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The Host of Mad Money, Jim Cramer has been helping the average person learn about the stock market for a long time. He’s written several books on investing, as well as being the Chairman on TheStreet.com. I for one have made quite a bit of money listening to Jim Cramer.
One of the ways you can follow Jim and and the rest of the the staff is at RealMoney.com. You’ll find sound, unbiased advice you can count on.
No middle man, no B.S., no delays – just a direct line to people as they share their investment strategies, stock picks and market views, all in real time. They do have a basic no fee section of the website, but if you want to know the meat-and-potato off what’s going on on Wall Street, then this is the service you want.
I’ve been a member of The Street.com’s RealMoney program for a while and I’m not disappointed. Here’s an opportunity to try out RealMoney.com for a 14 day free trial. Click below to check it out.
Posted in Fun With Investments, Getting Started In The Stock Market | 1 Comment »
The first day of trading after the labor day weekend has been very interesting. The three indicies finshed the day higher, Dow up 56 points while the S&P 500 closed at 1025.39 and the NASDAQ did the best of the three closing at 2037.77 (up 0.94%).
That wasn’t even the most worthy news of the day, that honor goes to the price of gold, which went above $1000 for the first time in quite some time. The U.S. Dollar lost value today and with that going on, the Commodity sector gained throughout the day.
This week will be a very telling sign of things to come in the near and distance future. Just to be on the safe side, I will be treading very carefully through it all. For those of you that want to try out a different trading technique but are afraid to do it in such trying times, here is a free fantasy stock market game that you can find out if those ideas will pan out.
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What can you lose? It’s FREE.
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We’re having our very first (but not our last) contest here at Beating The Stock Market! 
The contest starts right NOW and ends on Sunday, September 30 at 12:00 noon EST.
First, the prize….one winner will receive a copy of Kiplinger’s: 12 Steps To A Worry Free Retirement.
Actual customer review:
“This book lays out what you need to know about planning your retirement using easy to understand text and charts.”
Here’s how to enter:
All you need to do to enter is post about the contest and link to this post. Leave the link to where you posted about it in a comment here so we can keep track of the entries.
Good luck!
Posted in Getting Started In The Stock Market, Investing Books, Investments | 3 Comments »
Yesterday the news came out that new home sales jumped 9.6% for the month of July. It was the fourth straight increase in sales. Sales rose to an annual rate of 433,000, up from June’s rate of 395,000. Many are saying that the bottom is definitely in and now is the time to buy, but is that really the case.
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Yes, sales are up more than 30% from the bottom in January, but nowhere near the peak of four years ago. Of course that’s was because of the inflated bubble that was created by the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sub-prime loans.
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So does this really mean that the bottom is in and we can expect the economy to turn around? I doubt it. Why I think that is because of the fact that the numbers are (I feel) are mis-leading. Many of the new home sales that have been happening in the last month or so were first-time home buyers. That’s because of the government’s incentive plan for first-time homeowners who qualify for an $8000 tax credit. That in itself is misleading on the fact of it’s a tax credit, not a rebate. Which means of you don’t have enough of tax liability, you won’t be able to write off all of the $8000.
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What does that mean for the industry? Well, home builders saw a jump in their stock price today, but will it be able to maintain those levels? I doubt that too. mainly because when the program will be terminated at the end of November. I believe the market will dry up again with sales. As it is, some builders have already seen a dip in home sales. In Arizona, A.F. Sterling Homes stated that sales in July stalled because the builder couldn’t guarantee the homes would be completed in time to qualify. The industry (real estate agents and builders) are really leaning on Congress to extend the the credit on the grounds of the sales could reverse from their current trend. As a matter of fact, Randy Agron, the vice president of A.F. Sterling Homes was quoted as saying “The real estate market is really a fragile thing. It’s not the right time to take (the tax credit) away”.
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With that in mind, do you really think the bottom is in? It has been proven in the past that when the government gets involved with trying to “save” the economy, it actually extends it by not letting the free market follow it’s natural course. With this program as well as the financial bailouts and “Cash For Clunkers”, we have three major industries being manipulated within the American economy.
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All I can say is…hang on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
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