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Investing Stock Market ABC’s
While most folks today trust mutual funds and their professional managers with their investments, it’s still important to understand the basics of the stock market. Although investing in individual stocks may not be right for everyone, a basic...
Real Estate Problem Solver
Introduction
There are many areas one can invest in. Since I was 15 years old I have looked for the fastest, most effective way to accumulate a lot of wealth, with the least amount of risk. I am now 58. While looking for this road to truth,...
Rebuild Your Investment Portfolio Today
Its time to change your thinking about this beaten-up stock market and get excited about the tremendous long-term potential. If you find the current market makes you feel like sticking your head in the sand and you long for the "good old days" of...
THE BIG SECRET THE MUTUAL FUNDS DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW: INDEXING!
Non-indexed mutual funds try to keep it secret that actively managed mutual very funds rarely do better stock market indexes. The higher fees of the managed funds really make it hard for these funds to out compete indexed funds. Smart financial...
The Convertible Craze Brightens The Future Of Equities
Convertibles are stealing the show with their safe investment image in today's "protective" market. They seem to be overshadowing the stocks and bonds, and this holds true for the mediocre issuers. A convertible bond, as the name suggests, can be...
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New Year's Resolutions For Stock Market Investors
It is at this time each year when we make New Year's
resolutions, to help reduce the gap between where we are today
and where we want to be in the future. Having been able to speak
to thousands of investors over the last five years, I have
compiled a list of my favorite New Year's resolutions that will
help stock market investors, no matter which way the market goes
this year.
1 Reduce Costs
While most investors are focused on how to make more money in
the stock market, it is just as important to try to reduce your
costs of investing. Like any good CEO, you must focus on getting
the best value possible for every dollar you spend. While it
would be exciting to find an area in which you could save a
large sum of money, it is often the little expenses that fly
just under our mental radar that end up costing us the most.
Keep an eye on commissions, service fees and transaction fees.
Whether you spend $49, $29, $19, or even $9.99, to make a trade,
in the end, you'll get exactly the same result.
2 Think Small
Concentrate on hitting singles, not home runs. Everyone has
dreams of making it big in the stock market. But the quest to
hit a big home run often comes at the expense of taking
advantage of the markets' internal ability to rise over the
long-term. If you can just increase the value of your portfolio
by just an extra 1% per year, it could end up netting you
hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra profits over the
long-term. A $500,000 portfolio, earning 4%, will be worth
$1,095,561 in 20 years. Add an additional 1%, and you will
increase your returns by an additional $231,000.
3 Fire Your Mutual Fund Company
According to the last count, there are over 10,000 mutual funds
in North America, which means that there are more mutual funds
than stocks. Why are there so many? A mutual fund company is one
of the most profitable businesses to start, with little or no
risk. That is why every bank, insurance company, brokerage
company and financial institution in the world, also sells
mutual funds. And as history tells us, lack of performance does
not hinder a mutual fund company's ability to succeed, as it
would in say a business like a drug company, or an energy
company. Remember the basis of the mutual fund company is to
invest with other people's money, and charge them for doing so.
And they do so, while rarely ever beating the stock market
indexes.
In the previous resolution, we looked at how a 1% increase, in
your return, could earn you an extra $231,000. This is the same
1% return that the mutual fund companies are hoping to skim off
your portfolio over the next 20 years.
Can you tell yourself, in the next 60 seconds, why you are
dealing with your current mutual fund company? Is it because of
the above average returns? Is it because of the lower than
average fees? If not, then you may be stuck with its $231,000
gorilla sitting on your shoulders for the next 20 years.
If you do not want to fire your mutual fund company, then, you
might be able to get by just being more selective in the funds
that you choose from their fund family. Most mutual fund
companies today now offer "Index" funds at a lower expense ratio
than their normal "Managed" funds. Historically, Index funds,
will outperform Managed funds over the long run. In many cases,
you should be able to save, at least, 1% in your annual
fees.
The more extreme solution, but increasingly popular, would be to
move from mutual funds to exchange traded funds.
Exchange traded funds, or ETF's, are very similar to mutual
funds, but trade, just like stocks. In fact, some of the major
exchange traded funds are now some of the most popular stocks
traded on the major indexes.
4 Invest In A Mutual Fund Company
The best way to make money in mutual funds, is to invest in a
mutual fund company.
5 Avoid The Crowd
Many people save for their retirement by making regular monthly
contributions. This is probably the best way to save for the
long-term. Unfortunately, most people make this contribution at
the end of the month. With so much new money entering the market
at the end of each month, stocks will often trade higher for a
couple of days before, and a couple of days after month end,
meaning that you may end up paying higher prices. Try
moving
your contribution date to the middle of the month and avoid the
month end price squeeze.
6 Never Wait For The Why
Have you ever tried to tell a three-year-old to do something?
Inevitably, their reply will be a one-word answer, "Why?". Well,
it seems like we never lose that childish curiosity which causes
us to reply to an instruction, by asking the question why.
Unfortunately, the stock market is not in the habit of telling
us why we need to do something at the time we need to do it.
If you have been waiting to take action in the market, and the
opportunity presents itself, do not stop and look around for the
answer to the question why. Take action first, and the answer to
the question why will come later.
Why sell Enron? Why sell Taser? Why sell Krispy Kreme? Why sell
General Motors?
7 Learn The Skill Of Selling
We live in a society where we are born and bred to be shoppers.
From the time we wake up in the morning, until we go to sleep at
night, we are bombarded with messages that tell us to buy, buy,
buy. So it's no wonder that investors find it very easy to buy
stocks, but feel uncomfortable when it comes time to sell them.
Selling should be about taking profits, or avoiding loss. It
should not be about being right or wrong. Some of the greatest
investors in the world are wrong more than they are right. But
when they're wrong, they sell quickly and reduce their loss, and
risks. And when they're right, they hold on as long as possible,
until the market tells them to sell.
When the stock market fell in 2000, investors did not lose money
because they did not know what stocks to buy, they lost money
because they did not know when to sell.
8 The First One Now Will Later Be Last
It was nearly 40 years ago when the famous singer/songwriter,
Bob Dylan, wrote those famous words "The first one now will
later be last". Obviously, Mr. Dylan was not referring to the
stock market, but he could've been. As a society, we love
success. We love to follow and idolize winners in just about any
sector of society, including winners in the stock market.
Unfortunately, it is very rare that you see a winner repeat its
performance, year after year.
What was the best-performing stock, mutual fund or sector last
year, will not be the best-performing stock, mutual fund or
sector this year.
Don't chase success. Buying last year's best-performing
anything, could be one of the most costly investment mistakes
you ever make.
9 Manage What You Can Manage
When a baseball coach walks out, onto the field, is he managing
the players on his team, or the spectators in the stands?
When you look at the stock market, are you trying to manage all
the stocks in the stock market, or are you trying to manage your
selected group of better than average stocks, ETF's, and mutual
funds?
There is a logical reason why there are only so many players on
a sports team; why there are only so many soldiers in a platoon;
and why there are only so many people working for an accounts
receivable manager.
Your goal should be to keep the list of the things that you're
following as small as possible.
If you're following more stocks than the president has seats of
his cabinet table, you're probably following too many.
Have a Happy New Year and all the best to you and your family in
2006.
Stephen Whiteside
http://theuptrend.com/
Stephen Whiteside is the CEO of the online stock market timing
service TheUp
Trend.com, that provides Investors with daily, weekly and
monthly trend analysis, buy & sell signals, price targets,
support & resistance price levels, and Smart Money Alerts, on
over 1,500 leading North American companies listed on the TSX,
NYSE, and the NASDAQ.
About the author:
Stephen Whiteside is the CEO of the online stock market timing
service TheUpTrend.com, that provides Investors with daily,
weekly and monthly trend analysis, buy & sell signals, price
targets, support & resistance price levels, and Smart Money
Alerts, on over 1,500 leading North American companies listed on
the TSX, NYSE, and the NASDAQ.
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