Sunday, December 25, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Vote with Your Feet
I watch Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Television program every day. It seems that when he reaches a subject that he can hardly stand to discuss, he will say, “If you don’t like your state’s laws, vote with your feet.” In other words, go someplace else to live. With this message ringing in my ears, I feel very sad about all the corruption that we are forced to tolerate to have a
decent place to live and yet it looks like it will not be decent for longer.
The United States has always been my first choice. I started visiting Europe when I owned a travel agency and then made my fair share of the three-week excursions to visit there. Even on my first trip It just seemed that so many people had some sort of scam going for themselves. It cost me three rolls of Kodak film just to make it through Customs in Spain on arrival on my first trip. At that time in history, I had never had this type of experience for any reason and I still have never learned just to accept it as we have done when someone
asking us for a tip for just doing their job that they are already getting paid for. It was just too blatant. I have enjoyed my trips to Europe but, I was always glad to return home and get away from this hassle.
I was a stock broker when the financial market went corrupt however, it was not an “in your face” type of movement like the Politicians made
in Washington. Many of the politicians do not even pay their taxes on the money that they are paid from our taxes; and
yet, they steal even more money from the same tax payers that was collected to run our government. What kind of people are these people who are managing our country?
However, things are changing here in the U.S. and
decent place to live and yet it looks like it will not be decent for longer.
The United States has always been my first choice. I started visiting Europe when I owned a travel agency and then made my fair share of the three-week excursions to visit there. Even on my first trip It just seemed that so many people had some sort of scam going for themselves. It cost me three rolls of Kodak film just to make it through Customs in Spain on arrival on my first trip. At that time in history, I had never had this type of experience for any reason and I still have never learned just to accept it as we have done when someone
asking us for a tip for just doing their job that they are already getting paid for. It was just too blatant. I have enjoyed my trips to Europe but, I was always glad to return home and get away from this hassle.
I was a stock broker when the financial market went corrupt however, it was not an “in your face” type of movement like the Politicians made
in Washington. Many of the politicians do not even pay their taxes on the money that they are paid from our taxes; and
yet, they steal even more money from the same tax payers that was collected to run our government. What kind of people are these people who are managing our country?
However, things are changing here in the U.S. and
My Mother's Birthday Gift by Pam McGarry
I wanted to get my mother something she would really like for her birthday this year. Since she has been working on this blog, I thought that Dragon Dictate would be great for her. We have used it at several places I have worked to help staff members keep up with their documentation. It has worked well for them, so I thought that it was worth a try for my mother.I started an Internet search to find out more about the choices and prices of the software. I quickly became overwhelmed with the number of options and prices, so I found Dragon's official website www.nuance.com and started my search there. A chat box popped up, which I love. It is so helpful and easy to chat on-line with a sales or customer service person about products. The person I was chatting with helped me to narrow down my choices and then offered me an opportunity to speak with a sales person who could call me right away. We talked and determined that Dragon Naturally Speaking 11.5 Premium with a Bluetooth Microphone was the best choice. Since I was buying it from the company, it came with a 30 day money back guarantee and 90 days of tech support. I bought a training video also that I thought would help my mother. There wasn't any tax on an order shipped from out-of-state to where we live in Pennsylvania, so I used that savings to pay for expedited shipping. I ordered on Friday night and had it on Tuesday.
It loaded easily and I walked through the set up that included training the software to recognize my voice and now I'm pretty much off and running. There are prompts down the right side of the screen, similar to what Quick Books offers, to help me know what to say and do. The prompts change if I'm in email or Word or Excel. It is really something.
My mother is watching the video and me learn how to use it and is ready to get going with it on her own today (less than a week after it arrived). We had purchased IBM via voice more than a decade ago. I remember paying $149 to $179 for it and really never used it. I couldn't get it trained to my voice, which I now know had to do with the poor quality microphone that came with the program, but as a graduate student and county case worker, it didn't dawn on me that I needed to spend even more money to get software to work for me. My total cost for this software, video and expedited shipping with 30 day money back guarantee and 90 days of free tech support $353.92. I'm thrilled. Something that works and is helpful. We love this product and highly recommend it.
Of course we started looking into the stock prices and how the company is doing. Barchart shows this stock as a BUY. www.barchart.com
It loaded easily and I walked through the set up that included training the software to recognize my voice and now I'm pretty much off and running. There are prompts down the right side of the screen, similar to what Quick Books offers, to help me know what to say and do. The prompts change if I'm in email or Word or Excel. It is really something.
My mother is watching the video and me learn how to use it and is ready to get going with it on her own today (less than a week after it arrived). We had purchased IBM via voice more than a decade ago. I remember paying $149 to $179 for it and really never used it. I couldn't get it trained to my voice, which I now know had to do with the poor quality microphone that came with the program, but as a graduate student and county case worker, it didn't dawn on me that I needed to spend even more money to get software to work for me. My total cost for this software, video and expedited shipping with 30 day money back guarantee and 90 days of free tech support $353.92. I'm thrilled. Something that works and is helpful. We love this product and highly recommend it.
Of course we started looking into the stock prices and how the company is doing. Barchart shows this stock as a BUY. www.barchart.com
| NUAN (Common Stock) | |
| Exchange | NASDAQ GS (US Dollar) |
| Price | $25.96 |
| Change (%) |  0.16 (0.62%) |
| Volume | 593,351 |
| Today's Open | $25.77 |
| Previous Close | $25.80 |
| Intraday High | $26.01 |
| Intraday Low | $25.74 |
| 52 Week High | $26.97 |
| 52 Week Low | $15.56 |
| Data as of 11/14/11 11:22 a.m. ET Minimum 20 minute delay Refresh quote | |
Harry Dent "The Great Crash Ahead"
Harry Dent was mentioned week on the Fox news show Freedom Watch. I knew Harry Dent’s new book had The Great Crash Ahead: Strategies for a World Turned Upside Down had come out in September.
Hearing Harry Dent mentioned again was exciting to me. I’m anxious to see what predictions he has for the upcoming years in his new book. I found the Roaring 2000s Investor really interesting and informative. The book provided a look into the future based on what was learned from the past
Harry is not afraid to state his opinions that are at times thought to be unusual or controversial. It is always good to hear what creative geniuses like Harry is thinking and take that information into account when making decisions about your future and finances.
Harry provides background information about all of his opinions, which I particularly enjoy. As we approach the end of this year it is important to think about the changes that are coming in the New Year as well as distant future and how to handle them.
Til Tomorrow… Pat
Hearing Harry Dent mentioned again was exciting to me. I’m anxious to see what predictions he has for the upcoming years in his new book. I found the Roaring 2000s Investor really interesting and informative. The book provided a look into the future based on what was learned from the past
Harry is not afraid to state his opinions that are at times thought to be unusual or controversial. It is always good to hear what creative geniuses like Harry is thinking and take that information into account when making decisions about your future and finances.
Harry provides background information about all of his opinions, which I particularly enjoy. As we approach the end of this year it is important to think about the changes that are coming in the New Year as well as distant future and how to handle them.
Til Tomorrow… Pat
Friday, November 25, 2011
William O’Neil's CAN SLIM System
In 1980 I attended a one day seminar in Chicago given by William O’Neil on his CAN SLIM System. I had been interested in Technical Analysis for a decade and this was a good opportunity for me to have some really good training from one of the top Technical Analysts just an hour flight from home. To this day, the first indicators that I look at when checking out a stock is a print out a technical analysis chart of the stock in question to see if it is in an up, down or sideways trend.
Sometime in the 1990 my home state approved the sales of an investment that was paying out 8%. I had been working with technical Analysis and helping my clients make up to a 20% return on their retirement accounts during the same time period when other people in town were lining up to buy an 8% return from a fund that turned out to be a Ponzi Scheme that cost investors
tens of thousands of dollars.
Many people never even thought of trying to learn to make money by investing for themselves. I highly recommend William O’Neil’s book How to Make Money in Stocks.
Sometime in the 1990 my home state approved the sales of an investment that was paying out 8%. I had been working with technical Analysis and helping my clients make up to a 20% return on their retirement accounts during the same time period when other people in town were lining up to buy an 8% return from a fund that turned out to be a Ponzi Scheme that cost investors
tens of thousands of dollars.
Many people never even thought of trying to learn to make money by investing for themselves. I highly recommend William O’Neil’s book How to Make Money in Stocks.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving/Black Friday Holiday Weekend. I hope that you and your family enjoy all that this weekend has to offer from food to shopping, family and friends, TV and Movies.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
The Overall Condition of th U.S. Economy
Election
years are generally good for stocks.
However, as we approach the 2012 presidential election year, I would not
even venture to speculate how it will impact the financial markets.
Between the bad
economy, the continued over spending of the government, the lies of the politicians,
and civil unrest; it seems impossible to solve this country’s problems.
Judge
Anthony Napolitano, on his daily TV program Freedom Watch, is doing a fine job
of presenting why the United States should follow the guidelines set out by our
forefathers in our Constitution. Judge Napolitano and many others believe the United
States Constitution is the law of our land and should be strictly followed.
Where Do I go from here?
When I start wondering about the current Stock Market, all I can think of is:
What do I do now? Where do I go from here? It makes sense to review all of my current financial holdings to determine whether I should sell or hold the investment.
Investments fall
into three categories: “Buy” “Sell” or “Hold”.
With this in mind I am going to look at each one individually in order
to decide what action I feel would be best. This question also comes up when I consider
buying or selling stocks
When I trade stocks
I usually start with looking at the overall condition of the Market. The quickest way to do this is:
·
Run a chart of the Dow Jones
Industrial Average (DJIA) Dow Jones Industrial Average.
·
Draw a trend Line on the chart –
is it going up or down?
·
Check for Buy or Sell Signals.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Our Mission:
Potential investors too often view investing as a black box. I desire to provide advice that will illustrate pitfalls unknowing investors may face, so that they will become better engaged in making money. My goal is to present information backed by top authorities and combed through my decades of experience to best aid you in your financial decisions.
The Role of Money Management in Investing
In the past years, there has been very little attention paid to this aspect of financial planning. This is the main reason that people do not make the returns that they would like to make from their investments. The best advice that we could get in the past was, “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket” or “Investing is like a three-legged stool; put some money in stocks, some money in mutual funds, and some money in bonds.” This advice might have been of some help, but probably would not give you the comfortable retirement lifestyle that you would like to have.
Money management is the most important factor in making money by investing. It is really difficult to keep your mind clear and your eye on the ball when the market is soaring and all investments are rising in price or when the market is falling fast and most investments are losing value. What do you buy and what do you sell? This is not a good situation in which to be. Buying and selling decisions should be planned and made with a clear mind. This is where money is made or lost.
It is best to have a set of rules that you use to base your buying and selling decisions on. This should keep emotional and greedy decisions in check. Remember: “Bulls make money, Bears make money, but Pigs don’t.”
Bill Astrop, President of Astrop Advisory Corp. in Atlanta, Georgia, recommends a minor revision of the 10% loss-cutting plan. He thinks that individual investors should sell half of their position in a stock if it is down 5% from their costs and the other half once it is down 10%. If followed, this strategy will provide you with funds to get back into the market when the economy changes.
Money management is the most important factor in making money by investing. It is really difficult to keep your mind clear and your eye on the ball when the market is soaring and all investments are rising in price or when the market is falling fast and most investments are losing value. What do you buy and what do you sell? This is not a good situation in which to be. Buying and selling decisions should be planned and made with a clear mind. This is where money is made or lost.
It is best to have a set of rules that you use to base your buying and selling decisions on. This should keep emotional and greedy decisions in check. Remember: “Bulls make money, Bears make money, but Pigs don’t.”
Bill Astrop, President of Astrop Advisory Corp. in Atlanta, Georgia, recommends a minor revision of the 10% loss-cutting plan. He thinks that individual investors should sell half of their position in a stock if it is down 5% from their costs and the other half once it is down 10%. If followed, this strategy will provide you with funds to get back into the market when the economy changes.
Money: Today & Tomorrow
“Money management” may seem like a rather self-evident moniker for those processes which we perform daily related to the income and disbursement of money, but the management of money in investment is a special ordeal of its own. Investment is not an exercise in making one choice and seeing that decision to fortune or bust. Money management is a core matter that will decide how well you ride the waves of gains and losses, and whether you will be able to re-enter the market following a catastrophic market change.
Money management is a key to ensuring survival in the unsure world of investing. Without having a necessary grubstake through which to re-enter the market, you may not only not have the opportunity to re-enter financially, but you may also be permanently soured on the prospect. Money management is about having money to start over.
Money management is also the control of purchases and sales with a clear mind. It may be human nature to ride what appear to be sharp rises and falls, as though they were manias or depressions that would level. The management of money is the knowledgeable and formulaic treatment to investment that avoids the pitfalls of gut feelings and tips probabilities of success in your favor both today and through tomorrow.
Money management is a key to ensuring survival in the unsure world of investing. Without having a necessary grubstake through which to re-enter the market, you may not only not have the opportunity to re-enter financially, but you may also be permanently soured on the prospect. Money management is about having money to start over.
Money management is also the control of purchases and sales with a clear mind. It may be human nature to ride what appear to be sharp rises and falls, as though they were manias or depressions that would level. The management of money is the knowledgeable and formulaic treatment to investment that avoids the pitfalls of gut feelings and tips probabilities of success in your favor both today and through tomorrow.
Penny Stocks: Friend or Foe
The Denver and Canadian markets list many stocks that trade for pennies per share. These seemingly cheap securities are more appealing now that we are all a little short on cash. However, there is a usually a flip side to whatever seems like a really good deal and penny stocks are no exception. William O’Neil, in his most recent book “HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN STOCKS, Complete Investing System” when discussing penny stocks, states, “I strongly advise that you avoid gambling in such cheap merchandise, because everything sells for what it’s worth. You get what you pay for.”
Although it seems like we could buy a very large quantity of these stocks even with the limited funds that we have available, the penny stock market is fast-moving and volatile which makes it very difficult to make a high-volume trade at your desired offer price. The market may get away from you and you could end up buying at a higher price than you wanted to pay and selling well below the price that you need to make a profitable trade. You have to add to the mix that if you are buying or selling a large quantity of stocks in this market, you can also move the market against yourself and end up making even less on the trade.
However, if you happen to own some penny stocks at this time, I feel that it would be best to use the 10% loss-cutting plan (as advised by Bill Astrop, President of Astrop Advisory Corp. in Atlanta, Georgia). I think that individual investors should sell half of their position in a stock if it is down 5% and the other half once it is down 10%. This strategy should assist you in preserving remaining funds with which to further invest.
Although it seems like we could buy a very large quantity of these stocks even with the limited funds that we have available, the penny stock market is fast-moving and volatile which makes it very difficult to make a high-volume trade at your desired offer price. The market may get away from you and you could end up buying at a higher price than you wanted to pay and selling well below the price that you need to make a profitable trade. You have to add to the mix that if you are buying or selling a large quantity of stocks in this market, you can also move the market against yourself and end up making even less on the trade.
However, if you happen to own some penny stocks at this time, I feel that it would be best to use the 10% loss-cutting plan (as advised by Bill Astrop, President of Astrop Advisory Corp. in Atlanta, Georgia). I think that individual investors should sell half of their position in a stock if it is down 5% and the other half once it is down 10%. This strategy should assist you in preserving remaining funds with which to further invest.
This Is The Best of Times – This Is The Worst of Times For Our Country
The other day, I was looking for some books on the Internet when I ran across Jim Rogers’s new book, A Gift to My Children: A Father’s Lesson for Life and Investing. The thought came to me as how wonderful it would be if we parents had this book and took time to relay the messages to our children, especially at time in history when we are letting the politicians over-spend, increase the budget and then print more money. This debt will then be left to our children to pay off after we die or they will lose the country and their freedom.
I would hate to think how many more people would be homeless right now if we all managed our financial obligations in the same manner that the United States is managing theirs. Day by day we are all trying to learn to live within our monthly income. We do not always succeed but at least we try. This is more than I can say for our government.
I started reading Rogers’s investment books back in the 1980’s when I first got interested in the stock market. I have bought and read almost all of his books since then and he has become one of the leading authorities on investing today. His investing style is similar to Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch. Perhaps we could tip the scales of the future toward the best of times with a bit of Rogers’s advice and by taking a moment to instill those values into those who will champion that future.
I would hate to think how many more people would be homeless right now if we all managed our financial obligations in the same manner that the United States is managing theirs. Day by day we are all trying to learn to live within our monthly income. We do not always succeed but at least we try. This is more than I can say for our government.
I started reading Rogers’s investment books back in the 1980’s when I first got interested in the stock market. I have bought and read almost all of his books since then and he has become one of the leading authorities on investing today. His investing style is similar to Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch. Perhaps we could tip the scales of the future toward the best of times with a bit of Rogers’s advice and by taking a moment to instill those values into those who will champion that future.
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