Year: 2015

The secret to choosing good common stocks is that there really is no secret to it.

The winning techniques are tried and true; instead, it’s how you assemble and apply them that makes the difference. The techniques don’t work all the time, but they work often enough so that the methods employed by successful stock investors tend to be more alike than different.

The right way to succeed in the stock market is to invest for both growth and “value.” That means concentrating the bulk of your portfolio in stocks that pass a number of tests and holding them for the long term–three, five, even ten years.

For those in search of income, not growth, it means applying the same tests so that you don’t make any false and risky assumptions about the stocks you buy.

The right way is not based on buying a stock one day and selling it the next. It does not depend on your ability to predict the direction of the economy or even the direction of the stock market. It does depend on your willingness to apply the following measures before you place your order.

The aim: an average 12% to 15% annual total return (price increases plus dividends) on your investments when the market is performing in its historical range, plus the opportunity for much bigger gains when economic forces push it to much greater heights.

You’ll have no trouble finding candidates for your investment dollars. Brokers are full of suggestions, of course, and you may come across intriguing products or companies while walking through a store or leafing through a newspaper. Or your eye may be caught by one of the gorgeous “corporate image” ads that run in upscale magazines.

Most of the information you need to check is readily available from a number of sources and can be calculated from the data you find there.

You’ll quickly discover that the number of stocks that meet all these tests at any given time will be low. So what you’re really looking for are stocks that exhibit most of the following signs of value and come close on the others.

There are different trading strategies (Short, Medium and Long term) for every market conditions, and the process of selecting one strategy can be a very exhaustive task. The strategy that you will decide on should be part of your plan of stock trading, and it should assist you in limiting the choices for stock selection.

First, the short-term stock trading strategies, they involve losing confidence when high risks arise, this will result in losing whatever the investor worked for so fast. It includes Momentum Stock Trading, Penny Stock Trading, Shorting Stocks, News Trading, and Extended Hours Trading. The Momentum Stock Trading is based on complying with the trend, and when researching you should concentrate on determining stocks that are becoming of more strength (strong uptrend and downtrend). The Penny Stock Trading is concerned with trading with stocks that have extremely low prices. This strategy is of a high risk because it is hard to find information about penny stock companies, and a stock can be easily influenced and manipulated. The Shorting Stocks focuses on receiving profits from the decrease in the price of a stock. This strategy is very risky because it depends on stocks that experience significant falls, and is mostly used by professional traders. The News Trading strategy is concerned with following the most crucial and real time public statements (Macroeconomic new releases, earnings releases of companies, bond auctions, political speeches, etc). This strategy is short term oriented. The Extended Hours trading strategy is usually combined with News trading. It involves a trader buying or selling a “moving” stock before or after the market opens/closes, and then the position gets closed inside the regular hours of trading.

Second, the medium-term and the special stock trading and investment strategies, they include; Gap Trading, ETF Trading, Elliott Wave Theory, Fibonacci Trading Strategy, Contrarian Investing Strategy, and Following Insiders. The Gap Trading strategy involves gaps which are sections on a chart where the stock price moves significantly up or down without any trading taking place. Gaps take place for different reason, for instance, when the earnings of a company are much more than expected, as a result, the price of the stock starts higher than it closed the day before. These gaps are discovered by traders who want to profit when the price of the stock reverses to meet the gap. The ETF Trading strategy involves risk diffusion, and it contains a set of stocks in a certain region or sector. It could be short, medium or long term. ETF and Momentum trading strategies are usually used together. The Elliott Wave Theory strategy depends on a theory that the psychology of the investor drives the prices of the stock up in a set of five waves and down in a set of three waves. Charts are used by traders to figure out these waves. The Fibonacci Trading strategy involves the usage of Fibonacci sequence in trading. This type of technical analysis demonstrates the possibility that the price of a financial asset will follow a large part of an original move and detect support or resistance at the major levels of Fibonacci before it goes on in the original direction. The Contrarian Investing Strategy focuses on gain returns by investing in a way that is different from the conventional wisdom one. Finding and buying stocks after their prices have decreased, and selling them when their prices increase can lead to very high returns. The Following Insiders strategy involves observing the main insider trading transactions. Insiders are directors and officers of a company or stockholders that posses at least 10% of the company’s equity.

Third, the long-term investment strategies, they include Income Investing, Value investing, and Growth Investing strategies. The Income Investing, also called Investing for income, focuses on stocks that provide high dividends. These stocks are usually volatile and safely pay dividends every year. The main aim of this strategy is to hold a low risk stock and generate income. The Value Stock Investing strategy focuses on determining stocks from successful companies that are severally undervalued comparing the price of the stock to their true value. When investing in these companies, you need to know the company’s fundamentals in order to realize their actual value. The main aim of this strategy is to combine capital growth and income generation with a medium level of risk. The Growth Investing strategy involves determining stocks that have a high growth possibility. This type of stocks is usually riskier than value stocks because they have a higher possibility of going down. These stocks sometimes don’t pay dividends because they use the company’s profits for future investments. The main aim of this strategy is capital growth but still involves high levels of risks.

Stock market for beginners often seems very discouraging. Many people believe that it’s a dangerous place to invest in, but in fact, stock market investing can be very safe, and most of the fundamental concepts can be simply applied by beginners. Understanding these concepts will enhance your decisions about stock market investing. Most people get involved in stock market investing without the sufficient knowledge, and they expect to gain large returns, but end up losing too much, this is why it’s very important to understand how the stock marker performs, and what to anticipate from it.

When you observe the stock market investing history, you will know that the investors’ emotions are their worst enemy. There were times where many individuals thought that the financial world was coming to an end, and at every single time they were significantly wrong. It is impossible to determine how the market will perform in the future. Having a good stock market investing plan will keep you calm and feeling safe during the continuous ups and downs of the stock market.

The stock market for beginners usually seem very attempting, it appears like a place where they can receive fast financial returns. Many individuals regret not investing in certain stocks after these stocks’ prices rise. One should know that he/she can make money in the stock market, but this money doesn’t usually come fast. Acting slow and calm is one way to be successful in stock market for beginners. To be successful in anything in life, you have to be patient, thus beginners should spend enough time to receive the sufficient knowledge and determine the appropriate stock trading strategy for performing successfully in the stock market.

A stock is a small share that represents an equal part of ownership of a company. The stock market in general is a huge, automated superstore that allows exchanging of stock between buyers and sellers. The Exchanging process that takes place between the sellers and the buyers assists in setting the prices of the shares and facilitates the trading process. In other words, the stock market works the same way as any marketplace; it helps exchanging goods between different parties, setting prices, and operates to minimize the distribution costs. Stock market investing is becoming one of the most important investment decisions, it is considered a very good decision in the long term; this is because it involves risks and returns. In the stock market, your money is at a higher risk than if it was invested in a savings or CD, thus the expected possible returns become higher.

The stock market is always changing and competitive, there are some times where the changes make sense, but on many other times no one can demonstrate the reason for these changes. The supply and demand drive the stock market, the supply is represented by the number of available shares of stock, whereas the demand is represented by the number of shares that are required by investors. For every share that is bought by an investor, it is at the same time sold by a supplier on the other end. There are continuous fluctuations in the stock market, where the stocks within it rise and fall regularly. Many people mistakenly believe that when a specific stock is rising, then it will continue rising in the proceeding period and vice versa, and they make decisions based on this belief. But in fact, following this gut instinct will probably result in purchasing at high rates and selling at low ones. It’s important to understand that when stocks fall, they become less expensive and thus less risky. The same thing takes place when stocks rise; they become more expensive and thus more risky.  Many investment writers claim that whenever the stock goes up then it becomes safer, but unfortunately, this is significantly wrong. Buying a stock is very similar to buying at the grocery store, whenever prices increase we get less excited and buy less, this is why when stock prices increase, it is more expensive to purchase the same stock. However, there are rare times where essential information arise and drive the way we value a stock.

In general, the fluctuations in the stock market can cause large gains and losses, but if the time horizon of an investment is sufficiently long, these short term fluctuations will lead to relatively high returns. The stock market is expected to rise quicker than underlying earning during periods of economic growth and prosperity, whereas it is expected to work worse during hard economic situations, political uncertainty, and lower consumer confidence.

A charge off is essentially when a company declares your debt as a financial loss in its records. You are still responsible for paying off your debt, however. You will just not be able to use the specific credit card in order to make purchases anymore.

There are two basic concepts that apply to creditors and lenders: profit and loss. A lender will generate profit off of the collection of interest and principal and lose money from lending out an amount of money that is not paid back. When you do not pay your debt and the creditor accepts and acknowledges your debt as a financial loss, they are declaring your debt as a loss for the company. This charge off is then added, by way of a negative entry, into your credit report. By adding a charge off to your credit report, they will attempt to continue contacting you and try to collect on the debt that you owe the company.

The usual interval of time that must transpire before a debt can be charged off is six months of less-than or no minimum payments. However, a charge off does not mean that you are clear of that financial debt. A charge off will remain on your credit report for seven years.

A charged off status can be updated, however. There are two status updates that can be applied to a transaction once it is charged off: charged-off paid or charged-off settled. If you pay your debt after it has been charged off, it becomes a paid charged off. Before paying the creditor, however, try to negotiate with the creditor to see if they will remove the line “charge off” from your credit report. Paying the charged off account without removal of the trade line will increase your credit score relatively little. Even though that these two aforementioned updates are better than a single charge off status, they are still considered poor and unsatisfactory. Therefore, avoid placing a charge off onto your credit report.

It is best to pay all of your monthly bills on time to avoid a possible charge off. This is because the only way to remove a charge off from your credit report is to complete the seven year allocation of time until the charge off is eliminated by default or negotiate with the creditor to have the charge off removed if you pay the entirety of the debt you owe in full.

If you are having problems managing your debt by yourself, you might consider outside help. You decide you don’t want to have your property repossessed, you certainly don’t want your credit score to plummet, and you definitely don’t want to declare bankruptcy. What else can you do? Well, be cautious if going this route, but you could consider a debt settlement.

Debt settlement is the actual reduction of the amount of debt you have to pay. It’s a difficult route to take because it takes some people skills, and the higher number of credit cards you have, the more difficult it will be. The first step to take is to contact the collections department of each credit card. When you contact them, you will have to persuade them into accepting less than what you owe. Whether it’s on the phone or in a written letter, you need to tell the collections department about your financial situation and the amount of money you can pay.

Only unsecured debts can be settled in a debt reduction settlement. These are debts that do not have collateral, or a pledge of specific property if the debtor cannot pay the debt. For the most part, this consists of credit card debt, although medical bills also apply as a type of unsecured debt. Therefore, do not go this route to negotiate your car payments or your monthly mortgage payment.

More often than not, your credit card company will agree to make some amount of reduction in your debt. If you are on the verge of bankruptcy, they want to help you out. If you declare bankruptcy, after all, your creditors will risk losing the entire amount of money owed by you, and they don’t want to see that happen. But if you are not persuasive enough, you might be turned down.

If you credit card company denies your attempt to reduce the debt, you can try a third party. You can contact a collection agency or junk debt buyer and tell them about your financial situation. The agency or buyer may purchase your debt from your creditor, and you can negotiate with them. Be aware that collection agencies often have fees involved, unlike negotiating with your credit card company. A positive of turning to a third party, however, is that you can request to have the collection removed from your credit report. This could improve your credit score, but it might cost a pretty penny.

Whichever way you decide to approach a settlement, you must be able to make the payment once the settlement is made. If negotiating with your credit card company, your debt reduction must be paid in full within 60 days. If you turn to a debt settlement company, be careful to avoid debt settlement scams and understand that you might enter a program that requires a monthly payment for up to five years. This route is not easy, but if you have the patience and the negotiation skills, debt settlement may be an option for you.

When facing home foreclosure, many debtors feel like they are out of options and turn to a bankruptcy filing. Although a bankruptcy filing prevents home foreclosure, it is not the best solution. There are several methods you can attempt before resorting to bankruptcy filings in order to protect from foreclosure.

The first path that you should always try is dealing with the creditors directly to figure out a payment plan. Although creating a new payment plan may result in expensive payments for the short term, that is better than foreclosure. If you have repaired your financial situation but are still facing foreclosure, this may work for you – you can work with the creditors to pay in the short run to protect your home, and then go back to the prearranged payment plan in the future.

If you cannot create a new payment plan, then you can still use the property to try to pay without losing the home. There are several types of deals you can make with a creditor – for instance, you could try to modify the mortgage, sell the property to a third party or the creditor directly at foreclosure in order to pay off the debt, get a second mortgage to pay off the current debt, or buy it back from foreclosure yourself. However, all of these plans involve negotiations with a foreclosure expert and creditors, and you must be certain that this is the right path for you. Often, homeowners do not see that stopping foreclosure is just a short-term fix to a long-term problem – that they cannot afford that house – and spend a lot of money preventing foreclosure rather than moving to a more economical house.

However, filing for bankruptcy will prevent home foreclosure. This can be good for two reasons – it buys you more time in order to try to stop foreclosure, or if you actually continue through with the bankruptcy process, then it will protect your house and certain other assets from being taken. However, it will come at the usual cost of bankruptcy and will be on your credit report for the next seven to ten years.

Although it is important for you to talk to a foreclosure expert before making any decision, it is good to know that there are plenty of possibilities out there to protect your home from foreclosure. You must try to determine which path is best for you in your situation and work to try to prevent foreclosure.

Note: Bankruptcy can result in a stay from foreclosure. Homeowners lose that stay once they leave bankruptcy protection.