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Stocks & Mutual Fund InformationBuy and Hold: How to Perpetuate Your Investment LossesA recent cartoon in my daily newspaper showed two guys sitting in a bar. One is saying to the other: ?I did learn something from my broker...how to diversify my investment losses.? No Load Mutual Funds or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)?If you are fed up with early redemption charges and ever increasing mutual fund management fees on top of bad-performing fund managers, read on. There is a quiet revolution going on in the no-load mutual fund industry and you, the individual investor, may benefit from it greatly. How (NOT) to Buy Mutual FundsWhen it comes to mutual funds, there is a lot more to success than just finding a good one. Sad investment stories like the following are all too common. I hope my sharing it with you will help you avoid making the same devastating financial mistake one of my former clients made. How to Maximize Your 401k Mutual Fund ReturnsWhen it comes to 401k's there is an overabundance of sad stories. Here is one that at least has a happy ending?and it's getting happier all the time. How to Evaluate Load vs. No Load Mutual FundsIf you have been dealing with mutual funds for any length of time, you undoubtedly have faced the question of which is better: Load Funds or No Load Funds. If you are new to investing, "load" simply refers to the commission paid to the broker selling the fund. "No load" means there is no commission on the purchase or sale. How to Find Value in No Load Mutual Fund InvestingWhat are you thinking when it comes to your no load mutual fund selections? Are you saving pennies and sacrificing dollars? The Inside Scoop on Mutual Fund Rip OffsThe bear market that showed up at the end of 2000 has every brokerage house-as well as the entire mutual fund industry-scrambling to find creative ways to boost both their image and bottom line. Unfortunately, this is often at the investors' expense. How to Pay Less and Get More: Discount Broker vs ProfessionalHow do you invest? What do you really pay? At the end of the day, what are your real results? These are questions smart investors should be asking themselves (but usually don't). In this era of more fees, misc. charges, holding periods and back end redemptions, even at discount brokers, how are you really making out? How We Eluded The Bear Of 2000The date October 13, 2000 will forever be embedded in my mind. It was the day after our mutual fund trend tracking indicator had broken its long-term trend line and I sold 100% of my clients? invested positions (and my own) and moved the proceeds to the safety of money market accounts. Some people thought we were nuts, but I had come to trust the numbers. Lifestyle Funds Provide Greater Security?With the stock market stubbornly refusing to settle down and smooth out, Wall Street has been scrambling to come up with "product" they can sell to gun shy investors. Long-Term Investment In Todays Market?The stock market is very unstable at this time going up and down while interest rates are so low you want to be a borrower and not a lender. Would you like some suggestions on how can you get the most out of low interest rates while being assured your principal will not disappear while you are trying to make some money? Of course, there is always the danger of borrowing the money and then spending it just because it is there. Leverage - Margin DebtWhat is leverage? A Common Misconception about Stock PricesI cringe every time I hear a novice investor tell me that they only purchase low priced stocks because they offer higher potential gains. A common phase I hear is ?I like to buy $1 and $2 stocks because they can double easily and I will make a 100% profit?. Good Stock Market Tip; Good Return!Forget making a profit; instead focus on the income provided from your stock portfolio. That?s right! Forget making a profit. The burden is now lifted - no more pressure on making a buck in the stock market. (Instead of trying to bend the spoon, that is impossible, instead just think of the spoon as ? omigosh! - I?m in the Matrix!) When you focus on the amount of money your holdings are providing in dividends ? and when those companies selected have a history of raising their dividends each year ? a lower stock price allows the dividends that are being rolled back into the stock to accelerate your income. The total value of your portfolio may go lower, but your income from that lower priced portfolio would increase dramatically. Profit by income! A Good Fund ManagerEvery Wall Street analyst, financial planner and broker will tell you that the right way to pick a mutual fund is find a good money manager of a fund that has a long time record.
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A Good Fund Manager Every Wall Street analyst, financial planner and broker will tell you that the right way to pick a mutual fund is find a good money manager of a fund that has a long time record. Eternal Sunshine There is a current movie entitled "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". It is about a man who has had a painful love affair and will do anything to rid his mind of those pain thoughts of a former love. He sees an advertisement that offers just such a service. It seems his former lover has the exact thoughts and she goes through the same treatment. Guess what? They meet again, do not recognize each other, and fall in love again. The 10 Commandments Wall Street has been preaching for years and years to investors how and where to put their money. The "experts" have put forth these ideas for so long that they seem to be carved in stone just like Moses did with God's 10 Commandments. The only difference is that what Wall Street preaches is lies that will make you broke. Selling The stock market has been going up for more than 7 months and many investors who held on through the big crash of 2000 are seeing their portfolios get back some of what had disappeared. Is now the time to sell those equities that are 'even' with what you paid for them? No. Online Trading Strategy: Collecting Cash when Stocks Go UP - It PAYS to Know More than Others When it comes to stock market trading it PAYS to have more knowledge than the rest of the pack. Pure gold can be harvested in each profitable trade that you accomplish. Take The Time You must take the time once a month to review your investment portfolio. It won't take long - less than one hour, maybe 15 minutes. Can?t Stand The Heat It seems that every day I turn on the TV and find a Poker game. Texas No Limit seems to be all the rage these days. I love watching it. When I discuss this with others, their response is always the same, "You should play." Ah, but what they don't know is I stay out of the kitchen. As far as risk to reward ratio. That's a gamble I'm not willing to take. I prefer to invest my money. Sometimes I gamble in the stock market, but as long as I stay within my comfort zone (long term), I don't mind. VIX No, this is not a symbol for some Latin number. The Wall Street mavens talk about this market timing device as if they knew how to use it to determine which way the stock market is going ? up or down. It is pretty obvious that brokers, analysts and financial planners have not learned the language. Mindset In 1960 an engineer working for a watch company in Switzerland discovered that a small crystal would vibrate at a constant rate. He found this was so accurate that it could be used to calibrate time so he took it to company management and said it would make an entirely new kind of watch that had no springs and no gears. They could not imagine who would want such a thing. Swiss watches dominated world commerce. "Why change?", they said. The bosses did not even bother to patent it. I Love You, Warren Buffet Sometime around 1980, can't remember exactly, there was a flight of money from many countries to Switzerland. The clock makers had so much money pouring in that the banks took interest rates to zero and even for a period of time were actually making you pay �% interest to them to put your money in their banks. Yes, it actually happened because people believed their money was going to be safe there. It was. Analysts - Do They Really Know The Stock Market? When you become interested in a stock or mutual fund you can call your broker and he will send you reports on how the company is doing, what their management is like and what might be the projected earnings for the company and how the industry is doing. Great information. Market Timing? The recent criminal fiasco in the mutual fund industry is being used by Wall Street to persuade investors that market timing is a bad thing. The late trading by Janus, Bank America and several other well known mutual funds is falsely being called market timing. Choosing a Stock Broker If you were to find that you had some severe illness that required surgery, would you attempt to perform that surgery upon yourself? What if your car broke down and needed a valve job? Would you get out the Craftsman tool set you got for Christmas three years ago and start tinkering under the hood even though you know absolutely nothing about engines? Of course you wouldn't do either of these things because there are times in life when we know we must seek the assistance of a professional. So why is it that so many people try to make their own investment decisions without consulting a professional stock broker? Investment Lawyers and Trash Stocks The trash business in its efforts to cook their books trying to keep pace may find itself in some trouble. The efficiency per Garbage Truck unit numbers was growing exponentially at a time when consolidation has slowed as there is a decreasing number of worthy deals to make for a good value, Ah ha Warren Buffet's favorite remarks are here too. Mr. Market I constantly hear the talking heads on CNBC-TV, the radio and other places talking about THE market. Of course, they mean the stock market which actually now is world wide and no longer just concentrated in New York. To every New Yorker New York is the center of the world from which radiates all knowledge and everything else worthwhile. Defining a Long-Term Investment in the Stock Market For some "long term" would mean holding a stock position over the weekend. For others, it may mean holding a security for at least 1 year for the purpose of declaring a long-term capital gain, thus saving on taxes. Trading Tips No 5: Stock Trading Curve Drawdown and Commitment All stock trading and investing methods must deal with the inevitable drawdown from the most recent peak in one's stock trading curve to a bottom before reversing and making a new high. Seasoned systems traders are well familiar with the drawdown phenomenon and the importance of drawdown as a percentage of annual average returns in evaluating a trading system. On the other hand, many "investors" that follow a "buy, hold and hope" approach to the markets for the long term, don't think in terms of a drawdown when their portfolios drop in value by 10%, 20%?75%, as has happened in the past few years. But what they have experienced is an stock trading curve drawdown. NASDAQ 800? In November of 2000 when the NASDAQ was trading at 3000 I wrote in this column that the NASDAQ Index would fall to 1500 and I got lots of heat for saying it. Microsoft had fallen from $129 to $60 per share. You know where they are today. The I Word is Coming to a Town Near You Hello Inflation, it has been awhile, I see you on your way back again. Inflation? What inflation? Oh things like; Energy, diesel fuel, Aviation Fuel, Gasoline, Natural Gas, Milk, Wheat, Corn, Beef, Poultry, Hogs, Soy Beans, Building materials, paper, housing, Auto Prices, Health Care, Insurance, etc. You know the basics. Also considering the wholesale inflation, which comes from fuel costs being passed on, government regulations infringing on productivity and additional fees and fines to replace the taxes and incentives. When wholesale prices go up, those are passed onto the consumer. Investment Research - The Dalbar Study Very few people, even professionals, have heard of the Dalbar Study that originated in 1995. Its purpose is to determine the profitability of trading for the small investor of mutual funds. Their results are even worse than I thought.
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