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The current market is even more unpredictable than any of the previous year's markets because we have not seen the bottoming-out of the economy yet. The Stock Market seems to have bottomed and is back on a general rise but it could easily slip down again if any more major companies fail. So it would be wise to learn techniques for saving what profits we can gain.
Now that I've covered the basic things to start your investing portfolio, it's time to add tools to keep your money as safe as can be, given the market's current volition. One of these tools is called a 25% trailing stop. It's a bit complicated at first, and can be later, as well, but it is a vital tool to keep losses to a minimum.
Let's say you buy XYZ at $2.00 a share. Calculate 25% of $2.00, which is $.50, and set your stop-loss with your stock manager or stock purchasing site at $1.50. This way, it will keep you from losing more than 25% should the stock drop for some reason. As the stock grows, change the setting so that it keeps up with the current price. You want to keep the mark at 25% of the stock's highest point.
So if XYZ grows to $3.00, 25% would be $.75, so you would change your stop-loss setting to $2.25. In this example, the worst you could do is get a gain of 25 cents per share. If XYZ goes to $4.00, 25% becomes $1, so you set your stop loss at $3 and the worst you can do is a profit of $1 per share. This can be complicated, especially if you are not a math person, but it is necessary and has saved me money several times already this year.
Sharebuilder.com has a stop-loss option for every stock in an account. It can seem tedious to set stop-loss orders for all our stocks but it does two things: It keeps your losses to a minimum and it keeps you aware of your portfolio. Being aware is what could have saved everyone's accounts last October.
In fact, if everyone had had a 25% trailing stop on all their accounts last October, think of all the money that would have been saved! I know 2 people that lost more than 50% of the value of their portfolios and I'm sure you know others, as well.
So let's spread the word and help America keep Her losses at a minimum. Perhaps that's a bit dramatic, but it IS the Speed Of Life, after all. See you next time. Good Investing!!!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
New Source For Information
I apologize for not taking better care of my blog recently as finding Wifi has been extremely difficult but now I've found an excellent source for new stories. It's www.slashdot.com. They put out a daily newsletter full of techie news and curious oddities from which I can glean material from time to time. Which brings me to today's entry.
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that Inventor Stephen Kurtin has developed glasses with a mechanically adjustable focus that he believes can free nearly 2 billion people around the world from bifocals, trifocals, and progressive lenses. Kurtin has spent almost 20 years on his quest to create a better pair of spectacles for people who suffer from presbyopia - the condition that affects almost everyone over the age of 40 as they progressively lose the ability to focus on close objects.
The glasses have a tiny adjustable slider on the bridge of the frame that makes it possible to focus alternately on a book, a computer, or a mountain range in the distance. 'For more than 140 years. adjustable focus has been recognized as the Holy Grail for prebyopes,' says Kurtin. 'It's a blazingly difficult problem.'
Each lens is actually a set of two lenses; one soft and the other firm. The flexible lens (near the eye) has a transparent, distensible membrane attatched to a clear rigid surface. The pocket between them holds a small quantity of crystal-clear fluid. As you move the slider on the bridge, it pushes the fluid and alters the shape of the lens."
The product is called TruFocals and can be found at www.TruFocals.com . The introductory price is $895 a pair, which seems a bit pricey since they are slightly dorky looking, aside from the fact that it more than doubles the alternatives. It remains to be seen if the product will hold up to the scrutiny of the market.
It seems to me that, given the fact as stated by Stephen Kurtin that there are a potential 2 billion customers in the world, that starting out at such a high price is a bit cheeky. I mean, who really needs a potential 1.7 trillion dollars? Just a thought. All in all, the invention is certainly worthy of a Speed Of Life rating. If anyone gets a pair, tell us how they work for you. Who knows, they might even have an affiliate program.
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that Inventor Stephen Kurtin has developed glasses with a mechanically adjustable focus that he believes can free nearly 2 billion people around the world from bifocals, trifocals, and progressive lenses. Kurtin has spent almost 20 years on his quest to create a better pair of spectacles for people who suffer from presbyopia - the condition that affects almost everyone over the age of 40 as they progressively lose the ability to focus on close objects.
The glasses have a tiny adjustable slider on the bridge of the frame that makes it possible to focus alternately on a book, a computer, or a mountain range in the distance. 'For more than 140 years. adjustable focus has been recognized as the Holy Grail for prebyopes,' says Kurtin. 'It's a blazingly difficult problem.'
Each lens is actually a set of two lenses; one soft and the other firm. The flexible lens (near the eye) has a transparent, distensible membrane attatched to a clear rigid surface. The pocket between them holds a small quantity of crystal-clear fluid. As you move the slider on the bridge, it pushes the fluid and alters the shape of the lens."
The product is called TruFocals and can be found at www.TruFocals.com . The introductory price is $895 a pair, which seems a bit pricey since they are slightly dorky looking, aside from the fact that it more than doubles the alternatives. It remains to be seen if the product will hold up to the scrutiny of the market.
It seems to me that, given the fact as stated by Stephen Kurtin that there are a potential 2 billion customers in the world, that starting out at such a high price is a bit cheeky. I mean, who really needs a potential 1.7 trillion dollars? Just a thought. All in all, the invention is certainly worthy of a Speed Of Life rating. If anyone gets a pair, tell us how they work for you. Who knows, they might even have an affiliate program.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Investing For Average Joes #5
Let's talk about research. Before you buy anything, it's good to research it and find out if it's even worth buying. There are many places to get research about the companies in which we would like to invest. Sharebuilder has many research tools for account holders. If you google "stock research" , I'm sure you will find many sites that can help you. The library has a multitude of sources, as well.
First, you should decide what companies that you don't want to be connected to for whatever reason. Maybe you don't want to invest in oil companies because they help to pollute the environment or some other moral issue. Once you decide which kinds of companies you don't want, all the others are fair game, so to speak.
When I get a tip on a stock from the Oxford Club, I read all of their info on the stock, which is extensive, and the I check the history of how it has done in the past. I look at 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years. I like to see an upward trending graph but it's ok if the dips follow the market dips.
Next, I want to see how much it is trading for now. My general rule is less than $20 and preferably less than $10. This works for me because I don't have a large amount of cash available so my gains will be more easily realized. I like to buy in 100 share blocks so that if the stock goes up or down $.01, my share holdings go up or down $1.00 which makes it easier to keep up with how it's doing.
Sharebuilder charges a small fee of $.005 per share on orders over 1000 shares so if I buy or sell
more than 1000 shares, I do it in 1000 share blocks. I'm a small time investor so every cent counts but you may feel otherwise. When I get to the point that I'm buying or selling10K shares at a time, I may ignore the fee.
It may seem enticing to buy penny stocks because you can double your money, in theory, faster than stocks of $1 or more but you can also lose money faster. In some cases, you can lose all of your holdings in 1 day, depending on how the company is doing. Most stocks that are trading below $1 are from companies that are not doing well.
Take Sirius XM Radio, for example. One year ago, the stock was trading at $2.42 per share. In October when the market crashed, it fell to $.06 per share. You might think that at $.06 per share, you could double your money if it only went to $.12, which is true, but if you had checked out the company, they were about to go into bankruptcy which could have meant that they would have lost all value, hence all your investment would have vanished.
That's all I have for now. Next time, I'll talk about how to set up a trailing stop to keep your losses low and other helpful hints. Til then, happy investing.
First, you should decide what companies that you don't want to be connected to for whatever reason. Maybe you don't want to invest in oil companies because they help to pollute the environment or some other moral issue. Once you decide which kinds of companies you don't want, all the others are fair game, so to speak.
When I get a tip on a stock from the Oxford Club, I read all of their info on the stock, which is extensive, and the I check the history of how it has done in the past. I look at 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years. I like to see an upward trending graph but it's ok if the dips follow the market dips.
Next, I want to see how much it is trading for now. My general rule is less than $20 and preferably less than $10. This works for me because I don't have a large amount of cash available so my gains will be more easily realized. I like to buy in 100 share blocks so that if the stock goes up or down $.01, my share holdings go up or down $1.00 which makes it easier to keep up with how it's doing.
Sharebuilder charges a small fee of $.005 per share on orders over 1000 shares so if I buy or sell
more than 1000 shares, I do it in 1000 share blocks. I'm a small time investor so every cent counts but you may feel otherwise. When I get to the point that I'm buying or selling10K shares at a time, I may ignore the fee.
It may seem enticing to buy penny stocks because you can double your money, in theory, faster than stocks of $1 or more but you can also lose money faster. In some cases, you can lose all of your holdings in 1 day, depending on how the company is doing. Most stocks that are trading below $1 are from companies that are not doing well.
Take Sirius XM Radio, for example. One year ago, the stock was trading at $2.42 per share. In October when the market crashed, it fell to $.06 per share. You might think that at $.06 per share, you could double your money if it only went to $.12, which is true, but if you had checked out the company, they were about to go into bankruptcy which could have meant that they would have lost all value, hence all your investment would have vanished.
That's all I have for now. Next time, I'll talk about how to set up a trailing stop to keep your losses low and other helpful hints. Til then, happy investing.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Vype Is High School Sports Magnified
I was driving through Arkansas scanning radio stations when I happened upon an interesting interview. The radio host was interviewing the owners of Vype, a high school sports magazine. Vype gives high school atheletes a stage to showcase their skills so that college coaches and recruits can observe them in more detail.
According to Vype's "About Us" page, Vype captures the passion and excitement of high school sports in it's purest form. With in-depth coverage, real-time content, and local interviews, Vype covers high schools sports as well as any sports magazine, if not better.
I checked out the site and it is well run, easy to maneuver, and cleverly set up. It jumps out at you and declares that "This is what high school sports are all about". The camera work is impressive and brings the reader into the shots as if they are really there.
"We believe," claims Vype, "that high school sports have a positive and long-lasting impact on the development of today's teens in terms of acquiring life-long skills and perspective on teamwork, dedication, and commitment. We believe in the purity of the game played at the high school level where kids simply compete for the fun and the excitement of playing. We believe in being active participants in our local community through our editorial coverage, partnerships, and sponsors, ensuring our focus and impact are authentic."
Vype currently reaches over 750,000 people each month through 14 locally published magazines and 26 web-only properties. Through it's poplular website http://www.vype.com/ , high school atheletes have access to an interactive online resource where they can post highlight reels, share ideas, and learn from industry experts. Check out http://www.vype.com/ and get into the excitement and the thrill of it all.
----some content taken from http://www.vype.com/
According to Vype's "About Us" page, Vype captures the passion and excitement of high school sports in it's purest form. With in-depth coverage, real-time content, and local interviews, Vype covers high schools sports as well as any sports magazine, if not better.
I checked out the site and it is well run, easy to maneuver, and cleverly set up. It jumps out at you and declares that "This is what high school sports are all about". The camera work is impressive and brings the reader into the shots as if they are really there.
"We believe," claims Vype, "that high school sports have a positive and long-lasting impact on the development of today's teens in terms of acquiring life-long skills and perspective on teamwork, dedication, and commitment. We believe in the purity of the game played at the high school level where kids simply compete for the fun and the excitement of playing. We believe in being active participants in our local community through our editorial coverage, partnerships, and sponsors, ensuring our focus and impact are authentic."
Vype currently reaches over 750,000 people each month through 14 locally published magazines and 26 web-only properties. Through it's poplular website http://www.vype.com/ , high school atheletes have access to an interactive online resource where they can post highlight reels, share ideas, and learn from industry experts. Check out http://www.vype.com/ and get into the excitement and the thrill of it all.
----some content taken from http://www.vype.com/
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Investing For Average Joes #3
There are many books you can read to determine how to invest in the stock market. So many, in fact, that choosing one might be daunting. "Investing For Dummies", if it exists, would be a good one given that those "dummies" books are well written and easy to understand. I just jumped into the market without any particular plan, which turned out to be expensive. But the hard way is the sure way.
The first thing you need to determine is what kind of investor you are; conservative, moderate, or aggressive. Knowing what you are will make your investing so much easier. Personally, I am aggressive because I want to see some results before I get old but whatever you are is perfectly ok.
Conservative investors want their investments to be as safe as possible with the least risk involved. They like their money and they want to keep it. Conservatives like bonds for their low risk and pre-determined yield. Conservatives are happy with low yields as long as they know their money will be there no matter what happens.
Aggressive investors realize that money is fluid and can be made or lost easily. They are willing to accept high risk for high gain. Sometimes that involves losing but there are ways to limit losses so thet they don't get out of hand. Aggressive investors like stocks, commodities, options, and the like. They are jumpers and are ready to get in or out at a moment's notice.
Moderate investors like a little of both. They are mutual fund and EFT traders. They buy stocks for long term commitments and will accept some risk if the deal looks promising. Moderates will hold some bonds for stability and spread out their portfolios. Moderate is a good place to start because you can quickly find out where you stand.
One good way to begin learning is to paper trade. In other words, pick some stocks from companies that you like and write down their prices. Then choose a number of shares as you would if you were actually buying them. Keep track of the market prices for a month and see how you would have fared had you bought the stock.
When you think you are ready to start investing for real, if you will email me your name and email address, I will send an invitation to Sharebuilder, which will give you $25 when you open an account. I get a few free automatic investments which I rarely use but your free $25 makes it worth it to me. You can also click on the Sharebuilder ad on this site but I don't know if they give the $25 that way or not.
Either way, Sharebuilder is the easiest, cheapest way to invest online. They have so many helpful tools to assist you from research to taxes and it's easy to understand. They won't allow you to invest in penny stocks but I am going to talk about penny stocks in another post. At the very least, click on Sharebuilder and check 'em out. I know you will like what you see.
The first thing you need to determine is what kind of investor you are; conservative, moderate, or aggressive. Knowing what you are will make your investing so much easier. Personally, I am aggressive because I want to see some results before I get old but whatever you are is perfectly ok.
Conservative investors want their investments to be as safe as possible with the least risk involved. They like their money and they want to keep it. Conservatives like bonds for their low risk and pre-determined yield. Conservatives are happy with low yields as long as they know their money will be there no matter what happens.
Aggressive investors realize that money is fluid and can be made or lost easily. They are willing to accept high risk for high gain. Sometimes that involves losing but there are ways to limit losses so thet they don't get out of hand. Aggressive investors like stocks, commodities, options, and the like. They are jumpers and are ready to get in or out at a moment's notice.
Moderate investors like a little of both. They are mutual fund and EFT traders. They buy stocks for long term commitments and will accept some risk if the deal looks promising. Moderates will hold some bonds for stability and spread out their portfolios. Moderate is a good place to start because you can quickly find out where you stand.
One good way to begin learning is to paper trade. In other words, pick some stocks from companies that you like and write down their prices. Then choose a number of shares as you would if you were actually buying them. Keep track of the market prices for a month and see how you would have fared had you bought the stock.
When you think you are ready to start investing for real, if you will email me your name and email address, I will send an invitation to Sharebuilder, which will give you $25 when you open an account. I get a few free automatic investments which I rarely use but your free $25 makes it worth it to me. You can also click on the Sharebuilder ad on this site but I don't know if they give the $25 that way or not.
Either way, Sharebuilder is the easiest, cheapest way to invest online. They have so many helpful tools to assist you from research to taxes and it's easy to understand. They won't allow you to invest in penny stocks but I am going to talk about penny stocks in another post. At the very least, click on Sharebuilder and check 'em out. I know you will like what you see.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Amazing Breakthrough in Plastic Surgery
In the field of plastic surgery there has been an amazing breakthrough recently from a company called Cytori Therapeutics. They've created a process that can add "flesh" to a breast to fill in the void left over from cancer removal. The new "flesh" gives the breast a natural look and feel.
The process has yet to be approved by the FDA and is still in the testing stage in the UK but the results look very promising. "Three months (after the treatment), my stem cell treated breast looked and felt like normal breast tissue, even slightly firmer," recalls Irene MacKenzie, the first patient to undergo treatment in the UK trial. "Now it looks fantastic and has changed my whole outlook."
The Process involves liposuctioning about a pint of fat from the patient's stomach. The fat is portioned into two parts. With one part set aside, they remove the stem cells from the fat of the other part, leaving about a teaspoon of material, which they add to the set aside fat. This mixture is injected into the void in the breast caused by the cancer removal. Some of the fat will be absorbed by the body so the breast may have to be "topped off" with more fat from liposuction later, but it appears to be a nice solution.
The applications for this stem cell process are staggering. It could be adapted to help grow new skin for burn victims or new bones for accident victims. Cytori Therapeutics' process could be a boon for plastic surgeons worldwide if the UK trials are successfull. You can read the entire article here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1172176/ME-AND-MY-OPERATION-My-breast-rebuilt-stem-cells-tummy-fat.html
The process has yet to be approved by the FDA and is still in the testing stage in the UK but the results look very promising. "Three months (after the treatment), my stem cell treated breast looked and felt like normal breast tissue, even slightly firmer," recalls Irene MacKenzie, the first patient to undergo treatment in the UK trial. "Now it looks fantastic and has changed my whole outlook."
The Process involves liposuctioning about a pint of fat from the patient's stomach. The fat is portioned into two parts. With one part set aside, they remove the stem cells from the fat of the other part, leaving about a teaspoon of material, which they add to the set aside fat. This mixture is injected into the void in the breast caused by the cancer removal. Some of the fat will be absorbed by the body so the breast may have to be "topped off" with more fat from liposuction later, but it appears to be a nice solution.
The applications for this stem cell process are staggering. It could be adapted to help grow new skin for burn victims or new bones for accident victims. Cytori Therapeutics' process could be a boon for plastic surgeons worldwide if the UK trials are successfull. You can read the entire article here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1172176/ME-AND-MY-OPERATION-My-breast-rebuilt-stem-cells-tummy-fat.html
Sunday, July 5, 2009
More Investment Info For Us Average Joes
As a follow up to a previous post, "Investing For Average Joes", I thought I would include a few of the things I've learned since becoming an investor. Some of these things may be common sense to some of you and they may be brand new but you should be able to use something to help you with your investing.
One of the coolest things to do is, once you've bought a stock and it has been going up, keep an eye on it. When your stock reaches 100% above where you bought it, sell half of it to pull out your cost, so that all you have left is profit. This does two important things. One, it takes all the worry out of the equation so you can watch the stock from a comfort zone of knowing it's free money. Two, it creates more cash to invest.
I like to keep a chunk of cash in my money market account so that I have cash available should an investment opportunity arise. It is so frustrating to see an opportunity and not have any cash ready to be invested. I use www.sharebuilder.com as my trading account and it can take
2-3 days to deposit funds depending on which bank I use so if I get word from www.oxfordclub.com about a company that looks promising I want to be ready to jump in.
Before the economy took a dump, I was getting a small return on my money market account but now it is down to almost nothing. For this reason, I like to keep cash in my www.paypal.com account. Paypal pays about 1%, which is quite a bit more than a savings account at the bank. Banks have dropped the savings account interest to as low as 0.1% just so they can say it is a savings account. I think we should all band together and demand 6% on our checkings accounts but that's another story.
Paypal takes about two days to recognize a deposit but you can get a debit card to make withdrawels just like a checking account. In fact, using paypal as your checking account would make sense. 1% isn't much but it's a far sight better than nothing. Paypal also has a neat affiliation program. If you can get a business to create a new Paypal account, they will pay you 1% of the money that flows through the business account for an entire year. That could be substantial depending on the business.
I sort of got off the beaten path but it's all good info and certainly worth the Speed Of Life. I'll be adding a new post soon so watch for it and good investing!
One of the coolest things to do is, once you've bought a stock and it has been going up, keep an eye on it. When your stock reaches 100% above where you bought it, sell half of it to pull out your cost, so that all you have left is profit. This does two important things. One, it takes all the worry out of the equation so you can watch the stock from a comfort zone of knowing it's free money. Two, it creates more cash to invest.
I like to keep a chunk of cash in my money market account so that I have cash available should an investment opportunity arise. It is so frustrating to see an opportunity and not have any cash ready to be invested. I use www.sharebuilder.com as my trading account and it can take
2-3 days to deposit funds depending on which bank I use so if I get word from www.oxfordclub.com about a company that looks promising I want to be ready to jump in.
Before the economy took a dump, I was getting a small return on my money market account but now it is down to almost nothing. For this reason, I like to keep cash in my www.paypal.com account. Paypal pays about 1%, which is quite a bit more than a savings account at the bank. Banks have dropped the savings account interest to as low as 0.1% just so they can say it is a savings account. I think we should all band together and demand 6% on our checkings accounts but that's another story.
Paypal takes about two days to recognize a deposit but you can get a debit card to make withdrawels just like a checking account. In fact, using paypal as your checking account would make sense. 1% isn't much but it's a far sight better than nothing. Paypal also has a neat affiliation program. If you can get a business to create a new Paypal account, they will pay you 1% of the money that flows through the business account for an entire year. That could be substantial depending on the business.
I sort of got off the beaten path but it's all good info and certainly worth the Speed Of Life. I'll be adding a new post soon so watch for it and good investing!
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