If you’ve never paid attention to Beta (β) (or “B”) before, listen up. Even if you don’t consider yourself a technical analyst or a seasoned investor, or if you are just getting into stocks now, beta is fairly easy to understand and can help you with your stock picking decisions.
Beta is a mathematical measurement of [...]
February 19, 2010 · 2 comments
in VIX volatility, financial education, hedging, indexes, international stock market, investing, investment tools, market timing, options, risk, side income, stocks, technical analysis, terminology
There are many different types of options, and they’re not all equally risky. Some options investing strategies are highly risky, whereas others have a much lower level of risk. If you’re still new to options investing, you might want to first read my post on learning the basics of options trading.
Before you can get into [...]
January 22, 2010 · 1 comment
in January, investing, market timing, market trends, psychology, seasonal investing, special dates, stocks, technical analysis, theories
What’s “the January Effect”? It’s a simple seasonal investing rule that goes something like this: “as goes January, so goes the rest of the year.”
Seasonal investing is not quite an investment style, but more like a strategy, for making trades that correspond to cyclical market trends around the year. Certain events, and thus market movements, [...]
January 14, 2010 · 9 comments
in behavioral finance, discipline, emotions, financial education, investing, market timing, psychology, stocks, technical analysis, time in the market
The stock markets are ultimately unpredictable, but that doesn’t mean they are mysterious or without guiding trends and principles that anyone can learn.
As long as you’re not day trading and hoping to turn profits within minutes or by 5pm, there are a number of ways you can help ensure that you buy your shares low [...]
January 12, 2010 · 0 comments
in 2010, DJIA, Financial New Year, Q3, Q4, S&P 500, bull market, earnings, economy, indexes, market bottom, market crash, market timing, market trends, recession, risk, technical analysis, wealth protection
Increasingly, analysts seem to agree that the first half (and the first quarter, especially) of stock markets in 2010 will look robust and promising, but stock markets in the second half of the year leave much to be desired.
The possibility of a double-dip recession still remains for some, while others mitigate this prediction about the [...]
In the days leading up to Christmas, and various other times throughout the year, stock market trading thins considerably. Trading volume levels decrease as stock exchanges close early and many institutions are simply happy to hold onto their positions and wait out the end of the year with their gains.
Lower trading volumes mean less liquidity [...]
November 24, 2009 · 6 comments
in CME, VIX volatility, commodities, financial education, forex, hedging, indexes, investment tools, market timing, options, stock exchanges, stocks, technical analysis, wealth protection
One area of investor education that I’ve been putting off is learning about trading stock options online. This is because as risky as the stock market can be if you don’t know what you’re doing, the risk associated with options is even greater if you don’t know what you’re doing.
So why bother learning then? Because [...]
