Analysis Topic: Investor & Trader Education
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Understanding Warrants / InvestorEducation / Options & Warrants
Did you know that warrants have been in existence for many decades but very few investors know about them? Why? Unfortunately, very few of the professional newsletter writers and analysts understand them so they do not write about them. Are warrants that difficult to understand? Of course not; it's just that one needs to take some time to learn and understand this incredible investment vehicle.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, November 05, 2007
The "Child's Guide to Technical Analysis" Looks at Silver... / InvestorEducation / Technical Analysis
If you have ever wanted your child to study Technical Analysis so that they can become a millionaire like you, instead of maybe ending up living off you for half their lives and bringing their washing home etc, but have not summoned up the courage to attempt to introduce the subject to them, because of fears of their eyes glazing over when confronted with lots of squiggly lines and a barrage of esoteric indicators, now is your chance because even a 7-year old can grasp what we are going to look at in this article today.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Intuitive Trading: Fact Or Fiction? - Part 1 / InvestorEducation / Trader Psychology
Why did you sell silver yesterday? Why did you buy the S&P e-mini (ES) just now? Why did you decide to cover your shorts in the dollar? Why? Why? Why?
If you ask these questions to a group of traders, you will likely get one of two types of answers. The first answer will be something about the indicators:
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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
FREE Market Myths Exposed Video Series - Hits Homerun with Investors and Traders / InvestorEducation / Investing
Good news! The first two parts of Elliott Wave International's Market Myths Exposed video series are online now, and each turns conventional wisdom about the financial markets on its head, allowing you to think independently of the mainstream and call your own shots regarding portfolio management.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
To Beat the Stock Market, Be in the Right Sector - Part 3 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
What stock market sector have you been in lately? The sectors that are beating the market or the ones that are trailing behind? Being in the right sectors will make a significant difference in the performance of your portfolio. However, finding the right sector can be a difficult proposition. In Part 1 I introduced the basic theory behind sector rotation as described by Stan Stovell in Standard & Poor's Guide to Sector Investing 1995 (this is an expensive book).Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Conditional Formatting and its Application to Technical Analysis (AMEX Gold BUGS Index as an Example) / InvestorEducation / Technical Analysis
Carl Swenlin stated “Technical analysis is a wind sock, not a crystal ball”. This is probably one of the most eloquent and precise definitions I have ever seen because it goes deeper than the sentence itself. Provided the wind is blowing from the north, the windsock will indicate that until the wind changes direction. When the wind direction changes, individuals can note this and be confident that the wind hitting their house is coming from a direction specified by the windsock.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Asset Class Behavior Following Fed Interest Rate Cuts - Part 4 of 4 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Editor's Note: This article is Part IV in a four-part series.
Expanding the Analysis to Other Asset ClassesIn Part III of this four-part series, I concluded the periods following the first Fed rate cut in July 1995, September 1998, and January of 2001 were most similar to today's economic landscape. We can use the information from Part III as one of many factors when determining our asset allocation for the coming year. The next logical step is to explore how different asset classes performed relative to each other in each of the three respective historical periods (1995-1996, 1998-1999, 2001-2002).
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Monday, October 22, 2007
Lower Interest Rates and the Relative Performance of Investments - Part 3 of 4 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
To recap the main points :
- Wall Street places a strong emphasis on the impact of the Feds actions on asset prices.
- Lower interest rates help fuel inflation and hurt the U.S. dollar.
- The current Fed is not afraid to make significant interest rate cuts and we can expect them to act swiftly in the face of any continued deterioration in housing, financial markets, or the general economy.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
To Beat the Stock Market, Be in the Right Sector - Part 2 / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
What stock market sector have you been in lately? The sectors that are beating the market or the ones that are trailing behind? Being in the right sectors will make a significant difference in the performance of your portfolio. However, finding the right sector can be a difficult proposition. In part one I introduced the basic theory behind sector rotation as described by Stan Stovell in Standard & Poor's Guide to Sector Investing 1995 .Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Financial Crisis and Why Risk Valuation Tools in Practical Portfolio Selection are Meaningless / InvestorEducation / Risk Analysis
This week in Outside the Box, good friend and London business partner Niels C. Jensen further expands upon the fat tail dilemma I recently discussed in my "Black Swan" e-letter and why many of the risk metrics we use while in theory are useful, in application are woefully misleading. Niels does an excellent job of making the topic understandable and enjoyable to read.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Managed Futures: Pitfalls in Performance Evaluation / InvestorEducation / Managed Accounts
While the futures industry's regulatory rules provide clear guidance as to the presentation of managed account composite performance reporting, there are pitfalls in making investment decisions based on a track record's outward appearance without considering the potential for internal distortions.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Contrary Stock Market Investing / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
Good businesses are what I like to buy. That means stocks, bonds, preferred shares and other securities backed by healthy, growing companies, which are becoming more valuable over time.
Even buying good businesses won't save you entirely from bear markets. The best companies can and do occasionally stumble. And no matter how well you research something, you're going to get it wrong sometimes—with the result that you're stuck with a dog.
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Sunday, September 30, 2007
Quantifying and Forecasting an Equity Risk Factor: Fixing the Inaccurate So-Called Fed Model / InvestorEducation / Stock Market Valuations
... and Why the Stock Market P/E is Declining to 10It is generally agreed that the most elegant equation in physics is E = mc 2 . In mathematics, it is e π i +1 = 0, which most simply connects the five most important numbers in mathematics. It is always and everywhere exact and even its most esoteric components -- the transcendental number, e, and its imaginary number, i -- are regularly used in physics and the other sciences, as well as many important fields today, including energy, computers and even valuing specialized securities. [i] Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Leader Stocks Tend to Lead Broad Market Advances / InvestorEducation / Learn to Trade
Be a kid and play follow the Leader for stock market profits ... Remember when you were a kid and played "follow the leader"? The leader would jump, run, and often do body contortions that you were supposed to repeat or get knocked out of the game.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
The Genesis of Over The Counter Interest Rate Derivatives / InvestorEducation / Derivatives
Misinformation regarding the origin and genesis of the OTC Interest Rate Derivatives complex abound in the market.
During the 1970's – after President Nixon took the world off the gold standard - the dramatic increase in the price of crude oil led to burgeoning balances of petro dollars [Euro-dollars] in the treasuries of banks involved in international trade. This immediately led to banks bolstering their treasury operations to deal with the influx of ‘inflated dollars'.
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Monday, September 24, 2007
The Elasticity of Taxable Income - How the Laffer Curve Really Works / InvestorEducation / Taxes
Let us begin with the much neglected Kennedy tax cuts and then follow through with other tax measures. We shall then finish with a diagrammatic explanation of how cuts in capital gains taxes expand both the economy and tax revenues.
Kennedy declared that “it is a paradoxical that tax rates are too high and tax revenues too low”. In other words, high taxes were depressing output. Acting on this belief — what so many today sneeringly call supply-side economics — he cut taxes in 1963 and investment surged ahead. In the four years preceding the Kennedy cuts only 27.8 per cent of what is termed investment went to business and 38.5 per cent to real estate.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Secrets of Sucessful Trading in Commodities and Financial Futures / InvestorEducation / Learn to Trade
Recently, I've been reading in the financial press about how today's popular gurus are split on whether we're in the middle of a long-term bull market or bear market.
How do you know what to believe or what to do? I suggest you don't subscribe to either the bull or the bear side. As Jesse Livermore once said, “I prefer to be on the right side.”
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Saturday, September 15, 2007
Using Elliott Wave Theory to Forecast the Financial Markets / InvestorEducation / Elliott Wave Theory
In the 1930s, Ralph Nelson Elliott , a corporate accountant by profession, studied price movements in the financial markets and observed that certain patterns repeat themselves. He offered proof of his discovery by making astonishingly accurate stock market forecasts. What appears random and unrelated, Elliott said, will actually trace out a recognizable pattern once you learn what to look for. Elliott called his discovery "The Elliott Wave Principle," and its implications were huge. He had identified the common link that drives the trends in human affairs, from financial markets to fashion, from politics to popular culture.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
How To Use Leverage Wisely / InvestorEducation / Options & Warrants
Based on the recent action in the price of gold we have to believe that it has once again broken out to the upside and ready to run. Last week, Richard Russell presented us an excerpt from his service titled, The Box, in which he is using the point and figure method of plotting gold. The basis of the article was that if gold could close at $690 an ounce, it would be a bullish breakout. Well, guess what? It did, it has and no doubt (in our mind) will continue much higher in the coming weeks and months eventually taking out the old highs in the upper $800's. The question always for investors is what do we do? How to maximize our gains and should we use leverage?Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, September 09, 2007
The Risks of Doubling Down on Falling Stocks / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
I know a few people who know when to double down in Blackjack. A lot more, however, lose their shirts in an emotional attempt to make back losses.
Even those who usually succeed will freely admit doubling down isn't a risk-reduction technique. On the contrary, you've got twice the money at stake, betting on the same situation. You may recoup your losses in one fell swoop. But the penalty for failure is twice what it was before, and it's hard not to get a little emotional.
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