As the good old English idiom goes, "Do not put all your eggs in one basket." Successful investors call this strategy diversification. It simply means that money is invested in several assets that will yield returns, in varying rates, whether the market is bullish or otherwise. It is an investor's way of reducing risks by purchasing stocks from companies that do well, even during financial crunch times, like the utility and food companies.
At first glance, the wisdom behind the idiom is very simple in relation to the stock market. But it has a lot more to offer than just the common strategy of diversifying one's portfolio. All it takes is a closer look.
Granted that we have the "eggs", and that we know it is unwise to put them all in one basket. But just how do we choose the baskets anyway? Is there such a thing as good and bad baskets? How are the right ones picked? Where are they found? Now, all of sudden, diversification isn't so simple a strategy anymore. If it has to be maximized, it has to be done properly.
It is equally unwise to put the eggs in just about any basket that come our way. Finding the right ones takes a lot of research work. Hence, diversification, as an investment strategy, should be coupled with what economists call the fundamental market analysis. It is the process of finding out everything there is know about a company, from which shares of stocks or assets will be bought. It's the process of "getting to know your baskets."
Putting one's money in a firm only because a best friend or a colleague vouched for it is premature. It pays to ask why certain companies interest people. A little background investigation won't hurt. Credit card companies to do it all the time, and rather extensively (sometimes intrusively), before they release their "eggs" or credit loans to a borrower.
An investor must dig into a company's history, growth rate, and SWOT analysis. If it has shown consistency, then, a certain level of predictability is assured, which in turn, produces stability. It will be easier, then, to make market forecast. This is really the objective of any market analysis to predict the future, so that one can make a wise and well-informed investment decisions. The first step is to secure a copy of a company's balance sheet and annual reports will provide data pertinent to an investor who wants to diversify.
Extensive market analysis takes a lot of time and effort, but its benefits are long-term. In the process, it is not just the company's profile that is learned, but also overall trends and other factors to which market reacts. What comes out of the whole endeavor is not just a wise investment decision, but also a smarter investor who has gained a better knowledge of the ins and outs of the stock market. It was more than an absorbing of information; it was a transfer of knowledge that will benefit the "one who has the eggs" for the long haul.
Making Money In The Stock Market
You may have wondered if there are people out there who consistently make money from the stock market. And yes, there are people out there who are consistently making money from the stock market because if they were not making money from market they would not be there and the markets would not be there too. These people are no smarter than you. They do not work any harder and neither are they lucky than you. But, unlike you, they never seem to worry about having money because they know one or two secrets of making money in the stock market. You see most people miss the big idea here. They think it takes a lot of money to make a lot of money. But that is not how it is done. The idea is to make pennies consistently and to use them to build vast personal fortunes. The stock market is a proven wealth builder and can and should benefit all participants. It is only fair that each one of us should be entitled to a piece of the action.
One thing these traders know is that the market is not an issue of trial and error but a fully quantifiable market by any fundamental Mathematics. You see, when we went to school we learn about the Standard Deviation in probability and statistics. This Standard Deviation is Mathematics and is quantifiable in modern science. Standard deviation was introduced by Mathematician Karl Pearson in 1893 although the idea was by then nearly a century old. This is the single most important idea that should explains all those mysteries, myths and legends you hear of in stock market.
Everything on this planet has properties and, or, characteristics. A stock, just like you and me, has properties and these properties are quantified by calculating the Standard Deviation of the stock. It varies from stock to stock. Our brains are lazy and what we can not understand we turn to astrology which gives our brains a rest. Rather than use planets in signs of the zodiac and financial astrology, or imagining of the latest rumors, invest that time in the study of probability and statistics. If its not you to study, who should? Probability and Statistics is that study that has to do with tossing a coin to get a tail or a head. And as simple as it may sound, tossing a coin and getting a head for only two consecutive times is an extremely very difficulty thing contrary to what our lazy brains would want us to believe.
Standard Deviation is all about vibrations. Vibrations is like in music, vibrations in a string, water vibrations, earthquake vibrations, light and electromagnetic vibrations. The stock market is like vibrations too. For the price to move it must vibrate. The stock spends a lot of time vibrating in a neutral sideway range which unfortunately we do not like. We want the stock to go to the roof the next day after we have bought it. Vibrations are waves. Waves have crests and troughs and travels from one price to another. One crest is often followed by a second crest which is followed by a third crest and so on and so forth. Every crest is separated by a trough to create an alternating pattern of crest and troughs.
Like a bouncing tennis ball, a lower bounce than the previous bounce means the ball is coming to a halt. In the stock market, strength is quantified by series of crests where each crest exceeds the highest point of the previous crest and weakness by series of troughs where each trough goes lower than the lowest point of the previous trough.
People out there will tell you to trade in the direction of trend and they go further to say getting the trend is easy : do this and that. Contrary to the believe that determining the stock's trend is easy, in real time this is very difficulty and you can not have a probability of 100%, otherwise each one of us would be a winner in the market. Some investment advisers and the media are either oblivious and always bullish or immoral, merely giving the public what it wants. It 's only a question of, is it this group of stocks or that group, this sector or that sector?
Back to crests and troughs. Whenever two crests meet up with one another they produce a bigger crest which is constructive, and, whenever a crest and a trough meet one another they tend to cancel each other producing a smaller trough or crest which is destructive. If you have ever wondered why carpenters saw the wood in the directions of the grains rather than up against the grains, wonder no more - these guys find it easier and the bundles they produce are sliced clearly leaving a smooth surface with minimum defects.
A bigger crest or trough is made up of smaller troughs and crests. How many of the smaller ones makes the bigger trough and crest is the puzzle that will make our lazy brains consult astrology. Lets leave that as it is because the market moves yoyo, so we comfort ourselves.
The real forces that move the markets are the moving averages. They are a measure of accumulation of strength and weakness over time due to news, economic growth reports, manipulation, fear and greed. There are many moving averages just as there are different types of traders. It is through the dynamics of the moving averages that there are crests and troughs. The bad thing about these moving averages is that they only tell us about what happened rather than what is happing.
One of the most successful trading tool since time immemorial is multiple moving averages crossover, and the acceleration in all averages is either positive in all averages or negative in all averages that you are using. If the acceleration in averages is positive, you go long, and if the acceleration is negative, you go short. This really is multiple time frame where you trade using the shorter trend but only if the longer trend supports it.
Good trading requires you to have safety measures upfront. Always make sure that every trading position that you open has a corresponding stop loss order, repeat, every position that you open has a corresponding stop loss order. I can repeat this until breakfast tomorrow. Trading without stop loss orders is like driving an automobile with faulty breaking system. Every now and then check to see if your stop loss orders are still active. If your broker's system fails, when it come back it may come without your stop loss orders. These stops are not free. It is among those fees that should keep your broker in business and you should grandly pay him even if your stops are rarely used. And why not? And talking about brokers, get yourself a good and inexpensive broker. There are many out there. A broker who charges more than $1.0 per 100 shares of stock is expensive and if you are paying more than that, then you will develop fear of exiting trades as you contemplates the broker's commission you are to incur. A good broker should embrace modern technology and you should promote them because if its not you, then who? And never get married into certain stocks. A company and its stock are two very different things. A stock that is not making money for you is not a thing. Throw it to the dogs.
In view of the above I have considered only proven mathematical logics. I now shall invite you to join me as I attempt to intermarry all these logics and predict profitable market directions with Precision. And if you have been wondering if there are people out there who consistently make money from the stock market, wonder no more.
Both Justin Demerchant & Edward Ngureco are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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