Investment Secrets

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    This 13th Century Tool Can Make You Serious Money Today

    13th century tool

    By , Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report -

    Every once in a while, I like to circle back to some of the great questions I get from you.

    Today, I want to dive into one from Suzanne P., who wants to know if “Fibos” can help her make money in the markets.

    In a word, yes. But, you’ve got to understand what “Fibo” analysis is and how it works to make it profitable… Full Story

    Read More…

Article Index

This 13th Century Tool Can Make You Serious Money Today

By , Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report -

13th century tool

Every once in a while, I like to circle back to some of the great questions I get from you.

Today, I want to dive into one from Suzanne P., who wants to know if “Fibos” can help her make money in the markets.

In a word, yes. But, you’ve got to understand what “Fibo” analysis is and how it works to make it profitable… Full Story

Triple-Digit Gains... With Easy "Insurance" Against Risk

By , Chief Research Analyst, Money Morning -

gains

How do single-day stock gains of 40%, 50%, 75%, even a 100% or more sound? If you're anything like me they sound pretty darn great.

Those kinds of gains happen almost every day, but the mainstream financial media would much rather focus on recent stories such as: FB jumps 14% on increased mobile revenue, GOOG rockets ahead 13% on higher top line, or TSLA up 8% on higher than expected sales of the Model S.

Small-cap biotech stocks can deliver triple-digit gains – or they can crash if clinical trial results disappoint.

Here's how to limit your losses...

This Will Change the Way You Think About Investing Forever

By , Global Energy Strategist, Oil & Energy Investor • @KentMoors_OEI -

We've already made good money playing publically traded oil and gas companies.

125% on Cheniere... 200% on Halliburton... 210% on Western Refining... 542% on Westport Innovations... 300% on Golar LNG...

And given energy's across-the-board potential, our focus on growth isn't going to change.

In fact, it's about to expand.

Something huge just slipped under the radar.

It was so significant that it promises to change how you think about investing forever - especially in oil and gas.

A late-summer change in the rules now allows for expanded access by retail investors into the lucrative world of venture capital.

It's called direct investment, and it goes far beyond just buying stocks, bonds, and options...

It opens up the potential for all of us to make some serious money. It really is a whole new ballgame.

And for you, it starts this Thursday - perhaps even sooner. (I'll let you know.)

Like I said, this is huge...

The Seven Secrets You Need to Know to Keep Wall Street From Hijacking Your Future

By , Executive Editor, Money Morning -

One of the great things about vacation - in addition to all the time I get to spend with my wife and five-year-old son - is that I actually get to peruse the books and watch the movies that I spent the other 51 weeks of the year setting aside.

Don't misunderstand: I don't spend the week away from the office holed up and away from my family. Quite the opposite.

This year, in fact, the three of us rented a house down at the Delaware shore for a week in mid-August, and spent our days swimming, shopping, walking, and playing miniature golf and Skee-Ball. We ate Dough Roller pizza and even had some Dumser's Dairyland ice cream.

My folks said my little boy later described it as "the best vacation ever."

Even so, I did manage to find some "me" time that week.

Late in the week, after my tired-but-happy son conked out in my arms (smiling to the very last), and I'd tucked him in, I found time to watch two films about the U.S. financial crisis that I suspected would be worth talking about here.

Turns out I was right....

The movies in question are "Too Big to Fail" (2011) and "Inside Job" (2010). They both address the same topic - how the 2009 financial crisis nearly brought down the global financial system (a tacit warning that this could easily happen again). But they attack the topic in totally different ways.

The HBO-produced "Too Big to Fail" (TBTF) is based on the superbly executed best-seller of the same name written by journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. The film adaptation is actually a scripted "docudrama" - with Hollywood actors standing in for the real people they portray (William Hurt does a great Hank Paulson).

The Sony Pictures-filmed "Inside Job" is a straight documentary, narrated by "Bourne Identity" trilogy star Matt Damon. It features interviews with such financial stalwarts as billionaire George Soros, former Fed Chairman Paul A. Volcker and super-economist Nouriel Roubini.

Both efforts were critically acclaimed: "Inside Job" was a hit at film festivals around the globe, while "TBTF" was nominated for 11 Emmy Awards.

What You Need to Know About Wall Street

Both films underscore some valuable lessons for investors - the same ones, in fact, that we consistently convey here. Key among them:

  • Wall Street is out for itself, and will vivisect anyone who stands between it and a big profit. That goes without saying, I know. But the thing that doesn't get said is that America's individual-investing middle class is the single-easiest (and single-largest) target for most of Wall Street's profit-making schemes.


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Defensive Investing: Covered Calls Increase Cash Flow, Up Protection

By , Contributing Writer, Money Morning -

Once you get beyond buying puts or calls for purely speculative purposes, no other options strategy is more popular than selling covered calls - and with good reason: Few investment techniques offer more potential benefits with such a low level of risk.

Considered the most conservative of all option plays, this strategy - which basically involves selling (or "writing") one call option for each 100 shares of a stock you own - can be employed for one or more of five distinct purposes:

  1. To generate a stream of additional income - over and above dividend payments - from individual stocks in your equity portfolio.
  2. To generate a stream of income from stocks you own that pay no dividends.
  3. To reduce the effective cost basis of longer-term stock holdings by bringing in option premiums, thus recovering some of the original purchase price.
  4. To provide a limited hedge against potential losses in portfolio value as a result of overall market pullbacks or cyclical downturns in the prices of specific stocks.
  5. As an income-producing substitute for a "limit-sell order" - intended to liquidate a stock position when a specific profit target is achieved.

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Question of the Week: Readers Respond to Money Morning's Investment Toolkit Query

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning -

Success in the business world is most often achieved by those with a competitive edge.

That's why, here at Money Morning, helping readers find that edge for their investment toolkit is Job One. In the past week alone, we've introduced readers to two little-followed indicators that have big proven payoffs. The first was the Baltic Dry Index, a shipping index that provides a panoramic view of the global economy. And the second was the "Gold Spike Indicator," which helps gold investors time their purchases.

Shrewdly used, either (or both) of these indicators have the potential to provide investors with that sought-after competitive edge.

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We Want to Hear From You: What's in Your Investment Toolkit?

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning -

Success in the business world is most often achieved by those with a competitive edge.

That's why, here at Money Morning, helping readers find that edge for their investment toolkit is Job One. In the past week alone, we've introduced readers to two little-followed indicators that have big proven payoffs. The first was the Baltic Dry Index, a shipping index that provides a panoramic view of the global economy. And the second was the "Gold Spike Indicator," which helps gold investors time their purchases.

Shrewdly used, either (or both) of these indicators have the potential to provide investors with that sought-after competitive edge.

Take the Baltic Dry Index. As Money Morning Guest Columnist Jack Barnes explained, "the Baltic Dry Index has [historically] shown itself to be the EKG of future industrial demand. And, right now, the BDI is screaming "Danger, Will Robinson!" to any investor who will read it and heed it as a true leading indicator."

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Defensive Investing: Keeping Your Options Open with Covered Calls

By , Contributing Writer, Money Morning -

Once you get beyond buying puts or calls for purely speculative purposes, no other options strategy is more popular than employing the use of covered calls - and with good reason: Few investment techniques offer more potential benefits with such a low level of risk.

Considered the most conservative of all option plays, this strategy - which basically involves selling (or "writing") one call option for each 100 shares of a stock you own - can be employed for one or more of five distinct purposes:

  1. To generate a stream of additional income - over and above dividend payments - from individual stocks in your equity portfolio.
  2. To generate a stream of income from stocks you own that pay no dividends.
  3. To reduce the effective cost basis of longer-term stock holdings by bringing in option premiums, thus recovering some of the original purchase price.
  4. To provide a limited hedge against potential losses in portfolio value as a result of overall market pullbacks or cyclical downturns in the prices of specific stocks.
  5. As an income-producing substitute for a "limit-sell order" - intended to liquidate a stock position when a specific profit target is achieved.

Read More…

Playing 'Follow the Guru' Can Be Fun - and Profitable - for Investors

By , Contributing Writer, Money Morning -

If you wanted to distill all the world's best investment advice into a single sentence, it would probably come down to this: Follow the leader.

In short: Follow the guru. That's not just a clever phrase. In fact, if you picked any of the investment world's living legends and copied what they did, odds are you'd be pretty successful over time, regardless of the general market environment during any given short-term period.

We've whittled the investing wisdom of these three stalwarts - and others - into 15 rules to live by. We offered the first five rules in Part I of this story, which appeared yesterday (Wednesday). Here in today's second installment, we offer the final 10 rules.

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Playing 'Follow the Guru' Can Be Fun - and Profitable

By , Contributing Writer, Money Morning -

If you wanted to distill all the world's best investment advice down into a single sentence, the result would actually be fairly simple:

In short: Follow the guru. That's not just a clever phrase. In fact, if you picked any of the investment world's living legends and copied what they did, odds are you'd be pretty successful over time, regardless of the general market environment during any given short-term period.

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The Investing Secrets of Warren Buffett

By , Money Morning -

Investing icon Warren Buffett is known for the market-beating returns that his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B), has returned over the past few decades. His success is due to some very simple investing strategies that he adheres to religiously. Here are 10 of his best:

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How Simple Investing Strategies Can Generate Maximum Profits

By , Contributing Writer, Money Morning -

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the investment choices and economic challenges in today's financial markets, that's understandable. As a veteran writer and investor, I can attest that it's all too easy to wander off into the weeds by getting too complicated.

That's a big reason why - in my Strategic Advantage advisory service - we try to keep things as simple as possible. It's a strategy individual investors would do well to follow.

If you can stay out of bear markets and participate in the largest portion of bull-market cycles, you can make a lot of money as an investor. They key idea is to make the markets work for you when they are open for business - and to get out of them when they're closed.

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The Second Quarter Votes are in: Global Gains Trump Domestic Pains

By , Executive Editor, Money Morning -

By William Patalon III And Mike Caggeso When Deere & Co. yesterday (Wednesday) reported a 23-jump in quarterly profits, the agricultural-equipment maker said that a 5% sales slump in its North American market was more than offset by a 30% revenue gain in the company’s overseas markets. The Moline, Ill.-based Deere (NYSE: DE)  – known […]

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