them. Unfortunately, learning from these mistakes is much harder than it seems.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Put Your Portfolio on Autopilot And Ride Out the Market Turbulence! / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Nilus Mattive writes: My daughter Vela turned one last week. We had a great little island-theme party complete with grilled mahi-mahi, coconut cake, and pineapple ice cream. I'm not sure if Vela knew what the heck was going on, but the rest of us had a great time.
Of course, underneath our grass-skirt celebration was a simple, indisputable fact: Time ain't waiting around for any of us. If anything, it's flying by at a seemingly faster and faster pace.
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Sunday, June 08, 2008
How to Deal with Knee-Jerk Market Reactions / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Jack Crooks writes: This past week was a roller coaster ride in the currency markets, and it sure ended with a bang. I'll get to the big news in a second. And I'll also tell you what to make of this market.
But first, I want to do a quick day-by-day rundown of what happened in the currency markets ...
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Sunday, June 08, 2008
Secrets to Successful Investing- Special / News_Letter / Learning to Invest
Many small investors seem to repeatedly make the same old mistakes of either getting on board of a trend just as the trend ends or holding onto to losing investments in the hope of an eventual bounce back.
Therefore this weeks newsletter has a mix of education as well as up to date examples of strategies that illustrate how investors need to gear their thought processes towards key elements of successful investing which include :
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Monday, June 02, 2008
Preservation of Principal Is of Paramount Importance During Bear Markets / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
We hope you have a chance to read our rebuttal to CNNMoney.com's recent Great Depression article . While we have described the 1930 peak before (all the way back in October of 2006 ), we feel our analysis has been vindicated. We may take some flak for getting too far out ahead of the parade back in 2006; but our readers know we discuss long term trends. (Check our chart below on personal savings!) The reasoning in October was correct;Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
The Holy Grail Investment Cocktail / Portfolio / Learning to Invest
So what do your Investment Manager and your neighborhood bartender have in common, other than the probability that you spend more time with the latter during market corrections? Antoine Tedesco, in his "The History of Cocktails" article, lists three things that mixologists consider important to remember and to understand when making a cocktail:Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Use Stock Screeners to find Great Stocks / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Nilus Mattive writes:There are thousands of stocks trading on U.S. exchanges right now. And there are thousands more trading on major foreign exchanges. So there are clearly lots of opportunities out there at any given time.
The million-dollar question: How do you separate the wheat from the chaff? Heck, I spend every single day following the markets and researching great income investments ... and there's still no way I can easily study a fraction of the stocks out there!
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Sunday, May 11, 2008
Secrets to Successful Investing- Special / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Many small investors seem to repeatedly make the same old mistakes of either getting on board of a trend just as the trend ends or holding onto to losing investments in the hope of an eventual bounce back.
Therefore this weeks newsletter has a mix of education as well as up to date examples of strategies that illustrate how investors need to gear their thought processes towards key elements of successful investing which include :
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Why Most Investors Fail and How to Invest Successfully / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
- Why Investors Fail: Analyzing Risk
- Investors Behaving Badly
- Tails You Lose, Heads I Win
- Ergodicity
- Why Investors Fail
- Becoming a Top 20% Investor
- Investors Behaving Badly
This week I am in South Africa and am not as connected as I would like to be due to meetings and slow Internet, so we are going to look at some material from my book, Bull's Eye Investing, which I think is more pertinent than ever. And since lately there has been rather large growth in the readership, there are a significant number of new readers for whom this material will be fresh. When I originally wrote much of this, the markets were coming out of the bear phase of 2001-2. I am adding a few comments in [brackets]. I trust you will find value as we look at the problems that investors face in the struggle to maximize portfolio value.
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Monday, May 05, 2008
Investor Survival Message / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
I am a private investor, a writer (to state the obvious), a gold trader, Investment Newsletter Editor and now a web site manager of sorts. All of these activities are related to investment. Part of my purpose is to educate investors about gold / silver and gold related opportunities such as the mining sector. From what I have seen over the past six months I just have to write this essay for many of my subscribers and potential subscribers. Highly experienced investors might like to skip down to market comments below as the following may not apply to you.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, May 02, 2008
Patience is an Successful Investor's Virtue / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Patience is one of the most difficult skills to learn as an investor and trader. The best investors and traders understand the importance of patience. As one of Warren Buffett's rules of investing states:
"The Stock Market is designed to transfer money from the Active to the Patient." The best returns come from those who wait for the best opportunity to show it self before making a commitment. Those that chase the current hot stock are destined to loose more than they gain. Remain active in your analysis looking for quality companies at discounted prices, but be patient waiting for them to reach their discounted price before buying.
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Monday, April 14, 2008
Predicting Stock Market Movements / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
I've been thinking about starting a stock market prediction business. Clearly, there is a huge market for timely and accurate information of this type, and just as clearly, predicting the future is much easier than dealing with the realities of whatever is actually happening at the moment. If investors could know what's going to happen next, they could develop a plan to deal with it in the present. Maybe Wall Street could help me get this new business up and running!Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Sentiment Analysis: How Investor Perception Drives Market Prices / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Jack Crooks writes: Topsy-turvy markets like these can easily make your head spin. I mean, we're currently dealing with overdone trends, implosive fundamentals, government regulation and an increasingly globalized world economy.
And as if simply understanding those complex dynamics wasn't enough, we still have the difficult task of trying to make money.
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Monday, March 24, 2008
Balancing a Portfolio with Commodities / Commodities / Learning to Invest
With all of the volatility we're seeing in 2008, this is one of those times when investors really value assets that are not correlated to the broader markets.
That explains much of the current interest in commodities – investors are looking for ways to protect themselves through diversification.
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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
The Stock Market Rally Is Coming! The Rally Is Coming / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Always buy too soon--- because no one will tell you either when the rally will start or, more importantly, how long it will last. Of course those are the two things you want to know, but all you really have to go on is the experience of the past. This is not going to be a technical analysis of a series of numbers or chart formations that have predictive capabilities. Instead, it is intended to be a mild sedative to calm your collective fears and to allow for a relaxed analysis of the corrections of the past. You have to prepare yourself for the rally that is surely coming, and it may just arrive sooner than you think--- today, even.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Investment Portfolio Performance and The Working Capital Model / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Ouch! The mighty Dow has fallen to within a financial heart beat of its 1999 high water mark, boasting an average per year gain of less than one half of one percent in spite of several interim manipulations designed to improve the performance picture. The S & P 500 Average, an equally prestigious indicator of broader market movements, is nearly 13% below where it was at approximately the same time. Both figures reflect no investment expenses at all. So, in spite of the mostly ignored fact that neither index includes any income securities (bonds, preferred stocks, REITs, etc.), a reasonable person could well expect his or her portfolio market value to be well below where it was nearly ten years ago! Now that's a fairly dismal scenario, but it's the in-your-face reality for most investors as we move forward into what we all hope will be a more spring-like investment climate.
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Monday, March 03, 2008
How to Make Money in Super Cycle Stocks Bear Markets / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The stock market has essentially gone sideways since its March 24, 2000 high almost eight years ago. In fact, it has spent 99% of the time below that high and because profitable market timing is so difficult for most investors they have typically lost money during this time period.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Income Investing - Why Isn't This Easy? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Most people (including myself) would insist that Equity Investing is the most difficult to master. After all, that is the venue for: erratic price fluctuations caused by an endless supply of social, economic, and political variables; the standard Wall Street misinformation, corporate malfeasance, self- serving financial gurus, and product sales persons; a myriad of popular and market moving speculations from IPOs to Option and Margin strategies; thousands of media talk shows and their financial markets' experts. When you think you understand the stock market brother, you are in serious trouble.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Asset Allocation Investment Planning to Beat Inflation: Investing by the Numbers / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Uno. Asset Allocation is an investment planning tool, not an investment strategy... few investment professionals understand the distinction. Investment strategies are used to implement the asset allocation formula that investment planning produces. Many investors incorrectly believe that investment planning and financial planning are one and the same. Financial planning is the broader concept, one that involves such non-investment considerations as: Wills and Estates, insurances, budgeting, trusts, etc. Investment Planning takes place within the Trusts, Endowments, IRAs, and other Brokerage Accounts that come into existence as a result of, or without, Financial Planning.
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Monday, January 28, 2008
How To Invest During Economic Downturns: Commodities versus Stocks / Commodities / Learning to Invest
In an article published yesterday (January 23, 2008) in the Financial Times , George Soros stated that a recession in the U.S. is now more or less inevitable. He noted that China , India and some of the oil-producing countries however are in a very strong countertrend. Soros went on to explain that “the current financial crisis is less likely to cause a global recession than a radical realignment of the global economy, with a relative decline of the U.S. and the rise of China and other countries in the developing world. “Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Five Investment Mistakes to Avoid in 2008- LIVE Web broadcast 4.30pm EST - Today! / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Five investment mistakes you will probably make in 2008 ...
Unless YOU attend this FREE, LIVE webinar!
Have you ever looked back on an investment and asked yourself, "What in the world was I thinking?!" The obvious reply is "Yes!", and that is because...
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The Key to Successful Investing - Calculating Your Investment IQ / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Stocks, bonds, index funds; averages, recessions, market rallies and corrections; mutual funds, technical analysis, financial statements; commissions, taxes, and discount brokers. Just how much do you know about investing, or perhaps a better question: is there any "know" in the investment vocabulary? So many terms, ideas, and strategies; so little time and money! Here's a list of thirty mostly-true or mostly-false comments for you to kick around with your friends and fellow investment bloggers:
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Thursday, January 17, 2008
Investment Performance Analysis Using the Working Capital Asset Allocation Model / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
It matters not what lines, numbers, indices, or gurus you worship, you just can't know where the stock market is going or when it will change direction. Too much investor time and analytical effort is wasted trying to predict course corrections... even more is squandered comparing portfolio Market Values with a handful of unrelated indices and averages. If we reconcile in our minds that we can't predict the future (or change the past), we can move through the uncertainty more productively. Let's simplify portfolio performance evaluation by using information that we don't have to speculate about, and which is related to our own personal investment programs.
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Friday, January 11, 2008
Financial Market Myths Video Series Learn How to Interpret The Financial Markets / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Have You Watched Market Myths Exposed?
You can see EWl's Chief Market Analyst Steven Hochberg debunk some of the most widely held market myths and answers some of today's toughest questions for traders and investors, including:
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Wednesday, January 09, 2008
The Reality of Stock Market Corrections and What to Consider / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Every correction is the same, a normal downturn in one or more of the Markets where we invest. There has never been a correction that has not proven to be an investment opportunity. You can be confident that the Federal Reserve, as hypnotized as it is with keeping inflation under control, is not going to cause either a financial panic or a prolonged recession with tight money and high interest rate policies. While everything is down in price, as it is now, there is little to worry about. When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Dragons' Den – The Survival Guide - Chrismas Day Special / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
A festive special from the Dragons on BBC2 at 8pm - Christmas day – Photo (L-R) James Caan, Duncan Bannatyne, Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis
Evan Davis presents this 90-minute Christmas special of Dragons' Den, which revels in the very best of all five series. Evan also reveals the 10 rules for success as the show relives the best and worst moments in the Den.
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Friday, December 07, 2007
Common Sense Indicators For Making Money Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Should we add to our metals positions? To help answer this question we ask ourselves important questions such as "what does the end of a bull market look like"? Clearly gold and silver have been in a bull market as their prices have roughly tripled from their lows earlier this decade. So we want to know, 'What would the end of a mega bull market look like?' to help us gain confidence in our decisions today. If we are in a bull market in precious metals are we likely at the end of this current bull-run?Before we continue let us clarify that there are no absolute rules to the financial markets and we are only providing our opinion, however we have found that with common sense analysis and research our probability of successful and profitable investing is greatly improved.
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Friday, November 23, 2007
How to Select and Trade Stocks and Shares / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Are you interested in trading in the stock markets? Do you have questions about getting started? You are certainly not alone. Almost weekly I hear from ordinary folks with basic questions about trading stocks. After addressing these on a consulting basis for years, I'll outline some of the basics in this essay.
The Rewards of Stock Trading
Trading stocks is an incredibly rewarding journey. Everyone is intrigued by the stock markets because traders can make big money there. This is certainly true. But the potentially extraordinary financial winnings are not the most gratifying part of trading stocks. The best part is really the endless learning and personal growth that trading naturally generates. Trading is a most-fascinating voyage of discovery.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
The Money Programme – Britain's Brilliant Ideas Boom - Friday 2 November 7.00-7.30pm BBC TWO / Companies / Learning to Invest
Libby Potter reveals how to
turn a eureka moment into a
fortune
Britain has become a nation of inventors and the number of people submitting ideas for patents has never been higher. The boom is being fuelled by programmes like Dragons' Den, but how easy is it to cash in on your "eureka" moment?
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007
To Beat the Stock Market, Be in the Right Sector - Part 3 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
What stock market sector have you been in lately? The sectors that are beating the market or the ones that are trailing behind? Being in the right sectors will make a significant difference in the performance of your portfolio. However, finding the right sector can be a difficult proposition. In Part 1 I introduced the basic theory behind sector rotation as described by Stan Stovell in Standard & Poor's Guide to Sector Investing 1995 (this is an expensive book).Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Asset Class Behavior Following Fed Interest Rate Cuts - Part 4 of 4 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Editor's Note: This article is Part IV in a four-part series.
Expanding the Analysis to Other Asset ClassesIn Part III of this four-part series, I concluded the periods following the first Fed rate cut in July 1995, September 1998, and January of 2001 were most similar to today's economic landscape. We can use the information from Part III as one of many factors when determining our asset allocation for the coming year. The next logical step is to explore how different asset classes performed relative to each other in each of the three respective historical periods (1995-1996, 1998-1999, 2001-2002).
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Monday, October 22, 2007
Lower Interest Rates and the Relative Performance of Investments - Part 3 of 4 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
To recap the main points :
- Wall Street places a strong emphasis on the impact of the Feds actions on asset prices.
- Lower interest rates help fuel inflation and hurt the U.S. dollar.
- The current Fed is not afraid to make significant interest rate cuts and we can expect them to act swiftly in the face of any continued deterioration in housing, financial markets, or the general economy.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
To Beat the Stock Market, Be in the Right Sector - Part 2 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
What stock market sector have you been in lately? The sectors that are beating the market or the ones that are trailing behind? Being in the right sectors will make a significant difference in the performance of your portfolio. However, finding the right sector can be a difficult proposition. In part one I introduced the basic theory behind sector rotation as described by Stan Stovell in Standard & Poor's Guide to Sector Investing 1995 .Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
To Beat the Stock Market, Be in the Right Sector - Part 1 / Stock-Markets / Learning to Invest
What stock market sector have you been in lately? The sectors that are beating the market or the ones that are trailing behind? Being in the right sectors will make a significant difference in the performance of your portfolio. However, finding the right sector can be a difficult proposition. First let's examine a couple of recent studies on sector rotation that help illuminate the opportunities and the problems for investors. In a follow up article we will then provide some guidelines for investors and traders on how to use sector rotation to achieve better investing results.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Contrary Stock Market Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Good businesses are what I like to buy. That means stocks, bonds, preferred shares and other securities backed by healthy, growing companies, which are becoming more valuable over time.
Even buying good businesses won't save you entirely from bear markets. The best companies can and do occasionally stumble. And no matter how well you research something, you're going to get it wrong sometimes—with the result that you're stuck with a dog.
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Friday, September 14, 2007
Interest Rates & Investing - Investing Simplified – Part One / Interest-Rates / Learning to Invest
If you were playing a competitive game of chess for a grand prize of a million dollars, would you ask your opponent what strategic move you should take next? No. So why do investors and analysts ridicule and blame the banks for offering poor advice on the future direction of interest rates? If a bank is going to lend you money for their profit, what is their incentive to give advice that is in your best possible interest?Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, September 09, 2007
The Risks of Doubling Down on Falling Stocks / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
I know a few people who know when to double down in Blackjack. A lot more, however, lose their shirts in an emotional attempt to make back losses.
Even those who usually succeed will freely admit doubling down isn't a risk-reduction technique. On the contrary, you've got twice the money at stake, betting on the same situation. You may recoup your losses in one fell swoop. But the penalty for failure is twice what it was before, and it's hard not to get a little emotional.
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Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Will the Stock Market PE Ratio Expand or Contract? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Knowing whether the PE ratio is going to expand or contract is an important factor when trying to beat the market . This is the first of a four part series on which direction the PE ratio for the S&P 500 will go over the next couple of years. First, let's briefly go over how to use the PE ratio and then we will look at ways to get the underlying PE ratio for the S&P 500. It is not as easy as one might first think. In the later parts we will examine the potential for the S&P 500 PE ratio to expand, contract and then provide an opinion on what investors should do.
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Thursday, June 07, 2007
Patience, An Investors Virtue / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Patience is one of the most difficult skills to learn as an investor and trader. The best investors and traders understand the importance of patience. One of Warren Buffett's rules of investing isRead full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Value Plus Growth Stock Market Investing (Part 2) / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Value and growth investors who want to beat the market need to have a good understanding of a company's fundamentals before they can make a stock picking decision. Fortunately, there are a number of methods that are commonly used to examine the financial statements of a company. Basically there are three types of financial statements, the Bal ance Sheet, the Income Statement and the Cash Flow Statement.
Financial Statements
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Monday, May 28, 2007
The Difference Between Stock Market Investment and Speculation / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The issue of successful stock market investment affects us all. Even if we are not directly engaged in the industry, all of us will need some form of pension to fund our retirement. Whether we like it or not most of our retirement funds will find their way into the financial markets. For this very reason, the issue of pensions has moved politically centre stage, in particular the investment strategies used to direct pension funds. Due to mismanagement over the last seven years, many retirement portfolios have become under-funded at best, or, at worst, totally bust.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Why Investors Lose Money / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Investors have a number of weaknesses which often result in investment failure. Identifying these weaknesses is the first step to reducing them. Our Investment Scoring and Timing System is designed to help minimize these weaknesses in order to give us a potential advantage over the market. The following are some key reasons why we believe investors lose money.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, April 23, 2007
Investment Analysis - Simple, Simple, Simple... but powerful? / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
The objective of this article is to illustrate a powerful investment analysis technique by first examining a simplified hypothetical scenario. We will then explore this concept on the markets of today. To do this we will:
1) Outline some basic investing rules to be used as guidelines.
2) Present a hypothetical scenario for analysis.
3) Guided by our rules, form a conclusion for the purpose of understanding the markets.
4) Explain how we think this analysis applies to the markets of today.