VooDoo Training For the Stock Market

If you go to Haiti or other places in the Caribbean you may run into the Voodoo tradition of magic. There are long and mostly noisy rituals with the medicine man spouting words that bring great power and conjure up whatever it is the supplicant desires. Great amounts of smoke and mirrors.

Does this remind you of anything?

I hear the mesmerizing words of my broker telling me about a wonderful stock. He produces multicolored charts and graphs that dazzle my eyes. His chanting is "BUY, BUY, BUY". I can't resist. He has me under his spell. Thus the magic of Wall Street. Great amounts of smoke and mirrors.

Brokerage houses and mutual funds only want you to do one thing ? BUY and HOLD. Never sell.

To escape the hold of these magicians you must start to think for yourself. I am sure you realize that for the past 3 years you have been losing money. The recent rally has returned some of your losses and Maul Street wants you to hang in there as the rest of your money will be returning. Maybe. If the broker (magician) keeps doing what he has been doing you are going to get more of the same results. If you have lost 30 to 50% of your savings during the past 3 years don't you think you could do as well without the "help" of a broker or financial planner?

OK. No more glossy colored folders (smoke and mirrors) about how wonderful a company is. If you know it then so does everyone else. This type of 'research' is worthless. Leave that to the mutual fund managers. It seems to be what they do best - or is it worst?

Wall Street preaches the lie that if you hold you will make money, but that is only half the story. You have to be able to hold for 30 years. Oh, they forgot to tell you that?

The most important thing about the stock market is not buying ? it is selling. Did you realize that every 10 years about 40% of the S&P500 index changes? Mr. Standard and Mr. Poor realize you can't hold onto a loser so they drop out the weak ones and replace with stocks that are going up.

You want to be in the market when it is going up, not down. You have to know when the market is going up and that is called market timing. It is not cheating by late trading; it is understanding that the long term trend is up (or down) and you want to own funds at the time (or be out of the market entirely). A broker or financial planner will not help you, but it is very easy to learn. Go to the search engine called www.Google.com and type in market timing. You will be flooded with information.

You must to get out from under the Voodoo spell of Buy and Hold as it is a guaranteed loser.

Al Thomas' book, "If It Doesn't Go Up, Don't Buy It!" has helped thousands of people make money and keep their profits with his simple 2-step method. Read the first chapter at http://www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why he's the man that Wall Street does not want you to know.

Copyright 2005

---

The Bottom?

Every day I hear someone on CNBC proclaim that "this... Read More

More Window Dressing

Two weeks ago I wrote about what the Securities and... Read More

Leverage - Margin Debt

What is leverage?Here is a definition of leverage from an... Read More

Market Timing?

The recent criminal fiasco in the mutual fund industry is... Read More

Stocks & Oil, Sat Jun 18th, 2005

Both the stock market and oil prices rallied recently, which... Read More

Seecrets on Investment: Tired of Making Huge Losses in the Stock Market ? Part 2

Fundamental analysis.Fundamentals analysis says the best way to predict the... Read More

Some Good News for A Change

Before we get into all the good news out there,... Read More

My Stock - Right or Wrong

We all know the expression, "My country, right or wrong",... Read More

Low Expense Ratio

One of the big advertising kicks today from mutual funds... Read More

How to Short Stocks? How to Make Money when Your Stocks Go Down by Shorting

The stock market can present you with a lot of... Read More

Why Stock Is More Risky Than Options!

You probably have been told that options are risky. Even... Read More

Selection Vs Direction

As I have said many times before in this column... Read More

Lifestyle Funds Provide Greater Security?

With the stock market stubbornly refusing to settle down and... Read More

Roller Coaster

I love roller coasters. The steeper the better. High and... Read More

The Right Mutual Funds For Baby Boomers

If you are a baby boomer, time is not on... Read More

Is Your Garage Full Of Junk?

I have a 2-car garage. There are nice shelves on... Read More

Advisory Service for You?

It depends on your level of understanding of the market... Read More

Boiler Room 7/17/00

On Friday or Saturday evening my wife gets a movie... Read More

Advantages and Disadvantages of Mutual Funds

Outlined below are some of the advantages and disadvantages of... Read More

Analysts - Do They Really Know The Stock Market?

When you become interested in a stock or mutual fund... Read More

Shorting Stocks ? The Basics, Part I of II

What does it mean to short a stock?This means that... Read More

The POWER of a Proven Stock Investment Plan

When you invest in the stock market for ever-increasing cash... Read More

Value Investing: Selecting From The Bargain Bin

Picking a beaten-down stock requires a different kind of selection... Read More

What Does it Take to be a Stock Trader?

It takes a total mental commitment to the task. It... Read More

Complacency

During the month of January the Dow Jones Industrial Average,... Read More

Overvalued & Underbought

With all the bad news that has been dumped upon... Read More

Stock Market Volatility

In my opinion, due to the volatility of stock market... Read More

Its A Duck

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck... Read More

The Club

Yesterday I received my monthly issue of MONEY magazine. This... Read More

The Top 10 Reasons to Invest in Mutual Funds

Everyone who follows the financial news has heard of mutual... Read More

Different Types of Mutual Funds

This is a guide to the different types of mutual... Read More

Hedge Funds: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Alfred Winslow Jones started hedge funds in 1949. He was... Read More

Stock Market Course .... Day Trader Online Seminar ... Can You Generate Profits Trading from Home?

When it comes to stock market trading it PAYS to... Read More