Did you run out to buy that duct tape yet? Don’t forget the plastic sheeting, bottles of water, canned food and a couple of books to read. What are you waiting for? I know – things to get better so you can resume your normal life style.

While you were waiting did you happen to notice what is happening to your investment portfolio, your retirement account? For the past 3 years it has needed duct tape and plastic sheeting to protect it from the poison gas coming from Wall Street. The gases, otherwise known as hot air, are the news flashes the brokers have been telling you. Surely you have heard – the market always comes back, hang in there, you are in for the long term and other such noxious odors have paralyzed investors to keep them from selling. There was one breath of fresh air you have not heard from your broker and is the one bit of pure oxygen that could have saved your account. Listen carefully and you might hear – SELL.

It is a word hardly ever uttered on Wall Street, but one which you should add to your vocabulary if you ever plan to make a profit in the stock market. Brokerage companies don’t want you to sell because they don’t make any money with your account if you are in a money market fund. When your stock or mutual fund started down did you get a call? Even when a stock loses 80% or more of its value they then change their recommendation from Buy to Hold – and you know where you are holding it.

Any fool can buy, but it takes a wise man to sell. Bernard Baruch, one of the most famous traders of all time, said, I always sell too soon. He was enjoying himself reading a paper on a park bench while stocks were crashing in 1929. The DOW lost 89% of it value. We have not been that unfortunate – yet. However, the NASDAQ has dropped almost 80%. If you owned any of those tech stocks and did not have a trailing stop-loss order you have given back all your profit.

It takes more than duct tape to protect yourself from death and destruction and that goes double for the information from brokers and financial planners. If they have kept you in the market these past 3 years with the Buy and Hold mantra don’t you think it is time you plastered some duct tape on them so you can escape that bad gaseous advice? You might not think yourself to be knowledgeable about investing, but surely you would have had enough sense to sell when a stock or fund loses 20, 30, 40% or more of its value. At 50% loss it means it has to go up 100% to get to even. You don’t want to get even; you want to get rich.

Before that poison gas from Wall Street completely kills your account get some fresh air – SELL.

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

al@mutualfundstrategy.com; 1-888-345-7870

Why? Because I am going to shatter your conventional wisdom as I have many times in previous columns about the lies that Wall Street continues to tell you. This time we are going to go deeper into the economy to unearth the truth about lies the politicians are telling you.

Let?s understand from the beginning that few politicians understand basic economics. Just because they work in Washington does not make them experts about the laws that have been passed or those they vote upon. Politicians do not create jobs or wealth. Don?t feel you are the only one who can?t make head or tail out of government statistics.

The most misunderstood debate today is about OUTSOURCING. ? sending our jobs overseas. From March of 2001 to January of 2004 manufacturing jobs declined by 2.6 million ? a loss of 17%. BUT during that same period there was an increase of 17% in worker productivity and only a loss of 3% in jobs. More goods produced with fewer workers. Those jobs did not go overseas ? only 300,000 did. The majority were lost to better machines and will never reappear. If employment efficiency had not increased we would have even higher unemployment today.

That is why unions hate new machines. Loss of jobs. If a company wants to remain competitive they must be able to produce at the least cost or you won?t have a job. Do you think you would have your job today if your company continued to operate they way they did 5 years ago? Employment continues to increase every quarter even though we lose about 7% or 8% of U.S. jobs every quarter.

Has anyone told you that thousands of foreign companies have opened plants in the U.S? We don?t hear about the small ones only the BMWs, Toyotas and Hondas. According to Peter Drucker, management consultant, we import more jobs than we export. Jobs increased by millions after NAFTA and because of NAFTA.

Will these layoffs continue? It depends upon your industry sector. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there were more mass layoffs (50 or more) during this January than any previous January in history – 239,454 ? 1/3rd of those are in manufacturing.

The U.S. is still not producing enough new jobs to keep us even; that requires more than 150,000 new hires each month.

Political demagoguery blames everyone and anyone who is in office. Whoever the president is is the one to blame ? rightly or wrongly. Every industrialized country today has a problem with excess production capacity and is doing weird things to keep their workers on the production line. We are not the only ones with job losses. That does not make the guy in the unemployment line feel any better.

It is our productivity edge that has kept as many jobs as we have now or it would be a lot worse. Free trade is the answer and not tariffs on other country?s goods. As I have written before tariffs are hidden taxes on the consumer and benefit no one. They have NEVER worked in all of history and make more problems than they solve.

Don?t listen to the political rhetoric. You may not like what I have said, but maybe it will start you thinking.

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.

1-888-345-7870; al@mutualfundstrategy.com

If you have been dealing with mutual funds for any length of time, you undoubtedly have faced the question of which is better: Load Funds or No Load Funds. If you are new to investing, load simply refers to the commission paid to the broker selling the fund. No load means there is no commission on the purchase or sale.

Most discussions in the past have centered exclusively on performance comparisons. Even rating services like Morningstar have occasionally chimed in with their opinion. However, rather than focusing only on performance, there are some other issues I consider far more important:

There is a very large amount of stock market research conducted by stock market analysts, traders and other participants in the Australian stock market.

All of the major stock broking firms conduct research as a major part of their operations and provide advice to their clients.

In recent times, there has been a bigger push towards stock market research being conducted by private individuals. This has been made possible through the vast amount of information on the Australian stock market, now available on-line to anyone who subscribes.

There is also a number of stock market research tools available to the public, such as charting software, training and a number of different research techniques, books and service providers.

The two main types of stock market research are:

* Fundamental Analysis

* Technical Analysis

Fundamental analysis involves the use of financial and economic data to evaluate the liquidity, solvency, efficiency and, most importantly, the earnings potential of a given company.

The fundamental analysis kitbag of tools includes the corporate annual report and its financial statements, legal comments by corporate officers, industry statistics and market trends, as well as macro-economic data.

With this information in hand, the fundamental analyst’s goal is to ferret out undervalued stocks, and then buy them in anticipation of the appreciation that should occur, when this value comes to light.

Technical Analysis – A stock market researcher using technical analysis doesn’t look at income statements, balance sheets, company policies, or anything fundamental about the company.

Technical analysis looks at the actual history of trading and the price of a security or index. This is usually done in the form of a chart. The financial product can be a stock, future or an index.

The technical analyst believes that stock market research will show that securities move in trends. And these trends continue until something happens to change the trend. With trends, patterns and levels are detectable. Sometimes the analysis is wrong. However, in the overwhelming majority of instances, it’s extremely accurate.

Technical analysis is stock market research of price action over time and charts are what an analyst works with as their primary record of price action. Behind every price is an investor who had a reason for buying or selling. Traders generally act alone but often their weight of numbers has a direct influence on short term prices.

Researching the stock market with charts and technical indicators is the study of group behaviour and sentiment. It is done with science and art. We use science because we use mathematical formula, computers and statistics

Charting is the study of price action of a market itself as opposed to the study of the goods in which a market deals. Technical analysis is simply a different means of using stock market research to arrive at the same investment objectives. These goals may be summarised as:

* To gauge the relative strength of buyers and sellers;

* To identify preferred times to buy and sell;

* To develop a theory as to how far price may reasonably be expected to move; and

* To formulate a risk strategy.

Technical Analysis Stock Market Research Principles

The analyst attempts to use market history for its predictive value to control positions and to anticipate probable price movements in the future.

Three basic premises serve as the basis of analysis:

* First, market prices follow trends. That is, the flow of prices is not merely a series of random events.

* Secondly, as a random group, participants in the marketplace have responded one specific way at a given price.

* The third principle also relates to the past. History does repeat itself, and it does so often.

Jon Lynch is Marketing Manager of the Capital Intelligence Group of companies, including HomeTrader – Australia?s leading stock market research education centres. We teach you how to create wealth through the share/stock market with great research skills and a customised trading plan or system that is right for you, your situation and your goals. Visit our website and register for your free introductory DVD Learn To Make Money On The Stock Market at http://www.learnshares.com.au

Ever have one of those sample boxes of candy? Each little piece is beautifully wrapped in colorful foil or decorated with an interesting design. Taste just one. So good! One more. And another. Before you know it the box is empty. Nothing left.

This upmove in the stock market is very tempting – and could leave you with a tummy ache.

All the market experts are telling you that the bull market is back and to get your buying clothes on. Open your wallet and get in before it is too late. Mr. Schwab says it is dangerous to be out of the market. There are great values out there. These stocks are so low they can’t go any lower. And there is a Santa Claus and an Easter Bunny.

There is one position I do advocate, but most broker and financial planners won’t like it. It is called CASH. No broker believes cash is a position. They say you must always be invested. It seems they have forgotten that investing means making money and another important part of investing means not losing money.

For the last month we have seen the market go up and some of you have seen some of your money come back. Not too much, but some. You want desperately to believe the bull market is back and your winnings will be restored. I sure hope so. Just suppose this is what is called a rally in a bear market and that it will not last. Then what? You don’t want to see your investments slip away again, do you? You don’t know if it is a good idea to sell now or wait. Your broker won’t be any help.

There is a solution. Stay with your stocks and mutual funds as long as they are going up, but sell them if they go down. How? Every Friday after the close you get the settlement prices of your various issues and you then call your broker Monday morning to put in a Good Til Cancelled Stop-Loss Order that is approximately 10% below that closing price. As long as the stock is going up you follow this procedure every week and eventually you will be stopped out. Never move your stop down. You no longer have to guess if this is the highest price that your stock will reach. The stock itself will tell you.

Now you have cash and, if you want to, you can buy a better stock or mutual fund that is going up..

When you pick out a new chocolate (stock) do it carefully and don’t try to eat the whole box at once. Sometimes it is best to put the box (your cash) away so you can come back to it another day.

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

al@mutualfundstrategy.com; 1-888-345-7870

Generally, any stock that trades outside the major stock exchanges and also that is taken as depreciatory is known as ?penny stock?. These major stock exchanges include NYSE, AMEX or NASDAQ. Sometimes the terms penny stocks, small caps, and nano caps are brought into use without interchangeably. But the rank of the penny stock is determined by share price, not by market capitalization or listing service.

Market caps of penny stock are often less than $500 million. Those that trade on low volumes over the counter take it as highly speculative. It is believed that it may prove hard task to sell penny stocks, once they are purchased. This is because of the fact that it may sometimes be difficult to locate quotations for particular penny stocks. Investors in penny stocks are expected to remain ready to face the possibility of losing their entire investment.

Nevertheless, the penny stock is able to lure new investors with its low price and its possibility to receive speedy profits that may reach up to one hundred percent in certain cases. In a very similar way, there always remains the possibility of severe drops that may even reach over 90 percent in the long term. Penny stocks are considered as investments, in which risk factor is highly involved. Consequently, investors must be aware of the various risks that are involved, such as limited liquidity, lack of financial reporting and fraud.

If liquidity is given prominence, then penny stock has very fewer shareholders. It is less ?liquid?; this term means that in comparison to a larger company, it will buy and sell less shares. Any unnoticed change in the demand or supply can result in the unpredictability of stock price. Consequently, it may lead to the rapid rise in the stock price or bring it down to the earth. Therefore, due to the lack of liquidity and volatility, penny stock is more likely to be exploited by management, market markers or third parties. It becomes very tough to sell a stock specifically on a day, when there are no buyers because of the lack of liquidity.

Another reason is that to remain on the OTCBB, the listing requirements are very minimal as compared to NASDAQ or NYSE. Generally, what happens is that those companies which could not make on bigger exchanges or have been de-listed, here they have an opportunity to get re-listed on the OTCBB or Pink Sheets.

Moreover, if compared to major markets, stocks trading on the Pink Sheets hardly have any regulatory or listing requirements. There is nothing to provide protection to shareholders such as accounting standards, change in notification of ownership of shares and so on.

All these features make it easy to use penny stock in any deceitful scheme. However this does not mean that all stocks that are listed on the OTCBB are deceitful. A number of stocks on the OTCBB have fair-trading.

Article by Stefan Rockhaus. To read further detailed information on penny stocks visit Penny Stocks Investor – You may reprint this article as long as no changes are made, and this resource box is left intact. More resources at Mega Info Spot

Understanding how the economy works isn?t the only fundamental analysis tools that are important while trading stocks. You also need to read financial statements to understand the financial status of the companies you want to buy. A Company?s income statements on the other hand give you a look at the results of the most recent period and provide a basis for comparison with prior years and periods. You can use these statements to look at whether revenues are growing, and if they are by what percentage. You also can see how much profit the company is keeping from the revenue it generates.

The cash flow statement shows you how efficiently a company is using its cash and whether it?s having problems meeting its current obligations. The balance sheet gives you a snapshot of a company?s assets and liabilities and stockholders equity.

Buying a share of stock can be as easy as calling a broker and saying that you want to buy such and such a stock, but you can place an order in a number of other ways that give you better protections. Most orders are placed as day orders, but you can choose to place them as good till cancelled orders. The four basic type of orders you can place are market orders, limit orders, stop orders and stop-limit orders.

Understanding the language and using it to protect your assets and the way you trade is critical to your success as a trader. It is necessary to know the nuances of placing orders so you don?t make a potentially costly mistake by placing a market order when you intended to place a limit order. Putting a stop-limit order in place may sound like the safest way to go; however, doing so may not help you in a rapidly changing market.

Trade Stocks provides detailed information on Trade Stocks, Online Stock Trades, Wise Stock Trades, How to Trade Stocks and more. Trade Stocks is affiliated with Penny Stock Research.

Let?s first define insanity. It is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. And that is what most investors do and they can?t understand why they are not able to make money in the stock market.

Do these investors need a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a talk with their minister or none of the above? I know, you think they should talk to their broker or their financial planner. Believe me, folks, these two are part of the problem and not the solution.

If they knew the answers everyone would be rich. Let?s go back and look at who taught these mavens how to invest. The Wall Street brokerage houses taught them or rather did not teach them the most basic rules of the game. Why? Because brokerage houses want you to buy (for commission) and they do not want you to sell even though that means another commission. There are two basic reasons they don?t want you to sell and it has nothing to do with that one selling commission.

If you sell you might take your money out of your account and that is one of the things the Maul Street crowd never wants to happen, but the most important is they make money when your account is invested. It is not a lot, but it in a nice steady 1% or more. You are their unspoken collateral in the worldwide money shuffle.

Any broker who suggests a customer sell is usually chastised in some way or just plain fired. A broker who allows large sums of cash to accumulate in customers accounts is told to invest (?) it or hit the road. The house (that?s the brokerage firm) does not want to see customers with big cash balances although there are times when that is exactly where they should be. Remember 2000 to 2003? During that three year period wouldn?t it have been better for your account to have had no stock or fund positions?

Brokers or financial planners are not taught simple methods to protect customer funds. And I mean simple. Too many folks during the 2000 debacle lost 40% of their money and more. There was absolutely no reason for this if basic money management techniques were instituted.

Customers could be made aware that they should not give back more than 10%, maybe as much as 15%, of their portfolio value when the stock market goes in the tank. That occurs on a regular basis. Declines in equities of 20% to 40% happen regularly and no customer should be mesmerized into holding during those periods.

During the 2000-2001 period there were less than 3% recommendations by brokers to sell and those sells were after the stock had crashed about 80% to 90%. It is too late then. Your money is gone. If brokers and financial planners had been taught to advise people to place 10% stop loss orders their retirement accounts they would be much fatter today.

Stop doing the same thing over and over again because of bad advice. Learn to sell when your position goes negative. Don?t be one of the insane.

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

al@mutualfundstrategy.com; 1-888-345-7870

THERE?S SOMETHING TO BE SAID FOR standing firm in the face of opposition. Interestingly, most of the best stock decisions have come at times when the mainstream is saying precisely the opposite. Predictions like these can be valuable if one is to build an investment strategy around their view of the world.

The appraisal by the minority over the past few years that inflation would return (while most of Wall Street was bemoaning DEflation) has proven to be true. As we?ve pointed out in the past, it can be readily observed in oil prices, real estate, and dozens of other commodities where no source of cheap imports is available.

As Steve Forbes remarks in Forbes Magazine?s May 23rd commentary, ?oil became expensive because the Fed has been printing too much money.? In an earlier article, I mentioned that what we?re really seeing is just the effect of a falling dollar, rather than rising oil prices.

Some might wonder how we think of the dollar as a falling currency, because it certainly seems to have been rising against the Euro in recent months. Still, it may be more accurate to think of the Euro as simply falling faster than the dollar. Indeed, now that both France and the Netherlands have voted to reject the EU Constitution, the entire structure of the EU may be called into question, and while we don?t foresee the collapse of that institution, we do believe it will weigh on the currency for a time. As we have said in the past, the attempt at unification is itself no more than a grand experiment, and the currency that accompanies it can be viewed as no more stable than the underlying structure.

Still, none of this makes us view the dollar as necessarily strong. In a world where the Indian Rupee, Romanian Leu, South African Rand and other historically undependable currencies are rising steadily against the dollar, its silly to think of our currency as anything but weak.

In real estate, many suggested in the past that a real estate bubble may be developing, but also that much of the rise in prices may be coming from inflation as well. Indeed, if any price collapse does occur, it may be some time from now, and some regions may hardly feel it. The gap in price between the large California cities and mainstream America is reportedly wider than ever before. It’s best to use caution in the red-hot markets in Cali, NY, and Mass., but the rest of the country seems fairly priced. One should not be too worried about prices that have risen no faster than the price of oil. While others have predicted (endlessly, it seems) that homebuilders ought to fall apart any day now, a few have continued to recommend some of the best ones and seen sizeable profits result for our readers.

Recently, a few financial managers have decided to take a position on Harley-Davidson stock that differs from most of the investment community. While Harley?s quarterly earnings were indeed below expectations, the minority rejects the investment community?s hysterical suggestion that this is the end for the motorcycle maker. In fact, they firmly believe this will turn out to be a small blip in the longterm upward trend.

It is decisions like these that set these advisors apart from much of the investment world. It seems that many of the writers in ?investment-land? are content to parrot the projections of corporate lackeys and government bureaucrats, without so much as a scintilla of independent analysis. Alas, as the demand for investment advice has grown, it may have outstripped the supply of quality analysts, both in news reporting and in the investment industry itself. This would explain the quantity of drivel coming from multiple sources these days.

We can occasionally find kindred spirits in the media: while it is invariably best to disagree with Business Week, Fortune, and most of the TV business news-trivia reporters, a few ? like Forbes, Barron?s, or TV?s Louis Rukeyser or Paul Kangas ? still provide thoughtful commentary from time to time. Overall, though, the U.S seems to have reached a distressing time in investment reporting.

Most reporters and publications are content to simply repeat what they?ve heard, play on emotions, and call it complete coverage. I suppose it makes sense that eventually coverage of business news would descend to the same level as broader news coverage.

In times like these, it is important to select a few good sources of quality information. It is just as important to wean ourselves from poor information sources. If your newspaper, magazine, or broadcast station has ceased offering thoughtful analysis, stop wasting your valuable time. Utilize your time more productively on the few meaningful sources of information.

In light of so much fluff in the media, it is increasingly important to stand apart from the mainstream. You need information resources that are willing to do so, as well. Contrarians (investors who have bucked the trends) have fared well in the investing quandary. Today, contrarians? biggest advantage is that they are willing to stand out and avoid falling for the latest hype. Mindless followers, in an age of meaningless information, will eventually get slaughtered by following mediocre advice once too often. Don?t tolerate lackluster information resources. Seek out quality.

To send comments or to learn more about Scott Pearson’s Investment Advisor services, visit http://www.valueview.net

Scott Pearson is an investment advisor, writer, editor, instructor, and business leader. As President and Chief Investment Officer of Value View Financial Corp., he offers investment management services to a wide variety of clients. His own newsletter, Investor’s Value View, is distributed worldwide and provides general money tips and investment advice to readers both internationally, and in the U.S.

In today’s world who doesn’t want to be rich? There are several ways of making some quick dough; one is to queue up for one of those reality shows on television and the other more viable one is to put your money in some smart investment.

If you explore the investment market, you will find several options that can make your money grow for example savings accounts, trusts and property market.

But none of them is as lucrative as the share market. Now if you are wondering as to why you must invest into stocks, here are a few reasons:

. No other investment promises such big and quick returns as the stock market.
. Shares are liquid assets, which can be easily sold or bought, and you can even sell a portion of it. Moreover, this entire process of selling and buying shares doesn’t take more than a few seconds especially with online stockbrokers available.
. You can easily determine the worth of a particular share investment by checking the share market results in the daily newspaper. The entire activity is not half as hassle prone as getting your property valued.
. In most cases shareholders also enjoy great tax benefits on the profits they earn.

Now that you are convinced about the worthiness of a share investment, you must now strategise as to how you will go about investing your hard earned money into the stock market. With so many online stockbrokers now available, you no longer have to queue up outside a stockbroker’s office. You can sell or buy shares online also.

As an online stock trader, your homework is to first analyse your own savings and risk tolerance and then study the stock market for a potential investment. A good online stock dealing strategy is always simple and practical. With consistent study, you will be able to gauge the buying and selling signals with ease and reap good benefits out of your share dealings.

One smart way of dealing in stocks is by spreading your money over several types of investments. This reduces your risk to a huge extent, because if one type of investment doesn’t do well, then you can always bank upon the other.

Despite the fact that shares yield great returns, still at the end of the day it is a gamble. So, before you invest into it you must first assess your immunity to risk and only after thorough study of the stock market should you venture into it.

Seek.uk
Nidhi
http://www.seek.uk.com