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Friday, December 19, 2008
"You Better Learn To Make Your Own Investment Decisions - And Not Let Brokers Make Choices For You!"
This is a basic fact that we have been teaching for many years now. Most investors either blindly throw money at the market or let a broker do it for them. With just a little time and effort, you can learn to direct your investment accounts and retirement funds on your own.
In this article we want to point you in the right direction, and give you a few crisis tips too.
An excellent alternative to mutual funds are the fairly new Exchange Traded Fund (ETFs) vehicles.
There are now ETFs that cover every sector of the market. ETFs offer many advantages over mutual funds. Here are just a few:
* Tax Advantages - ETFs seldom sell any equity positions or create taxable profit midstream. Mutual funds do this often. With mutuals, you could owe tax on part of the funds holdings (the winning stocks they sell at a profit) even though you lost money over all. A double whammy!
* Less Management Costs - Even No-Load Mutual funds have become top heavy with many "Professionals" employed and eating up GIANT parts of the profit. You might think of ETFs as Electronically Traded Funds. MUCH less management costs (in some cases no management costs) and the ease of trading them.
* Diversification - Let's face it, this is what was attractive about mutual funds to begin with. Instead of picking out stocks on your own, you had "Professionals" (with the meltdown we can see that most of them are not too professional) putting together a diversified portfolio for you. With ETFs, you can get the same if not better diversification without the hassle of dealing with a mutual fund giant eating up all the profits.
* Easy To Trade - With true mutual funds you can only get out of a position After the market closes. You can trade ETFs just like a stock in your discount brokerage account. If you were locked into a fund when the market was in crash mode, it was not a good feeling. Had that been an ETF you could have bailed at any time (before the DOW closed down 777 points!)
We could go on with the benefits of ETFs, but you should be starting to see the picture. An even better way to call your own shots with your investments is to trade the index (or indices for plural). We are referring to the mini Dow, the S&P eMini, the mini Russell and others. (there are also ETFs the mirror the indices such as "SPY" for the S&P 500 index)
While we focus on mini-Dow trading, any index will do. With Index trading, you just follow the overall market up, or ride it down with a short position.
While we are on the subject of shorts it would be good to mention that while most US mutual funds are not allowed to short a stock, you can actually buy ETFs that do good with the market is dropping. One such fund is ticker "DUG" which does well when the Oil price is dropping (a tip we gave our readers after the big run up in oil to over $140 per barrel - at the time of this writing it has been dropping since).
You can find other ETFs that do well in falling markets. So, you don't have to short the market (statistics show that 80% or more of investors never do short the market - but are always looking for a upward bull run), you just buy the right ETF and let it do the shorting for you.
By now, many investors see the importance of having a strategy for making money when the market is dropping. Most investors have yet to develop this strategy. We prefer to do it with simple index trades. Whatever you do, find a way to make your own moves and don't depend on someone else to invest your money for you. No one will take care of your money like you will!
*********************************************************** NOTE: To learn more about ETF's visit Yahoo Finance and look under the Investing Tab at the top of the page - then select ETFs www.finance.yahoo.com ***********************************************************
About the Author:
This comes as a boon to some seniors as financial or credit restraints prohibit them from purchasing their next home. Now they can do so and are not obligated to make monthly payments the mortgage company.
In recent years, due to general need and national marketing by major financial institutions such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America the reverse mortgage has come into its own. Its major benefit to seniors is to allow the senior borrower to convert the equity in the home into cash to be used at the borrower's discretion.
Only at the end of mortgage, when the home is finally sold, is the borrower or the borrower's heirs obligated to repay the reverse mortgage company the original loan amount plus accumulated interest.
These are the steps to the purchase program:
1. Contact a reputable FHA approved reverse mortgage company. The borrower will be advised as to how much money will be necessary for the down payment. Additionally, closing costsm, purchase price limits and various loan programs will be discussed.
2. Go home shopping and write contract based upon guidelines in the approval letter.
3. At closing the borrower will be required to make a down payment between 25% to 55% of the value of the home.
4. At closing, the reverse mortgage company funds the remaining balance and closing costs if desired by the borrower.
5. Borrower takes ownership of the home.
6. The obligations to the mortgage are as follows: live in the home as primary residence, keep the property in reasonably habitable condition (per FHA guidelines) and pay property taxes and home owners insurance.
In the near future the typical reverse mortgage candidate will continue to be one in need of funds to relieve financial stress. The reverse mortgage purchase, however, will cater to a certain profile and offer a viable financial tool.
About the Author:
If your day trading strategy is consistently successful on your demo account, then what is the difference when you go live? Mindset! It all boils down to that in your trading (in my opinion this is true of life in general, but you see the results immediately in trading - especially day trading).
I really hate to call what we do as index traders, day trading. That is only because of the negative connotation the term brings to mind. Stock trading is what most people think of when they hear the term day trading. Regardless of what type of trader you are, you will have to come to terms with the fact that each trade depends on YOU. What frame of mind you are in at the time you place those trades will have a HUGE impact on how many of those trades are successful.
Most traders think that it all boils down to the technical and/or fundamental analysis of the markets. This is where they spend all their time and money, but they never get around to working on the mindset. They feel the real key is in becoming a great market analyst. However, the world is FULL of good market analyst (just watch CNBC or Bloomberg for examples) who are not able to trade. They too didn't have the right mindset and had to take jobs instead.
So what is the right mindset for a trader (or day trader)? That would take volumes of articles to answer. A good start is to read Mark Douglas' book "Trading In The Zone". Don't end your mindset training there, but it is a good start.
Another good exercise is to keep a traders diary. Write down what you were thinking and how you were feeling as you made your trade. Do this immediately after the trade so that you can be as accurate as possible. Do this on winning trades and on unsuccessful ones too. You should notice that on your winning trades everything felt easy and sure. Once you notice the difference, don't enter trades unless your mind is in the correct frame!
It's amazing how the human mind is able to pick up on the overall mood of the market. Douglas calls this being "In The Zone". We have always referred to it as getting a "Market Feel". Some traders have felt that it was impossible, while others gain that market feel advantage rather quickly. The difference is always in the mindset of the person. Some people are naturally much more in tune with their emotions, and they don't let them effect their mind while trading.
Many traders reason that if they can just add the right tools, they will become successful traders. They work on finding the lastest greatest chart, software or gadget that will take them to the next level. After working with hundreds of traders over the years, I can tell you for certain that you will NEVER be successful unless you have the right mindset. Work on that and you will be MILES ahead of ones who are always adding more tools!
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