Stock Market Basics

Useful Stock Tips

Stock tips are a dime-a-dozen, the problem is where can you get some that will actually work out for you and your portfolio. No matter where you go on the internet, TV or the radio, you’ll see or hear about someone else who has the right investment tips for you. Unfortunately there’s more misinformation out there than there is solid reliable leads. Here are just a few stock tips for you that will help your future.

Never take the word of someone else as an investment tip. If someone is giving you the “inside scoop” on a particular stock, you need to make sure for yourself. There are laws against inside trading, so for an average trader or investor to have any good information, it’s highly unlikely.

Never buy all of your shares at once, you should buy into any position incrementally. Stocks rise and fall all the time so to lower your cost basis. Most likely you’ll never be able to buy at the bottom so you need to be prepared to buy more when the price falls. Typically I wait for an 8% pull back from the stock’s recent high or 5%-8% drop from my cost basis before buying any more shares.

If you’re still looking for good solid reliable information, but not sure where to go. I use Yahoo Finance as well as The Street.com. Jim Cramer has been a never-ending resource of good stock leads for me. Not only is he entertaining, but very well aware of the stock market. I listen to his “suggestions” on what stocks or sectors are looking good, but I still don’t buy into the company because he thinks it’s good. I do my own research into the company to see what he sees or doesn’t see.

Diversifying your portfolio is very important if you want to protect your you profits or minimize your losses. If you go ahead and invest of your money into one company or sector, you could lose a big portion of you portfolio in the process. As I said before, all stocks rise and fall and that also goes for complete sector at times. That is why you need to invest across the board (equities, bonds, precious metal and other commodities). Divide your investments into several different vehicles, typically no more than 20% into any one sector or stock.

Look for companies that offer dividends, larger companies are the ones to look towards. Dividends are a return of the company’s profits that are distributed among the share holders. Let’s say the company’s stock is $20 per share and they have a 10% annual dividend. Each year you would receive $2 per share (paid quarterly) for just own the stock no matter what the stock price is. So even if the company loses 5% value on the stock price, you’ve still made 5% on your investment.

In later posts, I will offer other stock tips that will also help increase you gains.

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Need Some Stock Trading Information?

Doesn’t everyone need a little stock trading information? I know even after being involved in the stock market for so many years, I’m still looking on a regular basis for new information on how to increase my portfolio. No matter what it may be, stock tips, a new IPO, or just some other ways to diversify my portfolio during these unstable times. I’m going to share a few pointers for you to help you with your portfolio.

Where to go to get good information? Well that could be anywhere. I’ve learned to take information from all sources to assist me and my trades. The one thing to keep in mind is to make sure you follow up on the information to assure that it’s correct and valid. There are more mistakes made in the stock market than there are not. Traders and Investors make mistakes everyday and that’s just the way it is. To help limit your mistakes, you need to do your own research and due diligence before you invest.

Getting stock tips are not the only information you should be looking at when it comes to buying and selling stocks or investing your hard earned money. What about the condition of the economy? Is it stable? See what’s going on in Washington. If the U.S. Treasury is printing out money like it’s going out of style, then realize that the dollar isn’t worth what it was before the increase of currency. Unemployment plays a major role in the condition of the markets and when you see the unemployment rate climbing, then it’s going to push the overall markets down.

What about the new tax laws (or the end of old tax breaks) that will effect your gains? In 2011, the Bush tax credits will come to an end and traders as well as investors are going to pay more in capitol gains taxes. The will be increases across the board when it comes to investment taxes. There will also be increases on dividends.

Have you given any thought about investing in precious metals? Gold, silver and platinum are a good way to hedge against the falling dollar. No matter what happens to our currency (or any other), gold will always be the investment of choice when the economy is getting worse. Gold has been a great investment during those times of trouble.

Just remember that looking for stock market information, you need to look further than just a bunch of stock tips.

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Stock Market Trading Strategy

If you’re going to trade stocks, you’ll need to find a stock market trading strategy that will work for you. Not all strategies work for each trader or investor. So to know which one is good for you and your financial future, you’ll need to try different ones. Depending on the condition of the economy and the overall markets, you will most likely use a combination of a few.

One strategy that should be followed is never investing all of you capitol into one or two companies. The typical amount of money invested in a company should not surpass 20% of your total portfolio. Keeping your portfolio diversified will help prevent major losses during any particular time. Invest your money within several different sectors (ie: commodities, equities, precious metals and bonds).

The buy and hold method is a strategy that doesn’t require too much work. Yes of course you’ll still have to do your research into the fundamentals of the company. What I don’t like about this type of investing is the fact that you are not paying attention to what is really go on with your investment. If you what to make the most out your investments, you need to be active and watch what the company as well as the overall market is doing

Shorting stocks is one of the more popular ways to play the market. The idea is that a trader believes that a certain company’s stock price is going to go down in price. A treader will go ahead and borrow share from an investor. Within a certain period of time, the trader will have to replace the shares he borrowed. The trader in turn sell the shares at the current price. When the price per share has dropped, the trader will buy shares to return to the investor. This type of trading is not for those who are just starting out in the stock market. You’ll need to get a good understanding of the stock market before you start shorting stocks.

After you’ve been trading stocks for some time you might want to look at day trading. Be careful though, many average investors have lost more money than they’ve made doing day trading. You need to be quick and alert to what is going on in the markets on a daily basis. Many day trader will trade penny stocks because of the higher percentages that can be made in a day, but you can lose just as much just as quick.

Whichever stock market trading strategy you decide to use, make sure you do your due diligence and follow the news on the companies you’re invested in.

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