Candlestick Charting is one of the most powerful tools in the trading arsenal of any trader. Candlestick Charts apply to any market no matter what you trade-stocks, forex, futures, options, ETFs, commodities, bonds and others. With one simple glance on the chart, you can figure out the sentiment of the buyers and sellers in the market. There are many candlestick patterns that are used as trading signals. Some are simple while others are complex. Doji Candlestick Pattern is a simple pattern that is very easy to spot. It has no body. It is formed when the opening and the closing prices are the same. So, this pattern is all wicks with no stick. It literally looks like a Cross on the chart. So you can easily spot it. But it is very rare as the security opening and closing prices are seldom equal! Doji has some variations. We will discuss these variations in this article!

For a Doji to be created, a trading day must begin and end with the same price. A whole lot of trading takes place during the day but when it is all said and done, the security price is right back where it had started in the morning.

When a Doji is formed with the opening and the closing prices equal, it is a signal that the battle between the bulls and the bears had been a draw during the trading day. Soon, either the bulls or the bears are going to previal. In other words, a trend reversal is about to take place.

Now, a Dragonfly Doji is a unique variation to the Doji Candlestick Pattern. It is formed when the opening, the closing and the high prices are all equal. Something quite rare and unique. So how is a Dragonfly Doji is formed? It is formed when the security price opens. It is traded down during the early part of the day. At some point in the trading day, the price action starts to recover and climb. It eventually closes at the high which happens to equal the open of the day. Something unique!

When a Dragonfly Doji is formed, bears initially decide to rule the market. But at some point the bulls step in and decide to buy again. When the bulls step in, they start pushing the price up. As the bulls dominate the trading day, the security price ends up right where it had started.

The low on this pattern can be taken as the support level because this was the level at which the bears entered the market and started buying. Dragonfly Doji is considered to be a bullish candlestick pattern.

A bearish Gravestone Doji Pattern is formed when the open and close of the day is equal to the low of the day. This is the most bearish of the Doji patterns. A bearish Gravestone Doji pattern signals the start of a prolonged downtrend in the security price.

As said before, this pattern is rare but very easy to spot on the chart. When it does form, get ready for a trend change!

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Money has always caused a huge dilemma in many of our lives, subscribing to the best financial newsletters seems to be the only way that you can stay on top of the financial world and all of the problems that everyone is facing. It seems as if things are not going to get any better at the present moment.

More and more people are being subject to unemployment because of the downfall of our current economy, and millions are searching for answers to the despair. It seems as if things are only going to get worse before we can ever see an improvement. The sad part is, no one knows when this so called improvement is going to show up or when to expect it.

According to many recent studies, it seems as if by the time that the current freshly entered workers are ready to settle down and retire they will simply not be able to. It seems as if the funds that many people depend on are going to be depleted. The stimulus package that was given out only protected big corporations and had no true effects on the people as a whole.

The only way that you can ensure that things will begin to look up for you and your family is to being investing early. The best financial newsletters will show you everything that you need to know to ensure that your money is going to justifiable places where it needs to be.

Currently EFT’s are beginning to climb the popularity scale. They bare similarities to the mutual funds that have been utilized for a while now, but have way more advantages. With the EFT’s there is no need to worry about maintenance fees and you do not have to be concerned about getting over taxed from choosing to invest.

It’s crazy that there is more of an expense to be able to invest. Millions of people are investing, yet millions are being subject to extra taxes because of their wise decisions. People that are not taking the correct protocols are being rewarded, that makes no sense in the least.

The best financial newsletters will help you learn all of the hard earned facts that come with investing in your future. Investments are something that you will be able to lean on in this world. Do not expect things such as social security or any other Government funded programs to help you in the future.

The best financial newsletters will take you through the exciting world of finances. They will teach you what you need to do to ensure that the rest of your life is taken care of, regardless if the Government has money to pay you to retire or not.

The best financial newsletters will show you all of the great things that you need to know about investing as well as show you some details of the benefits of doing so. Do not allow yourself to fall subject to having to work your entire existence just to make it, invest now before it is too late to do so.

There will be millions people that feel they have no choice but to work forever. Get your hands on one of the best financial newsletters and you will learn there are ways to get out of that type of predicament.

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Forex trading has gained tremendously in interest and popularity in recent years mostly due to the introduction of automatic and automated forex trading systems. The market that was open to banks and similar big financial institutions is now luring medium and even small investors.

People come to the forex market to exchange currency of one country for the currency of another country. As forex trading is 24 hours and billions of dollars are traded, it is no doubt the largest and most active financial markets.

With the advent of the internet, network, communication technologies, and sophisticated automated forex trading systems, participating in the forex market is now open to virtually anyone having a computer, an internet connection, a forex brokerage account and a good trading platform.

But staying on top of a forex position requires constant monitoring, as this global market is practically open round the clock. Automatic and automated forex trading systems is a tool that lets you specify a currency, an asking price, and a selling price beforehand. With a small seed amount and with the help of a broker, your purchase and sell orders will be executed instantly.

With an automated trading system, you can trade profitably even without becoming an expert in trading. In automated trading through a managed account, it is the trading program that will executes the trades for you.

With a reliable auto trading platform, you are not required to do the actual trading yourself and therefore you save your time. And if you can watch the market constantly, you can mange multiple accounts from your trading platforms, simultaneously, which was never possible with manual trading. Automated forex trading systems present advantage of trading multiple systems and multiple markets.

An automatic and automated forex trading allow your trades to be made at any time of the day or night, regardless of your presence. You do not miss a single profitable trade even if you are not present in front of your computer terminal.

Using an automated forex trading system helps you to take advantage of various forex strategies and systems. As different systems are designed to be triggered by different trade indicators, you can lower your risk.

An automatic and automated forex trading also eliminates human emotions and psychology that can often affect proper and profitable trading decisions. With an automatic and automated forex trading system, you will be capable of monitoring many currency pairs at a time and you can follow and execute all of them.

But, even with automatic forex trading systems, you will have to learn the basics of the forex trading, methods of fundamental and technical analysis, market indicators, etc. for enjoying consistent profits.

Just being automated, the trading system never guarantees you success as the market is influenced by many variables and parameters. The forex automated system is not just mechanical, but is fully programmable and you can customize them according to your needs.

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Property investment has always been one of the most common methods of investing capital & can be a lucrative business option and hence many investors consider it an integral part of their diversified portfolio. It is a long term investment for individuals or families to obtain financial security for their present as well as future. However, you should consider some important points while doing property investment. If you are a beginner, you must look for a profitable property investment. The bottom line of property investment is to find an affordable property that can prove to be highly lucrative for the future. As time moves on, for example with newer media options of television and internet, new trends in property investment are appearing. So, always keep yourself informed about upcoming trends in property market with the help of these informative mediums. Prepare your property for resale and then sell the house quickly.

Residential property investment is the investment that can carry low risk and is not like investing in commercial property where investors have to worry about the conditions of businesses. Property investment loans are not as difficult to get as other types of loans and investing in residential properties can give investors a substantial financial boost. Also check out the history of capital growth rate in the area in last at least 15 years. Make sure that property investment is worth the capital benefit. You must also consider the population growth rate of the locality. If you are planning to invest in property, you need to take advice from experts or you can conduct research on the internet, attend seminars, interact with social groups and then read as much as possible regarding this matter to clear up all your investment doubts. Though the whole scenario of investments is always changing, property investment is still a viable means to enhance your financial portfolio. Because, the more you know about market, the better you will become at finding good property investments.

Wealth Management is classified as an advanced type of financial planning that provides High net worth individuals and families with private banking, estate planning, asset management, legal resources, and investment management, with the goal of sustaining and growing long-term wealth. The main objectives of wealth management are providing families dealing with services in retail banking, legal resources, investment management, and taxation advice goals to sustain and grow long-term wealth. Wealth management often includes further diversifying investments by adding real estate, precious metals, business and other untraditional investments.

Products dealt with in wealth management include stock trading and stocks, investments linked with equity, derivatives and products relating to structured investment, foreign exchange, unit trusts and mutual funds, investments and management of property, etc. Alternative investments with respect to wealth management include art, wine, precious metals, etc. Due to its prime importance, it is advisable to take the help of wealth management company while running a big enterprise. Because a wealth management company helps in growing long-term wealth for achieving long-term profit as It analyzes your wealth management plans including investments, insurance plans etc, calculates the related risks and then it proposes a wealth plan. It may provide many services like portfolio management, investment management, portfolio rebalancing, trust and estate management, private management, tax advice and financing solutions etc.

A wealth management company sometimes also implements some useful financial tools like stocks and stock trading, structure savings products, structured investment products and derivatives, equity linked investments, property management and investment solutions, mutual funds and alternate investment options. These tools provide assistance in making your money grow and provide you long-term investment benefits. Thus, proper wealth management with the help of financial planning can make you gain very fruitful returns on your investments which will have increasing volume each time.

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Stock investing for beginners is a really challenging task, especially if you investment beginner is someone who doesn’t know anything about the stocks or the companies that issue them. So before you take off and make some plans to invest, here are few things that you should know first.

The most challenging part of stock investing for beginners is to do investment planning. But before you get started with your plans, beginners should get familiar with stocks and the stock market. A stock is having an ownership in a company. When you have stock, you have a stake in that company. Once you become an owner, you can sell pieces of your ownership when you sell your stock and the additional money raised in that sale goes toward the company capital. This capital is used for company expansion or the acquisition of certain assets. Company debts can be paid down as well. Some of the most well known large companies have public listed shares.

What is the stock market? It’s a buyers and sellers auction and the transactions are conducted on various stock exchange sites. The consistent trading causes a supply and demand cycle that basically controls the cost of stock. So if the demand goes up with one stock, so does the price and vice versa.

Now that you know the fundamentals, it is time to start building your investment portfolio. Beginners should always seek a stock broker for mediation. The stock broker is go between with the buyer and seller. Through the broker, you are able to buy several types of investments, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. This broker will receive a small commission that is included with the total transaction cost. A traditional broker will tell you exactly what your better options versus a discount broker will give you the freedom of making your own choices.

The success of stock investing for beginners is dependent upon how motivated you are to learn the stock market and how well you build your portfolio. It will take some time to start having much success, so expect to win some and lose some. As a precaution for beginners, do not use the money in that you can’t afford to lose.

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Anybody who has lost money this last year in the stock market may be unsettled. This has been a tough couple of years where almost everyone has come out a loser. The stock market is a place where anybody can look like a fool when it is going down and look like a hero when all stocks are going up.

Even though the market has made a small comeback, it does not guarantee that it will not start to head back down again. This is where you start to wonder whether you are missing out by not being in the market or whether this is just a false upward move before heading back down again. Professional investors have a slight advantage here because they are trained to understand market tendencies and to analyze the market.

Many people have thought about averaging down during this bear market, which just means they would buy more stock of what they already have but at lower prices. That would in effect lower the cost per share of the stocks they have but they would of course have more of them. This is a great thing to do if you can catch the market at the bottom but if the market has further to fall, then you just end up losing more money.

Any expert in the stock market will preach about the importance of stock diversification when you do get back in. What that entails is spreading your bets around on a variety of stocks rather than putting all your eggs in one basket. This is important because you want to protect yourself from picking one really bad stock and then losing most or even all of your money.

If this terrible market environment we have had now though, even those who were properly diversified have lost. Nothing can protect you from losing when the market goes down as much as it has and that is something you must be aware of and accept. Investing in stocks is risky and you should never invest money that you cannot afford to lose. Shortly though, it will be time to get back in the market and those that have strong stomachs will be the ones who stand to profit.

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This the second part of the series on the discussion of principles of investment in the stock market. This is the continuation of a four part series. We previously discussed the first principle. This involves realizing that the stock market is just another investment vehicle. You must realize that there are other vehicles of investments before you decide to invest in the stock market. In this article the next two principles will be discussed. Please visit my blog if you want to view the entire article.

2.) Investing in the stock market is a roller coaster ride – The advantage in the stock market is that when it goes up, big profits are often made. But when it drops fast, big losses are made also.

The general strategy is to sell when the market is up and to buy when the market goes down. About two years ago when I started investing, the Philippine Stock exchange index was only about 2000 + points. I’ve seen it go up to 2500 points and slide back to the 2000 level in the middle of 2006. It slowly and steadily climbed up to the 3200 level in the 1st quarter of 2007 and dropped in a very short period of time during the last days of the 1st quarter of 2007. It climbed steadily to a high of 3700+ points in July 2007 but slid back below 3000 points a month after. By October 2007 it climbed steadily to its highest at 3800+ points. A month after it dropped to 3600+ points.

The conclusion here is that it is really a roller coaster ride. During those up and down moments of the market, profits and losses are made

3.) Know what type of investor you want to become – There are two types of stock market investors, long term investors and short term investors. This is a very vital question that each serious new investor should ask himself. This will ultimately affect whether you should buy or sell a certain stock.

Take note that If you are a long term investor, this means means that you hold your stocks from 5 to 10 years or more. This actually means that you believe in the company that you are investing in. Since you are putting in your money for a long period of time, you must be certain that such money you put in is considered already as extra.

The advantages of long term investing is that they do not have to worry about the cumbersome day to day technical analysis that has to be monitored. There is no problem if the stock is held for a long period of time because long term investors believe in the fundamentals of the company. On the other hand a short term investor cashes in within a months time to 6 months time. If you are a short term investor, one thing that has to be considered is the monitoring of the day to day activities of the market.

Like the long term investor, you have to make sure that you can afford to put in your money for a long period of time but not as long as the long term investor. The reason for such is because during the short period wherein you plan to invest and pull out your stocks, you may incur losses during that time so you may decide to wait a little longer.

Most of the stocks I hold are considered as medium and long term investments. This is because when I started out I determined to be more of a long term investor. There are stocks that I hold that I consider as short term investments. However majority of the stocks that I hold are considered as medium to long term investments.

Would you want to know more about investment strategies ? Visit the blog of Zigfred Diaz where he writes about several interesting topics such as investments, financial management, business, making financial online and Stock market investing

In this article we will be discussing the last three principles of investment in the stock market. In the past articles we have already discussed the first seven principles. If you want to see the entire article, visit my blog.

8.) Take time to study- Investing in the stock market requires that you should take time to study what it’s all about. You can’t expect to succeed if think that you can just place in your money and hope that it will somehow grow by itself. Studying a lot of books and materials on the stock market will certainly help. When I first started investing I searched for materials in the internet regarding the stock market especially the Philippine stock market. I bought the “investor’s primer” from the Philippine stock exchange. This is a great material for those who are new to the Philippine stock market.

You can also attend seminars on how to trade in the stock market. Several brokerage firms have conducted free seminars for those who are new to the stock market. I attended a 2 day seminar by CITISEC Online last year. CITISEC online is one of the most innovative, well managed and most active brokerage firms in the country. The information that you could learn is astounding. Studying the stock market requires continual study. You should not stop learning.

Read all the materials you can and attend all the seminars you can in order to learn. Don’t be discouraged when there are terms you could not understand. For example just reading this post alone, you would probably raise your hands and tell yourself not to invest anymore since there are some terms you could not understand. You don’t even know what “points” are when I was talking about them in point number 2. You don’t even know what the heck is the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) or what does “Blue Chips” or “Bull run” mean. Worse you don’t even understand what a stock is and how it basically works. But so what? I started out not knowing what some of these things are.

Stuff like these are never taught in school. I only learned them by reading and having a hands on experience in trading. I highly suggest that you watch the movie “Pursuit of Happyness” This is a story about one man’s struggle to learn the stock market. Years later he made millions through stock trading. This movie is based on a true story and is sure to inspire you!

9.)Know what is happening in the world around you – There are several factors that affect the stock market. Be aware of the news that is making headlines in the news paper. For sure this will give you a hint on the direction that the market will take. Never skip the business news. It is here where you will be given an idea as to which stock you should buy. I prefer reading the online version of the Philippine Daily Inquirer in order that I may know where the market is heading.

10.) Now is the best day to start – Some people say that experience is the best teacher. I agree, experience is the best way to learn. It does not matter if you start small at first, the most important thing is that you start immediately. Never procrastinate but don’t rush immediately without first studying the basics. When you have already learned the basics of investments, start buying your first stock. The most rewarding thing in your career as a stock market investor is when you have profited from your first sale.

Would you like to know more about investment strategies ? Visit the blog of Zigfred Diaz where he blogs about several interesting topics such as investments, financial management, business, making financial online and Stock market investing

The options market has caught the fancy of many investors and this is not surprising. The beauty of options is embedded in its very name. You have the options but not the obligation to buy or sell stocks at a given price by a given time. Now for options buyers this option unlike futures limits their maximum liability to the option premium they had paid at the time of buying the options contract.

In’78, Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) began options trading on popular stock indexes such as the S&P 500 Stock Index. The CBOE options trades in multiples of $100 per index point. This is much cheaper than the $250 multiple per index point for the S&P futures contract.

An index option allows the investor to buy the stock index at a set point within the given time period. Let’s take an example. Suppose the S&P 500 Index is at 1100 points. You have a bullish opinion of the market and are of the opinion that the S&P 500 Index will go further up.

There are options Greeks that you need to understand. Time and volatility are two very important factors for an options contract. In case of an index options, what this means is that if any time for the next three months you decide to exercise your call option, you will get $100 for each point the index is above 1150. So you decide to purchase a call option at 1150 for three months for 50 points. In other words you paid an option premium of $5000.

So when an options contract loses value, you only lose the premium that you had paid while buying that contract. In that case you will only lose the premium of $5000 that you had paid to buy the call index option. Now, 1150 is the strike price of the index option. In case the S&P 500 Index does not rise above 1150, you can simply decide to not exercise your call option.

So for you to make a profit with this call option, the S&P 500 Index will have to rise above 1200 point within the next three months otherwise you will lose your premium. Contrast this with S&P futures. Call options are considered to be bullish.

In case the S&P Index had fallen to 1100 point, you would have recouped your options premium. Put options are considered to be bearish. A Put Index Option works in exactly the same way as a Call Index Option except that you make profit when the stock index goes down. If you had bought the put index options instead of the call index option in our example above, every point below the strike price of 1150 would have given you a profit of $100.

Options are highly dependent on the volatility of the market as well as time to expiry. As the options contract nears expiry, its premium starts decreasing. The more the options contract is away from expiry, the higher the premium you will have to pay. But the most important factor is the expected volatility of the market. Now the option premium that you pay is determined by the market and it depends on many factors like interest rates and dividend yield.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Try these cash printing Forex Signals from heaven. Discover a revolutionary Forex Robot System! This and other unique content ” articles are available with free reprint rights.

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Different Types of Investments: As we said last time, owning a stock is like owning part of a company. As the company rises or falls in value, so does the price of it’s stock. A key distinction is that the value of the stock is not only driven by the fundamental value of the company, but by other factors as well. These factors may include overall stock market trends, domestic versus foreign trade issues, business sector climate, etc. Owning a bond, is like owning part of a loan to a company or institution, like the State of Texas. Bonds typically pay a fixed amount of dividend as the loan is repaid. The bond’s value is determined by the interest rate on the underlying loan, and the current interest rates and trends in the marketplace. For example, who would not want own a 10% bond right now, when the money markets or bank passbook savings accounts are paying 3%? Should the institution or company fail or default on the loan, you could lose all or most of your bond’s value. Large companies or institutions usually issue bonds; so the risk is greatly reduced over owning a company’s stock share. A stock mutual fund, is a group of stocks owned by a fund company to achieve certain investment objectives. Likewise a bond mutual fund is a group of bonds held to achieve a certain investment objective. Mutual funds, in both stock and bond types exist in many styles and forms. Fundamentally they are a savvy collection of stocks or bonds assembled and professionally managed for a specific or combination of investment aims. These typically diversify your investments so that no one particular company can sink your entire investment. The converse is that no one single stock can shoot your mutual fund up to a huge return. Typically each mutual fund focuses upon growth, income, value, large, small or mid-capitalization companies, or a combination of these objectives. There are thousands of different funds and dozens of fund families to choose from. There are also companies that rate mutual funds, like Morningstar (www.morningstar.com ). Some mutual funds use a management team to select and prune stocks in the portfolio, some use certain methods, and some follow the leadership of a single fund manager. You should check these out before investing in a particular fund. An oft-overlooked mutual fund consideration is the management fee or what are referred to as 12b-1 fees. Most fees are in the range of 1 to 2%. Be wary of any fund outside that range. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission can help unravel some of these issues for you. A good starting point is their investor section on mutual fund performance, specifically www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/mperform.htm . They also have a fund cost calculator to help take into account the fund management fees. Some funds are no-load mutual funds because they do not pay a sales person any commissions for selling fund shares. These are typically lower in cost, and if you own them for a long time, they can make a difference in the net return on your mutual fund investment. Conversely, there are loaded funds, which charge a commission when you invest in their fund. These vary widely in amounts, so ask for exact details before investing. Some require you to pay the sales commissions; others add that to the fund expenses. Either way it’s a cost to you. The Vanguard Funds (www.vanguard.com ) are often mentioned as a leader in creating no-load, low cost mutual funds. You will find compelling arguments at their website for owning no-load funds. You should check carefully on overall fund performance including fees when evaluating fund choices. Measuring Risk: Most mutual fund and stock tables and resources will list something called the beta or volatility of the items listed. Beta is a measure of the risk of the security listed associated with variation of the security when compared to the overall stock market. If beta is 1, then the stock or mutual fund varies about the same as the general market index. If less than 1, then the security is less volatile than the general index of comparison, with higher than 1 meaning more risk. Measuring Risk-adjusted Returns: There is also parameter called alpha, which is the market-adjusted return of the security. If alpha is positive, then the security earned a higher return than the relative market index of comparison. If alpha is negative, then the security earned less than the market did. Minimizing Overall Risk: Risks in the future may be reduced in the present only through preparation, planning and actions! We discussed preparation and planning for the future in the last Investment Corner, which is a key risk-reduction strategy. Risk reduction for investing is typically achieved through: • Diversification, • Portfolio Allocation, • Pre-determined buying and selling prices, and • Adherence to personal investing rules. Now let’s look at the first part of risk reduction strategy for investing. Diversification: Diversification is spreading out your investments across several areas to reduce risk and capture growth in multiple places. Diversification is typically done at several levels. At the uppermost level, we typically diversify investments across different investment vehicles, such as cash, stocks, bonds and real estate. By doing this, we reduce several important risks. Inflation can reduce the value of cash on hand over time, which is why smart folks do not keep their life savings in cash hidden in a mattress! On the other hand, inflation can drive down the value of fixed dividend investments like bonds as well. Real estate may rise or decline with inflation, depending upon the health of both the local and the greater economies. Fixed hard assets like precious metals funds (gold) will usually rise on inflation or fears of inflation. Other risks include stock market declines, individual company bankruptcies, and so on…. By not “placing all the eggs in one basket” we lower our exposure to risks through diversification. During broad stock market declines, many folks move assets from stocks to cash or bonds. And of course the opposite during bull market runs. Another diversification notion is that of slicing up your investment by specific growth sectors. Within a specific type of investment vehicle, say Mutual Funds, we diversify across the available growth and income sectors. Typically this is large, medium and small companies, as well as high dividend or high growth type stocks. You also could look into diversifying into domestic or international companies such as Asia-Pacific. At the lower levels of investment diversification are multiple choices within a specific growth target. Most advisors strongly recommend diversification within a stock or bond market holding. If you feel for example that the Internet’s growth will continue or expand soon, buying stock in several companies who offer Internet products would help lower risk of any one company not doing too well. Diversification across several stocks is usually done in simple form through equal partitioning. If for example you had $10,000 to invest, how would you do it? You could place 20% of your total investment amount in each of 5 different Internet stocks as in Table I: Table I –Stock Investment Diversification Stock Name Current Price 90 Day High 90 Day Low Amount Invested ~ Shares Company A $25 $28 $20 $2000 80 Company B $40 $40 $20 $2000 50 Company C $60 $60 $20 $2000 33 Company D $300 $300 $198 $2000 7 Company E $8 $9 $3 $2000 250 By looking at the trading ranges across the 90-day history, you can estimate the risks or volatility of each stock. Do the stocks have the same risks? Do they all have the same growth potential? One approach would be to allocate risks equally, as opposed to allocating investment equally. You would be to use the information in the range of stock trading prices to assess risk and re-allocate your investments as this diversification calculator shows below in table II: Table II – Risk Diversification Calculator Risk Diversification Calculator Investment Amount $10,000 Stocks 5 Stock_1 Stock_2 Stock_3 Stock_4 Stock_5 90-day Max $28 $40 $60 $300 $9 90-day Min $20 $20 $20 $198 $3 Cur. Price $25 $40 $60 $300 $8 Trade Rnge 32% 50% 67% 41% 100% Eq. Amt $2,000 $2,000 $2,000 $2,000 $2,000 $$ at Risk $640 $1,000 $1,333 $819 $2,000 Risk Ratio 1 1.5625 2.083 1.28 3.125 Risk-Red. $2,000 $1,280 $960 $1,562 $640 Adj. Inv.$3,104 $1,987 $1,490 $2,425 $993 If you do not want to do the research and monitoring required for several individual stocks or bonds, choosing a mutual fund may be the wisest choice, with a smaller but usually acceptable return on your investment. The key question you need to answer is not “Should I diversify?”, but rather “How will I diversify my investments?” About YOU The primary things you should know about yourself before selecting among the different types of investments are: I. How much of my time is available to monitor/manage my investments? II. How often do I want to change my investment choices? III. Do I want help and advice from investment professionals? These are important questions you need to answer for yourself. All investment requires some time commitments to monitor and manage. When stock markets or life situations begin to change, you may need to change your investment choices. If your experience level does not warrant it, getting professional help may increase both your results and comfort level. I. Time to manage your investments: Your time is worth money! At least if you can put it to good use in managing your investments… but do not become obsessive with it. Investments take time to grow. Every investment portfolio must be watched and pruned from time to time. You wouldn’t want to look back after 5 years and find that right after your investment choices were made, that the business climate changed and those choices had become poor performers. Two typical uses of your time applied to investment managing: • Weekly, monthly or quarterly checking for: o Stock movements o Business climate changes, o Company news • Annual or quarterly allocation changes o Re-planning or shifting your plans o Pruning and re-diversification o Reallocation of investment amounts Weekly or Monthly Check-ups If you buy individual stocks and bonds, these will need monitoring more often than if you had purchased mutual funds. However, stock and bond funds need attention too, just less often. Some questions you should answer for yourself are: • Can I afford time each week to check investments (Friday night or Saturday morning)? This is important for individual stocks and bonds. •Am I disciplined enough to check my investments periodically? This is critically important, as the business environments are constantly changing. • Can I put this on a monthly calendar and stick with it? Monthly checkups are important no matter what your investments may be… • If I get an automatic e-mail sent will I read it? Many investment houses will do this for all accounts above a certain size limit. You can pool your investments under one roof, usually with savings in cost plus perks for research, quotes, e-mails, etc. Both Fidelity and Schwab are good examples of these services once you reach certain size limits. Quarterly or Annual Check-ups If you are only into mutual funds as investment vehicles, then you need check them only quarterly or annually. After all you are giving up some small amount of income to pay for professionally managed investments, right? You may want to keep up with monthly or weekly news on the investment fund management team, however, as management team shakeups there could cost you. The key thing is disciplined reviews and setting a schedule that you can stick to. Ignorance in this case can be dangerous, so do it together with your spouse or a family member that you trust. As you get good at it, the time required to do these should drop from several hours to perhaps an hour to review all your investments. If you have been keeping tabs on things, it can be shorter still. “Even if you’re on the right track you will get run over if you just sit there!” – Will Rogers. II. Changing your investment choices: The challenge when deciding to change investments is often the emotional content. “We had a return of say 7%, when the broader markets got only 5%”. How did the overall group for your investment vehicle do? Morningstar provides good index comparisons, as do other groups. If your choices did not perform above the class average for 1 or 2 quarters in a row, it’s probably a good idea to consider other alternatives. That may require all the same diligence of researching an investment as you did originally. If you are seriously concerned and need to act quickly, you can always sell and put the proceeds into cash or a money market for a short time while you do the research. III. Getting help from professionals: I have often found the larger funds and investment houses to be a plethora of information via the Internet. They have how-to guides, acronym explanations, and in general some great advice. If however, these seem to complex for you, or you would prefer to seek out a single person with whom to deal, then find a Certified Financial Planner. The best ones should be able to provide references, a track record, and a good deal of services all at your doorstep. These services do not come free and can be in the thousands of dollars to set up your initial plans. Be certain to check 3 to 5 references and interview several planners before deciding. Determine what you pay exactly and what you get exactly after your selection is made. Be certain that they are certified, a place to begin is: http://www.cfp.net/ . Summary We’ve covered a lot of ground in this topic of stock and bonds versus mutual funds. Primarily remember that individual stocks require more monitoring, but can yield higher returns. The same applies somewhat to individual bonds. Newer investors to these may want to start with mutual funds, Money magazine has an annual issue every February that is very helpful and is usually available at public libraries. Finally remember to lower your risks by diversification, no matter what investments you make. Ask yourself the questions we reviewed about your time commitments and discipline for monitoring as part of the investing process. And of course, read-up on the Internet and some of the books listed below. Next time – Portfolio Allocation, Pre-determined trigger points, and Personal investing rules … Self-Study: Some great resources to continue your journey are located on the web. Try visiting these sites: •http://www.greatcompaniesgreatcharts.com/archives/001864.html •http://www.rightline.net/home/gate_rm.html •http://www.investorguide.com/stockfaq.html •http://www.pascoresearch.com/int_alpha.asp •http://www.stockbook.com/Evaluator/ Or read these well known authors and books: • William J. O’Neil: How to Make Money in Stocks • John Boik: Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time • John C. Bogle: Common Sense on Mutual Funds : New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor Additional info from this author may be found at http://www.sbtionline.com

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