One of the things people are always asking me is how can I find a good stock. The answer I give does not please them. I say, "You are not qualified to pick stock. You don't know how so don't try. Put your money in a no-load mutual fund that is going up".
The next cry is, "I don't want to buy mutual funds. What do I do?" OK, so I'll tell you. It is easy. You will have to do less than an hour of work. None of that Wall Street mythology about research which is all horse hockey. The way Wall Street does research is worthless. And don't listen to any broker. Advice from a broker is a eulogy for your money.
They want you to look at the company prospectus. This document isn't worth the paper it is printed on. It was not written for the investor; it was written to pass inspection by some Dilbert lawyer in Washington to see that it meets all the regulations. You can take a prospectus of a very good company and one of a company that has gone bankrupt and you will see they are almost identical. Throw them away.
Read the Annual Report. Another bit of smoke and mirrors. The title should tell you - Annual. Much of what is in it is a year old. Worthless. And let's hope it doesn't have a case of Enronitis.
Get a report from Morningstar. They know all about every financial statistic for a company that you can think of. You might even find out how many sugar lumps the CEO has in his coffee, but there is one thing you won't learn. If you buy this company's stock will it go up? What I am saying is that all the conventional wisdom methods of doing research are worthless. So what do you do?
On the Internet you can find a list of the best performing mutual funds. Go to www.smartmoney.com or www.yahoo/finance.com . There are other places also, but these 2 are very good. List the top 5 mutual funds (write down their symbols). Now go to www.bigcharts.com . Put in the symbol for one of the funds. A chart will come up giving you a picture of the price performance of that fund. If it is going up at a 25-degree angle or more it means the fund manager is doing a good job of picking stocks. At the top of the chart picture there is a legend for Morningstar. Click on that. The new page will show near the bottom the major holdings of this fund. Again you need to get the symbols for his top 5 stocks and look at the chart picture for each one. If that stock is going up in a nice steady price over a period of time of 6 months or longer you have found a winner. Do this with several funds until you have found some stocks you like.
You have let a professional stock picker do all the work for you and now can piggyback his expertise at no cost. Please remember that when that stock turns down you want to sell it. You may be able to ride one up, but you can never tell when it will turn into another Enron. Always be ready to sell.
Al Thomas' 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 at http://www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why he's the man that Wall Street does not want you to know.
Copyright 2005
Batchtown Chicago prom limo .. Lockport Chicago limo O’HareThe stock market has not been very kind to your... Read More
Have you seen all those big full page ads for... Read More
Last time we looked at the real performance of the... Read More
Wall Street's watchword has always been diversification, but what does... Read More
The recent criminal fiasco in the mutual fund industry is... Read More
Using Swing Trading Strategies and Technical Analysis when Trading Stocks... Read More
We need a rabbit!This was a pretty horrible week for... Read More
A PEG ratio cannot be used alone but is a... Read More
If there is one term over-used when talking about making... Read More
Someday you may want to retire and continue to live... Read More
Being wrong is OK, but let's not carry it to... Read More
If you are serious about making and keeping money by... Read More
With the stock market stubbornly refusing to settle down and... Read More
I constantly hear the talking heads on CNBC-TV, the radio... Read More
As one of my regular readers you know I have... Read More
Do you have a nest egg? You know, a place... Read More
Ever have one of those sample boxes of candy? Each... Read More
Trading is a fascinating activity.There are so many layers to... Read More
On November 17 I bought 7 different mutual funds and... Read More
When we go to the circus we see a trapeze... Read More
Mutual fund investing is a lot like Thai cooking. Everyone... Read More
There are major differences between trading stocks and trading futures.... Read More
Day trading is all about making buy and sell decisions.... Read More
You may have wondered why your mutual funds have been... Read More
If you want one.And I don't recommend any broker with... Read More
shuttle from Midway Munster are ..In 1960 an engineer working for a watch company in... Read More
From the book 'The Stockopoly Plan' by the author Charles... Read More
Because you don't feel too sure about which stock or... Read More
In 1960 an engineer working for a watch company in... Read More
There are formulas for just about everything, but it has... Read More
The Shadow knows. Remember him? It seems a shadow has... Read More
In his wonderful book, 'Multiple Streams of Income', best selling... Read More
"If you don't know where you are going, any road... Read More
Every Wall Street analyst, financial planner and broker will tell... Read More
Sometime in the third quarter of 1997, someone told me... Read More
Every day in any financial publication you will find the... Read More
There are red lights, green lights, blue lights and spot... Read More
The stock market has not been very kind to your... Read More
With all the bad news that has been dumped upon... Read More
What a great statement!I just heard someone use it in... Read More
Everybody is riding the Wall Street Roller coaster. Even if... Read More
The stock market is very unstable at this time going... Read More
During the day I watch CNBC-TV, the stock market channel.... Read More
If you are fed up with early redemption charges and... Read More
That sounds like good advice doesn't it? Don't lose all... Read More
An investor can find and research the best stock on... Read More
Even if you don't own any of their stock or... Read More
Wall Street has been preaching for years and years to... Read More
If you go to Haiti or other places in the... Read More
Today's society gives special recognition to alcoholics, sexaholics, binge-aholics, shopaholics,... Read More
Stocks & Mutual Fund |