Investing Like A Pro
Free Investment Information, Articles!
Better Sales Article:
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
Related Investing News and Articles From ezinearticles.com
The forex (foreign currency exchange) market is the largest and most liquid financial market in the world. The forex market unlike stock markets is an over-the-counter market with no central exchange and clearing house where orders are matched. Traditionally forex trading has not been popular with retail traders/investors (traders takes shorter term positions than investors) because forex market was only opened to Hedge Funds and was not accessible to retail traders like us.
Have you ever thought about playing the stock market? Many of us dream of hitting it big by investing $100 and earning $100,000 within a few years. But the system doesn't work that fast.
The 1935 Silver Certificate is one of the most popular notes among currency collectors. The history of these fascinating bills extends back to the 1800's. It was the Congressional Acts of 1878 and 1886 that authorized the printing of Silver Certificates - for a very specific reason.
If you have been following the news then you probably know that we are in an economic crisis of global proportions. Banks are collapsing, the housing market is in a bad way, and the economy is in a bad state.
You have $1 million that you want to invest, but you're not quite sure how you're going to do that. You don't want to lose everything, but you really want that money to grow. You want that $1 million to turn into $2 million and so on.
You Can Own This Website!
This website is an example of a new product called article site manager developed especially for people who wish to own Adsense sites or sites to promote their own websites and products but do not have the technical ability to own or maintain a website.
Details about this site and other article sites in different categories can be found at the link below. Prices start at $259 for a complete website like this!