What Is Technical Analysis: Statistics or Voodoo?

When you take your finances in your own hands and begin managing your own stock investments, you have two main ways you can analyze the stock market: fundamental analysis or technical analysis. These two types of analysis can be applied not only to stocks but also trading options, futures, Forex, and bonds. Nowadays, some combination of fundamental analysis and technical analysis are usually used and there are a ton of stock market software and websites that makes such analysis much simpler. What's the basic difference between the two types of market analysis?

    * Fundamental analysis is what most people are familiar with and probably had exposure to in school. Fundamental analysis looks at the companies, their business, and economic factors that may affect the stock's future price. This is more common among investors, who look to price earnings growth and stock valuation for long term growth.
    * Technical analysis, while often unknown to the public, has been around about as long as the markets have. It's not a secret, so why not learn to use it's advantages? This method assumes that non-random patterns and trends exist in the financial markets, though not necessarily all the time. Technical analysis is more common among traders, who are often more active and don't have the time to wait for the business to affect the stock price, so they look for patterns in the stock price itself.

Unlike fundamental analysis, technical analysis focuses on analyzing the price of the stock (or whatever asset you're investing in), time, volume, patterns, and trends. So, said simply, technical analysts study the statistics of the stock itself, not the company behind it. The goal of using technical analysis is to anticipate instead of predicting the outcome by looking for clues in the stock's statistics, much like sports fans look at star player's stats.

Why Use Technical Analysis?

   1. Allows to prepare for buying and selling opportunities and dangers in advance. This takes a proactive approach rather than having to wait for company financial reports, compiled only at the end of the quarter and end of the year.
   2. Spend more time looking for opportunities with various price and volume patterns, which usually takes less time than studying a company's financial data and business prospects.
   3. Better timing for buy and sell entries and exits, based on the statistics of patterns other data
   4. Better knowledge of what prices to buy and sell, again based on statistics and past records of the stock's data.
   5. Choose better trade opportunities quickly by looking at a chart or even using stock market software that identifies specific patterns you know gives you a statistical advantage

Basic Technical Analysis Concepts for Buying & Selling (Trading)

   1. Trading with the Trend: simply following the current direction of what you want to buy or sell
   2. Support and Resistance: identifying supporting prices (where the stock have stopped going down and turned up) and resistance prices (where the stock stopped going up and turned down), traders assume this pattern to continue and buy at support and sell at resistance.
   3. Breakouts: stocks may stay in a range for a long time, even for years, but eventually they breakout, either higher or lower. Traders can take advantage of this breakout.
   4. There are many more math formulas, statistics, patterns, and strategies that investors and traders have been able to use to decipher stock data. Some examples you can research include: Fibonacci, Elliott Wave, market timing, and volume profiles.

How to Use Technical Analysis as an Investor or Trader?

   1. Position trading (medium to long term) - Whenever you buy or sell, you're "trading." Both investors and traders "trade," the difference is just how long you hold an investment and how active you are. Both investors and longer-term traders do what's called "position trading.
   2. Swing Trading (short to medium term) - Traders who buy and sell anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days.
   3. Day trading (aka scalping) - Trading that happens during the day between the market open and the market close only. Day traders don't hold a position overnight, usually to bypass the potential risk of what could happen between today and tomorrow.

Jeffrey lin is an individual futures, options, and stocks trader. His stock market experience helped him launch MarketHEIST.com, a magazine comparing and reviewing investment services and stock trading tools so consumers know what may work for their individual situations. Through MarketHEIST, Jeffrey also produces various stock market video series.

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Live Stock Market Report: The Stock Market Is Unpredictable

If one tries to detach himself temporarily from the fast-paced and ever-shifting world of the stock market, and the study of how one could predict the possible behavior of each stock, he could gain more advantages though observation. He can take a better look on how speculators in the stock market are so obsessed in their search for a one-shot miraculous formula that would bring them instantaneous overly high profits just by following that miraculous formula every single time. They have always been looking for secret techniques that can tell them whether they buy long or sell short a certain stock just by looking at the figures, numbers, and charts that are being stuck into their faces.

Yet, almost everyone - if not absolutely everyone - who so religiously followed the whatsoever formula they have found has ended up losing their money and gaining the lesson that the stock market is just as predictable as the world - it is not. The stock market is unpredictable.

Take it from the expert, even the Oracle of Omaha, the great value investor Warren Buffett has lost his bets on several companies for several times as well. Just try to make a little consideration out of it for once. If an investor who is so reputable and so successful has even had his predictions turning out to fail, how could someone who has even had less experience in speculating in the stock market (when compared to such a man) expect himself to be able to predict the next position of a certain stock in the future with 100% certainty?

This is not to discourage you or anyone from being an investor despite saying that the stock market is unpredictable. This is just to warn you and to tell you that whether how thorough you have made your analysis, you must still have to accept and prepare your self that there are still chances that your predictions could still be wrong. Preparing your self for the worst, and remaining still is the best favor you can do for your self if the worst ever happens.

But then let us segue; you could still make predictions that have less uncertainty than others. Much like many things on the physical world, the behavior of a certain stock can be more predictable if you're prediction a shorter scope of time span. Think of this analogy: the landing spot of a dart that has been thrown from a meter apart is less predictable than that of a dart that has been thrown from half a meter.

This is where live stock market reports could become useful. Because in live stock market reports, you can see the immediate motion of the price of a corporation's stocks, thus, you can make a prediction that could span for a few hours or so. You will know that the moment seems to tell that a certain stock is going to have higher prices later if the number of buyers of that stock keeps on increasing since the past few minutes or hours. You can then immediately tell your brokers to buy that stock as soon as possible, so that you can sell those at a higher price while the number of buyers is still increasing.

Live Stock Market Report For more information visit our website: www.livestockmarketreport.net

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How to Find the Value of Old Stock Certificates

Have old stock certificates and want to know what they are worth? There are a few steps you can take to find out the value of you stock certificates that will most probably take you the better part of one afternoon immersed in corporate change databases if you know where to look. You will need a decent business knowledge, the name of the corporation and transfer agent of your shares (both found on stock certificate) and access to corporate changes directories (check your local library). There are reasonably priced databases although local libraries often have these resource available. Resources you're looking for; Directory of Obsolete Securities, Robert D. Fisher Manual of Valuable and Worthless Securities, Survey of Predecessor and Defunct Companies by The Financial Post or the Capital Changes Reporter.

Any one of these books will be sufficient. In most cases these books are held in the reference section. To find the value of our certificates, simply follow the corporation name found on your stock certificate through one these directories. Let's make our example Kaufmann Department Stores Securities Corporation let's say we hold 1000 shares. Kaufmann Department Stores Securities Corp. is found on page 1045 of the Directory of Obsolete Securities. The book states that Kaufmann Department Stores Securities Corp. merged to form Kauffmann Department Stores, Inc. Each common share was exchanged for 0.3069438 preferred share and 3.069438 common shares in Kauffman Department Store, which then merged into May Department Stores in 1946. The book then shows that in on August 30, 2005 May Department Stores merged into Federated Department Stores, Inc.. Now let's follow the last entity, Federated Department Stores, Inc. on it's own page.

Federated Department Stores, Inc. is found on page 674 of the Directory of Obsolete Securities. The book states that the company reorganized in 1994, which is irrelevant since our shares were acquired in the exchange by the company in 2005, it is followed with information that the company changed name to Macy's in 2007. Notice besides the company name there is in brackets a state abbreviation, the state abbreviation refers to the state that the company was incorporated in and will be valuable to hold on to. In this case (DE) is found beside the name, as such we can assemble that Delaware is the state of incorporation.

Now we have established the current status of the shares, current corporation is Macy's. If your shares were lost or you have any other issues with certificate logistics. Best to look into this would be to contact the company's transfer agent. Our next step will look into how to do so. Let's continue with Macy's from previous steps. The company was (as we assembled from the Directory of Obsolete Securities) incorporated in Delaware (DE). From the state of Delaware we can receive the date of termination of the company and the company's last transfer agent, which will be critical later on.

The site below offers links to all business entity searches in all states including Delaware.

http://www.secstates.com/

If the company you are researching is incorporated in Canada the site below offers links to all Provincial Resources

http://goldsheetlinks.com/obsolete.htm

Most states have online search options although a few still deal only over the phone. This changes state to state although the state used in our example, Delaware, does have an online business search that will allow for us to retrieve all records. The Delaware Business Entity Search retrieves for us the corporate contact information, the transfer agent contact information and in some cases extensive company details. The contact information that will help you retrieve information on your certificates will always be available here.

To review our research, we started at the local library where we able to track down the various corporate changes that the company had participated in. Then from the Delaware Secretary of State's site we found a Business Entity Search, where we were able to locate the Transfer Agent information.

The transfer agent will be able to confirm with you all of the corporate changes the stock ownership that your company has undergone and the result for you. In some cases stocks split and are acquired and so your initial ownership could at present be of a different number of shares in a different company is a case like that the transfer agent can send you a correct certificate.

At this point you have pieced together the entire corporate history for the shares that you own! If the transfer agent requires for you to get proof-of-purchase for your shares or any other legal matters arise it is at this point where professional help can be a very valuable resource. There are a few stock research firms that are out there for the more complex corporate histories with restructurings and the like that we have not covered. ( Stock Cert Expert ) is if you choose the route of having professional stock research service guide you, the Gold Sheet Links references above also shows many professional research firms.

In all best of luck in establishing you share's current monetary value and corporate status!

Simon Burns
Old Stock Certificates Research

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Investing in the Hot Penny Stock Market

Is investing in the stock market reliable? The stock market is one of the most important sources for companies to raise money. The dynamics of economic activity is in the price of shares and other assets. It allows businesses to publicly trade or raise additional financial capital by selling its shares in a public market. There is also a stock that trades at a relatively low price under $5, but is capable of huge profits and is called penny stock. It is also known as small cap stocks or can be defined as the price per share. They are the share offerings of companies that are relatively new, or too small to have a stock exchange listing on the large stock exchange. These stocks are considered to be hypothetical and high risk because of their lack of liquidity, small capitalization and disclosure.

Penny stocks are considered as "hot penny stocks" when the value of stocks rises fast. In investing in hot penny stocks you should consider the monetary 'fundamentals' of the company. When you say fundamentals, it means the stability of the assets, liability and cash flow of the organization. You need to know the financial statement and have extricating evaluation of its worthiness. If you are investing in a company that does not have stable fundamentals, more likely the money you invest in will be forfeited. There are also benefits if you invest in hot penny stocks, some small cap investments end up being extremely worthy. You can get better returns with penny stocks than from a combination of big cap stocks.

The undervalued stocks are highly inclined towards growth and the potential of improved financial gains. In order to refrain from losses, it is best to buy stocks at a lower price and wait for the stocks to rise abruptly and then sell. You should also keep track on how much every stock goes up or down and makes decisions on when to sell or buy the stocks.

Penny Stocks can be confusing to work with for most people, however if you know how to navigate the data and formulate a plan great profit can be realized. Systems can streamline the data and put into place a day-to-day strategy that you can use to limit the downside losses and put into place a winning buy and sale process. Many of these formulas are highly guarded secret strategies tested and proven and are used by thousands of people worldwide. You should have a winning system on your side helping you to make money. If you would like to use a proven system you can click below to learn more about penny stock systems.

In my opinion it is the perfect place to start out. Some people never leave penny stock, why would you if you are making good money and you have a system down. Because you can start with such low entry cost and limit your investment and use some techniques to reduce the down side you can profit without the big investment.

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What Are Penny Stocks and How to Choose Profitable Ones?

In order to understand what a Penny Stock is, one must understand the stock market indexes. The best known indexes in the United States are the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 Index, the Nasdaq Composite Index and the Russell 2000 Index. These Indexes are very important as they are used to measure not just the performance of the stock markets in general, but also the state of the overall economy as well.

Each of these Indexes is formed in a slightly different way. For example, the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index contains 30 different stocks that represent various different industries. On the other hand, the S&P 500 Index will contain stock of the 500 largest US companies, the Nasdaq is the largest electronic screen-based equity securities trading market in the US, the Russell 2000 Index contains the bottom "small-cap" 2,000 stocks in the Russell 3,000 Index. Small-cap refers to the market capitalization of a business and describes the size of that business corporation. Thus the Russell 2000 is formed with the stock of the smaller corporations. These indexes are mainly used by institutional investors, such as mutual funds. Quite often, the mutual funds are required to own the stocks that are part of the index, they become their index portfolios. For example, a S&P Index mutual fund will have to own the 500 stocks that form the S&P 500.

The Penny Stocks are more easily found in S&P main US indexes: the S&P 500, which covers the highest range of stocks, the S&P Midcap 400 Index which covers, as its name indicates, the mid-cap range of stocks, and the S&P SmallCap 600 Index, which covers the lowest range of stocks.

The way these different indexes are maintained also differs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average does not change very often, that means that its stock base does not move about, changes in the stocks that are traded happen every so many years. The S&P Index, on the other hand, move stock around several times a year. This has a direct importance when talking about Penny Stocks as we will see in a moment.

S&P maintain their indexes through a committee which keep an eye on the state of the companies that are already part of the Indexes and on those companies which are being considered to join any of the Indexes. The committee is in charge of adding stocks or indeed, if a company is not performing well, removing the stock from the Indexes. Once these stocks have been removed from the S&P Indexes, they will also be rejected by institutional investors such as fund managers. These stocks are called Wall Street castaways or Penny stocks!

Not all the stocks that are removed from the Indexes will turn out to be profitable. There are different reasons for a stock to be removed from the Indexes. The more straight forward delistings can be due to a merger or an acquisition within the company, or a spin-off, corporate restructuring or bankruptcy. The stocks that are removed through those reasons will not be good stock for making a profit. There are a different set of reasons a stock will be removed for, these are generally due to the stock no longer meeting S&P's guidelines. These can include low market capitalization, lack of representation, that is has traded below $2.00, or that it ranks in the last place in their list of stock. It all means the same, the stock is not performing how S&P would like it to, so it is removed from the Indexes. These are the Penny Stocks that can be bought for profit.

Follow my blog for more tips and up-to-date information on trading: http://www.train-to-trade.com/blog

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Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Self-Direct Your Retirement Instead Of Investing In Mutual Funds

There are thousands of so called financial advisors that tell you that you should invest in mutual funds, money market accounts, stocks, bonds and life insurance policies and diversify your retirement portfolio. This is some of the worst financial advice you can get and the general public has been duped by the large investment companies like Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and the large banks for years. These so called financial advisors that work for these big companies have very limited to no training and are not incentivized in the right ways. They make so much money off of trading fees and annual fees that you can never get ahead even if they could outpace inflation in the first place with their investments. Well you do not have to put up with this theft anymore. There are retirement vehicles and custodians out there just like the Fidelities and Charles Schwab's that enable you to self direct your retirement into almost any investment options you want and control your own financial future instead of handing it off to one of these so called financial advisors. What is a self-directed retirement account? It's an account just like what you would have in Fidelity or a similar company but you can invest it in pretty much whatever you want instead of being limited to what the Fidelities of the world allow you to invest in, that they make the most fees on. So you can open an IRA, 401k, Roth IRA and HSA (Health Savings Account) that you can actually make decisions with and invest with. Here are the top 10 reasons you should self direct your own retirement instead of giving it to one of these large companies that basically steal your money in fees.

(1) Self-directing your retirement account is the only way to protect your own retirement. If you do not take control of your own retirement investing and educate yourself on alternative investment options you will lose purchasing power and your retirement accounts will probably lose another 30% - 40% like we just saw with some of the major economic problems we are seeing. Massive inflation is looming so you have to invest in assets that produce a higher return.

(2) Self-directed custodians typically have fee structures that do not completely deplete your returns like the traditional IRA and retirement companies. Typically you have much smaller transaction fees, much smaller annual fees and you can find ways to cut down on fees even more as a percentage of your retirement account. You want to keep the interest and returns you make, not pay them back in fees which can significantly hinder your retirement's growth.

(3) You can build your retirement a 1000% faster by self directing your retirement than not. If you are investing in traditional investments like mutual funds and stocks you are only going to make the long term historical average of those investments at best depending upon the economic stability of the market. The long term historical averages are close to 8% - 10%. With inflation historically at 3% - 3.5% and even higher inflation expected that is not a high enough return. By investing in alternative investment options like real estate you can make 15%+ returns on your money without even using leverage. You can even leverage real estate (get a loan for real estate) inside your own retirement account increasing your returns to 20% plus. Now that is power especially when you can do it safely with the right risk mitigation techniques in place.

(4) By self directing your own retirement account you can actually actively control your investments. When investing the traditional way you have absolutely no control and have a significant amount of risk when investing in mutual funds and stocks. You are at the mercy of what the market does. When you self direct your own retirement you can control the assets inside your account. You can structure the investments so that no matter what the market does you are making residual cash flow inside your account so you do not have to worry about market fluctuations. You also have the power to increase the value of the assets inside our account. Also, if you buy discounted real estate inside your IRA not only can you then go sell for a huge profit but you are building your retirement account tax free.

(5) Tax free investing is one of the largest benefits of investing in a self directed IRA. Can you imagine buying a rental property worth $100,000 for $75,000, renting it out for $1,000 per month, having all of the income going back to your retirement account tax free and then when you go to sell the property for $100,000 the $25,000 in profit is tax free also. No capital gains taxes and no taxation on the rental income. This can compound the growth of your retirement accounts at an amazing pace.

(6) Building an annuity inside your retirement account is crucial to your retirement plan. For example, if you need $5,000 a month to live on during retirement and are able to make a conservative 10% on your money inside your account you need $600,000 in your retirement account in order to retire and NEVER deplete your principal. If you leverage your investments and make 15% on your money inside your retirement account you only need $400,000 in your retirement accounts. So unlike what most financial planners will tell you, you don't need $10,000,000 dollars inside your retirement account to retire. Now keep in mind if your expenses are $5,000 per month, you want to be making $7,500 per month passively so that you can continue to build your income and protect yourself from the loss of purchasing power due to inflation.

(7) Current tax planning and saving on current taxes is a huge advantage for self directed investments. If you invest in an IRA your current contribution limit is $5,000 and $16,000 for a 401k. This can bring a big tax advantage because the contribution directly decreases your taxable income dollar for dollar. If you setup a solo (k) plan or pension plan you can contribute close to $100,000 per year and reduce your taxable income by $100,000! This is unreal. You are saving $35,000 per year by doing this if you are in a 35% tax bracket. Tax rates are rising because the government and states are broke so it's even more crucial to plan for taxes. You can then go take that $100,000, invest in passive cash flow investment property right and have the income making you 15% plus on your money. With both combined you just made $50,000 ($35,000 tax savings + $15,000 interest) on your $100,000 that year. Now if that is not going to get you to your goals I don't know what will.

(8) Self directed investing increases your education and ability to protect yourself instead of relying on someone else for your retirement. By self directing your retirement you are now taking control of your own retirement. With that comes the need for you to educate yourself on additional investment options and the risks and rewards of those options. This education is going to be key to your future financial success and stability. The more you educate yourself the more stable you will be because as economic changes happened you will be in a better position to protect yourself and adjust your retirement portfolio according to those changes.

(9) Additional investment options are needed in order to secure your future. There are so many investments that produce additional returns. You can still invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds like traditional companies allow you to invest in but you can also invest in real estate, promissory notes secured by real estate, tax liens, businesses, syndicated and structured investments and much, much more. Your options are limitless.

(10) Your piece of mind knowing that you have been able to structure yourself to protect against economic fluctuations is HUGE. Now you can rest easy knowing that you have educated yourself correctly, have invested in vehicles that can give you higher returns, and have the power to control your own financial destiny is the best benefit you can ask for. Most people have little to no financial knowledge and that is why most people are broke. The more you educate yourself the more successful you will be.

There are many companies out there that can help you self direct your retirement account and many companies out there that can help you structure your self-directed IRA into multiple cash flow streams. Learn from those companies and push yourself to take action on your own financial future instead of relying on so called financial advisors to do it for you, but are failing at an alarming pace.

Owens Consulting Group founder Mathew Owens is a California licensed CPA and a full time real estate investor. Mathew has 8 years of experience working as a CPA, auditor and business advisor, and he has completed over 100 transactions in the past three years, representing approximately $10 million in real estate, most of which has been sold to cash flow investors. Read more of his blogs at http://ocgproperties.com.

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Is Lotto Really A Viable Retirement Solution?

According to a Canadian survey of baby boomers conducted for TD Waterhouse in 2010, 32% of those polled said they were counting on winning a lottery to fund their retirement. "While this statement may be tongue-in-cheek, according to the survey results, this group is less likely to have a financial plan and more likely to be anxious about retirement and feel behind in their savings," according to a TD Waterhouse statement. Whether the responses about winning lotto were serious or not, the data clearly indicated that a lack of retirement security is a source of distress for those who responded.

A separate poll released early in 2011 by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) indicated that you are more likely to be more successful in your financial planning if you have a goal in mind and a roadmap to get there. In a survey for Standard Life, 41% of those respondents were unsure if their rate of saving would provide enough for them at retirement.

Typically, financial advisors advocate "save more, save more, save more" as the answer to how to increase the amount available for retirement and other needs. But for many, saving more is simply not an option, because they are not earning enough to have additional funds to save and invest. Others may be able to save more, but are unwilling to do so because they do not want to live a diminished quality of life while saving for a time that they may not live to see.

Some baby boomers are waking up to the fact that there is another retirement solution - create new sources of income that will provide them with monthly cash flow and a residual payment in the future. They are no longer working for a paycheck; they are building a millionaire business for cash flow and financial security.

If you are interested in creating a new source of income with a millionaire business, start with what you know best, what I call your 3 "S" Factors: your skills, your strengths, and your successes. Create a product or service around these factors that other people want or need and have already demonstrated a willingness to buy. Then identify a small segment of that market to focus on, called a niche market.

You will have the best chance for success if you give your niche market what it wants to buy. Not sure what that is? Then ask the people who are in your niche market. Do a simple survey, either online or offline. Here are a couple of ways you can do it. First, if you are near a college, ask if your survey can be part of a market research class. Need faster results? Find out where the members of the market go and have to wait, and survey or interview them while they are waiting. For example, if you need to survey moms, ask them to fill out a short survey while waiting in line to pick up the kids from school. The key is always to think like your potential buyer, but you have to know how they think first.

Do you have a friend who knows you so well that she can practically finish your sentences for you? That's how well you want to know your niche market. You want to know exactly what the members of that niche market are thinking so you can offer them exactly what they want.

You will want to customize your product or service for your niche market, so consider how you can modify the elements of the marketing mix: the characteristics of your product or service, your promotional strategy, how you will deliver the product or service to the customer, and the price you will charge. (Here's a hint: never compete only on price. When you compete only on price, the market sees your product as a commodity, with no distinct market advantage, and you can easily get locked in a downward price spiral.)

Start today to build a millionaire business so that you don't have to rely on winning lotto to be able to have the retirement of your dreams.

Are you afraid that you won't have sufficient income for retirement, which seems to be approaching faster than a speeding bullet? Maybe you want to be able to assure your kids a college education at the school of their choice, or have debt that you want to eliminate as fast as possible because you haven't had a good night's sleep in months.

Join other entrepreneurial women and aspiring millionaire business builders who want to grow a Millionaire Business that will provide cash flow now and financial security for a lifetime. Jan Sandhouse Hurst has taught hundreds how to grow and improve their businesses. Get her free tips and training at Millionaire Business Blog.

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