click here

Investing 101 Archive

  • You may have seen the TV show on Spike called 1000 Ways to Die which essentially profiles all sorts of deadly, freak accidents. Ghoulish stuff for sure, yet surprisingly thought-provoking. In some ways, author, actor and humorist Ben Stein has written the monetary equivalent of this quirky show, with a book that lists dozens of ways that people kill themselves financially.

    For this installment of Investing 101, we narrowed it down to the top three ways and began by asking the author of "How to Really Ruin your Financial Life and Portfolio" why they landed at the top of the list. Remember, these tips are things Stein advises you NOT to do.

    1) Trade Frequently

    "If you trade frequently you're almost guaranteed to lose money," Stein says in the attached video. "Unless you're a high frequency trader with access to incredibly powerful computers, a limitless base of capital and access to inside information" the only road to success is to "buy and hold big, broad indexes forever."

    Read More »

  • "Experience is the name everyone gives their mistakes," author and poet Oscar Wilde once wrote. And how right he was. But what if we could gain the benefit of our errors without having to pay a painful price?

    That's exactly what we are tackling in this installment of Investing 101, as we identify behavioral mistake that will will cost you money. To do so, we contacted Lou Harvey, president and CEO of Dalbar, a Boston-based financial services research firm, who has studied and written about the matter for years and has compiled this list of the five biggest behavioral blunders.

    1) Mental Accounting

    As Harvey describes it, the hallmarks of this investing mistake are erratic behavior and an ever-changing risk tolerance. If you're the type of person who takes big risks in one area but takes almost none in another, you might be suffering the effects of mental accounting. In Harvey's words, it's like conceptualizing different buckets for risk, but then putting all the buckets in the same pool.

    2) Herding, Following the Crowd

    It's often stated on Wall Street that the market rarely rewards the masses or that stocks always take the course of inflicting maximum pain. "The crowd often is mistaken," Harvey says, "and very often late, too." The problem with being a follower, he says, is that the leaders — whether going in or out of an investment — typically make all the money. "The people who come afterward miss out," he says.

    Read More »

  • With the antiquated Electoral College method of electing Presidents it's easy to think your personal vote is of little consequence. Unless you live in a battleground state you're stuck in a sea of Red or Blue no matter where your personal politics lie. That's the reality for the presidential election but Eric Singer, author of Trade the Congressional Effect says your vote has more power than you may think.

    In this episode of Investing 101 Singer explains three reasons why it's not about the main event --electing a new president-- but it's the Congressional races, where your vote can really count and hold the key to your financial fortunes.

    1. Congress Controls the American Agenda

    "It's easy for the media to focus on the horse race at the top," says Singer in the attached clip. "But in fact Congress sets the agenda for the country." The executive branch is powerful but the President doesn't have the power to unilaterally dictate policy. Budgets, taxes and everything else being spoken of in the Presidential debates ultimately need to be passed by Congress.

    Mitt Romney and President Obama may speak as though they call the shots but their power is only as great as their ability to persuade your representatives to vote for their proposals.

    Read More »

Pagination

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
(42 Stories)

ABOUT INVESTING 101

Breakout’s Investing 101 is a new way to gain insight on money management and trading. Whether you’re managing your own retirement account, just beginning, or an advanced investor in need of a good refresher, Investing 101 will help you learn, grow, and keep you informed of the basic steps to effectively manage your money. Expect investing tips that focus on trading strategies, asset allocation, and portfolio management.





Investing 101

More »

Subscribe and RSS

[X]

How to subscribe

Roll over each section to subscribe using Add to My Yahoo! or RSS Feed feeds.

Yahoo! News offers dozens of RSS feeds you can read in My Yahoo! or using third-party RSS news reader software. Click here to find out more about RSS and how you can use it with Yahoo! News.

DISCLAIMER

Merrill Lynch is not responsible for any content on this site.
 
Symbol Price Change % Chg 
Your most recently viewed tickers will automatically show up here if you type a ticker in the "Enter symbol/company" at the bottom of this module.
You need to enable your browser cookies to view your most recent quotes.
Save List to Portfolio »
 
Sign-in to view quotes in your portfolios.