Links and new sites for January 2009

Looking back at January I would like to share some links that I gathered over in January 2009.

1. The Dividend Machine introduced by HappinessIsBetter. HappinessisBetter gives details on the interview with William Spectrino and how one could use stock dividends to achieve financial independence.

2. Interested in free technical analysis of stocks ? Ino.com owns Marketclub.com which gives free technical analysis on a stock with ratings. Sample Forex training video link provided in my previous blog entry .

3. The Wild Investor introduced me to Stocktwits where community members share stock ideas real time.

4. Tickerville. Anyone interested to knowing about technical analysis of the current market and where its headed. Tickerville gives round up of important drivers of the market every couple of days.

5. Interested in learning about Elliot waves and how its useful predicting the markets Allan gives a good insight into technical analysis and his stock picks.

6. Steve features in MyWifeQuitHerJob.com. His blog was recently featured in TV. Check this link.

7. Informed trades gives a daily roundup of technical analysis of markets along with currency trading.

8. Interested in buying stock Warren Buffet style. Mark gives his view of the market and stockpics at Buylikebuffet.com.

9. My Money Blog continues to recommend few money saving tips and some credit card offers and links to cool coupons.

10. Interested in learning about other people's opinion on a particular stock? Check out WikInvest. You can read buy and sell recommendations on a particular stock here.

11. Want to have some free stock picking links? Gorilla Trades is offering free one week access to their site.


Please share more links with me and we can all share the links or follow me on Twitter.

Forex trading explained

If anyone is interested in Forex trading and wants to know how the following article from Marketclub.com explains how easy it could get.

The foreign exchange market is the biggest market in the world by far. It is traded all around the world, six days a week, twenty-four hours per day.

So today we're going to look at the Euro (EUR) against the US Dollar (USD). Here are some Market Club signals that were generated by their "Trade Triangle" technology.

This new 7-minute video explains some basics of using the trade triangle technology. It is available with no strings attached.

It is very important when you are trading in any market to be very, very, disciplined. You must also have a game plan and understand the rules of the game. If you get into forex trading just on a whim, you're going to be burned... that's almost a definite. If you approach the forex markets with respect and a game plan, you can do extraordinarily well.

The triangles have worked very well lately with the markets.

2008 invesment post-mortem and tips from investment gurus

Writing up some lessons learned in the brutal 2008 investment year. The DOW lost more than 30%, the NASDAQ and S&P also in the similar or more extreme ranges.
Like most of the crowd my investments performed no much better. What are the lessons learnt and some tips from investing experts which I could have applied for my 2008 investments.
1. Buy and hold might not work all the time. I mean it can if your investment horizon is beyond the bear market zone.
2. Book your losses and help your 2008 tax returns. Once can claim up to $3000 in one tax year provided the same or similar investment is not bought within 30 days. This is the wash sale rule. A strategy suggested by a blogger and the comments there in suggest to sell the fund/stock and then buy back after 30 days . Caveat is one might lose potential gain within the 30 days lost. Other choice is to buy another investment in next 30 days.
3. Investor Business Daily(IBD) suggested cutting losses greater than 8%. Lesson learned: An 8% loss takes 10% gain to make it even. This strategy would have saved me a lot in 2008.
4. Invest in certain cyclical companies - eg. Walmart during downturn. Keep a small goal for return and book profits and cut losses. I do not hold Walmart at this time.
5. Being long in bear markets is risky. If shares are bought then buy and hold will not be a good strategy.
6. Even if I would have followed the 200 day EMA then the long term entry or exit points would have established.
7. Look out for strong sectors and stocks within these sectors (Cramer & IBD).
8. "The stock market is always looking 6-12 months down the link. Present losses are already taken into account". I partially agree with this. The market direction is set this way but day to day dips could be caused due to real time news.
9. Investor Business Daily states never average down. I am not sure if I completely agree with this. Average down with a single company stock could be bad but with a fund might not not so bad.
10. And finally do a post analysis of your buys and sells (IBD) and note them on the stock charts. As Cramer puts it put 1 hr per week per stock.


Can you share your 2008 investment thoughts?