Currently the long term market trend is up so complacency reigns supreme. It is doing exactlythe same as in 2000. When 2002 ended we had asurplus of boiled frogs. A smart frog will notbe lulled to sleep and will have a plan to jumpout of the pot. A frog without a plan plans tobe frog soup. There are many ways for the frog to escape and there are many ways for investors to retaintheir profits or at least not lose their moneythe next time the market heads down. It will ifpast performance is any guide to futuresresults....

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What does it mean to short a stock? This means that you borrow the stock from your broker to sell to a third party. The idea is to buy back the stock at a lower price, returning the shares to your broker while leaving the remaining cash in your account as a profit. Put another way, a short seller does not own the stock before they sell it. Instead, they borrow it from another investor who already owns it. At a later date, the short seller buys back the stock they shorted and returns the stock to close out the loan....

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Fundamental analysis. Fundamentals analysis says the best way to predict the future trends of a stock is to understand the financial figures of the underlying company. The fundamental analyst would calculate a theoretical value of the company using cash flow analysis, recent dividends and earnings, future dividends and earnings projections plus a host of other economic numbers. If the current stock price is lower than the calculated value, a trader who uses fundamental analysis would buy this stock....

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"There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action!"Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) I don't really know how cars actually work. Not really! I know how to drive them, but if you asked me how they work, I would not really know how to definitely explain it. That small technical limitation on my part doesn't stop me from knowing whether XYZ Autos is a quality company or not. I don't understand the cars they make, but I do understand XYZ Autos. Moreover, that understanding is critical to making a decision about the value of their stock....

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In November of 2000 when the NASDAQ was trading at 3000 I wrote in this column that the NASDAQ Index would fall to 1500 and I got lots of heat for saying it. Microsoft had fallen from $129 to $60 per share. You know where they are today. The talking heads on CNBC-TV and many of the radio stock experts are convinced we are headed back up as soon as this small "correction" is over - and they could be right, but I seem to remember their former predictions just before the major stock indexes went over the edge of Financial Niagara Falls....

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Now that you have some money burning a hole in your pocket and the stock market is going up you have decided to buy some stock or maybe a mutual fund, but you have the momentous decisions to what to buy. At this point you have three decisions to make besides which equity to buy: 1. How much to buy. 2. When to buy. 3. When to sell. Which of these is the most important decision? Let me tell you this as a professional trader. What to buy and when to buy are the two least important of these decisions....

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If you have been dealing with mutual funds for any length of time, you undoubtedly have faced the question of which is better: Load Funds or No Load Funds. If you are new to investing, "load" simply refers to the commission paid to the broker selling the fund. "No load" means there is no commission on the purchase or sale. Most discussions in the past have centered exclusively on performance comparisons. Even rating services like Morningstar have occasionally chimed in with their opinion. However, rather than focusing only on performance, there are some other issues I consider far more important: Who is selling load funds and why?...

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Peter is a professional trader, Paul is not. Peter has a tested, proven, written trading plan that he follows each time he enters a trade, Paul does not. Peter has agreed to meet with Paul to help Paul become a more successful trader. Paul was early for his first appointment to see Peter a few days later - he was feeling both excited and apprehensive. Peter had told him he would show him how to use technical analysis and swing trading strategies to trade Stock market trends with confidence - but could he really do it?...

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The crucial element that traders are looking for in any stock, which makes it a good day trade or swing trade, is movement or momentum. There are any numbers of things that can cause movement in a stock. Usually it is news of some sort, either positive or negative. It doesn't really matter. You are only looking for movement, up or down. However, for this particular strategy we are looking for positive news. Keep in mind that it is not your job as a trader to totally understand why or what is causing the movement in a stock, beyond what it takes to make a quick profit....

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Many countries without a stabilized currency are trading everything in arms and drugs. Even human sex slaves and other unfortunate means; a travesty, which cannot be argued. The commodity trading of cultural products is of necessity to stabilize prices and to feed the world and help in the planning and allocation of funds for future needs. If a farmer cannot make an honest living farming a field then microeconomics tells us that eventually he'll exit the marketplace. When there is a need for a product such as corn, sugar, oil, etc....

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As a novice trader, you'll often feel the need to trade. You may be bored or frustrated. Or you just want to try a certain type of trade. STOP! Realize that you don't have to be trading all the time to be successful. In fact not trading is often the very best decision you can make. The market tells you when to trade. If you feel the urge to place a trade or find yourself chasing a trade, walk away from the computer. Better still; take the opportunity to meet a friend for coffee. The trades you do when you're feeling the "...

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