How to Find How Much Stock a CEO Holds

Corporate officers enjoy many additional benefits over rank-and-file workers. For the uninitiated, it may be surprising to learn the amount of stock compensation they hold. Are you curious about how much stock the CEO and other officers of a particular company control? You can find out very easily.

This is how to uncover the amount of stock held by the officer of any publicly held company. Go to the NASDAQ web site and enter the stock ticker symbol for the company you are interested in. Click on 'Flash Quotes'. Use the drop down box to select 'Insider Form 4'. Scan down the list until you find the company officer's name you are interested in. Click on that name. Go to the top of the list which should be the latest date. Move your eyes to the far right column entitled 'holdings'. That is how many shares that officer currently holds and controls. Multiply that number by the most recent price for the company's stock and you will arrive at a dollar figure.

Of course, that figure will change from day to day. You may be amazed at just how high that number is. Consider that this is merely the officer's current stock holdings. It doesn't tell you how many shares he has sold in the past; it also doesn't tell you how many shares the company will grant him or her in the future.

When you start to look at these figures you may find them amazing. If you are currently a company CEO or officer, the numbers will not shock you because you will already be familiar with them. However, if you are currently an employee for a publicly held company you may wonder about the discrepancy between your salary and the officers' stock holdings.

Some will say, "but the CEO and other officers worked hard for their money". And that may very well be true. But did they really work any harder than you on a day to day basis? And if they did, does the harder work they did add up to account for the discrepancy between an average worker's pay and a company officer's stock holdings? Chances are, the answer is no.

This leads to some interesting realizations about how our economy works. The days of serfdom are supposed to be over, but are they really? We now have an economic feudal system. The real estate owned and tribute collected by a monarch have been replaced with stock compensation for corporate officers and owners. But the serf or worker is the one who does the work. The monarch and his court are still the ones who reap the rewards.

In private companies you probably won't be able to find out the information that you can find on the NASDAQ web site about publicly traded companies. I think it is a good thing that the SEC or Securities and Exchange Commission requires this information to be available to the public. Of course, it is meant to be available to potential investors. But if you own stock in your company via a 401K plan, then you are an investor.

Besides the NASDAQ web site, you can also find this information on the Securities and Exchange Commission's web site. In fact, there is a wealth of information out there to discover. In many instances it is actually easier to find on the NASDAQ web site.

Perhaps knowing the value of the stock held by company officers will make you less timid about asking for that raise you've been thinking about. Knowledge often equates to power.

How To Trade Profitably In A Bear Market

Trading in a bull market is easier than trading in a bear market. Many traders find they can make money trading in bullish markets, but when there is a major correction underway or when the market is bearish, they literally freeze and are unable to trade successfully or find profits in their trading.

First,when a market has collapsed, it is important to accept the fact that the market trend has changed from bullish to bearish. It is human nature to find scapegoats or to find a “reason” or to rationalise away the fact that the market trend has changed. But unless the trader accepts the fact that he is solely responsible to trade his way out of a bearish market, he will find his position untenable and discover losses that add up daily as the market bearish sentiments continue. It does not pay to refuse the responsibility of your own trading action and put the blame on your broker or your friend who has given you the "tips" that led to your losses.

If you are faced with losses from a sudden collapse in prices, accept that it is your responsibility to now institute action to get out of this situation with profits.

Secondly, while in bullish markets it is easy to trade by just buying stocks that are in initial outbreaks and just holding them and coming back again after a few days to reap profits, you cannot do the same during bearish markets.

In bullish markets, you trade with the trend, and as long as the trend is up, you stand to make easy profits. On the contrary, in bearish markets, the market goes into consolidation, and trends are “shorter” in duration or the market will go into a sideways direction, with prices oscillating between ranges. During bearish markets, we are more biased towards range trading rather than trend trading. So if you do not know how to change from using trend trading to range trading, you can be caught with short term trend changes and suffer whipsaws and lose money trend trading during bearish markets.

Dealing with traders who have gone through a series of major market corrections since 1987 has led me to conclude that there is no room for lackadaisical trading during bearish markets. The margin of error for a trading signal is much lower when trading in a bearish market. I have seen traders who are able to quickly change or adapt from longer trend trading to trading shorter swings in the market or range trading to be able to make money from their trades. In bearish markets, they are contented with smaller profits, but trading more often and in higher volumes. To aid in their margin of profits, they are able to negotiate the lowest brokerage terms possible with their brokers or to use discounted online trading platforms.

In bearish markets, the trader who range trade will be the one who is best positioned to take advantage of the shorter and faster rebounds that occur as stocks get oversold and retrace upwards. Accepting personal responsibility and adapting to range trading will improve his chances to make money during bearish markets.

Short term vs. Long term stock investment

There are many persons that run towards stock investment as a means to make some quick money. This is perhaps however not the best investment option for persons with short term rewards in mind. The best option when thinking of investing in stocks is if you are interested in accumulating funds over a long period of time. One such example is the investment for future needs such as a nest egg for retirement and so on.

In stock investment both short term and long term investments come with risks attached and therefore nothing is truly guaranteed in the stock market. Today could be very good and tomorrow very bad resulting in great gains or great losses as the case may be. However, in terms of long term investment, it is shown according to statistics that there are no 20 year portfolios that have lost on the stock market. The average returns have averaged about 10 percent and these accounts all have a broadly diversified portfolio of stocks.

In the short term the market is very risky. The market will go up and then go down so if you are only thinking of investing for a short period then this is not the best option. If you are nearing retirement age and now beginning to invest in stocks this is not a good option. The best option in these cases as a protection against inflation, rather than stocks, is to invest in stable investments such as bonds and other cash instruments. This offers more security than stocks in the short term.

So how long is considered short term? Many persons are under the misconception that short term means less than a year but this is in fact not so. In terms of stocks short term is considered to be five years or less and some persons will recommend more years rather than the minimum of five years. A good rule is that if you are going to need your funds in the next five years then stay away from stock investment. Another point to note is that unless you are an active trader then short term investments make no sense. If the funds being used are for retirement investment then being an active trader is also not recommended.

The average down time for some markets is a year but this has been seen to last much longer a well so though for a long term investor this downtime may seen to be a lifetime it will pass but if you are a short term investor you will lose a lot depending on the market fluctuations. Stock investment will offer many great opportunities but can be devastating for a short term investor. If you know that the funds you are investing will be required for use in a short time then choose investment options that are more secure and protected. It is true that you may get lucky and make a fortune but it is also true that the risks are high and that you can lose everything.

Struggling to Identify the Direction of the Market

If you know the pitfalls of trad¬ing, you can easily avoid them. Small mistakes are inevitable, such as entering the wrong stock symbol or incorrectly setting a buy level. But these are forgivable, and, with luck, even profitable. What you have to avoid, however, are the mistakes due to bad judgment rather than simple errors. These are the “deadly” mistakes which ruin entire trading careers instead of just one or two trades. To avoid these pitfalls, you have to watch yourself closely and stay diligent.

Think of trading mistakes like driving a car on icy roads: if you know that driving on ice is dangerous, you can avoid traveling in a sleet storm. But if you don’t know about the dangers of ice, you might drive as if there were no threat, only realizing your mistake once you’re already off the road.

One of the first mistakes new traders make is sinking a lot of wasted time and effort into predicting legitimate trends. Traders can use very complicated formulas, indictors, and systems to identify possible trends. They’ll end up plotting so many indicators on a single screen that they can’t even see the prices anymore. The problem is that they lose sight of simple decisions about when to buy and when to sell.

The mistake here is trying to understand too much at once. Some people think that the more complicated their system is, the better it will be at “predicting” trends. This is almost always an illusion. Depending too much on complicated systems makes you completely lose sight of the basic principle of trading: buy when the market is going up and sell when it’s going down. Since you want to buy and sell early in a trend, the most important thing to discover is when a trend begins. Complicated indicators only obscure this information.

Remember to keep it simple: one of the easiest ways to identify a trend is to use trendlines. Trendlines are straightforward ways to let you know when you are seeing an uptrend (when prices make a series of higher highs and higher lows) and downtrends (when prices show lower highs and lower lows). Trendlines show you the lower limits of an uptrend or the upper limits of a downtrend and, most importantly, can help you see when a trend is starting to change.

Once you get comfortable plotting trendlines, you can use them to decide when to start taking action. Only after using these early indicators should you start using more specific strategies to determine your exact buy or sell point. Moving averages, turtle trading, and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) are some examples of more complex indicators and systems that are available. But only use them after you’ve determined if the market is trending or not.

The Inside Story

Most of us have heard of stock indexes, but have only a fuzzy idea of them at best. This article aims to clarify some of the basics of stock indexes -- what they are and how they work.

What Is A Stock Index?

A stock index is simply an average price for a large group of stocks, either those on a particular stock exchange or stocks across an entire investing sector. Indexes are formed from stocks with something in common: they are on the same exchange, from the same industry, or have the same company size or location. Stock indexes give us an overall snapshot of the economic health of a particular industry or exchange.

Many stock indexes exist; in the United States the most well known are: the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the New York Stock Exchange Composite index, and the Standard & Poor 500 Composite Stock Price Index.

How Does It Work?

There are several ways to calculate an index. An index based solely on stock prices is called a "price weighted index." This type of index ignores the importance of any particular stock or the company size.

A "market value weighted" index, on the other hand, takes into account the size of the companies involved. That way, price shifts of small companies have less influence than those of larger companies.

Another type of index is the "market share weighted" index. This type of index is based on the number of shares, rather than their total value.

Index As Investment Tool

Another huge function of indexes is that they can function as investment instruments in and of themselves. Mutual funds based on an index duplicate the holdings of the underlying index. Thus, if index A rises by 1%, the Index A Mutual Fund rises by 1%. This has the tremendous advantage of lower costs. Plus these index funds have been shown to generally outperform managed funds.

The Big Indexes

One of the best-known indexes in the world is the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It is a "price-weighted average" index composed of the stocks of 30 of the most influential companies in America. Some feel that 30 companies are not enough to form an accurate assessment for so influential a measurement, but it is reported around the globe daily nevertheless.

The Standard & Poor 500 Index is based on 500 United States corporations, carefully chosen to represent a broader picture of economic activity.

Beyond the United States, the most influential index is the FTSE 100 Index, based on 100 of the largest companies on the London Stock Exchange. It is 1 of the most important indexes in Europe. 2 other important indexes are France's CAC 40 and Japan's Nikkei 225.

Trading the Wrong Market

If you know the pitfalls of trad¬ing, you can easily avoid them. Small mistakes are inevitable, such as entering the wrong stock symbol or incorrectly setting a buy level. But these are forgivable, and, with luck, even profitable. What you have to avoid, however, are the mistakes due to bad judgment rather than simple errors. These are the “deadly” mistakes which ruin entire trading careers instead of just one or two trades. To avoid these pitfalls, you have to watch yourself closely and stay diligent.

Think of trading mistakes like driving a car on icy roads: if you know that driving on ice is dangerous, you can avoid traveling in a sleet storm. But if you don’t know about the dangers of ice, you might drive as if there were no threat, only realizing your mistake once you’re already off the road.

Too many traders are fixed on only one market. They may trade only the forex USD/EUR, or the E-mini Russell, or the E-mini DOW, or just cer¬tain stocks, etc. While they may feel a certain sense of expertise or mastery over this one market, no one, no matter how experienced they are, can predict what will happen all the time. These people are setting themselves up for catastrophe, because there will inevitably come a time when they’ll make a mistake. And, with no diversity in their trades, they will lose everything they’ve worked so hard to gain.

The key to choosing a market isn’t to look for one you seem to understand better than the others. That will always be something of an illusion. But there is one market you can always depend on: the one that is moving. You know you should buy when the market goes up and sell when the market goes down. A moving market will always be profitable, even if you’ve never traded a single share there before.

Pay close attention to trendlines, both in the markets where you’re already trading and the markets you’re considering. If one of your markets is consistently choppy or just moving sideways, get out of it and move on to another. If you think of successful trading as sticking not with a market but with a trend, no matter which market it’s in, then you’re thinking successfully.

The key, of course, is that you have to keep an eye on markets where you aren’t currently trading. Keeping up with your options is just as important as watching what you’re familiar with. This is where research and experience come into play. Getting to know a number of markets (and how to find out about them) takes time. But don’t let that discourage you. Also, don’t feel like you have to understand every option at the very beginning. Pick a few different markets to actually trade in, but also choose a few just to watch. That way, you’ll see how your own trades work, and you can also compare that activity to markets you may not know much about (yet).

The only way to learn about which markets are right and wrong for you is to watch them. Watching a variety of markets will give you the knowledge you’ll need to use when it’s time to change gears and find that elusive moving trend.

Trading Software: Profit Machines or Losers

Thousands of people every day trade on the worlds stock markets, with the majority now using software to aid them, but does it help them make more money?

This software is known as a ‘bot’, short for robot, but it is only ever as good as the user. If the user does not know how to trade successfully on his own in the first place then he is unlikely to get instant profit from a bot. New users have to understand that it will take weeks to learn how to use a bot correctly.

I use the ‘new’ bots on the block on a daily basis. Any professional trader should at least be aware of the existence of betting exchanges, and the fact they can turn over $Millions per horse race within a few minutes, and with the betting exchange allowing you to back (buy), and lay (sell) a horses odds, many new traders are springing up to take advantage of this with the use of betting bots. And the best thing is, you do not need any knowledge of the sport you are trading in. You can also trade on the majority of the worlds financial markets, such as the FTSE, NASDQ, etc, as well as currencies.

So are these new bots a license to print money? Depending on which one you use, as some are useless, and will see you lose money faster than if you were using a pin, but others stand out, and are put together by professional stock market traders. It is these bots that have the potential to make you money, and if handled correctly, plenty of it.

Most of the bots on sale focus on one aspect, whether it is trading, arbing, hedging or dutching, but there are a small number that focus on them all, and compared to the single function bots, are much better value for money. These multi-function bots allow you to find your niche in a competitive market, without emptying your bank balance.

It is also a misconception that you will start making a lot of money instantly. Even if the bot produced profits on a daily basis (which by the way, will never happen), you still have to limit trades to a fixed percentage of your betting bank, otherwise you will find yourself having no control over trading stakes. It is always best to start small, get the mistakes out of the way while it is cheap to do so, and when your stakes increase, you will have learnt enough from your mistakes to save money.

Some people click with trading straight away, others it can take weeks of staring at the graphs on the screen until the penny drops. Those that stick with it though, usually succeed, and a bot makes life so much easier.

So if you have the capabilities to profit from trading, then a betting bot may be for you, if you are looking for a quick buck, forget it.

Use the Power of Autosuggestion in the Stock Market

Self-Confidence is an essential starting point for any business venture. This is true even more if the business is trading in the stock market because psychology plays such a major role. Keep reading, this might change your life!

About 10 years ago, I received a copy of the book "Think and Grow Rich!" written by Napoleon Hill. Today, I credit most of my success in business (including trading) to this book.

At first applying some of the principles described in this book appears a bit crazy - for example reading a Self-Confidence formula and a Definite Plan aloud every day. But you really have to look at it with an opened mind and believe me (and many peoples who have made millions) this stuff works:

Here is a brief overview (you really need to get the book):

- First - you must have a burning desire - for a trader this desire should be "to become a consistent winner in the stock market".

- Second - you have to have a definite goal including the amount you want to make and the date by which you want this money to be in your account.

- Third - You need a definite plan, or what you will do in exchange for this money.

Here is an example of a plan - it is generic enough to be applied to most trading styles. Items specific to your style should be added. Your plan should be read aloud first thing in the morning and right before going to bed.

By December 31st 2006, I will make $200,000 dollars with my trading. In return for this money I will do the following:

- I will follow a trading plan to guide my trading - therefore my job will be one of patience and discipline

- I will plan each trade carefully - I will not jump into trades by fear of missing out

- I will monitor the market's current picture

- I will monitor the current picture for each industry

- I will manage my trades to protect my capital and my profits

- I will protect my capital through good money management

- I will take responsibility for all my actions.

- I will trade to trade well and for the love of trading, not to trade often and not for the money. The money will come as a result of trading well.

- I will not be influenced by the opinions of others. I will reach my own decisions and follow them.

- I will build the self-trust necessary to operate in an unlimited environment which has no rules.

- I will be rigid in my rules and flexible in my expectations.

-I will never think that taking money from the market is easy and I will never assume that I know enough.

-I will have no particular expectation when I place a trade because I know that anything can happen.

-I will treat trading as a probability game in which I don't need to know what is going to happen next in order to make money. All I need to know

is that the odds are in my favor before I put a trade

- I believe that I deserve this money. I believe that I will have this money in my possession. My faith is so strong that I can now see this money before my eyes. I can touch it with my hands. It is now awaiting transfer into my account. I am awaiting a plan by which to accumulate this money, and I will follow that plan when it is received.

Read (and reread) this book and apply its principles to your life - and notice the difference in your Self-Confidence.

How to boost your stock returns while lowering your risk

An options strategy called Covered Call Writing is a conservative strategy designed to reduce risk and increase income when investing in stocks. Briefly stated, stock options are contracts in which you buy or sell the right to buy or sell. Although there are eight types of options contracts, we're interested here in low-risk "Covered Call Writing."

Here's how it works: Say it's August and you buy 300 shares of XYZ stock at the price of $48 per share. XYZ pays a quarterly dividend of 50 cents per share. Therefore, if the price never moves, you'll earn 4.2% per year.

At the same time, you would participate in Covered Call Writing. To do so, you, you would "write three January 50 Calls." This means you are selling ("writing") the right for someone else to buy the stock from you (they "call" it away) between now and the third Friday of January at the specified price of $50. (All contracts expire the third Friday of the month.)

Each contract represents 100 shares, hence three contracts. The buyers pay you a fee (called a "premium") of $3.5 per share, or $1,050. (The premium is based on the amount of time until expiration and the spread between the current price and the "strike price," in this case $50. Therefore, the premium changes constantly.)

Assuming you don't cancel, only two things can happen next: The contract will get exercised or it will expire worthless in January. Either way, you keep the $1,050. Clearly, this strategy can yield big rewards. Among the advantages are:

1. You are establishing a profitable sell price the day you buy the stock. If exercised, you are guaranteed a profit;

2. You reduce risk because premium in effect reduces the price you paid for the stock;

3. Your annual yield is boosted far above that of the dividend alone.

However, there are other considerations. For one, you are limiting your potential profits. No matter how high the stock rises, you won't sell for more than $50. You can solve this problem by buying your option back, in effect canceling it out. You would do this if you later think the stock will dramatically rise and you don't want to miss the gains to be made.

Also, you have not reduced the risk that your stock may drop in price. The only certainty is, should XYZ drop $25, your option will not be exercised - a small consolation. To protect yourself, you may "buy a January 45 put" giving you the right to sell your stock for $45. This is the opposite of what we've reviewed here, and is designed to minimize losses, rather than protect gains.

Because of the potential for price drops, you should choose a high quality, blue-chip stock that fits your budget, an which offers a stable trading range, solid fundamental, high dividends, and good growth potential.

Covered Call Writing is not a reason to own stocks, but the strategy might be of help if you already own them. Prior to opening an account, you must receive and urged to read "Characteristics and Risk of Standardized Options," which is published by the Options Clearing Corporation in cooperation with NASD and all major U.S. stock exchanges. The booklet is available from any broker or financial advisor.

3 Steps To Profitable Stock Picking

Stock picking is a very complicated process and investors have different approaches. However, it is wise to follow general steps to minimize the risk of the investments. This article will outline these basic steps for picking high performance stocks.

Step 1. Decide on the time frame and the general strategy of the investment. This step is very important because it will dictate the type of stocks you buy.

Suppose you decide to be a long term investor, you would want to find stocks that have sustainable competitive advantages along with stable growth. The key for finding these stocks is by looking at the historical performance of each stock over the past decades and do a simple business S.W.O.T. (Strength-weakness-opportunity-threat) analysis on the company.

If you decide to be a short term investor, you would like to adhere to one of the following strategies:

a. Momentum Trading. This strategy is to look for stocks that increase in both price and volume over the recent past. Most technical analyses support this trading strategy. My advice on this strategy is to look for stocks that have demonstrated stable and smooth rises in their prices. The idea is that when the stocks are not volatile, you can simply ride the up-trend until the trend breaks.

b. Contrarian Strategy. This strategy is to look for over-reactions in the stock market. Researches show that stock market is not always efficient, which means prices do not always accurately represent the values of the stocks. When a company announces a bad news, people panic and price often drops below the stock's fair value. To decide whether a stock over-reacted to a news, you should look at the possibility of recovery from the impact of the bad news. For example, if the stock drops 20% after the company loses a legal case that has no permanent damage to the business's brand and product, you can be confident that the market over-reacted. My advice on this strategy is to find a list of stocks that have recent drops in prices, analyze the potential for a reversal (through candlestick analysis). If the stocks demonstrate candlestick reversal patterns, I will go through the recent news to analyze the causes of the recent price drops to determine the existence of over-sold opportunities.

Step 2. Conduct researches that give you a selection of stocks that is consistent to your investment time frame and strategy. There are numerous stock screeners on the web that can help you find stocks according to your needs.

Step 3. Once you have a list of stocks to buy, you would need to diversify them in a way that gives the greatest reward/risk ratio. One way to do this is conduct a Markowitz analysis for your portfolio. The analysis will give you the proportions of money you should allocate to each stock. This step is crucial because diversification is one of the free-lunches in the investment world.

These three steps should get you started in your quest to consistently make money in the stock market. They will deepen your knowledge about the financial markets, and would provide a sense of confidence that helps you to make better trading decisions.

Pips and Stocks

Those of you contemplating on getting in on stocks or in the stock market, should take time to learn about highs/lows, bid/asks, charts, pips, spreads and so on to avoid up-and-coming high plunges. Staying informed is the key to successfully gaining in any stock market exchange industry. Despite, you want to commit oneself to charts and information that offers you trueness in the stock market, Forex exchange markets, and other stock industries. Failing to do so could lead to financial blunder.

About Stock Charts:

Charts are engaged in stock market exchange and Forex trading industries. The charts are guides, that aid strategists by allowing them to read, interpret through indicators, which submit signals. Inside the boundaries, the charts are treks, inherent strategies, powers, and so more.

In AMEX's, strategists and investors base their bids/asks, or buy and sell on under and highs. The high and low in some instance have pips, currencies, spreads, or shares, which traders make good use of stock charts to keep up with these factors in stock exchange.

In the stock biz, small and large cyber-banking institutions, as well as large and small companies globally invest in stocks, or Forex stock exchange. Brokers, investors and traders use charts, which the strategists are, issued recites on both sides, which make up ask and bid phrase, depending on the stock market. The bids make up pricing, which initiates once indicators inside the boundaries programs alert traders on Seat Questioning that sprouts between buying currencies on conflicting sides. Once the brisk' come in, the tradesman might select the option "ask" once the pricing occurs. The trader fundamentals proof on his, 'ask' which could alter.

Quotes enable traders to set their marks on pips, which can decide statistics that rise, in excess the averages. In AMEX's, decimals convert in some instances to match exchange within the currencies of any participating country engaging in stock exchange. Decimals base values, which are dependable at all times.

Charts read out prints of daily activities in stock market exchange. The charts present the highs and lows, as well as various other factors in stock marketing, which are invaluable to anyone trading, investing or brokerage in the market.

One of the vast growing stock industries is FX or Forex market exchange. The foreign market exchanges currencies (E.g. USD/JPY, EUR/USD, etc) in stocks that have reached in the trillion brackets. That is trillions in a sole stock exchange industry. This fiscal market exchange has created the hardest mark in the stock market industries. The market has overridden the preponderant United States investment branches. In fact, the Europe (EUR) dollar is more valuable currently than the dollar in the United States of America.

If you intend to invest or take part in stock exchange, you are wise to become informed before making any investment. Those informed often have a better chance at winning in the game of stocks. Learn more about pips, spreads and other specifics so that you know what it outlines for you.

Report On Stock Research

The report of stock research contains all the information like the fair value estimate of a company’s worth. Likewise, guides on when to buy and when to sell stocks as well as the selling prices of stocks are also discussed and displayed on the stock research report.

A stock research report is accomplished by expert analysts who are renowned in their own companies and their industries. Their reports mainly cover strengths and weaknesses, lines of business, what’s good and bad about recent stock investment decisions as well as some projections of what to expect from a company in terms of its financial health.

The stock research report also tells you whether a company is worth buying or selling and just when to buy and sell stocks from this company. Knowing such information can help you in earning back a great deal of profits from your stock investment.

In addition, the significance of such reports cannot be taken for granted, especially in a world where the market is unstable, wherein in a blink of an eye you might lose everything you have invested. Stock research reports keep you up-to-date with the latest and timely developments happening in the stock market. Stock reports are just one of the services provided by most online stock research providers.

When you sign up or joined an online stock research provider you were provided with stock alerts regarding new analyst reports plus some daily commentaries. Aside from that, you will also enjoy the privilege of having daily dose of expert opinion about companies they cover in the news. They also have portfolio alerts that tell you when your portfolio is underperforming or outperforming.

With a stock research report you will always be guided on what course of actions to take especially if you cannot monitor your portfolio regularly. Remember that the stock investment requires for keen monitoring or else you will find yourself losing money instead of gaining back more profit.

However, the stock research report is not a free service, most providers of these types of reports only offer free-day trials for new members but afterwards would require for a monthly or annual subscription fee.

Be sure to correctly choose the stock research provider; opt for those highly regarded providers that already have names in the stock investment market. Don’t be fooled by those stock research providers claiming that they have the best stock investment solutions and promises you very high rate of investment returns. These promises often times just remain to be a promise that can never be realized since the provider that you have chosen is really not that knowledgeable in stock investment.

Look for those providers that possess credible portfolios and to be really sure you may try to confirm by researching further the authenticity of their claims. You may also try to ask your friends, colleagues and family whether they are familiar with the provider you are investigating. Even better still, ask people in the stock market if they are familiar with the provider you are inquiring about. If it is really true that they are a reputable stock research provider, then their reputation will echo the sentiment.

Stock Option Trading To Increase Returns

There has been a steady rise in the use of stock options by investors to maximize their leverage and returns over the past twelve months. Chicago Board Options Exchange confirms this observation when they recently reported that the month of March was their busiest on record with volume up 55% over the same month last year. In fact all previous stock option trading records were broken when over 5.6 million stock option contracts were traded in a single day.

Stock option trading enables investors to increase their leverage and thus their rate of return over simple stock trading. If an investor has a solid approach to picking stocks that go up in the short term, the returns can be increased by 10 to 15 times using stock options. The trade off for this increased return is that the investor has to also judge the time period over which the increase will occur.

Being able to pick the stock, direction, and time period are all critical for successful stock option trading. A recent statistical analysis of over 30 years of stock data has revealed certain reoccurring patterns that can yield high returns in stock option trading. The analysis was done with custom developed software and then the strategy was applied to all stocks for the last five years. Stock trading resulted in an average return per trade of 3.2%, but with stock option trading the average return per trade was over 55% for 2005.

Investors have already begun to exploit the patterns found in this research and are reporting highly profitable trades. Whenever investors find inefficiencies in the market, there is a rush to take advantage of those inefficiencies.

Although stock options are not available on all stocks, about half of the stocks found in the analysis did have tradable options. If the trend of increasing use of stock options by investors continues, we should see even more stocks add options for investors. It is easy to see that 60 to 70 percent of actively traded stocks will have option contracts available in the coming year if this trend continues.

Investors are advised to look carefully at the open interest and volume when considering which option contract to buy. A low volume/open interest will generally result in large spreads between the bid/ask prices and thus reduce profits, plus it may make it difficult to sell the option contract.

Another consideration in selecting the option contract is volatility. Stocks with high swings in prices will translate to more expensive options since the options will have a greater likelihood of being in the money. If you have a reliable method of forecasting stock movement, this higher price may not be a consideration.

A Winning Way To Scan For Stocks That Are In Uptrends

With thousands of stocks listed in the stock exchange for trading, how does a trader go about his stock selection? I am not refering to the fundamental approach where the trader studies the fundamentals of the company, and research the performance results of the company, check its price-earnings ratios or check its balance sheets and turnover and its dividend yield.

By and large among those successful traders who really make their living off by trading professionally in the stock markets, their preferred method seems to be the technical analysis approach.

By this, they use charting, and technical indicators applied to the stocks. They will devise filters or explorations, to scan for stocks that meet some selected indicators to show that the stocks are beginning to move or have started to move.

Professional traders who trade for a living have an array of trading tools to help them, but one of the most common tools they use to good effect is the indicator called On Balance Volume.

Popularised by Joseph Granville, the On Balance Volume or OBV in short is actually cumulative volume, where the underlying principle is that similar OBV should support equivalent price. By using this indicator, short term traders will be able to identify when there is a difference in this setting, or where OBV has outbreak already but price has still lagged behind, giving rise to the situation where an impending price jump is expected.

But how large is the impending jump? If there is indeed an OBV outbreak, and by inference the price should follow in the next few trading sessions, one must also ensure that the impending jump is of sufficient size to warrant a good margin of profit attractive enough for him to trade.

Added to this trading indicator, traders add yet another trading stipulation to nail those giant moves. We know in Elliot wave theory that the 3 and 5 waves of any stock are the impulsive and strong waves up.

I have seen much success from traders who scan their stocks with an OBV outbreak and are in their impulsive 3 and 5th waves which are their longest and strongest waves.

Armed with this understanding, when a stock is found to have just undergone an OBV Outbreak upwards and is moving within either its 3rd or 5th wave, you have an excellent candidate that will probably run away in price, and letting you reap a handsome profit within a short trading period.

The Difference Between Down and Out

As turnaround investors, I prefer to invest in companies that are down but not out. This is important because a lot of times, investors misunderstood the two. Often times, these two types of companies are trading near or at their 52 week low. But the similarity ends there.

Company that is Down. This is the company that experiences problem and it seems like it can weather the problem. It just needs time to right the ship and get back on track. How can we be certain that the company can weather the storm? The ultimate guideline is to look at the company's balance sheet and income statement. Does the company have a positive net cash? Is the company expected to post a profit? If the answer is yes to both questions, then the company in question is most likely is just down, but not out.

Company that is Out. This is the company that experiences problem but its future existence might be in doubt. It might right the ship but by then it might be too late. As a result, shareholders will be wiped out and lose 100% of their investment. How can we be certain for the company that is out? Again, we have to check the ultimate guideline, which is the balance sheet and income statement of the company. Does the company have a negative net cash? Is the company expected to post a loss for the foreseeable future? If the answer is yes to both questions, then the company in question has the high probability of being out of business.

Using analogy without illustrations are confusing, in my opinion. Therefore, I will choose one company for each situation. Please do not treat this as a buy or sell recommendation. This is merely my observation as someone who had watched these companies for a while.

Pfizer Inc. (PFE) might be categorized as the company that is down. Stock price slumped to 8 year low this week due to weak sales of its drug franchises and tepid guidance. Management has refused to update guidance for 2006 and beyond due to uncertainty. So, let's look at Pfizer's balance sheet, shall we? The latest information on Pfizer shows that the company has $ 15 Billion of cash and equivalent and $ 5.517 Billion in long term debt. In other words, Pfizer has $9.5 Billion of positive net cash. How about earnings? Is Pfizer expected to post a loss? Nope, it is expected to post earnings of $ 1.95 per share for year 2005 or $ 14 Billion of net profit. Profit is plenty while balance sheet is solid. Pfizer clearly is a company that simply has a small bump in the road.

How about AMR Corp (AMR)? This is an excellent example of a company that is out. Looking at the balance sheet, AMR has a negative net cash of $ 9.5 Billion. What this means is that it has $ 9.5 Billion more long term debt than it has cash. Is AMR profitable? Not a chance. It is expected to post a loss of $ 4.36 per share for 2005 or $ 714 Million. It doesn't look pretty. High amount of debt and big loss is the recipe for a company that is down. If AMR doesn't turn its ship anytime soon, it might be forced to file bankruptcy.

To consistently make money, investors need to be able to differentiate the company that is down and company that is out. Weed out the company that is out and your investment return will be so much better.