| |
| |
|
Investing Information |
|
|
|
Buy: Hold: Sell: Jump
I'm sitting here at my computer desk with a cup of coffee at my elbow. The coffee rest in a mug, the mug garnished with the words Buy, Hold, Sell, Jump, vertically along its sides. Emblazoned across the top of the cup are the words, Wall Street, which encircles the upper portions of the mug. The handle of the mug is quite ornate, rounded at the bottom, with a cradle in the handle's top. In the cradle is a die, with a small metal pin through the die, which enables my thumb too spin the die. Instead of numbers, as in a pair of dice, the die's choices are Yes, No, and ? And, lo and behold, an article is born. When do you buy, sell, hold or jump? (A better question still, what do you buy, when do you sell, how long should you hold, and why would you jump?) This article will tackle the word Jump (to find the answer to those other questions, they've been answered in some of my other articles). Would Jump mean off a building? Or Jump to another stock market security? The word Jump reminded me of one of my other articles where I stated 'just because thousands of people on wall street make their living doing 'technical analysis' doesn't mean you have to jump off a building, too'. Just today, reported by CNBC, a hedge fund has gone bankrupt. Seems the manager of the fund has skipped the country, along with all of the money. It's been reported tens of millions of investor's dollars are gone (as well as the manager). The Wall Street Journal just had a report stating that retirement plans are facing a new threat: Theft. Excerpts from the Wall Street Journal (March 2, 2005): New York Retirement Plans are facing a growing threat: Theft "Susana Longo, the compliance officer at Applied Financial Group, an investment-advisory firm in Atlanta, was indicted in January on federal charges of stealing $5.4 million in retirement savings from 220 workers at a car dealer, two medical practices and an audio-visual specialist. She acknowledged spending the money on two beach houses, a diamond ring, a 1,600-bottle wine collection and a Porsche 911, according to a lawsuit filed by the advisory firm." (The article also stated this went on for four years.) The article also goes on to state there are important lessons to be learned through this Atlanta case and they were stated in these excerpts from the same article in the Wall Street Journal: * Roll your money into an individual retirement account when you retire (my comments on this later). Eight retirees who left their assets in one of the four affected plans were receiving monthly checks from their accounts until the plan was frozen last spring amid the investigation, said William Whitmire, the company's director and the Plan's trustee. "Some of them are really desperate, but there's nothing that can be done until the insurers come to agreement,' he said. * Make sure you are getting all your statements, and force yourself to reconcile them. The amount deducted from your paycheck should match the amount deposited into your 401(k) account. * The trustees of the four Atlanta-area plans were supposed to get regular statements from both the retirement-plan administrator and the custodian of the plans' assets. The trustees of the two hardest-hit plans didn't get their custodial statements regularly, because they were sent to other addresses. When trustees did get custodial statements, they didn't review them. *Don't assume that you will receive a heads-up from your employer or plan custodian. As the alleged fraud in Atlanta began to unravel, federal agents showed up at Whitmore's office with a stack of about 75 forged checks made out to people 'he never heard of," he said. He claims that the plan's custodian didn't call to make sure the checks were authentic. As I was reading this article I couldn't help thinking about the old adage 'No one cares as much about your money as you do.' And here's the crux of this whole article: You do not have to wait until you retire before moving monies from your 401(k) Plan into an individual IRA. There was and is a law which was passed in 2002 which allows you to transfer any after-taxed dollars and company-matched dollars out of your 401(k) plan into an IRA (with no fees or penalties, and no matter what your age). I have been doing this while still employed with my company. I have built my own mutual fund, using monies that have been transferred from my 401(k) into an individual IRA. If you get nothing else out of this article, let it be that you will contact the firm your 401(k) monies are with, and find out your available options. To read the Preface from the book 'The Stockopoly Plan- Investing for Retirement' visit: http://www.thestockopolyplan.com Charles M. O'Melia is an individual investor with almost 40 years of experience and passion for the stock market. The author of the book 'The Stockopoly Plan'; published by American-Book Publishing. The book can be purchased at http://www.pdbookstore.com/comfiles/pages/CharlesMOMelia.shtml
MORE RESOURCES:
Investing - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
To Retire Rich, Save and Invest Early If you want to retire rich, start saving investing early. The most powerful tool when it comes to retiring rich, is compounding your returns on money saved when you are young. Five Sure Fire Way to Secure Your Financial Future "You can be poor when you're young, but you can't be poor when you're old." That was the tag line used some years ago in a financial services television commercial. How to Choose the Right Share Class You'll want to opt for the no-load or institutional share class instead. If you're a no-load investor who is determined to buy a fund that's primarily broker-sold, go through a supermarket and opt for the D shares. Invest To Make Money, Not To Get Rich The technology boom of the '90s romanticized the "rags-to-riches" ideal that all of us dream about when investing. For those that invested $1000 in Dell at $5 during 1990, held through the seven splits, then sold in March 2000 at $59, the dream was a reality. The Biggest Oil Opportunity in the World - And How You Can Profit From It Where is the second biggest deposit of oil reserves in the world?In the oil sands region of Alberta, Canada. Oil sands are a thick, viscid mixture of bitumen, sand, clay, and water. It's Never too Early to Start Investing! Remember the old saying, "never too late to start"? Well, try this on for size: when it comes to investing, it's never too early to start. Time really is of the essence here. Trading Tips No 4: Technical Analysis The Holy Grail Syndrome Everyone knows that the Holy Grail of investing and trading is a myth. Finding a good technical analysis tool that will give you a trading system that wins all the time is called the holy grail of trading. Delist My Corporation Please It use to be said that once a company was de-listed from the NASDAQ it was the kiss of death, not so any more. With Sarbanes Oxley and all the insane reporting requirements it might save your company from incessant lawsuits from investors and the government regulators who are out to destroy free enterprise. The Differences Betweeen the Wealthy and Everyone Else I recently received an e-mail from a young lady who had doubts about the principles of wealth found in "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". She mentioned a couple of past failed investments, and wanted to know what I thought about investing and financial freedom - whether it was just a myth, or whether it could be acquired. Finding the Perfect Company The perfect company - it's the holy grail of the investment world. The company that will make its initial investment hundreds of times over. When Its Too Late to Save for Retirement You are 55 years old (or somewhere around there) and your company is going to force you to retire at 65. You have $35,000 saved in your 401K and that's all. Why Do You Want to Become a Online Trader? Motivational guru Tony Robbins teaches that the reason for doing something rates much higher than the methods you use to get the job done. In order to make your goal REAL, you need to attach severe, horrifying, intense and profound fear to failure. Commodities - The Next Big Wave of Fortune Building Have you often wished you could have got in on a tremendous money making opportunity before it took off? How would you feel if you had bought Microsoft stock when it first went public and your investment doubled 5 times? Imagine how rich you would be right now?I'm not saying you should be in Microsoft stock at this time. In fact Microsoft's stock has stayed in the $25 range for years now. Mutual Fund Returns May Not Be As They Seem! Arthur Levitt, during his tenure at the SEC, experienced many cases where the non-indexed mutual fund manager bought shares for their own accounts before the fund bought the shares. The fund's purchases drove up the price of the stocks and the fund manager's made a killing on the deal. Emotions: A Traders Worst Enemy; Get Rid of Fear and Greed - Youll be Glad You Did You hear it over and over and over in books, forums, and chatrooms. Fear and greed, fear and greed, fear and greed. Angels, Are They Real? They're real, but few survive. High risk investing is dangerous to your bank balance. Investing in Car Dealerships: Doing Your Homework This article attempts to help give the investor a broader basis upon which to decide whether a dealership merits their time, money and attention.Interviewing Factories and Financial InstitutionsLenders have an affirmative duty not to promiscuously disclose the financial condition of their debtors. What My Horse Had For Breakfast Let's see, he had some oats, fresh alfalfa and his vitamins. I know from the mixture that is great food and he will win the seventh race this afternoon. The Real Cost of a Bad Habit What is the value of a good habit? Think of some daily habits, like brushing your teeth, or buckling a seat belt, or flushing. All of these habits have value important to some part of life. Art Investing for a Financial Future When we think of investing we probably conjure images in our minds of the New York Stock Exchange, suited stock brokers making deals, bonds and treasury bills, and all manner of financial matters. The last thing we probably think about is art.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |