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Best Stock Market Simulation Games
A stock market simulation game is a great way to practice your investment skills before actually investing any "real" money in the stock market. Simulation games are usually played on the internet, where people can experience the thrill of investing in ...
Hedge Funds: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Alfred Winslow Jones started hedge funds in 1949. He was a pioneer of non-traditional investment strategies. “Non-traditional” categorizes hedge funds quite accurately. Hedge funds have the potential to make an investor quite a bit of money, but many do ...
Retirement In the New Age
Retirement In the New AgeAre You Prepared For A Life of Leisure?Consider These Numbers…"At the end of WWII, there were 42 workers paying into Social Securityfor each person receiving benefits. Today, barely three people contributefor each recipient. ...
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PARACHUTE INVESTING
by AL THOMAS
Ever jumped out of an airplane? It’s OK if
you have on a parachute. Pretty dumb if you don’t.
Every buy any stocks, mutual funds or Exchange
Traded Funds? It’s OK if you know how much you
are willing to risk. Pretty dumb if you don’t.
Parachute investing is buying an equity
with a parachute so you won’t risk all your money
or, better yet, give back the profit you have made
as the stock or fund went up and then goes down.
If you bought that hummer at $12 per share and
during the past couple of years seen it go up to
$52 you don’t want to give back that nice
profit, do you? With a parachute you can save
most of it. How?
When you invest in any stock of fund you
must know how much you will risk before you buy it
and how much of the profit you are willing to
give back when it turns down. Take that beauty
at $12. Instead of going up it went down. Are
you willing to agonize as it drops to $5? If you
had a parachute you would have jumped out of the
plane before it crashed. If you had an exit
strategy for your stock you would have sold it
before you lost a big chunk of your cash.
The secret of a safe investment is an exit
strategy. When you bought Mr. Twelve Dollars you
shook hands and told him I’d like to be your
friend, but if you change your name to Ten
Dollars I am leaving. Maybe that that is not
very nice, but nice doesn’t cut it in the
investment world.
Mr. Twelve Dollars said I am going up and
I want you for my friend. Please follow me and if
I falter you can leave and we will part friends.
Now that makes sense. You trail along and after
it goes to $52 it does falter. Do you know where
you are going to leave or are you going to ride
it go
back down to $12? In other words do you
have your parachute on?
That parachute is your continuing exit strategy
that is in place every day. In the investment
community it is called an open trailing stop
loss order. Any broker can put this in place for
you. You might be lucky enough to have a broker
who knows where to place stops, but
unfortunately there are not many of them.
The brokerage industry does not teach its
employees (brokers) how to protect customers’
money. If that is the case you might want to use
the old standard 10% rule. Have the broker place
an open stop every Friday at 10% of the closing
price of that day as it closes higher. Never
lower the stop loss. Brokers hate this as it
makes them work, but that is what they are there
for and that is how they earn their commissions.
With your parachute you can always protect
your original cash purchase from a big loss and as
your stock advances you can lock in profit as
the stock advances.
Every investment should have a parachute.
Al Thomas' best selling 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
and receive his market letter for 3 months at
www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why he's
the man that Wall Street does not want you to
know. Copyright 2005
About the Author
Al Thomas' best selling 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
and receive his market letter for 3 months at
www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why he's
the man that Wall Street does not want you to
know. Copyright 2005
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Self-directed IRA adds investment optionsAZ Central.comFraud and the possibility of loss also can happen with stocks, mutual funds and other mainstream investments. But there's often an intermediary, such as a broker or financial planner monitoring things, and many financial companies restrict investors to ...and more » |
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