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More Investing ArticlesEleven Principles Of Investment Management
By Steve Selengut
Many Investment Gurus, with a straight face and a gleam in their eye, will insist that successful investing is a function of expansive research, skillful market timing, and detailed technical analysis. Others emphasize fundamental information about companies, industries, and markets. But trends and numbers are secondary to a thorough understanding of the basic principles of Investing and Management, and their interrelationships. The ingredients for a successful investment portfolio are these: stubborn belief in the Quality, Diversification, and Income trinity from Investments 101, and operations that employ the Planning, Leading, Organizing, and Controlling skills introduced in Freshman Management. Here are some things to keep in mind while you season your experience with patience and marinate your investment process with discipline:
1) A viable Investment Program begins with the private development of an Investment Plan. The first step is the identification of personal goals and objectives and a time frame for goal achievement. The end result should be a near autopilot, long-term and increasing, retirement income. Asset Allocation is used to structure the portfolio so that it operates in a goal directed manner. The finished Plan must be flexible in design, based upon reasonable expectations, simple in structure and operation, and easy to supervise...Read More
Mutual Funds vs Stocks
By Randy Hutchings
With so many options out there for the individual investor, it is sometimes difficult to determine which investments are right for you. The key to having a long-term, stable and profitable portfolio is to diversify your investments. For many investors the process of diversification includes investing in both mutual funds and stocks. The best course is to learn all you can about both types of investments and find your ideal balance between the two.
Mutual funds are open-end funds that are not listed for trading on a stock exchange. They are created by companies who use their capital to invest in other companies. Mutual funds will sell their own new shares to investors. Capitalization is not fixed and normally shares are issued as people want them...Read More
Stock Fundamental Analysis Basics
By Steve Waller
Fundamental analysis is a widely used method of stock valuation that is based on the performance of a company and the economic situation in the country or countries in which the company is based and/or trades. All of the large investment houses such as JPMorgan and Schroeders use this approach as it is very good for the determining long term value of a share.
The Approach: The most common approach to fundamental analysis is termed the "top down" approach and comes in three steps...Read More
No Hassle Real Estate Investing
By Steve Selengut
Real Estate investing is not nearly as legally complicated, financially burdensome, or time consuming as you might think. In fact, it is easy to add raw land, shopping centers, apartment complexes, and private homes to your portfolio without Brokers, Bankers, Attorneys, and a Rolodex full of maintenance professionals' phone numbers. Even better, you can blend your Real Estate investments into your security portfolio for ease of management, income monitoring, diversification analysis, etc. Without having mega millions to work with, or a line of credit that goes around the block, you can have positions in various forms of Real Estate (Commercial, Industrial, Residential) at the same time, and focus either on Growth Opportunities, Income Production, or a combination of the two.
If you thought that Real Estate was out of your investment reach because of limited funds, or minimal personal experience, you were selling yourself short. All of the basic types of Real Estate Investing are available through CEFs (Closed End Funds) and REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts), and both can be purchased in the same manner as any common stock. And for me, this has always been their (CEFs and REITs) single most attractive feature! You can own a piece of the action without the big commitment of time and resources. You can take advantage of changes in the Real Estate Market Cycle in precisely the same manner as you can deal with the volatility and fluctuations in the Stock and Fixed Income Markets...Read More
An Ideal Investment
By Margaret Ntifo
Despite popular belief, investing in the Stockmarket does not have to involve high risk, extortionate commissions and fees, punitive restrictions, specialised knowledge or even much effort on your part. There are many different ways to invest your hard earned money to create wealth. Some routes involve higher risk than others.
Depending on your objectives, your aim should be to choose the lowest risk route for your investments...Read More
Emotions and Markets
By Frank Kollar
The stereotype of the perfect trader (market timer) has many of the same traits as Mr. Spock on "Star Trek." Mr. Spock looks at events logically and objectively, and follows a rational plan when creating a solution to a problem.
In some ways, Mr. Spock would appear to be the ideal trader...Read More
A Volitile Stock Market Is Your Friend
By Steve Selengut
Most people never forget their first love. I'll never forget my first trading profit! But the $600 (1970 dollars) I pocketed on Royal Dutch Petroleum was not nearly as significant as the conceptual realization it signaled! I was amazed that someone would pay me that much more for my stock than the newspaper said it was worth just a few weeks earlier! What had changed? What had happened to make the stock go up, and why had it been down in the first place? Without ever needing to know the answers, I've been trading RD for thirty-six years!
Looking at scores of similarly profitable, high quality companies in this manner, you would find that: (1) most move up and down regularly (if not predictably) with an upward long-term bias, and (2) that there is little if any similarity in the timing of the movements between the stocks themselves. This is the "Volatility" that most people fear and that Wall Street loves them to fear. It can be narrowly confined to certain sectors, or much broader, encompassing practically everything. The broader it becomes, the more likely it is to be categorized as either a rally or a correction. Most years will feature one or two of each. This is the natural condition of things in the stock market, Mother Nature, Inc. if you will. Don't take her for granted when she gets high, and never ignore her when she feels low. Embrace her volatile moods, work with them in whatever direction they travel, and she will become your love as well...Read More
Green Investing
By Noel Brinkerhoff
Investor: So what do you look for in your investments?
Analyst: Big bottom, and I cannot lie.
Investor: Excuse me? You mean a big bottom line?
Analyst: That's right. Double bottom is phat. Triple bottom, even phatter.
Investor: A double bottom line? I thought a bottom line had just one line: profits.
Analyst: No, sir. Today's investment world has all kinds of bottom lines. There's the traditional kind, like you said: profits - how a company is doing financially. But nowadays, some companies got two or three bottoms they're watching after. Those are my kind of companies...Read More
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