How To Be A Winner

Everyone who invests in the stock market wants to be a winner. Each person's definition of a winner will be somewhat different, but there is hardly one who isn't looking for that stock that will double in price within one year.

Can it be done? Yes, but when you look at the odds you may want to find a better or maybe slower and safer way. The chance of finding that mother load is 1 in 200, about ? percent. Of the 11,000 listed securities you have a choice of 55. Even the pros don't like those odds. What makes you think you are better?

We have been in a great bull market from 1982 to 2000. Then the bubble burst. Yet the investing public continues to believe that we are going to see double digit returns every year. According to the Financial Research Corporation's study the mutual fund pros return was only 10.92% and the average investor had gains of about 8.7%. The great Warren Buffett says the bull is over and that we will be looking at a 5% return not the 12% to 15% that has occurred in the recent past.

As I mentioned in my recent column the returns for the past 126 years has only averaged 7% with 2/3 of the return coming from dividends which are about nonexistent today. Instead of looking for the rainbow with the pot of gold at the end my suggestion is to limit your losses and let your winners run. You have heard that clich? before, but have you every understood what it means in the stock market? The floor traders and hedge fund managers do not look for home runs. They look for slow and steady and never allow any major losses. The key to long term investment success is to limit your losing positions and never give back profits you have earned.

If tech investors in 1999 had followed this principle they would have kept about 80% of their profits. Wall Street says you should Buy and Hold and they have told this lie so often that it has become conventional wisdom. It is absolute stupidity. A simple trailing stop-loss order would have protected the investor's capital. Almost no broker and certainly no brokerage house recommends loss limit orders. No one is taught the basic winning concept of the market ? an exit strategy. Until that is learned you are doomed to give back your winnings and take losses when a stock doesn't go up and heads down.

Most investors have no plan as to how much money they would like to accumulate nor how to intelligently go about it. They don't know where they are going and they don't want o be late.

When you have decided how much you need to save the next important step is not what to buy, but how to exit in the event what you do buy happens to go down instead of up.

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

car service from Midway Burlington .. Lockport Chicago limo O’Hare
In The News:

Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says a malware app called SpyLend is posing as a financial tool, hitting 100,000-plus downloads.
Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says Clone Robotics’ Protoclone mimics humans with 1,000 muscles – too human for comfort.
Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson urges you to use Apple’s App Privacy Report to see what your apps are really up to.
Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson talks about how to smoothly transfer your data from an old laptop to a new one using cloud storage or external drives.
Kurt the CyberGuy offers tips to safeguard your personal information as scammers become more sophisticated with scam texts and other methods.
WeRide's unmanned electric delivery van, the Robovan W5, has 194 cubic feet of cargo space and can carry payloads up to about 2,205 pounds
Kurt the CyberGuy recommends deleting 16 browser extensions immediately in response to a report saying more than 3.2 million web users were affected by a security breach.
Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.
A robotics firm in China claims a robot has performed the world's first humanoid robot front flip, which is significantly more difficult than a backflip.
A digital ID may be even more secure than a physical ID. Storing your driver's license in your Apple Wallet is an ideal solution for commuters.
A cybersecurity firm has shed some light on just how common tax scams have become. Kurt the CyberGuy offers his advice for how to protect your refund.
Lifesize Plans offers immersive walk-throughs that allow customers the opportunity to tour a home's design before construction actually begins.
Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.
A man invested $4 million in bitcoin and lost it all with a single click when he was targeted by a vishing scam, which uses phone calls to trick people.
Expandable's Touchdown is a designer trailer that promises a luxury off-grid living experience and unfolds into a home in about 15 minutes.
Major employee screening company data breach affects 3.3 million people. Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson explains what happened and gives five ways to protect your data.
Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson reveals mind-blowing tech that gives you sunlight on demand.
New malware "FrigidStealer" targets Mac computers. Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson offers four ways to stay safe from infostealer malware.
Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson talks about how lab-grown muscles power a biohybrid hand for scalable prosthetics and research.
Reports of task scams have significantly risen in the past four years, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Kurt the CyberGuy offers some red flags.
iPhones have a hidden folder that eats up storage without you knowing it. Kurt the CyberGuy offers some tricks to free up storage on your device.
A recent ransomeware attack targeted Zacks, an American investment firm, and a cybercriminal claimed to have stolen records for millions of customers.
Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.
Researchers unveiled a new soft prosthetic hand that combines the natural coordination patterns of our fingers with the decoding of motoneuron activity in the spinal column.
Accidentally deleting a text message on your iPhone or iPad is not a problem if you still need the message. Apple has a built-in way to recover it.

Time Out

Are you paying any attention to your retirement savings? Do... Read More

The Stock Trading Plan - Why You Must Have One To Trade Successfully

This is the continuing story of our two imaginary traders,... Read More

Tips to Finding Other People?s Simple Trading Plans

Did you know you can make money (and a lot... Read More

Its Snowing

The Winter Games for the Olympics are coming up soon... Read More

The Next Bull Market

We are already in it, but you can't see it.... Read More

Money, Insanity and Wall Street

Money: the most charged word in the planet. It means... Read More

Mindset

In 1960 an engineer working for a watch company in... Read More

Bargain Basement - Finding Stocks That Go Up

Have you been listening to the talking heads on CNBC-TV?... Read More

Value Investing: Selecting From The Bargain Bin

Picking a beaten-down stock requires a different kind of selection... Read More

Stock Trading Secrets?

How often have you come across an advertisement or e-mail... Read More

Will the Stock Market be Lower in October?

The stock market often closes a week in the middle... Read More

Bollinger Bands Strategies

The Bollinger Band theory is designed to depict the volatility... Read More

How Commodity Trading Differs from Stock Trading

There are major differences between trading stocks and trading futures.... Read More

Protect Your 401K

Checked your 401K lately? Going back to about a year... Read More

Investment Discipline

One of the great "secrets" of successful people is discipline... Read More

The Inside Scoop on Mutual Fund Rip Offs

The bear market that showed up at the end of... Read More

How To Pick A Mutual Fund

Mutual funds by definition are a mixed bag of stocks,... Read More

Where Is The Beef?

Where is the beef? Or maybe it should be where... Read More

Trading Baskets II: The Crapolio, A Roll of the Dice in the Stock Market

In a previously written article, we expanded the use of... Read More

Stock Chart Reading

As an investor you will want to check out any... Read More

Struggling Stocks, Booming Commodities

04/28/2005NASDAQ dropped -12.5% year to date in 2005. S&P500 index... Read More

Understanding a Stocks PEG Ratio

A PEG ratio cannot be used alone but is a... Read More

How Eating Bitumen Made Me a Better Trader

Trading is a fascinating activity.There are so many layers to... Read More

Basics of Stock Market

Financial markets provide their participants with the most favorable conditions... Read More

NASDAQ 800?

In November of 2000 when the NASDAQ was trading at... Read More

Granger limo Chicago ..