Stocks & Mutual Funds Articles

Elliot Wave: What is it? Elliot Wave is a way of defining the market action in a five wave formation. A very simple explanation. It basically says mass psychology is predictable in a liquid market by a five wave cycle. An accumulation wave. A correct...

What does the "M" in CANSLIM stand for? According to William O'Neil, it represents the market and direction it is heading in. Over the past several months, you have listened to me write about the "M" in CANSLIM almost every single week. Some of you...

The stock markets are at all time highs and just like the last time around when the market was at its previous high every one thinks that nothing can go wrong and there is just one way where the market can go which is UP. Nothing could be farther fr...

Every so often we get a question asking why we don't "buy the dips" more when we are looking at possible stock plays and the answer is really simple. It's not "our" style. That isn't to say it's wrong, or that you shouldn't do it, we just don't find ...

Many times we take a look at something and over the next two days it doesn't pan out, so we move on. Quite often those ideas put out, turn into winners, it just took more than a couple days for the breakout, or what have you to take place. Other time...

Stock market is an inquisitive place for many. It is because the place has given birth to many millionaires and is also responsible for turning millionaires to locals. Thus the bulls and bears have always been charismatic. Now millions of people inve...

Timing is everything. You've heard it a million times. It's a worn-out, over-used cliche that happens to be true. No matter what you're up against, timing is everything. If you're a futures or stock trader, timing is the only thing between you and th...

Fundamental analysis, the study of profits, revenue, income, assets, etc. etc. It was the mainstay of stock market investing for decades and decades. Finding a diamond in the rough, was what investors looked for, it is what mutual fund managers use...

One of the touted advantages of owning a corporation is the ease in transferring shares. In many cases, this assumed benefit is simply wrong. Transfer Shares According to "experts", using a corporation has one bid advantage over other entities. The a...

Stocks that are not listed on a traditional exchange but trade via the NASDAQ system are handled with a very different mechanism. There is no centralized exchange, but there is a system of competing market makers who post quotes on NASDAQ stocks. The...

Every man wants to earn more and if that can come through the door of the stock market then it can be every man's dream. Investment is a risk that a person has to take in order to earn profits. Now not everyone can be adventurous with money and thus ...

I recently heard a story about a woman who owned 84 mutual funds. So what, you might say? Well, having too many mutual funds can lead to several problems: Time crunch - difficulty finding the time to stay up on developments that could negatively impa...

The stock market is driven solely by human emotion. Nothing else really matters. Human emotion is driven by perception, and perception is jaded by expectations. If your expectations are not met, than your perception is that this is bad. So if you...

How does shorting work? Shorting strategy has been very popular since the bubble burst of technology stocks in 2000. Shorting a stock is simply a bet that the stock price will drop. An investor can sell a stock he/she does not own by borrowing sha...

When trading in the stock market, position sizing is where all the tools of money management come together. It's perhaps the most important part of your stock market money management rules. Position sizing is simply deciding how much you are going to...

There have been a lot of books written on how to be a smart investor and how to time the market. In fact, many people make a living on developing a "system" to time the market and then sell that system to other people. While there are a lot of indica...

When the market turns against you, what should you do? Sell everything? We discussed that choice in a recent column. Selling everything draws your "line in the sand" and announces that you have determined there is no future for you in the market. ...

Many investors are interested in revenues that a Corporation generates. Yet if you really are concerned with performance, you will look at only the earnings. If you are especially savvy you only care about winning or profit, cash flow and on-going cu...

Ever wondered what is a mutual fund? A mutual fund is a pool of money run by a professional or group of professionals called the "investment adviser." A mutual fund is a company that pools money from many investors and invests the money in stocks, bo...

Outlined below are some of the advantages and disadvantages of mutual funds. Every investment has advantages and disadvantages. But it's important to remember that features that matter to one investor may not be important to you. Whether any particul...

This is a guide to the different types of mutual funds. When it comes to investing in mutual funds, investors have literally thousands of choices. Before you invest in any given fund, decide whether the investment strategy and risks of the fund are a...

One Saturday morning, while he was sitting at his computer studying the market, David's 7 year old daughter came up, tugged at his shirt sleeve, and said, "Daddy, why aren't we rich?" He looked his child in the eye, and thought to himself, what a gre...

This is the continuing story of our two imaginary traders, Peter and Paul. Peter is a professional trader, Paul is not. Peter has a tested, proven, written trading plan that he follows each time he enters a trade, Paul does not. Peter and Paul have h...

When purchasing mutual funds we are cautioned to read the prospectus, look at past performance, check out the fund manager's record and see what their expense ratios have been. We are also told that we should not buy funds with expenses exceeding 1% ...

Let's discuss commodities; with the latest Enron situation, it is important to understand the way things work. A commodity is anything useful, especially a transportable agricultural product or mining product. This comes from the Latin word "commodit...

It is commonly reported that the stock market averages about 10% per year return over the long term (decades). So the investor that buys and holds a diversified portfolio of stocks or mutual funds is led to believe that their portfolio will grow by 1...

∙ Make every investment in the stock market a long-term investment. My Mother worked as a teller in a small bank in Dover, New Jersey. The name of the bank was called The Dover Community Bank. While working at the bank (she eventually became...

Sidney felt sick as she looked at her latest OptionsXpress trading statement. In just 8 months, she had managed to turn her $120,000 account balance into less than $70,000. Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized that the financial freedom she so...

04/28/2005 NASDAQ dropped -12.5% year to date in 2005. S&P500 index suffered -5.7% this year. US stock market has been terrible over past few months. Not only general market is down, oil stocks recently had a significant correction as well. It is ...

Index Fund Trading can be one of the most profitable...or most costly exercises you will ever do. While trading a basket of Stocks has it's advantages, such as removing the risk of any single company you own Stock in going bust and taking all of your...