The Best Time to Invest in Stocks

Put away your calculators and software programs if you want to get the feel for stock market timing. You'll never beat the other players if you follow the herd.

Above all else realize that all you need to do to win at the stock game is to stay one step ahead of the competition. You can do this only if you concentrate on understanding human nature and human emotions.

If you honestly believe that on a day to day basis that the stock market is rational, you haven't played the game long enough or been paying attention to the reality of the game. If you actually believe that someone can sell you a program that guarantees success in the stock market, it's time to change your thinking and refocus your train of thought.

The best time to invest in stocks is when there is "blood in the streets", and fear dominates investor behavior. The problem is that as an investor you are human as well, and are subject to the same emotions as everyone else.

What do investors do when overcome with fear? They capitulate ... they sell their stocks. This might have sounded academic before September of 2008, but if you were paying attention to the markets between September 2008 and March 2009, you saw investor fear in action.

So, how do you know when the best time to invest is?

If you are a serious stock investor, you were fearful in the above time period as well. I've been playing the game since 1973, and I felt it. Lucky for me, I had little invested in stocks in September 2008. In the months that followed I was waiting for the right time to start buying.

The best time to buy is when you are scared, but you are firmly convinced that the market (most investors) has truly overreacted to a bad situation. When folks are fleeing for the exits in panic ... selling indiscriminately ... it's time to step up to the plate and start to buy.

Don't go all or nothing. Keep some powder dry and invest in steps. You will probably never in your investing life fire one shot and hit the market bottom.

Think back to early 2009. Stocks had been falling for months on bad (horrific) news. Then, in mid-February, selling intensified and stocks started to fall like a rock. This was your invitation to start buying.

If you have always viewed the stock market from afar with nothing invested and nothing to lose, you've never felt the fear that overwhelms many investors in times of market stress.

Take it from someone who has been directly involved in three scary bear markets (1973-1974 ... 2000-2002 ... 2007-2009). Fear of losing your money is real and greatly influences investor behavior.

In times of great uncertainty think with your head and do not make investment decisions out of emotion. The best time to invest in stocks is when the heavy selling is at a climax. Shortly thereafter, all who were fearful enough to sell already have, and rational investors are starting to rush in to buy at bargain prices.

When buying and greed take control, prices go up and those who are still in the game make money. Then it becomes a matter of someday determining the best time to sell, because every market trend comes to an end. 

A retired financial planner, James Leitz has an MBA (finance) and 35 years of investing experience. For 20 years he advised individual investors, working directly with them helping them to reach their financial goals.

Jim is the author of a complete investor guide, Invest Informed, designed for average investors or would-be investors of all levels of financial background and experience. To learn more about investments and investing and his new financial guide go to http://www.investinformed.com

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Penny Stocks Ready to Breakout - What to Look For

Believe it or not, penny stock trading can be boring. Not all of these types of equities spike sharply up or down as a constant. Some stocks can trade in a sideways trading range for multiple months. Not exactly what people expect from stockstackup.com" title="penny stock">penny stocks right? People expect a boom or bust type result most of the time.

The trick to finding stockstackup.com" title="penny stock">penny stocks ready to breakout (to the upside) is to use technical analysis of the chart, along with some research of message board activity of a specific stock. Let's look at a few points of each shall we?

Technical Analysis of the chart (things to look for):

• Noticeable volume increases over 1-3 trading days
  
  


• Slight closing or intraday price increases over previous highs
  
  


• Buy indicators such as the parabolic sar indicate that an uptrend is starting
  
  


• 20 and 50 moving averages cross upward to confirm an breakout is imminent
  
  


• Look for how the stock performed on other breakouts within the last several years to gauge expectations of where to sell or take profits
  
  


• Down trend lines broken to suggest that new bullish buyers are entering the stock

Message board activity:

• Big increase in number of posts
  
  


• Message board posts lay out bullish arguments
  
  


• Lack of coherent "basher" personalities, since they are detrimental to the confidence of the traders who are bullish
  
  


• Absence of personalities often associated with shady pink sheet stocks that perform poorly

Now I realize I did not go into great detail on some of these points, but you get the basic idea. If you are familiar with some of popular penny stock message boards, whether it be ihub or yahoo finance you will know what to look for. If you are not familiar with the jargon I used to describe the technical analysis of the charts, I would recommend going to http://stockcharts.com and absorbing the free information they have there, it's really not as hard to learn as you may imagine it to be.

I use these strategies and others that I find to be effective when I issue penny stock recommendations to subscribers of Microcapmilloinaires.com. It can be time consuming to monitor the market for these types of breakout setups, but it is worth it when you hit a couple big winners that can yield over 100 percent profits.

Written By Matt Morris, Editor of Microcapmillionaires.com the best penny stock newsletter in existence. I am one of the few penny-newsletter-guys that do not accept compensation to "pump" penny stocks. Sign up for 3 free Penny Stock Picks here.

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The Best Way to Play the Stock Market

If you want to play the stock market start by earmarking a sum of money for that purpose and open a separate account with a major discount broker. Come up with a simple system for recording each stock transaction so you can tell at a glance what you hold, what you bought and sold, and where you stand for the year.

Now that you are organized and set up to play, there are some rules or guidelines that you should be aware of. Investors who play the stock market and win don't agree on everything, but there are some things that many of the winners do agree on.

Here's the best way to play the stock market based on the best advice I have run across over the past 35 years. Remember, in this game nothing is guaranteed, but the rewards can be huge if you are good at it.

1. Do not day trade in this account. stockstackup.com" title="day trading">day trading is a game of its own, played by those who trade very often and close out positions in order to pick up as little as a few cents a share within a few minute or hours.

2. Limit your holdings to about a dozen different stocks. If you own too many different issues you are likely to just duplicate the results of the market in general. This is not your objective when you play the stock market ... you should be trying to beat the socks off the market averages.

3. Watch your holdings closely. Once again, this is difficult if you own more than a dozen different stocks.

4. Hold your winners, and cut your losses by taking a small loss on the losers. Few REAL professionals disagree with this basic principle. If only one-half of your stock picks turn out to be winners, your gains will outweigh your small losses.

5. Don't try to catch a falling knife. In other words, do not buy a stock when its price is in a free-fall. Momentum is a fact of life in the stock market. As in physics, an object in motion tends to stay in motion until acted upon by an outside force. Wait until market forces halt the downward slide in stock price before you buy.

6. Sell a stock as soon as it fails to keep up with the market averages. If the market in general is moving up with conviction and one of your stocks is not, get rid of it.

7. Give ETFs serious consideration. This is the best and easiest way to play a sector or segment of the stock market. Why sweat over which financial, foreign or basic materials stock etc. to jump on at an instant's notice? Buy the group, and sort out the winners and losers later if time is a factor.

Above all else, keep a firm grasp on reality. You are playing this game in order to win big. I don't care what else you have accomplished in life, you will find this adventure more challenging than you anticipated.

FEW folks beat the market. Few professionals do either.

That's why I recommended up front that you earmark a sum of money in a separate account to pursue this game. Do not bet the farm on your dreams of beating the market, because it's a tough nut to crack. Consider the money in this account as "play the stock market" money. In other words, earmark an amount of money you could live without when you open this account.

Managing your serious money ... your retirement nest egg ... is a totally different game and different rules apply. Personally, I play both ways and have for years; but I make every effort to keep the two in perspective.

A retired financial planner, James Leitz has an MBA (finance) and 35 years of investing experience. For 20 years he advised individual investors, working directly with them helping them to reach their financial goals.

Jim is the author of a complete investor guide, Invest Informed, designed for average investors or would-be investors of all levels of financial background and experience. To learn more about investments and investing and his new financial guide go to http://www.investinformed.com

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The Disadvantages of Technical Analysis For Stock Trading

Many traders use technical analysis for trading stocks. Technical analysis is very attractive because it is based on math and statistics, thus giving the illusion of accuracy and predictability. However, technical analysis has several flaws and traders should be aware of its limitations.

These disadvantages include:

1. At their heart, all technical indicators - no matter how complex - are based on price, which always reflects what has already happened in the market. Thus, technical analysis is reactive - not truly predictive of what will happen.

2. Today's markets are much more chaotic and choppy compared to previous decades. This is because of hedge funds and computerized ultra-stockstackup.com" title="short term trading">short term trading activity. The result is more false signals and ill-formed patterns from technical analysis techniques.

3. The bulk of technical traders still rely on a handful of indicators first created in the 1970's. This results in their overuse and, thus, the markets adjust and render them less effective.

4. The majority of technical traders attempt to do trend-following. While trend following techniques can make big money over time, they have a low accuracy rate and a high draw down (most trades are losses and its not uncommon to be down 50-60% at some point). Most traders can not handle this psychologically. They end up overriding stockstackup.com" title="Trading Signals">Trading Signals and/or switching between systems.

5. Classical trading chart patterns can be found in graphs of non-market related activities, including temperature charts. Also, chart patterns can appear and disappear depending on the scaling of the chart. This strongly suggests that chart patterns are a trick of the human eye and have no predictive value.

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Technical Analysis in Stock Market Trading

The methods used to analyze securities (stocks) and make investment decisions are vast, but tend to fall into one of two categories known as fundamental analysis and technical analysis. Fundamental analysis involves researching and evaluating the characteristics of the company including the evaluation of company financial statements in order to approximate the value of a company. Technical analysis, on the other hand, pays no attention to the value of a stock and cares more about price movements based on general market psychology and historical trends.

There are numerous charting indicators available and over time I will attempt to discuss and educate our readers on these types of indicators and how to read them for important data. However, for the scope of today's article, I simply wanted to introduce our readers to the basics of technical analysis and how it can be helpful when completing due diligence on investment or trading opportunities. If you understand the benefits and limitations of technical analysis, it can give you a new set of tools or skills that will enable you to be a better trader or investor.

Technical analysis can be defined as a method of evaluating future security prices and market directions based on statistical analysis of variables such as trading volume, price changes, trends, patterns, and formations in charts. These formations within the charts are, as believed by technical analysts, said to be in large part dictated by the psychological makeup of the market.

Through the use of charting, analysts attempt to explain the supply and demand of a security and help in determining the emotions of those in the market. Technical analysis is based on the basic theory that the price of a stock reflects everything that could or has affected a stock. Therefore, fundamental factors as well as economic factors like the overall psychology of the market are all priced into the stock, which leaves only the analysis of supply and demand in predicting the price movement of the forecasted stock.

Analysts believe that future prices are dictated by previously established trends, attributing the repetitive nature of these trends to the basic makeup of the markets psychology. They believe that market participants tend to react in common ways to events within the market, therefore through the use of technical charting, patterns can be used to analyze price movements and understand these trends.

Jennifer Mycock & Branden Moskwa of Tradeopolis.com

Tradeopolis.com, your stock market trading and stock investing resource, with access to articles on Stock market trading and stock investing. Penny stocks to mutual fund investing, tips and secrets and all the latest hot press releases.

Tradeopolis.com, Financial Metropolis, Thriving Community

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Stock Day Trading Program - Does it Really Work?

Many people already know that it is a great time to invest in the stock market. In fact, it is one of the best times to invest, because you can often find prices very low on stocks that will end up making you a lot of money. The markets are a good idea for anyone who wants to have a long-term investment, but if you want to really be able to stockstackup.com" title="make money">make money, you need to understand how the stock markets work, and which stocks will be the best to invest in.

Therefore, it is prudent to say that the stock market is a good idea - but only if you know what you are doing. Does this mean that if you aren't familiar with the stock market, and don't have time to do your research in order to play it well, you should leave it alone? Not entirely, because one of the best ways for anyone to become involved in the stock market is to use a stock trading program.

You might have heard all about a stock trading program

And you might be wondering if it actually works or not. It often seems too good to be true - a program that can help you play the stock market correctly, and can provide you with an excellent way to choose stocks that will make you the most money and that will allow you to be happy with the investments that you've chosen. However, the bottom line is that a stock trading program does work - it is only important to figure out how it can work the best for you.

First of all, when it comes to a stock trading program, one of the most important things to remember is that it is going to work in different ways depending on the program and depending on the person who is using it. Each person should be able to get something different from the stock trading program, and that will allow them to figure out how to be happy with the stock trading choices that they have made in many ways.

The first thing that a stock trading program will do for you, and the first way that it will work for you as well, is that it is going to give you a chance to learn more about the stock market than you ever thought possible

When you are able to use a stock trading program, you are going to be able to get information about the various stocks, and you'll have a chance to also get information about the stock market in general, which is going to be a good way to focus on some of the tasks that you'll be working on later on. Learning about the stock market is often the best way for you to become more accustomed to it and to figure out how you can use it to make yourself more successful in the long run.

Secondly, a stock trading program is going to give you a good idea of which stocks are the right ones to invest in

It does this in several different ways, depending on the actual program and on what you want it to do. It might work on a preset list of conditions, and will use that list to pull the right stocks for you to look at. It also might be customizable, and you can get an idea of the right types of stocks by looking at the customization and what that means.

Either way, you are going to find that with the right stock trading program, you can be very happy with the results that you have found, and you can end up knowing exactly what you are going to be doing with those stocks.

Tackle the issues surround stock trading by letting a professional software find the next big penny stocks for you.

You don't have to sit back and wait for others to take away riches; you can use the Day Trading Robot to handle all of the risks and begin realizing your financial independence immediately.

This is the most accurate stock picking robot in history and it is completely risk free for 60 days.

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Wall Street, Banks and Financial Terrorism

"Greed, stupidity, hubris and outright corruption." A quote from Phil Angelides, former California treasurer and current chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a bipartisan panel formed by Congress to investigate our financial meltdown. Angelides told Frank Rich, one of the best political writers on the Planet, that he will not stand for these proceedings to evolve into toothless meaninglessness. Hopefully, he can pull it off, because if the Country does not enact meaningful, powerful financial reform now, the greedy heathens of Wall Street will take us for all we're worth, and much, much more, and another looming meltdown is guaranteed to take us down, maybe for good.

Again, according to Frank Rich of the New York Times, "Angelides gets it." He'll be following in the footsteps of Ferdinand Pecora, the legendary prosecuter who investigated the 1929 stockstackup.com" title="stock market">stock market crash at the time FDR took office. He kept America's interest in an era without television by he keen investigative prowess which led to indictments, jail time, and famous New Deal reforms, the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Glass-Steagall Act which was created to restrict banks from becoming too big to fail.

Pecora focused on the CEO of National City Bank, which would later go on to become Citigroup. NCB repackaged bad Latin American debt and sold it to greedy, unsuspecting investors starving for big profits. Once the Market crashed, bank execs took the money and ran, while their employees took the brunt of the collapse with salary deductions to keep the bank afloat. Sound familiar?

Replace lousy Latin American debt for mortgage debt, and you have today's Citigroup staring you right in the face. Frank Rich states: "Among those Citi executives was Robert Rubin, who, as the Clinton Treasury secretary, helped repeal the last vestiges of Glass-Steagall after years of Wall Street assault. Somewhere Pecora is turning in his grave."

How could OUR money have been used to bail out Wall Street's banking gambling addicts while everyday Americans recieved nothing out of it. Have WE ever been bailed out? Did any of the massive billions leading to trillions of dollars in debt flow into your or my pocket? I won't even answer.

The financial economic elite including Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner, Ben Bernanke and Larry Summers need to be held accountable. Accountability is a four-letter word in Washington. The prevailing attitude is that accountability is nothing but an archaic relic from generations past.

If these goons waltz away yet again by blaming anybody else but themselves, Wall Street will be left basically intact, living to swindle as it pleases. Frank Rich: "That's the ticking-bomb scenario that truly imperils us all." I call it financial terrorism perpetrated on The American People. It can not, and must not be allowed to continue.

Grant Brad Gerver is an entrepreneur and creative consultant for Filibi, an online classified and coupon advertising site and free home business paying 70% commissions to its members. He's also a YouTube blues singer-songwriter and guitar player (gbgerver) who performs with The Buzzard Brothers. Additionally, Grant writes political humor, thousands of bumper stickers, and humorous movie reviews. He has also worked with various companies as a product-naming specialist. He's a retired elementary school teacher and published children's author who works in the health care field.

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Live Stock Technical Analysis - Guide to Success

For a layman, stockstackup.com" title="share trading">share trading can just be selling or buying of shares like nay other product, but for a trader or precisely an investor, trade becomes a priority consideration. They invest huge amounts of money into the stockstackup.com" title="share market">share market attempting to reap up great profits in the longer run. Till their accounts wither, they live in a hope to see augmenting profits and nothing else. Coming out of the general concept, stockstackup.com" title="share trading">share trading also impacts a country's economy largely. A nation relies on how the international or local operations in the market perform.

A trade is thus, declared to be profitable and successful if it translates into a gain of the GDP and that indicates the thriving economy of a country. However, behind this smiling profitable story trading lays extensive study and stock technical analysis. For instance, in the Indian stockstackup.com" title="share market">share market, Nifty and BSE sensex are the index or indicators giving a clear idea of the market situation and also whether it is the right time to invest or not. 

This technical analysis completely thrives on finance and investments and is an elaborated study of the share market, study of an asset, price action to predict profitable movements in the market. These often guide an investor to make great profits. With the internet spreading its wings on all aspects of business, share market too does not lie unaffected. Share brokers have their helplines open online where online share trading is carried on. A number of trading websites like Nirmal Bang shelters trading experts and also provides ample information on Indian mutual funds and the functioning of stock markets BSE and NSE.

What is used as a tutorial is a well blended experience guides where the pasta and present market fluctuations are studied upon and accordingly the new strategies are devised. This can help one arrive at a price well-established trend too and can make decisions based on one's own intuitive mind. A true stock technical analysis is one which teaches you to look into the market and decide accordingly which would be the most cost effective way to trade the shares.

Nirmal Kumar Soni is freelance market analyst and is writing reviews articles on stock share market, stock technical analysis, share market and information on stock market.

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Stock Trading - Make Wall Street Pay You Money

Let me introduce you to the idea of Wall Street paying you money. To get the stock market to pay you money you need to get to know the world of stockstackup.com" title="options trading">options trading. In the world of stockstackup.com" title="options trading">options trading, if you trade more than one option at the same time (buying one and selling the other) that is called a spread. If the spread costs you money, it's a debit spread.

However, if it puts money in your account, it's a credit spread. A credit spread is usually theta positive. That means that it makes money from the passage of time.

The passing of time is a sure thing. (Note: that does not make your trade a sure thing, but it does stack the odds in your favor).

ere's the basics of a credit spread. You sell an option that is more expensive, and you buy a cheaper one.

Here is an example.

If ABC stock is trading at 100, and you sell a call option with a strike of 105, and buy a call with a strike of 110, then you are in an out-of-the-money credit spread. (This is called a bear call spread).

A bear call spread or a bull put spread (the opposite thing) are the simplest credit spreads. There are more complicated ones too. You can do an iron condor, or an inverted butterfly. Speaking of that, you hear a lot about the butterfly spread, but not much about the inverted butterfly. If you want to do something interesting, study about the butterfly spread. Then realize what would happen if you flipped that around.

I think you'll like what you discover.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just recorded a 25 minute CD called "How To Pick Winning Stocks - The Secret Formula"

Request your free copy here: Click here for your free CD [http://www.mytradinguniversity.com/CD].

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