| |
| |
|
Stocks & Mutual Funds Information |
|
|
|
12 Basic Stock Investing Rules Every Successful Investor Should Follow
There are many important things you need to know to trade and invest successfully in the stock market or any other market. 12 of the most important things that I can share with you based on many years of trading experience are enumerated below. 1. Buy low-sell high. As simple as this concept appears to be, the vast majority of investors do the exact opposite. Your ability to consistently buy low and sell high, will determine the success, or failure, of your investments. Your rate of return is determined 100% by when you enter the stock market. 2. The stock market is always right and price is the only reality in trading. If you want to make money in any market, you need to mirror what the market is doing. If the market is going down and you are long, the market is right and you are wrong. If the stock market is going up and you are short, the market is right and you are wrong. Other things being equal, the longer you stay right with the stock market, the more money you will make. The longer you stay wrong with the stock market, the more money you will lose. 3. Every market or stock that goes up will go down and most markets or stocks that have gone down, will go up. The more extreme the move up or down, the more extreme the movement in the opposite direction once the trend changes. This is also known as "the trend always changes rule." 4. If you are looking for "reasons" that stocks or markets make large directional moves, you will probably never know for certain. Since we are dealing with perception of markets-not necessarily reality, you are wasting your time looking for the many reasons markets move. A huge mistake most investors make is assuming that stock markets are rational or that they are capable of ascertaining why markets do anything. To make a profit trading, it is only necessary to know thatmarkets are moving - not why they are moving. Stock market winners only care about direction and duration, while market losers are obsessed with the whys. 5. Stock markets generally move in advance of news or supportive fundamentals - sometimes months in advance. If you wait to invest until it is totally clear to you why a stock or a market is moving, you have to assume that others have done the same thing and you may be too late. You need to get positioned before the largest directional trend move takes place. The market reaction to good or bad news in a bull market will be positive more often than not. The market reaction to good or bad news in a bear market will be negative more often than not. 6. The trend is your friend. Since the trend is the basis of all profit, we need long term trends to make sizeable money. The key is to know when to get aboard a trend and stick with it for a long period oftime to maximize profits. Contrary to the short term perspective of most investors today, all the big money is made by catching large market moves - not by day trading or short term stock investing. 7. You must let your profits run and cut your losses quickly if you are to have any chance of being successful. Trading discipline is not a sufficient condition to make money in the markets, but it is a necessary condition. If you do not practice highly disciplined trading, you will not make money over the long term. This is a stock trading "system" in itself. 8. The Efficient Market Hypothesis is fallacious and is actually a derivative of the perfect competition model of capitalism. The Efficient Market Hypothesis at root shares many of the same false premises as the perfect competition paradigm as described by a well known economist. The perfect competition model is not based on anything that exists on this earth. Consistently profitable professional traders simply have better information - and they act on it. Most non-professionals trade strictly on emotion, and lose much more money than they earn. The combination of superior information for some investors and the usual panic as losses mount caused by buying high and selling low for others, creates inefficient markets. 9. Traditional technical and fundamental analysis alone may not enable you to consistently make money in the markets. Successful market timing is possible but not with the tools of analysis that most people employ. If you eliminate optimization, data mining, subjectivism, and other such statistical tricks and data manipulation, most trading ideas are losers. 10. Never trust the advice and/or ideas of trading software vendors, stock trading system sellers, market commentators, financial analysts, brokers, newsletter publishers, trading authors, etc., unless they trade their own money and have traded successfully for years. Note those that have traded successfully over very long periods of time are very few in number. Keep in mind that Wall Street and other financial firms make money by selling you something - not instilling wisdom in you. You should make your own trading decisions based on a rational analysis of all the facts. 11. The worst thing an investor can do is take a large loss on their position or portfolio. Market timing can help avert this much too common experience. You can avoid making that huge mistake by avoiding buying things when they are high. It should be obvious that you should only buy when stocks are low and only sell when stocks are high. Since your starting point is critical in determining your total return, if you buy low, your long term investment results are irrefutably better than someone that bought high. 12. The most successful investing methods should take most individuals no more than four or five hours per week and, for the majority of us, only one or two hours per week with little to no stress involved. C.C. Collins is a Financial Planning Advisor and Author of "Scientific Wealth Strategies" at http://www.wealthscientist.com Find more information at http://www.stockinfo4u.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Stocks-Mutual-Funds - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Frog In The Pot You remember the story about the frog that was put into a pot of cold water on the stove. Hewas not concerned. VooDoo Training For the Stock Market If you go to Haiti or other places in the Caribbean you may run into the Voodoo tradition of magic. There are long and mostly noisy rituals with the medicine man spouting words that bring great power and conjure up whatever it is the supplicant desires. Dont Fight The Fed One of the great truisms of Wall Street is "Don't fight the Fed". For the long term investors this has resulted in greater profits. The Information Age It is wonderful to be alive in the information age. We know in a matter of seconds the change in the value of gold in Switzerland, the death of a world leader or the birth of a peasant in Israel. One Way Street Ever turn down a street, get half way and suddenly realize it is one way and you are going the wrong way? Is that the way you feel when you look at your stock brokerage statement?In either case don't panic. You can get out of that one way street by carefully backing out. The Stock Market Doesnt Care if You are a Beginner?. Get Prepared to Succeed at Trading Stock trading remains a very competitive field and the stock market doesn't care if you are an experienced stock trader or an aspiring one. The rules and the trading opportunities are the same for all of us, so either youre going to make money when you pick a stock and make a trade, or you are going to lose some of it in favor of the more seasoned traders. Forces that Move Stock Prices Among the largest forces that affect stock prices are inflation, interest rates, bonds, commodities and currencies. At times the stock market suddenly reverses itself followed typically by published explanations phrased to suggest that the writer's keen observation allowed him to predict the market turn. What Our Investment Advisor Wont Say Off The Bat Most advisors will tell you they can beat the market. They may even point to years in which they did. Stock Market Volatility In my opinion, due to the volatility of stock market prices (the rise and fall of stock prices), an investment plan should incorporate both the traits of stick-to-itiveness and common sense, and must have an advantageous, predetermined approach for maximizing each investment in the stock market.Stick-to-itiveness and common sense - oh, what powerful weapons they are when used for a long-term investment plan in the stock market! They mean making the common sense and advantages decision to:? Purchase only those companies that have long-term histories of raising their dividend every year. What Are You Waiting For? Do you own any mutual funds? In an IRA or 401K or wherever. Privately or at work. 401K-itis Are you one of those many people who dread reading their 401K statements? You have been watching it decline for about 2 years and are wondering if will ever stop. Just about everyone says the market will come back. Market Globalization Just 30 years ago the stock market was a shadow of what it is today. There were many fewer shareholders and the daily volume was a fraction of what it is at present. 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. Understanding the Bulls and the Bears If you've ever flipped on the television to CNN Financial or paged through the finance section of your local newspaper, you may have seen or heard references made to "the bulls and the bears." If you didn't know what was meant by those terms, you're about to find out. Prospering with Mutual Funds: How Anyone can "Afford" an Investment Advisor Recently I was invited to appear on a live CNNfn television show to discuss my article "How to evaluate Load vs. No Load Mutual Funds. How To Make, And Keep, Money Trading Stocks If you are serious about making and keeping money by trading stocks, then there are three things you need to do, and do well.Money managementOrdersTrading systemMoney managementMoney management comes first. So, What is This Stock Market Thing Anyway? We've all heard of the stock market and probably have a general idea of what it is and how it works either from high school economics classes, television financial reports, and the countless film depictions of what happens on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. But how does it really work and what is meant by "playing the stock market?"The Stock Market in a NutshellCompanies sell shares of stock as a means of raising capital. When Should I Sell? People are always asking me when should I sell my stock or mutual funds?There are some relatively easy answers to this. In fact, so simple that you won't believe them, but they are things I have learned over the past 30 years as a professional trader on the floor of the commodity exchange in Chicago. How to Maximize Your 401k Mutual Fund Returns When 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. Stock Valuation using the SMP Model Disclaimer:Please note that I do not necessarily purchase, own, or partake of any of the securities or other financial instruments mentioned in this article. I also do not take any responsibility for any actions resulting from any actions taken by anyone who reads this article.
|
Sponsors: Chicago Paving Contractor | Remanufactured VTL | Religious Statues | Search Engine Specialist
