How The Stock Market Works

photo by epic harmus
.
How does the stock market works, is a typical question that is asked by many looking to invest. There is no single answer to that question, but I’ve tried to do what I can here at this site. I still spend many hours a week learning about the stock market and the intricacies that make it tick. The knowledge that I’ve learned have helped me make better trades in the past. I expect what I learn tomorrow will just make it better in the future. For instance, I am very interested in learning about forex trading. It’s something I’ve been reading about and trying to get as much accurate information on as possible.
.
If you want to learn as much as you can in the stock market, I can advise you to read everything that you can to make that happen. In the last week or so I’ve taken part in a few investing carnivals that I wanted to share with my readers. The articles that were submitted in these carnivals will enlighten you in the things you need to know to make it in the stock market.
.
The first one was hosted by Disciplined Investing, a site that I’ve read many times and will continue to do so.
.
The next carnival is hosted by a new site that I’ve not seen before, but I will visit again. I’ve submitted my articles to the Money Hacks Carnival a couple of times in the past.
.
The last carnival that I want to inform you about is hosted by The Money Maniac. The carnival is called 123 Investing Carnival and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
.
I know that you will learn something from these carnivals that will help you in your future investments. Enjoy.

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in Blog Carnivals | Leave A Comment »

Financial Wellness Carnival

In these days of trying economic woes, we need to take care of our selves on many different levels.

In the Financial side of wellness I would like to give you another link to a carnival that was released last week, but I forgot to give the link back to the site to get my readers over to the blog to catch up on some great writings. Here is the link to Financial Wellness Project’s 22nd carnival. I know you will enjoy it.

Share and Enjoy:

Tags: Blog Carnivals

Posted in Blog Carnivals, Fun With Investments | Leave A Comment »

A List Of Penny Stocks

Everybody wants to trade penny stocks. The reason for that is that they have the reputation of having big percentage gains (or losses) in any given day. You can make (or lose) a load boat load of money real quick.
.
A list of penny stocks can be found almost anywhere on the internet. Why not, these companies need to raise capital so they can expand their business or even to buy the needed equipment so their company can grow one day be one of the big dogs. There are so many penny stocks out there that are traded everyday, but where are they list? On which board do they trade?
.
Most of these stocks are traded on the secondary boards, OTCBB (over the counter bulletin board), Pink Sheets and a few others.
.
The main reason that they are so popular is because they are cheap enough where the average person can afford them. How cheap? Well, a stock is considered a penny stock when it’s price per share is less than $5. Many of them are actually less than $1 (they really are penny stocks).
.
Just because they are that cheap doesn’t mean that you’ll make a ton of money. Some of these stocks will sit at those levels for months and in a few cases, years. Many amateur traders or newcomers feel that these stocks are on their way up and also feel they can’t get any cheaper. That can’t be further from the truth. If you look around on some of these lists of penny stocks, you will see some even trade in what is referred to as sub-penny. Stay away from these types of stocks. Only one out of thousand will ever get out of this range.

If you want a list of penny stocks, go to Yahoo Finance and type in pink sheet or OTCBB, you will get a list of stocks that you can pick through. Be careful and do your due diligence on the company before investing.
.
.
P.S. Want to learn more about the stock market? take a free two week trail with Jim Cramer from TheStreet.com

Share and Enjoy:

Tags: Buying penny stocks, Getting Started In The Stock Market, How to make fast money, Stock market for beginners, Stock trading

Posted in Blog Carnivals, Fun With Investments, Getting Started In The Stock Market, Investments | 1 Comment »

Timing Is Everything In the Stock Market

photo by MP Clemens
.
Depending on how you look at today’s activity in the stock market, it could be either considered good or bad. What it comes down to is timing. Timing is everything when you want to beat the stock market. If done correctly, you can have a great day when the market has had a lousy one.
.
Let’s look at what happened today. The market was oversold so much in the pre-trading hours that they halted all trading until they could calm the situation down. So when the market did open, most stocks were hit pretty bad. If you timed it well you could have picked up some great price on some solid companies. It’s days like this that will earn you some great reward or separate a man/woman from their money real quick if you’re not careful .
.
Today was a great day for me because of the experiences I’ve had in the stock market over the years. If you noticed I didn’t say it was because of my smarts, because even some smart people lost some of their capitol today. To help you understand what I mean I will show you some of the trades that I did today.
.
The first one I want to talk about is National City Corp. (NYSE:NCC) This stock was worth a hell of a lot more a few months back, but because of the financial sector’s collapse. The stock has been trading within the $1.36 to $5.00 range for the last 3-4 months. The last time it took a dive, it hit $1.36 and four days later it was at $3.51, a gain of 150%. Today news came out in regards to PNC Financial Group acquired National City Corp. for $5.6 billion. That news and the drop in pre-market trading left the stock at $1.85 per share at the open. I put a buy in at $175 and sat back as the price worked it’s way up to $2.33 at one point and closed at $2.06, a gain of 18% at the close. If I had sold near the high of the day, it would have been a gain of nearly 30%
.
My second buy was in a stock that I’ve been following for some time. The company is Quanta Services Inc. (NYSE:PWR). This is a great company with a even better future. Because of the beating that Wall Street has been taking, the stocks of Quanta has felt the pain. There is no reason what-so-ever that the share price is under $20, but it is. When I saw what happened to the stock in early trading I put in a limit price of $15 per share because I didn’t expect it to stay. Wouldn’t you know it, the stock opened at $15 and briefly dropped to $14.84 where it immediately went back to $17 within minutes of the trading day. This is a company that is expect to benefit greatly from the Picken’s Plan, so I’m going to hold on to these stocks for some time. So for the one day I have a gain of 16%
.
The last one I’m going to discuss is Lynn Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:LINE). This stock didn’t do has good as I expected, but it did go up from where it started the day at. This a company that has an unbelievable dividend yield. At it’s current price of $15.47, the yield is 15.60%. That right I said 15.60% and to make things even better, the next ex-dividend date is November 5th. At the present time my yield is actually 17.5%, I don’t know about you but I’ll take those types of yields any day of the week.
.
I’m not trying to brag or anything like that, but I just wanted to show my readers what is possible even on a bad day. It all comes down to timing.

Share and Enjoy:

Tags: Alternative energy, Getting Started In The Stock Market, Stock market for beginners, Stock trading

Posted in Blog Carnivals, Financial Bailout, Fun With Investments, Getting Started In The Stock Market, Investments, Stock Market News | Leave A Comment »

Solar Power May Not See The Light

photo by penywise1

Solar power has been a hot subject and it’s future is not looking so bright. I don’t actually believe that, but that’s what the Industry and the government want us to think. Over the weekend a report came out in regards to the tax credits for alternative energies like solar and wind.
Congress has to renew them before they expire on December 31. These tax credits will help the industry with the plans for expansion, but without the credits solar and wind companies may not be able to make it happen. In fact they may be forced to cut back on many things including capitol investment and payroll.
These tax credits have made it possible for solar to be cost-competitive with other renewable energies. As it is solar energy is the least efficient of the alternative/renewable energy sector (except for ethanol). Many plants that are in the planning stage are at risk because of the sand-bagging by Congress.
.
Wind power is having the same problem of getting investors. The American Wind Energy Association is predicting that they will lose about 76,000 jobs as well as over $11 billion in investments as a result if Congress doesn’t do something to renew the credits. Greg Wetstone, a spokesman for the association said, “Investors like to know what tax policies apply when they are putting millions of dollars down on a project. There’s a pretty clear history that these projects are less likely to go forward without a credit.”
.
In the past Congress has let these credits expire three different times and wind installation in those years slowed over 77% each year. Estimates are expected to be at those same levels for 2009 if Congress doesn’t do something for the industries. According to Congressional estimates, the credits are to total $334 million.
.
Senator Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat from New Mexico said, “These companies are shutting down projects, firing people and it’s Congress’s fault,” the Senator is the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The sad thing is that these clowns are still on vacation including Bingaman, who was one of the main politicians that pushed for vacation over oil drilling in America.
.
As we all know, Congress has made it quite difficult for these alternative energies to make great advancements because of all the delays and waste of time that the Congressman have done.
In 2006, Congress didn’t come together on a tax-extender deal until December, forcing the IRS to delay processing returns claiming several of the tax breaks. In 2007 Congress again never agreed on extenders until December, causing more IRS disruption, to settle another annual tax crisis, the alternative minimum tax. As a matter of fact, Congress has let these credits to expire 13 times since 1981.
.
All these delays have caused uncertainty with the industry has to where to do their research and development. At this rate it may be wise for them to head overseas to get it done. There are over 20 countries that offer tax incentives while the United States doesn’t have any. I won’t get into the political side of these tax credits in this post (I’ll save it for another day), but these games of playing with the tax breaks expiration is nothing new and only helps the politicians hide the fact of the ever-growing federal budget deficit.
.