Everyone who invests in the stock market wants to be a winner. Each person's definition of a winner will be somewhat different, but there is hardly one who isn't looking for that stock that will double in price within one year.
Can it be done? Yes, but when you look at the odds you may want to find a better or maybe slower and safer way. The chance of finding that mother load is 1 in 200, about ? percent. Of the 11,000 listed securities you have a choice of 55. Even the pros don't like those odds. What makes you think you are better?
We have been in a great bull market from 1982 to 2000. Then the bubble burst. Yet the investing public continues to believe that we are going to see double digit returns every year. According to the Financial Research Corporation's study the mutual fund pros return was only 10.92% and the average investor had gains of about 8.7%. The great Warren Buffett says the bull is over and that we will be looking at a 5% return not the 12% to 15% that has occurred in the recent past.
As I mentioned in my recent column the returns for the past 126 years has only averaged 7% with 2/3 of the return coming from dividends which are about nonexistent today. Instead of looking for the rainbow with the pot of gold at the end my suggestion is to limit your losses and let your winners run. You have heard that clich? before, but have you every understood what it means in the stock market? The floor traders and hedge fund managers do not look for home runs. They look for slow and steady and never allow any major losses. The key to long term investment success is to limit your losing positions and never give back profits you have earned.
If tech investors in 1999 had followed this principle they would have kept about 80% of their profits. Wall Street says you should Buy and Hold and they have told this lie so often that it has become conventional wisdom. It is absolute stupidity. A simple trailing stop-loss order would have protected the investor's capital. Almost no broker and certainly no brokerage house recommends loss limit orders. No one is taught the basic winning concept of the market ? an exit strategy. Until that is learned you are doomed to give back your winnings and take losses when a stock doesn't go up and heads down.
Most investors have no plan as to how much money they would like to accumulate nor how to intelligently go about it. They don't know where they are going and they don't want o be late.
When you have decided how much you need to save the next important step is not what to buy, but how to exit in the event what you do buy happens to go down instead of up.
Al Thomas' book, "If It Doesn't Go Up, Don't Buy It!" has helped thousands of people make money and keep their profits with his simple 2-step method. Read the first chapter at http://www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why he's the man that Wall Street does not want you to know.
Copyright 2005
one time home cleaning Highland Park ..I am sure that if you have a brokerage account... Read More
When is a dividend not a dividend?The latest thing "conservative"... Read More
The following are a list of nine things you want... Read More
Checked your 401K lately? Going back to about a year... Read More
You have a lock on your house. You have a... Read More
Stock trading remains a very competitive field and the stock... Read More
What does it take to be a stock trader? It... Read More
Question: How does it get better when it gets worse?Last... Read More
Every day I hear someone on CNBC proclaim that "this... Read More
That sounds like good advice doesn't it? Don't lose all... Read More
As a novice trader, you'll often feel the need to... Read More
Ever have one of those sample boxes of candy? Each... Read More
If you are going to be a winner in the... Read More
You probably have been told that options are risky. Even... Read More
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a... Read More
Every day in any financial publication you will find the... Read More
Index Fund Trading can be one of the most profitable...or... Read More
Have you ever thought of investing? Do you have a... Read More
I cringe every time I hear a novice investor tell... Read More
On November 17 I bought 7 different mutual funds and... Read More
You'd have had to be living on a desert island... Read More
Look back over the years and try to remember how... Read More
Much like the middle child, mid-cap stocks have long struggled... Read More
We all know that emotions control every decision that an... Read More
Robert Rodriguez likes to buy stocks at their lows. When... Read More
licensed cleaning services Park Ridge ..When is a dividend not a dividend?The latest thing "conservative"... Read More
One of the basic laws of physics states that a... Read More
I was devastated!I just couldn't believe it. I was 10... Read More
I cringe every time I hear a novice investor tell... Read More
Most stock market traders have a favorite technical indicator.The one... Read More
It's about time someone spoke the truth concerning outsourcing. The... Read More
We have two candidates for president that have really different... Read More
For the last few weeks we have seen the stock... Read More
The debate rages all over Eastern and Central Europe, in... Read More
A colleague of mine just returned from a scuba diving... Read More
I often hear from people, "I don't trade. I invest.... Read More
There are major differences between trading stocks and trading futures.... Read More
Every stock market investor faces one primal enemy. An enemy... Read More
The stock market has not been very kind to your... Read More
Much like the middle child, mid-cap stocks have long struggled... Read More
Right now there doesn't seem to be any "gold fever".... Read More
After finding the price of a particular stock, usually the... Read More
Have you seen all those big full page ads for... Read More
Do you own any mutual funds? In an IRA or... Read More
(1) CHK stock price $16.74, NAV $32.5CHK is my favorite... Read More
Never lose money in the stock market again. Yeah, I... Read More
When purchasing mutual funds we are cautioned to read the... Read More
The Shadow knows. Remember him? It seems a shadow has... Read More
The broker told me not to sell because the mutual... Read More
Wouldn't it be nice if you were only in the... Read More
Stocks & Mutual Fund |