Apr 17

Author : Steve SelengutEvery 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 governments around the world are not going to allow another Great Depression “on their watch”

Every correction is different, the result of various economic and/or political circumstances that create the need for adjustments in the financial markets
While everything is down in price, as it is now, there is actually less to worry about When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping

In this case, an overheated real estate market, an overdose of financial bad judgment, and a damn the torpedoes stock market, propelled by demand for speculative derivative securities and Hedge Funds, finally came unglued

But it is the reality of corrections that is one of the few certainties of the financial world, one that separates the men from the boys, if you will If you fixate on your portfolio market value during a correction, you will just give yourself a headache, or worse

Few of the fundamental qualities that made your IGVSI securities sound investments just two years ago have permanently disappeared We’ll be using credit cards, driving cars and motorcycles, drinking beer, and buying clothes twenty years from now Very few interest payments have been missed and surprisingly few dividends eliminated

Only the prices have changed, to preserve the long-term reality of things—and in both of our markets

Corrections are beautiful things, but having two of them going on at the same time is like a trip to Fantasy Land Theoretically, even technically I’m told, corrections adjust prices to their actual value or “support levels” In reality, it’s much easier than that Prices go down because of speculator reactions to expectations of news, speculator reactions to actual news, and investor profit taking

The two “becauses” are more potent than ever because there is more self-directed money than ever And therein lies the core of correctional beauty Mutual Fund unit holders rarely take profits but rush to take losses Additionally, the new breed of unregulated index-fund speculations is capable of producing a constant diet of volatility overload New investment opportunities are everywhere

Here’s a list of ten things to think about or to do during corrections:

1 Don’t beat yourself up by looking at your market value You don’t live in a vacuum and you should expect lower valuations That is why you should only buy the highest quality securities in the first place and stick with a well-defined asset allocation plan Look for ways to add to your portfolios

2 Take a look at the past There has never been a correction that has not proven to be a buying opportunity, in spite of the media hype that this one is somehow special When they are broad, long, and deep, the rally that follows is normally broad, long, and steep Get ready to party

3 The “Smart Cash” produced by interest and dividends should be placed in new stocks for rapid profitable turnover— don’t be shy when you’re looking at 50% discounts from recent highs Buying too soon, in the right portfolio percentage, is nearly as important to long-term investment success as selling too soon is during rallies

4 Take a look at the future Nope, you can’t tell when the rally will come or how long it will last If you are buying quality securities now, as you certainly should be, you will be able to love the rally even more than you did the last time— as you take yet another round of profits

5 Buy more quickly in a prolonged correction, but establish new positions incompletely so that you can add to them safely later There’s more to “Shop at the Gap” than meets the eye, and you should remain confidently fully-invested at least until the media starts whispering: “rally”

6 Cash flow is king Take smaller profits sooner than usual as long as there are abundant buying opportunities Today, nearly sixty percent of all Investment Grade Value Stocks are down more than 25% from their 52-week highs As long your cash flow continues unabated, change in market value is just a perceptual issue

7 Note that your Working Capital is growing, in spite of fallen market prices, and examine your holdings for opportunities to average down and increase your yield on fixed income securities Examine both fundamentals and price, lean hard on your experience, and don’t force the issue

8 Identify new buying opportunities using a consistent set of rules, be it rally or correction That way you will always know which of the two you are dealing with in spite of the Wall Street propaganda Focus on Investment Grade Value Stocks; it’s easier, less risky, and better for your peace of mind

9 Examine your portfolio’s performance in terms of market, interest rate, and economic cycles as opposed to calendar time intervals Apply your asset allocation to your analysis for meaningful-to-you results

10 So long as everything is down, there is little to worry about long term Downgraded, or simply lazy, portfolio holdings should not be discarded during general or group specific weakness— unless you don’t have the courage to get rid of them during rallies

Corrections of all types will vary in depth and duration, and both characteristics are clearly visible only in institutional-grade rear view mirrors The short and deep ones are most lovable; the long and slow ones are more difficult to deal with

Most corrections are relatively short and difficult to take advantage of with mutual funds So if you over-think the environment or over-cook the research, you’ll miss the after-party Unlike many things in life, Stock Market realities need to be dealt with quickly, decisively, and with zero hindsight

Amid all of the uncertainty, there is one indisputable fact that reads equally well in either market direction: there has never been a correction-rally that has not succumbed to the next rally-correction Steve Selengut
Sanco Services
Kiawah Golf Investment Seminars
Author: ‘The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read’ and ‘A Millionaire’s Secret Investment Strategy’.

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Apr 08

Author : John MerrittMany people chose to buy penny stocks due to the potential profits of picking the right stock and having it pay off big However, knowing the risks of these types of stocks is critical Because if you don’t know the risks, chances are you will lose money!

When we talk about penny stocks, it’s a good idea to first define what qualifies as a penny stock While most people would probably consider any stock priced under $1 00 to be a penny stock, there are almost as many investors and larger funds that consider any stock priced under $5 00 to be in penny stock territory So for the sake of this discussion, we’ll use $5 00 as our cutoff for what we’ll refer to as a penny stock With that in mind, here’s some factors that can influence (or increase) the risks of penny stocks that you may not find in stocks that trade at higher prices:

1 The stock exchange

Is the stock listed on one of the exchanges? Buying a stock on one of the exchanges is less risky than trading stocks over-the-counter In other words, it’s much easier for “sketchy” or questionable companies to get listed through OTC pink sheets than the three major exchanges The NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX all have tougher requirements in place to get listed, as well as rules for financial reporting and market capitalization, among others Any company that falls out of compliance is booted off the exchange if not brought back into compliance

2 Trading volume

How much trading volume is there each day? If not many shares are traded in the particular stock, this can make buying and selling the stock at a market price very difficult and can increase the risk of losses For example, if you want to sell 100,000 shares of a stock with a last trade of 10 cents but the closest best bid with that many shares is all the way down to 06 cents, you may end up losing 40% if you need to sell the stock right then This is sometimes called “liquidity risk” and although it can be a risk of higher priced stocks as well, it is not as pronounced as in penny stocks

3 Stock price

Why is the stock a penny stock in the first place? The price of the stock itself is important, because many times the reason a stock is trading for such a low price is the company itself may be having financial problems or other issues The company may even be on the verge of bankruptcy Can you be sure the company isn’t going to fold the day after you buy the stock? It’s a good idea to check recent news and press releases for the company to make sure there’s no suprises you aren’t aware of

4 Volatility

Is there much historical volatility? And what I mean by this, is if you look at a 1 year chart for the stock does it make big price moves often, either up or down? While volatility can be your friend, it can also be your worst enemy Imagine buying a stock for $1 00 a share, and having it fall to 30 cents in just a few days That’s a big loss, especially if you’ve put a lot of money in one stock

5 News, information and research

Since the bulk of penny stocks tend to be smaller, lesser known companies, it’s sometimes hard to find any information about them The company may rarely (if ever) release news about company developments, it’s products or general business conditions This makes it very diffuclt to do research or decide if it’s a company worth buying stock in And this increases risk

6 Location of the company

Given all these other factors, one additional thing to consider is where is the company located? Since the US, Canada and the UK tend to have more securities laws and regulation in place to discourage fraud, corruption and other unethical business practices, other countries may not, or if they do they may be loosely enforced Buying stock in a small, unknown company in the US may be risky enough, but buying stock in a small, unknown company in Russia or some other country that may not be subject to the business or securities laws of your country can increase the risks exponentially And just to be clear here I am not picking on Russia, I love Russia and I love Russians, they are some of the smartest business people out there - I only use this as an example to make a point

What do I think?

Overall I think penny stocks carry higher than average risk, so I would not invest a lot of money in these types of stocks However, if you are a person who is interested in penny stocks and think the risk is worth the potential big gains, just be sure you fully understand the risks and take steps to mitigate them as much as possible Good luck!John Merritt is an active investor and founder of invest.us, which offers resources for investing in America. Visit us for more investing basics, or link to this article on penny stock trading.

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Apr 03

Author : Ranju KumarMany people may have heard about this but there are also some who have not For many business owners, these strategies have worked for them, so if you are a potential businessman, you may want to implement this program in your own venture A contrarian trading pertains to the strategic method of executing and making decisions that are contrary to what the people are saying as well as those who are experts in the field You may think that this one will make you face all the dangers and the struggles that most dealers are afraid to face In actuality, you are right but still, the success rate of this plan is higher than those who failed

Contrarian trading is truly different from all the marketing strategies since it is quite known that most of the entrepreneurs think alike For instance, they will watch television and read the newspaper and once they have become aware of the facts about the stock market, which stakes what are the profitable products and services and what are not, they would be implementing the same thing

For those rebels at heart, this strategy is truly for you since you do not have anyone to listen to except yourself As a matter of fact, if you are thinking about getting advisors, think again This is because they are merely people who have been authorized to give pieces of advice but when you look back, ask yourself where they got those recommendations from Of course, it is clear that they obtained them from other people and other resources

Contrarian trading is all about building your business on your hunches and guesses In fact, there have been several people who have implemented this policy many years ago and still their business is functioning at this point in time If you think about it, there have been average brokers who utilized the standard procedures and yet they have to pull out their investments from the market for one or two years This is because there is tough competition and they have to get into a long line so that their target market will be able to learn how to appreciate their efforts and their labors

On the other hand, if you are involved in the contrarian trading industry, you do not have anything to fear even if your judgments went wrong This is because even if you commit mistakes the money that will cost you is quite at the minimum You do not have to sit all the day long, formulating of a plan and finding ways to make it possible for your business to escape from the consequences of your mistakes

Contrarian trading gives you the opportunity to seek for the correct applications of your hypotheses Clearly, it is quite inevitable that we commit errors especially when foretelling what will happen in the future regarding our businesses What we need to do is learn from our mistakes and use them as guides as we aim to be the best in our business ventures The Website provides information on contrarian trading which helps people to earn massive income by helping them to trade cheap overlooked stocks that are on the verge of exploding. Know more about contrarian trading at http://www.thecontrariantrader.com

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Apr 03

Author : Ranju KumarWhen it comes to financial matters, a contrarian is considered as a person who attempts to generate profits through making investments in a manner that totally differs from the belief of the people and the experts in the field Every contrarian trader believes that the behavior of the people towards certain aspects in the stock market can lead to mistakes in values and assessment The contrarian strategies are similar to the value investment approach

If you want to become a contrarian trader, you can read about them and view their insights on different matters Most famous contrarians believe that when the period of shortsightedness in the industry occurs and this resulted to prices beating down, you can definitely make an investment in a stock It is said that volatility increases as time passes by Also one of the most common contrarian strategies is the volatility index, which enables them to track down the numeric measures of the market factors at large Another one of those simple contrarian strategies is the Dogs of the Dow, which proposes that investors should select from the ten stocks of the Dow Jones Industrial Average that has a price dividend of their highest fraction

As we all know, there are several approaches when setting up a business and their success is debatable A contrarian trader has his own merits and there are easy to follow contrarian strategies that will help guide an individual towards achievement but this will have to depend on the vagaries of the market

The first thing that you have to do is to form your own opinion when trading stocks Being a contrarian trader, as the name implies, means that you will have to think the other extreme from the masses An exit plan is also needed as well as a price point This will enable you to get out from the situation quickly without worrying about your losses Price point is the particular amount of a certain product that a contrarian investor believes is the high feature of the stock

You will also have to determine what the others are buying and then you have to sell that item Obviously, when the items are popular to the citizens, that are the time when their prices are quite high, thus, indicating that it is time for you to sell them In accordance, you will also need to discern the stocks that the other investors are putting up for sale in bulk Now that you are able to identify them and the reports are stating that they are on solid ground, it is high time that you buy them

Every contrarian trader has his or her own technical indicator that gives the signal whether it is the stage wherein it is appropriate to buy or sell products This is very useful since it is quite laborious to keep on analyzing each and every one of the stocks available in the market For example, you have decided that your indicator should affirm that when there is 75 percent of the mutual fund that has properties of over one billion dollars are in the process of purchasing stocks, then it is time for you to sell The website http://www.thecontrariantrader.com uses several key indicators to pinpoint huge shifts in the crowds before they happen. The concepts they use are similar to that of Contrarian Investing .

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Apr 03

Author : Ranju KumarDo you wish to be a successful businessman? At first, if you do not know where to start, you turn on your TV or read the newspapers and magazines so that you can watch for the current trends in the industry You can find out what things are in progress and what are outdated The question is: would you wish to go with the flow or would you oppose what the stock market is saying? In fact, to be divergent is a good way to start making money This is what Contrarian Trading is all about

Many successful business owners agree that the strategies involved in Contrarian Trading will definitely work since most dealers think alike and even reflect on similar things because that is what they have acquired from their training Only a few of them are aware of what they are doing and the reason behind those actions To be successful, you must learn how to become a rebel and think outside the box

Being a contrarian means that you have to know where the majority of business owners obtain their profits Then you would have to wait for a technical indicator which would be able to tell you when the traders have started changing their minds That is your go-signal to sell the opposite choice of the crowd However, you may not always be right in your decisions yet your losses would be very minimal compared to being parallel to the market trends This is one of the contrarian secrets of many well known entrepreneurs The advantages runs quickly to cover the deficiencies while the average traders will have to wait for their season for comeback so that they can remain even

All of those who are involved in the Contrarian Trading have an exit strategy, which they implement when their capital is in need of protection at whatever time they think is appropriate Each and every contrarian has a plan to allow them to keep the biggest part of their profits once the equity alters its course and changes direction

We cannot deny the fact that it is hard to hit the market but with Contrarian Trading, you will never get caught in crashes and bubbles Applying the contrarian principles helps you navigate profitably and safely If you want to become one of the successful contrarian traders, then you will need to focus on the changes in the market Change here refers to the accumulation and distribution of profits Techniques implicate the traders to purchase sold out items with distinguishable support before the sales have been going up for that particular product

Being a part of the Contrarian Trading industry means that you have to be alert for the period when the stocks are being distributed If you are able to perceive the solid selling of the materials, this will allow you to look after your profits and also be prepared for the significant declines of sales through putting out stocks in advance of the cut rate Be wise and be a contrarian because your business will surely flourish in the upcoming years The website gives information on contrarian trading and helps people to earn massive income by helping them to trade cheap overlooked stocks that are on the verge of exploding. Know more about contrarian trading at the website http://www.thecontrariantrader.com.

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Apr 03

Author : Ranju KumarWhat is it?

Online stock trading allows you to buy and sell stocks from the comfort of your home or office without having the hassle of having to call your broker every time you want to trade For doing online stock trading you need to have a computer with a sufficiently good internet connection and an online broker, through whom you would make all such trades It allows you to trade stocks at your discretion and also saves you a lot of commissions

Choosing an online broker

There are a huge number of online stock brokers available, who would be only too happy to let you set up a trading account with them What you need to look for in a broker to help you with your online stock trading is information that most of them would readily give you so that you become one of their clients for online stock trading

You need to know the minimum investment necessary to make for starting in online trading Make sure that there are no fees if there is no activity on their site for whatever reasons Get their full list of commissions/fees which you would need to factor in every time you make a trade Some online brokers also help you out with your online stock trading by offering you tips and suggestions, and their own outlook on the market and its prospects

Opening an account

Opening an account with an online broker is generally a simple affair and can even be done online You would however have to provide all the necessary paperwork and open an account with the stock exchanges, which will allow you to get all your stock price quotes electronically The online broker may even have his own enrollment or other fees, for you to gain access to his online network so that you can trade in shares You would also have to provide a wire transfer link to your bank account so that funds can be transferred both in and out of your account, in order to allow you to carry on the activity of online stock trading

Most online brokers require that you deposit funds with them to start the trading activity Initially, it’s possible that you may only be allowed to trade in the underlying stocks Trading options on futures, forex, may require additional registration documents and procedures as this is considered to be very high-risk trading Also, if you intend to trade on margin, there may be separate documentation and funding requirements for this Check all this with your broker

Be cautious while trading

Online trading involves that you exercise the same amount of care and caution that you would in other trading activities It may require even more caution, as you are on your own and the action of buying and selling is instantaneous You need to constantly monitor your portfolio Fortunately, the online broker you have opened an account with will make this easy for you They have plenty of powerful analytical software tools which keep your portfolio updated on a minute to minute basis, and give you all the risk parameters you need They also have tools to enable you to analyze and study any particular stock in depth to ensure that you are in the best position to make the right trading and investment decisions Discover FREE expert Trading videos, podcasts and articles packed with secret strategies to your profits. Online Trading Rebel also offers you a critical FREE report, The 7 Deadly Mistakes Of Online Trading. Visit the Online Trading Site (OnlineTradingRebel.Com) Right Now!

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