| |
| |
|
|
Stocks and Mutual Funds |
|
Understanding the Bulls and the Bears
If you've ever flipped on the television to CNN Financial or paged through the finance section of your local newspaper, you may have seen or heard references made to "the bulls and the bears." If you didn't know what was meant by those terms, you're about to find out. I will tell you up front that they were not talking about basketball and football franchises based in Chicago. "The bulls and the bears" refers to the performance of the stock market. In the most general terms, "ups" are bulls and "downs" are bears. If the stocks and funds in which you have invested have a "bull" day, you're probably one happy camper. You made money. If, on the other hand, it's been a "bear" day, you're probably not going to be feeling too chipper. Remember that no one has much cared for the Bears (save people in Chicago, of course) since 1986 and the days of Walter Payton, William "Refrigerator" Perry, and The Super Bowl Shuffle and you're on the right track. No one knows for sure where these terms originated, but they are definitely related to the behavior we associate with these animals. Bulls and bears display uniquely opposite attitudes and behaviors. Bulls will charge ahead bravely or angrily at anything that catches their interest while bears are, by nature, more timid and cautious creatures (although I wouldn't recommend approaching one in the wild, regardless) who will move slowly and investigate a situation before taking action. The way that these relate to a "bull or bear" market is evident. When the market is having a strong upswing and is charging ahead by leaps and bounds, it is having a bull run (no, this has nothing to do with the Civil War). When it's on a steady decline, obviously, it's experiencing a bear run (not the Native American who loved Little White Dove, according to the song. That was Running Bear which, I'm told, is far too chilly in the winter - especially in Chicago.) In all seriousness, however, the bulls and the bears of the stock market have a profound effect on investors, often making or breaking a person's financial future in one day. The wise investor will pay close attention to the market's bull and bear activities and invest accordingly. Investment Tips by Mika Hamilton - Read more free investment tips, tutorials & reviews at http://www.Global-Investment-Institute.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Stocks-Mutual-Funds - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Fools Gold The stock market has been in an up trend for more than a year. Almost everyone is feeling good and many believe we are back in the old bull market with the previous high of the Dow Jones Industrial Average just about to be broken. Complacency Indicator If you haven't heard of the technical indicator with the stock market symbol VIX it is now time to pay some attention to it. When the number is running low, as it is now, around 15 to 18 it means everyone is happy and thinks the stock market is going to continue up or at least continue on its current path and there is no need to sell anything. How To Pick A Mutual Fund Mutual funds by definition are a mixed bag of stocks, bonds and a little cash. Their price per share is the NAV, Net Asset Value of the total amount of money in the mutual fund divided by the number of shares. Will the Stock Market be Lower in October? The stock market often closes a week in the middle of a "perceived primary-trend range." SPX closed at about 1,234 Fri, which is between a multi-year Fibonacci level at 1,253 (i. Downdraft For the year 2000 we have seen hundreds of mutual funds lose 40%, 50% and more of their value. This does not seem right since the fund is supposed to be managed by a professional. Low Expense Ratio One of the big advertising kicks today from mutual funds is to tell how low their expense ratio is and that you will make a great deal more money if you buy and hold with them. Partly true, but that is not the whole story. How Commodity Trading Differs from Stock Trading There are major differences between trading stocks and trading futures. While stories of fortunes made or lost overnight on the futures markets are largely untrue, the futures trader, if using a sound trading system, can usually make more money on the futures market and make it much faster. Take The Time You must take the time once a month to review your investment portfolio. It won't take long - less than one hour, maybe 15 minutes. Enron Cure Let's hope you did not have any of the Enron stock. Maybe you know someone who did and lost everything, but you certainly might know several people who owned stock that lost almost everything. Municipal Bonds Because there are so many stocks that are NOT paying dividends and also going down people are looking for a safe investment that will pay a decent return and also won't lose money. Slowly folks are beginning to think about bonds of which there are all kinds. Option Trading Basics Options trading can increase the profits you make when trading Stocks if you understand how to use them and know what you are doing. Options can be a very useful tool that the average investor can use to enhance their returns. 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. Peer Groups Whenever I see mutual fund comparisons in the trade publications and in the financial section of the newspaper they almost always mention a specific fund and tell you how good it is in relation to its peer group. A peer group is a specialized sector of mutual funds that all invest in about the same type of stocks or areas of the world or size of companies or some such categorization. Big Buildings Can Mean Big Economic Disaster AS BUILDERS BEGIN WORK ON THE FREEDOM TOWER in New York City, to be the world's tallest building, economist Mark Thornton offers a history-based theory of the relation between super-buildings and the economy. Thornton surveyed economic performance worldwide following the completion of each of the world's tallest skyscrapers, and suggests what these events foretell. Option Spread Trading Spread trading is a technique that can be used to profit in bullish, neutral or bearish conditions. It basically functions to limit risk at the cost of limiting profit as well. Maximizing a Stock Market Investment Maximizing a stock market investmentThere are several factors an investor in the stock market should consider for a maximum return on an investment:1. All stock purchases should be commission-free. War Market There is no question that the stock market is being affected by war jitters. When it looks like peace we have a strong rally. More Window Dressing Two weeks ago I wrote about what the Securities and Exchange Commission was doing to regulate the mutual fund industry to help the small investor, the "poor folks". It really added up to zero. Social Insecurity Just about everything you have been told about Social Security is an obfuscation. That is a big word for convoluted truth or lie. Leverage - Margin Debt What is leverage?Here is a definition of leverage from an online dictionary "leverage - The use of credit or borrowed funds to improve one's speculative capacity and increase the rate of return from an investment, as in buying securities on margin."Essentially, the core idea of leverage is that investors can use less money to control bigger amount of investment so that investors can make more money when the price movement is in investors' favor.
|
||||||||||||||