Investing Tips Information

Increasing numbers of corporations allow existing holders of shares of stock to reinvest their dividends (known as DRIPs) in more shares of stock without paying brokerage commissions.  In some cases, companies allow you to make additional cash purchases of more shares of stock, also commission-free. 

In order to qualify for most DRIPs, you must generally have already bought some shares of stock in the company.  Ideally, you bought these initial shares through a discount broker to keep your commission burden as low as possible.  Although DRIPs reduce your stock commissions on future purchases, DRIPs have their shortcomings:

1. You need to complete a lot of paperwork to invest in a number of different companies’ DRIP stock plans.  Life is too short to bother with these plans for this reason alone.

2.. Some companies that offer these plans are hungry, for whatever reason. They need to drum up support for their stock.  These investments may not be the best ones for the future.

3. DRIP plans don’t eliminate fees.  You still pay fees to buy the initial shares of stock, and many DRIP plans charge nominal fees for additional transactions and services.  Taking these shortcomings into account, you’re better off in the long run using professional money managers, such as those available through the best no-load, cost-efficient mutual funds.

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There have been many stock market corrections, and it seems as though we are in the middle of one now. Below is a discussion about the 1987 correction in the stock market.

The events of October 19, 1987, at the time, were looked upon as a full-fledged stock market crash. In retrospect, no depression or even a recession was sparked by this dramatic fall in prices, but the event is historic nonetheless. One of the aspects that made it so memorable is the fact that to this day, no one really knows what caused it. There are many different theories as to the reason of the correction, but its all speculation.

The ’87 correction, known now as Black Monday was the first ever global stock market crash. The final numbers are staggering, with the Hong Kong stock exchange losing over 45 percent of its value, the Australian stock market losing almost 42 percent of its value, the UK lost over 26 percent, while the New York Stock Exchange lost 22.6 percent.

The October 1987 fall ended up being the second biggest single day percentage drop in the history of the stock market. The biggest one day decline happened in 1914 when the Dow Jones lost just over 24 percent. This drop was attributed to the fact that the market had been closed for four months due to World War I prior to that day. The biggest point loss in history was the first day of trading after the attacks of September 11th, when the Dow lost over 680 points.

Starting in mid-August of that year, the Dow began to correct itself. A series of 100+ point drops plagued the market over the next two months, but the drops were always followed by recoveries. Even days before the October 19 drop, there had been a major dip, and the next day, stocks were back up. It wasn’t until the Black Monday collapse that stocks went down and stayed there.

Possible causes for the crash are usually broken down into a few different categories, including market psychology, illiquidity, overvaluation and program trading. Other possible causes for the correction are attributed to a major storm in the UK which happened on the previous Friday. The storm did not allow traders in the UK to finish their days work and this caused many in the US and around the world (especially in Hong Kong where the crash first started to happen) to sell.

While time has shown the events of October 1987 weren’t quite as bad as some had feared, dramatic market corrections are a part of investing and while they can be terrifying when they happen, they shouldn’t take a savvy investor by surprise.

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Successful traders can make money whether the market goes up, down or sideways. However, there are some basic rules that apply to become a successful trader. To me they include good money management skills, discipline and a good frame of mind (trading psychology). Darlene Nelson has provided an article below that gives 3 lessons that she believes to be needed in order to become a successful trader. There are quite a few useful tips within it.

Three Lessons That Every Successful Trader Learns   by Darlene Nelson

LESSON 1. AVOID THE COMMON THIEF I have noticed that some people display a common error in judgment that can be devastating. It’s kind of like letting a thief into your home and saying, “please turn out the lights when you leave.” The next morning you wake up and the house is empty, the safe is open, and all your deeds are missing. A few days later you get a call from your pension plan coordinator who bears heart-wrenching news “there is nothing left in you account, do you still plan on using our services?”What is this thief? What could people do that would cause them to lose nearly everything before they wake up? The answer is: Many people will start out slow and each time they make a mistake they try to solve it with larger amounts of cash. Over time they can drain their bank accounts, brokerage accounts, pension funds, and every other source of money. Only then do they stop and say, “Oops, I guess my trading methods are not working.”

Do you mind if I make a suggestion? When you decide to invest in the stock market, it’s best to use only a portion of your money for “High Risk Investments.” What is a high-risk investment? Anything that you personally control that can lose value if you make a mistake! Let’s say you have $30,000 of available funds, don’t dive right in with the whole thing, how about starting out with 10%. That means you would start with $3,000. Then you ask yourself a few questions:

“Is it OK if I place this money at risk?” “Can I handle the possibility that I may lose this entire amount?” “Can I accept that risk without losing my mind and self?”

If you can answer each question with a YES, it is indeed risk money that you will be able to use and you will be able to handle the ups and downs of the market. If the money is too important, you will end up making all the wrong decisions because your choices will be made because of fear and worry, not logic and informed choices.

Once you have arrived at the amount you want to work with, use that for a while. Then, as you experience positive results, you might reconsider. You could add a little, if it fits your plan. However, if you are having a difficult time and you feel like you need more money to help you “make up” your losses. STOP. Don’t add another penny. I have seen so many people who are still confused about things; use hard earned cash to experiment in the market. When they have a few bad plays, they go back to their secure funds and get another cash infusion. They continue doing this until they have nearly exhausted everything. Then they finally decide that they need to go back to the basics and find out what’s wrong.

The common thief is thinking that you can solve investment problems by throwing more cash into the system. There is nothing wrong with starting out small and working with that money until it becomes a massive amount.

Don’t get me wrong; I am not trying to say that most people lose money when they start investing in the market. That’s not realistic, I know people that have done great and others that have not done great. I have spent many years teaching people how to invest in the market. That exposure has given me the opportunity to talk with all kinds of people with just as many different experiences in the market.

I realize that using the concepts presented in this series of reports works best when you have a little more than $2,000, but not too much more. I have worked with tons of people that started out investing in the market with $2,000 or less which grew to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

How do you avoid the common thief? Be careful and go back to the basics if things are not working.

LESSON 2. IF YOU’RE WRONG, EXIT QUICK AT A SMALL LOSS One of my favorite stock market instructors is Ryan Litchfield*. Ryan says something like this “IF YOU NEED TO EAT A TOAD, EAT IT FAST BEFORE IT GETS TOO BIG”. The same applies to investing in the market - if a play is going bad or if you discover that your investment choice is wrong, get out ASAP. When a play goes bad take your loss immediately before your small error becomes a big disaster.

Let’s say a stock has reached it’s resistance and has started falling, you decide to short some stock or sell a call with plans to buy back at a profit when the stock falls far enough. To your dismay, the stock stops moving down shortly after you get filled on your sell order and then that stock starts moving like a rocket - IN THE WRONG DIRECTION costing you money. By the end of the day, the stock price has broken up through resistance. That night when you look at the charts, you realize that the stock may continue to go up a lot, make the decision to get out fast. When the market opens the next day, wait a short while (at least until amateur hour is over) then if the stock has not moved back in the right direction - call your broker and close the play!

The problem is people depend on hope too long. The stock shoots in the wrong direction and they keep holding on, hoping and praying for a miracle, until the play gets way out of control and it becomes a substantial loss potential. If you stay in a losing play too long, you will end up riding that nightmare all the way to the poor farm.

If a play moves against you, get out while the cost is small. There is nothing wrong with taking a small loss by closing the play. It is impossible to be 100% correct, all of the time. The stock market has its own mind and it will act the way it wants, regardless of our desires. Rather than looking at losses as a bad thing, think them as the cost of doing business. For example:

A grocer orders 5,000 boxes of cereal because a major kid’s fair is coming to town. The fair is canceled and the grocer is left holding far more cereal than she can handle. She gets out a big sign that says: “Cereal 50% off, while supplies last, hurry in for the big savings.”

Will that grocer spend the next three days crying over the cereal disaster? Nope, it’s never going to enter her mind, she will just look at it as a cost of doing business. She knows that it is far better to sell the cereal at a small loss, so she can use her money and shelf space for the production of income. If she were to hang on to the cereal, refusing to sell at a loss, she could end up losing customers because they are getting old, spoiled products. Not to mention, she can’t buy other supplies because she has too much money into the cereal. Eventually she could be faced with an even bigger loss when she has to dispose of spoiled products that no one wants to buy.

There is nothing wrong with selling groceries at a loss, if that is what it takes to move the product, providing it does not happen too many times. Even if you take a loss, it is better get out. Just like the grocer, you still have your capital left for other products (plays), which will bring you profits in the future. And you can always make a profit by getting back into the stock as it provides you with another window of opportunity. If you get out of a play because a stock moves the wrong way you will be happy that you got out early when you see that it kept moving the wrong way. Sure, you had to get out at a loss but you rescued some of your money. You can take that rescued cash and do other plays without having to watch a loser play get worse day after day. Believe me - that’s no fun!

Everyone has a few bad plays, mixed in with their good plays. If you win seven out of ten times, you will be ahead of the game at the end of the month. If you are sure to keep the losses small, your account will go up 7 down 3 up 7 down 3 up 7 down 3. If you are not having enough successful plays, it’s time to stop, go back to the basics, go back to class, do more practice trades, and get back on track.

LESSON 3. EVERYONE PAYS FOR EDUCATION In life education always costs us something. We can learn by attending the school of hard knocks or getting a formal education. Either way, we will invest time, money, and energy. The stock market is no different than any other profession or opportunity: if you want to make a profit, you have to learn how. There are no short-cuts or easy tricks; if it was easy, then everyone would be millionaires. I have seen people lose $10,000, $20,000, $50,000 and even more before they finally get the message - you have to know the rules before you play the stock market game.

I teach many online, free, stock classes each week. These classes are intended to be introductions to stock market investment concepts. You can get enhanced education by attending one of my live classes. I invite you to come spend two days with me. I promise to share two information-packed days with you and other serious investors. Many students tell me that if they could start over again, they would have attended my live class when they were first invited, instead of “wasting months, wandering in the dark, guessing.”

When you attend my live workshop you will learn in two days what has taken me many years to discover. I am constantly updating the subject material and improving the tools so that I can be sure to teach you everything I can in two days. Join me, it’s going to be an exhilarating experience.

Happy Trading,

Darlene Nelson

About the Author
Darlene Nelson is a professional stock trader and educator affiliated with BetterTrades. Visit the BetterTrades website to find out about online stock market classes.

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The world of investing is filled with colourful jargon and phrases that may seem strange if you don’t know what they mean. A great example of this is a “Bull market” and a “Bear market.” These two terms refer to market trends. A Bull market means that the market is headed up and it’s time to make money. A Bear market means that stocks are headed down and it’s time to be careful. But where do these terms come from? That is a question that is harder to answer than you think. There doesn’t seem to be any consensus of the origins of these terms, but there are some solid leads.

Some link the origin of Bear and Bull to a book written in the 1700’s called Every Man His Own Broker by Thomas Mortimer. The book describes the tendencies of some investors and links them to bears and bulls. The bull, as described in the book, was someone who might purchase huge amounts of stock with little or no money at all and hope to sell the stock for a profit before the time to pay for it came due.

A bear, on the other hand, sold stock or property that he didn’t even own yet, and then would be forced to scramble to find a way to obtain the goods before he was due to deliver it.

There are some interpretations of the phrases which are much more logical. When a bull attacks, he will use his horns and swipe up to cause damage, while a bear will attack you with his paws and swipe downward.

There is also a group that believes the use of the terms dates back to bear trappers and the practice of bear skin salesmen selling skins they didn’t have yet at a particular price, hoping the skinners would come to sell their kill for a lower price, so that the salesmen could take home the difference. And since a one-time staging of bull and bear fights was popular, the term bull was given to anyone who didn’t practice this.

One final possible origin is related to the ways the animals charge, with bulls moving at high speed forward and bears moving slowing and cautiously.

While the origins of the bear and bull market may never be known, the stories surrounding them are just as colourful and fun as the terms themselves.

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When is the best time to sell your stocks in the stock market?  I am surprised at how many people just hold on to their stocks and think that they will go up forever. In this article I will share with you a strategy that I feel is the best way to minimize your risk in the stock market.

As most of you will know, the stock market goes up and down due to greed and fear. A classic example of this was the rapid rise and fall of the Nasdaq in the late 90’s and early this century. It was commonly known as the “Nasdaq Bubble”. 

In the period between 1996 and 2000 the Nasdaq rose from 600 to 5000.  Many companies rose massively in value on the stock market just on pure speculation. They had not even made any earnings at all (pet.com was a classic example of this). Millionaires were being created at a rapid rate as the value of the stocks rocketed up.

However, early in 2000 reality set in and the Nasdaq crashed to 2000 within months. Over the next 2 years the Nasdaq fell further to the 800 mark. Many of the relatively instant millionaires lost all or most of their money quicker than they earned it. This was when the Nasdaq bubble burst.

So how could many of these investors avoid losing most of their funds?  The trick is to invest in a smarter manner. If you a genius in the stock market, then you may have read the warning signs and then sold near the top. However, many so called technical analysis experts lost significant money on the Nasdaq due to greed.

In my opinion, once your stock, say stock A, has doubled in value then you should sell half of that stock and invest the other half elsewhere (perhaps stock B). This means that you no longer have any risk with stock A (you basically have created a free trade). If you have done your homework with stock B, then hopefully you can sell half of that stock when it doubles too and buy stock C with the revenue. So the process continues. I also sell half of stock A again when it doubles again, but that is not necessary and just a personal choice. You may also want to spend some of the returns in another form of investment.

So imagine if you had used this strategy during the Nasdaq bubble. If you had used this strategy with stocks invested in the Nasdaq and hence put half your earnings into other sectors of the stock market or other investing sectors, then you would be doing pretty well financially now.

I hope that you take this strategy into consideration when you next enter the stock market. Please do not let greed ruin your destiny and wealth creation.

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