Skip to main content

Top 5 must-do activities for Traders and Investors

People love markets for many things but the foremost one would be that it holds the promise and hope of making your dreams come true. Investors from all walks of life are attracted to markets and investments. But it is unfortunate that most people make it big in market. Is it difficult? No, it can’t be that difficult. People in olden days did much better at investments than with complex strategies, economics or software. Some, even made their fortunes on back some simple percepts like "buy low sell high".

This is just an attempt at pointing out some of the aspects that we need to have as investors. This, of course, is not a complete list or even a correct list. These are just some pointers hoping investors can take can some guidance from them.


Top 5 things to do for investors and traders

1. Study the companies

Know the companies thoroughly. You don’t have to read the annual reports backwards but you need to be comfortable in explaining your decisions, if required, with ease. If you are having trouble in explaining your investment decision then perhaps it was a half-baked investment. Please do your homework before you place the order with your broker.

Even a non technical person can look into company from many perspectives to understand more about it. Knowing about the management, history, products, brands, company news and press releases, basic numbers like sales etc in itself builds a good foundation.

You can study further in detail about the competition, financial statements, prospects, risks and management perceptions, vision etc too without much technical or accounting knowledge.

You will get most of the information in the company websites, Google finance or Reuters.


2. Study the Industry

If you are buying a house, the first thing criteria and perhaps the most important is the locality. Similarly no matter where and how the company is placed, the industry it operates in has highest level of impact on its prospects and risks. Buying a good company in a bad sector may be like buying a great house in avalanche prone zone.

Investors need to be aware of the industry atleast to the basic extent. In the boom periods when the industry is recognized already by the market the outlook becomes top-down i.e. trying to find the companies in particular industry. When the markets are in doldrums and bearish mode, the names of good companies with qualities like cash flow, dividends etc are heard in conversations, the basic approach becomes bottom-up i.e. decide on the company and look at its ecosystem. There is not fixed way of doing something, but what ever studies is to be done is to be done sincerely and with care.


3. Peer Group comparisons

When you are deciding on buying some company, consider its peer group. Are you missing a better company among its peers? Or are the peers suffering from some affliction which this company too might be affected with? Just like the industries, the study of Peer group gives you lot more information on how companies operate or cope in various circumstances.

If you have data / resources to study the peer group in other countries then it would be great indicator on the risk and probabilities.


4. Portfolio Management & Money management

Portfolio management and money management are perhaps the single most important activity among all the five. Prima facie it does not appear to be of much importance. But if there is something that will have most direct influence on your portfolio it is how you decide to structure it and how much risks that you are willing to take.

The importance of money management cannot be understated enough. The quantum of allocation across various industries/sectors/ companies will decide how your portfolio behaves in good and bad times. It determines how much return it gives in best or worst estimates.

These two are the toughest tasks to master. And unfortunately there is no 'perfect one size fits all' strategy.


5. Entry and exit strategy

Investments are accompanied by risks. Immaterial of how much study has gone into the stock selection; risks are always inherent in an 'expectation'; as in expectation of the company's performance, or some particular event's happening or some scenario going in favor.

Therefore it is important that investors know when to walk out of the deal. Investors should always enter the deal with clear sight of what is bearable and beyond which they can’t bear the risk of one stock taking down their portfolio.

Exits are fortunately always for bad. Exits should also be made when a definite target or objective achieved or a planned event has run it full course or attributes of similar vein.

It is perhaps the easiest one to conceive but when the time matters, the hardest one to execute.

Comments

  1. Das kostenlose Webseite - zum Flirten, fuer Dating und um Freunde, Partner oder einfach nur nette Leute zu treffen. Kostenlos anmelden und Partner finden! Jede Bildanmeldung erhaelt zudem ein Geschenk.

    [url=http://www.time4love.ch] [img]http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/35/l_db5c0e0476cf480287402723ab12707b.jpg[/img]

    partnersuche
    be2
    partnervermittlung
    swissfriends

    [/url]

    ReplyDelete
  2. hi every person,

    I identified surff.blogspot.com after previous months and I'm very excited much to commence participating. I are basically lurking for the last month but figured I would be joining and sign up.

    I am from Spain so please forgave my speaking english[url=http://avbehindthescenes.info/].[/url][url=http://feedwaqua.info/].[/url][url=http://whatweknowdu.info/forum].[/url]

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How-to overcome sendentary lifestyle.

Some interesting points on overcoming sedentary lifestyle. There are many other routine ones, just try googling that. 1. Some not so routine tips on avoiding the sedentary lifestyle 2. Walking while talking on phone is a good way to get expressive and burn calories too. 3. Don't use the phone to call someone a short walking distance away. Walk and visit whenever possible. Same for grocery shopping. 4. Catch a different bus that makes you walk a bit more. You can catch a bus from a different stop, a little farther from your regular stop. 5. Pacing the length of the subway platform whenever the train/bus is late. 6. Dance Source: from various places on net

Net Neutrality - Fight for free expression

The "Net neutrality" issue, where we fear networks/infrastructure providers will decide (euphemism for censorship) what customers will read/watch/listen/buy on net. Many of the features that we fear in the "Net-neutrality" have already been implemented across various other platforms like telecom. For example, my telecom service provider has blocked the competitors GPRS sites and also does not allow access to many other sites on Internet, from where the free goodies like mobile applications, software, games, wallpapers, tones etc can be downloaded. This leaves me with the only service provider for above products, the service provider himself. This is totally blocking my freedom and my right to choose. This is just a glimpse; with "Net-neutrality" issues at stake are enormous. There should be no way; any entity (maybe, other than individual governments.) should be able to determine what is accessible and what is not. :) Falkor

Definition of Cult Stocks

From a blog: A classification describing stocks that have a sizable investor following, despite the fact that the underlying company has somewhat insignificant fundamentals. Typically, investors are initially attracted to the company's potential and accumulate positions in speculation that its potential will be fulfilled, providing the investors with a substantial payout. While most of these cult stocks promise they will be the next big story after they make a new discovery or get the newest contract from the government, most do not provide investors with anything other than the story. Furthermore, these stocks typically generate very little, if any, revenue at all. For example, many micro-cap biotech stocks are cult stocks. While they promise that they are going to be working on a miracle compound or drug, most of them do not have any source of income as they slowly burn away their initial capital in research and development. However, some cult stocks do occasionally make good on...