| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Your Worst Enemy To Successful Investing - The Media
How do you make your investment decisions and where do you get your information? If you're like most of the people I know, you look to the experts. That's fine, however it's important to be aware that for every expert, there's an opinion and for every opinion there's an expert. I have a friend who says that opinions are like noses: everyone has one but you wouldn't live in anyone else's nose! Around the first of the year, along with the New Year's resolutions, come the New Year predictions for what will be hot and what will not. As if that isn't enough to produce a massive case of information indigestion, now we have the cable financial shows with pretty much the opinion of the hour. What this is producing is a frenzy of buy and sell activity for stocks in general, and now for mutual funds as well. I don't think this approach serves either the investors in particular or the funds in general. The big problem with this for mutual fund investors is that all the experts are recommending different funds. It might be one thing if experts had a solid basis for their perspective. If they did, then you would think their recommendations would line up and they'd all be touting the same thing. But they don't and they aren't. Oh sure, each one of them can make a good case for their pick. But so can the next "expert." And usually both of them won't be right (if either of them is). So, where's the value in this for you? Beats me. Another problem with this approach is that many experts recommend different funds at different times, and, in an effort to be in the hot fund, investors keep moving from fund to fund. In the same breath, the experts are telling us to invest for the long term. Well, I can't figure out how to do both: be in the latest hot fund, and hold what I've got for the long haul. The downside of all of this for the funds is that sometimes a fund touted as the hot one to be in attracts so much investment attention (i.e., money) that it grows beyond its original intention. At that point, it loses its direction and the very thing that made it strong is sacrificed. And guess what happens to the performance? So, in the midst of all the hawking and hype for this fund or that, what's an investor to do to make intelligent choices? For myself and my clients I use a trend tracking methodology, which identifies long-term trends in various markets. I research funds for stability and reliability as well as current performance. Then, when our trend indicator signals a Buy, we select our mutual funds based on momentum figures for various time periods to arrive at the most promising fund(s) to use for this cycle. This gives us a head start and sometimes, weeks after we've bought a fund, I see it written up in financial papers as being one of the best performers. Does this approach always put us in the number one fund? Maybe not. But we are almost always in funds that are doing very, very well. And do we get in at the bottom and out at the very top? Again, maybe not. However, I can tell you that, using this methodology, my clients and I followed the sell signal we got in October, 2000, and were safely invested in solid money markets when the stock market crashed and burned. Is this approach for you? It depends on how much adrenaline rush you like when you watch your investments. Personally, I fulfill my thrill quotient with other things in life and enjoy sleeping at night when it comes to my investments. About The Author Ulli Niemann is an investment advisor and has been writing about objective, methodical approaches to investing for over 10 years. He eluded the bear market of 2000 and has helped hundreds of people make better investment decisions. To find out more about his approach and his FREE Newsletter, please visit: http://www.successful-investment.com; ulli@successful-investment.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Investing - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How To Start Investing For Financial Independence, Part 1 Today, I am going to start a multi-part series about how to go from being a beginning investor to being "financially independent" in a steady and predictable way. At our website, we get tons of e-mails about how do I start, how do I start with little $'s, etc. Making It Second Nature Not long ago I was laying on my son's floor throwing one of his toy balls back and forth in the air to myself and I had a strange revelation. I noticed that as I threw the ball up in the air my left arm automatically started to move to where the ball was going to come down. A Secret Revealed: Why Most (Day) Traders Fail The following perspective on (day) trading comes from my many years of experience of active day trading or being the moderator of one of the largest day trading chat rooms on the Internet.One of the biggest problems I see with new traders (and even some old ones) has nothing to do with the software or the broker they are using. 25 Ways to Find Companies to Buy When you start your program to purchase your "ideal" company, you quickly realize that your ultimate success will depend on two primary skill sets: 1) Your ability to FIND viable companies that are for sale, and 2) Your ability to effectively qualify the potential acquisition investment once found.This article is about only step one, how to creatively find viable companies and one's that are able to be purchased. Guru Focused: Robert Olstein's Short Sells While it is rather rare that value gurus sell stocks short, Robert Olstein has been selling short in his Financial Alert Fund. The accountant-turned fund manager spots values by looking behind the numbers. Well Managed Investing Risks Bring Rewards! "Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing!" Warren Buffett (1930 - )We often listen to people who hesitate to invest in the stock market because they fear risk. There are older people who fear that a stock crash could leave them destitute. Annuity Help Many people today are looking for annuity help. The biggest challenge seems to be that most of the help is biased. Trading Is Not Rocket Science! Despite what some people may lead you to believe; day trading, swing trading and trend trading is not anywhere as difficult as they would like you to think. It really boils down to two key components. Foreign Investing - US Investors Still Missing Out? Investors are still too slowly realizing what the academics have long pointed out -- adding foreign stocks to your portfolio will, over the long term, increase your returns and lower the overall risk of your portfolio.US investors embracing foreign investing are both realists and optimists. It's Never too Early to Start Investing! Remember the old saying, "never too late to start"? Well, try this on for size: when it comes to investing, it's never too early to start. Time really is of the essence here. Going Against the Conventional Investment Wisdom First of all, I want to give everyone the disclaimer that I am not a registered financial advisor and I don't play one on TV. Therefore, I cannot legally provide financial advice and I will not do so. Introduction To FOREX The Foreign Exchange Market, better known as FOREX, is a worldwide market for buying and selling currencies. It handles a huge volume of transactions 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Sell Discipline for Investors: Importance and Execution Investors usually don't have an aversion to buying an asset. The real gut wrenching decision is when - and if - to sell. Investing in Car Dealerships: How to Do It Right The financial characteristics of the automobile dealership are attractive:". . Secret Stock Options Trading Strategies the Experts Don`t Want You to Know To understand stock options, we need to look at Webster’s Dictionary’s definition of the word strategy.Webster’s Dictionary defines the term strategy as1. Why have Investment Plans for the Stock Market If you do not have an investment plan in the stock market you are subject to impulses, urges, hunches, premonitions, strong feelings, greed, panic, fear, indecision, and just plain foolishness. In my opinion, without a plan, without that clear conception of a total stock market investment strategy, the chances of successful investing in the stock market are pretty slim. Should You Put Your Annuity in an IRA? Let me start by answering that question.. DXPortfolio: A Great Passive Investment of 25% to $40% per month First, I need to explain about e-currencies or digital currencies. DXPortfolio are based and supported by the supply and demand of e-currency. Investing & Online Stock & Share Trading- The Stock & Share Markets are Booming But Be Warned I had the pleasure of being invited on a friend's yacht to sail in a race on Sydney Harbour yesterday. On board, as one of our motley crew, I met a top ranking corporate executive from one of Australia's largest banks, who we'll call 'Phil' here for the purpose of this article. Wit and Wisdom on Money, Wall Street and Success - Part #1 I love to collect quotes as they concisely promote a philosophy which is readily understandable.In my 25+ years of investing I have collected hundreds of quotes related to Wisdom, Wall Street and Success.
|
| home | site map |
| © BullMarketData.com 2008 |
