Monday, October 27, 2008

Research Is The Name Of The Game

I do most of my research after the day's trading has finished. Firstly I look for stocks that have performed well today and add them to my prospect list. This number varies from time to time but the average number can be as high as 50 or so.

The reason for so many prospects is because only a small percentage will eventually match my entry criteria. So because of this I am entering new names continually on a daily basis. There is no restriction to which sector they belong to either. They could be the banking or the mining sector, I try not to have favourites, but I must admit I find this hard to do at times.

I also keep an eye out for positive company announcements and also watch to see who is buying who in the substantial stock movements. Sometimes you can pick up on a takeover about to happen before the general market latches on to what is happening.

I have quite often just jumped on this stock for the ride, made my preset profit percentage and jumped off again. Not forgetting to put a stop loss in place in case the stock retreats as they quite often prone to do.

Another area that I like to keep an eye open for is when Directors are buying their own stock. This is a good indicator that they feel that the stock will be going upwards. I have never heard of a director buying their own stock to make a loss.

Like us they are out there to make a profit. They are a lot closer to the action than we are, sometimes they have knowledge that is weeks ahead of any news or company announcements that are likely to be made. Who else knows better how a company is performing?

I then check out my list of future prospects against my entry criteria. This is a step by step plan that I have devised over time. It works for me, but it is best that you have one that you are comfortable with. Another reason is that my criteria are quite strict and would possibly not suit the average trader.

Basically if any stock does not match up to this criteria then it is put onto the back burner for review later on. (In other words I am keeping a second list of potential stocks for later on. So you always have a list of prospects handy.)

With practice it is surprisingly how quickly you can look at a chart and see if the stock is a candidate or not. This way you can whittle the list down to 2 or 3stocks.How many stocks you invest in course depends on the amount of capital you have currently available for trading. So sometimes you may be restricted to just the one stock.

Quite often my funds are tied up and are not readily available; this is the case at the moment as I have been buying quality stocks at bargain basement prices. Even with these blue chip stocks, once my profit percentage is reached I sell them.

I do have a portfolio of select stocks that are paying healthy dividends. These are for the long term and I do not get concerned over the price fluctuations that are happening lately in the stock market.

When you do your research will ultimately depend on your work commitments or your other time constraints. It is really up to you as there are no hard and fast rules as to when you do your research.

The trick is to do it regularly until it becomes a habit, like riding a bicycle, the more practice you get the more proficient you become.

Chris Strudwick is a keen successful share trader on the Australian Stock Market Visit his weblogs for more free articles and useful information at both http://www.asxnewbie.com and http://www.aussiewealthreview.com - you will glad you took the time.

Traders applaud a colleague during the trading day on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, October 27, 2008. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)Reuters - Stocks closed at their lowest levels in 5-1/2 years on Monday, extending a global sell-off as worry about the severity of a global recession and the bleak outlook for profits gripped investors.

Notable News Of The Week Crain S New York
Online Future Trading
Netsalon Fx Announces Release Of Its Expert Advisor Software For Currency Trading Fx Grid Version 2

Don't Lose Money Enrolling in an E-Currency Trading System

Every day brings a new and more exciting way to make money online. If you believe the dozens of advertisements that bombard us everyday, all of us should be millionaires. Why aren't we? Because 95% of the offers to make you rich are pure nonsense.

The latest scheme involves an old idea made new again. In the late 1990's millions of people lost billions of dollars when they discovered the lure of fast, easy profits from day trading. The rebirth of that idea is E-currency trading. Quickly becoming the darling of the online scammers, there are multiple sites offering the perfect trading system to make you rich while you sleep. These schemes are also called Forex trading systems. Forex, of course, stands for trading in foreign currencies.

E-currency trading is not new. It is however, enjoying a new popularity as more and more programs are being offered for sale. These programs, which range in price from $300 to $800, promise to train the investor to make high profits by trading in the foreign exchange markets. As with most other scams, there is always some expert who will tell you which program is the real deal. Don't believe any of them!

According to the Wall Street Journal, the average individual who purchases one of these systems, loses about $15,000. A typical program promises that if you will invest $200 to $5000 in the system, you will make thousands of dollars in profit in just a few weeks. Of course, the more money you invest the faster you will become rich. It's not going to happen.

Prior to the availability of the internet as a trading portal, individuals could only trade in currency through banks or reputable brokerage firms. But with the use of the internet by individual to trade, there is very little control by government regulators. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is charged with the responsibility of regulating the currency trading industry. But it is difficult for them to find the online sites that are responsible for the majority of the fraud and responsible for the losses suffered by individual investors. In the last 5 years, the Commission has prosecuted about 80 cases on behalf of about 23,000 individual investors. Those investors lost over 350 million dollars.

Some of the so-called experts will tell you that there is an even better system for making money than an E-currency program. They will encourage you to join an arbitrage trading program. The wonderful difference is that you can buy this program for a mere $139.

Arbitrage is simply a financial word which means taking advantage of a price differential between two or more markets. E-currency trading is simply arbitrage of currency markets. They are the same thing. The scammers will tell you that arbitrage trading has been around forever, as if that makes it safe.

It has been around for years because banks and investment companies have professional traders who devote their full attention to trading foreign currencies. A few experts can arbitrage the foreign currency market for large gains. The individual is always under capitalized and could never compete with large financial institutions doing the same kind of trading.

The simple fact is that if you want to try E-currency trading or foreign exchange arbitrage, understand that it is a very high risk strategy. The only funds you should ever use for this kind of investment are funds that you can afford to lose.

There is one more consideration. Many of the early guru's of Forex or E-currency trading have been prosecuted and even gone to jail. If you are invited to join such a program and offered the opportunity to enroll others in the program, you may be putting yourself at risk of prosecution for fraud. Today I counted more than two dozen different Forex or E-currency trading sites to entice individual investors. Do yourself a favor. Stay very far away from all of them.

Sheila Guilloton is the owner of Prestige Planners and studies and reports on internet scams. Read more at http://www.PrestigeBusiness.homebiztruth.com

South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak speaks at parliament in Seoul October 27, 2008. (Lee Jae-Won/Reuters)Reuters - South Korea on Monday delivered its largest ever interest rate cut and pledged more spending and tax cuts next year to help economic growth, already at a four-year low and likely to be hit further by the global financial storm.

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