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Over the past year I have learned more about investing and I have learned to avoid active trading. The experts do a poor job of active trading and I realize I have even worse ability and less knowledge. I buy diversified funds with low fees.
The only active investment decisions involve longer term movements in the entire market. I believe it makes sense to change allocations as the economic conditions change. I try to maintain diversification within stocks; i.e., large cap index funds, small cap, medium cap, and foreign stocks. I am heavily weighted towards large cap and I find little need to make adjustments over time. Eventually a rising P/E or other changes may indicate the time has come to lower stock:bond allocations. I suspect we have another couple years before we reach that point and even then my adjustments will be gradual and small. I am also considering adding more real estate to my portfolio as another source of diversification that I have avoided in the past.
Heartily agree, jrk! It just escapes me why someone doesn't get this.
IMO real estate is going to cool off at some point and if it were me I would be looking at REIT's, espeially anything that were involved in commercial medically related properties.
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OT would like to know from all of you, since you are my regulars (mathjak where are you? your recommendations on a traditional IRA, we need to rollover DH's 401K.........
Thanks, MJ. You can bet yer behind I will raise the white flag to S.O.S. you folks, I just wish I could compensate you back. PM me with with car and parts problems.
I like to give help to those that seek it, not to the sheep that expect it, so if you have any questions feel free to PM, I'll keep it noted for car parts and the like, thanks.
You would've made much more in trading AA if you understood the relationships between commodities and the US dollar and between the US dollar and monetary policy, specifically QE. You could've made a number of swing trades of 50-200% in 1 year since 2007.
The caveat is that hindsight and cherrypicking data is not a good way of evaluating trading strategies. You can only trade what you know or have experience with. If you decide to pursue strategies, prepare to invest the time to develop the background in what factors affect that stock or market.
Heartily agree, jrk! It just escapes me why someone doesn't get this.
IMO real estate is going to cool off at some point and if it were me I would be looking at REIT's, espeially anything that were involved in commercial medically related properties.
First thing you should understand since it sounds like you are a novice is don't close your mind to new ideas. There are multiple ways to make money both short term and long term on the market and it is beneficial to know and understand fundamental analysis and technical analysis. I've been in the stock market for 19 years, but have been seriously involved since 2003-2004 range. Seriously involved meaning putting at least 10 hours per week, currently I'm around 40 hours per week between watching the market and doing research.
You should know active trading has many benefits for those who actually know technical analysis. People who buy because a stock is low or notice a stock seems to go up 5% then down 5% then up 5% etc are just gambling. There is a correct and wrong way about it. You can also apply technical indicators to your long term account that will prevent you from losing any significant amount of money during a crash or major correction. While other "buy and forget" holders see their investments drop in half and then wait multiple years in hopes to break-even again, you'll be out of the market with only maybe a 5-10% drop from the peak of the market. Not only that, but you will be less likely to be suckered in during the collapse and you could even profit from the next crash by going short once the floor breaks.
Once again, my point isn't to get you to go out today and buy a book on technical analysis and active trading. My point is a newbie should never discredit what they don't know. Most people lose money in the stock market, so simply just following the general masses isn't a winning proposition. You should be hungry to learn all types of investing/trading strategies. You can then try them out with fake money or with a small percentage of your account and see how it goes. I've noticed a lot of newbie investors come on here basically thinking they know it all and in reality that kind of mentality hurts them. Understanding trends and support/resistance levels can benefit any type of investor OR trader. Some people think it only applies to day traders, which is so far from the truth.
I can appreciate that, bmw, but this person seems to be gleaning most of his knowledge from newletters from Jim Willie and other alarmist types that say things like the dollar is going to collapse and to buy gold. Nothing from solid resources like Fidelity, MarketWatch, etc. That's why he sold Chevron when they cut the dividend, on the advice of a newsletter, then the stock shot up like mad.
I can appreciate that, bmw, but this person seems to be gleaning most of his knowledge from newletters from Jim Willie and other alarmist types that say things like the dollar is going to collapse and to buy gold. Nothing from solid resources like Fidelity, MarketWatch, etc. That's why he sold Chevron when they cut the dividend, on the advice of a newsletter, then the stock shot up like mad.
Oh ok, I didn't realize you were speaking about a specific person. Yeah, one of the reasons why I use trading ranges and moving averages is because it gets rid of all the noise about a dollar collapse, war, economic problems etc. All of those things doesn't matter if the ETF or stock is within the trading range.
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