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Trading Strategies and Systems

Margin Requirements for Pattern Day Traders

There are some rules that pattern day traders should abide by when day trading on margin.

Cross-Market Trading Circuit Breakers

Circuit breakers are the markets or exchanges established, coordinated strategy for dealing with extraordinary market volatility, specifically extreme market price declines.

Rebalancing Your Assets

Rebalancing is an asset maintenance procedure that involves assessing your investment time horizon, risk tolerance and financial need to determine whether your investment preferences have changed.

Diversification of Assets

Asset diversification is a risk management strategy, involving investing in a combination of assets of different types and levels of risks.

Characteristics of Variable Annuity Products

Variable annuities are just one of the two main types of annuities. This article discusses the characteristics of annuities.

Prepaid Tuition Plans versus College Savings Plans

Prepaid tuition plans and college savings plans are the two specific types of 529 plans. Read their comparison and learn more about both of them.

The Pros and Cons of Exchange-Traded Funds

Exchange-traded funds have unique features that distinguish them from other investment companies of the open-ended or UIT type.

Investing in Equity-Indexed Annuities Explained

Equity-indexed annuities are perhaps some of the most complex investment vehicles and as with any other investment, there are risks involved. Therefore, educate yourself well in order to make money out of investing in equity indexed annuities.

Asset Allocation – Choosing the Best Allocation Strategy

This article will provide you with every criterion you need to know and review in order to choose the best allocation strategy for your investing needs.

Financial Analysts: NYSE and NSAD Rules and Disclosures

Investors should be critical of research reports by brokerage firms and financial analysts. This article will discuss the disclosures required from brokerage firms and financial analyst and will teach you how to determine whether a research report is objective or not.

What Investors Need to Know about Auto-Trading Programs

Investors can automate trading on their account. Under such an auto-trading setup, securities transactions are automatically processed and executed by your broker. Learn more about how auto-trading works and what are its pros and cons.

What Investors Need to Know about After-Hours Trading

People trade during after-market hours for many reasons. Whatever its benefits, after-hours trading definitely comes with a number of risks and this article will show them to you.

Direct Stock Purchase Plans

A lot of companies let investors buy stock directly from them through the company’s direct stock purchase plans. In this article you will learn more about the direct stock plans.

Holding Your Securities: Direct Registration

Holding a security can be done in three ways - getting a physical certificate, registration in Street Name, and direct registration. In this article we will examine in greater details the direct registration option.

Holding Your Securities: Street Name Registration

Investors can choose to hold their securities with a physical certificate, street name registration, or direct registration. This article will examine in further details the third option - street name registration.

Holding Your Securities: Physical Certificate

When it comes to holding securities individual investors have up to three choices - Physical Certificate, Street Name Registration, or Direct Registration. This article will present you the advantages and disadvantages of choosing a physical certificate.

SEC Order-Handling Rules

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enacted some changes in their Order-Handling Rules (OHR) in 1997, which include the Limit Order Display Rule and the Quote Rule.

Buying Stock on Margin

Investing on margin is a high-risk strategy that can yield huge profits or huge losses if you are not careful. This article will help you better understand buying stock on margin and the risks involved.

Stock Market Day Trading

Stock market day traders buy and sell stocks via stock exchanges within the same trading day so as to close all positions before the market close of the trading day.

Understanding After-Hours Trading

Nowadays trading outside the regular window (also known as after-hours trading) is available to individual investors thanks to smaller exchanges and the rise of Electronic Communications Networks (ECNs).

Ex-Dividend Date - Why It Matters

Two very important dates determine whether you are the one who will receive the next dividend payment and these are the record date and the ex-dividend date.

Short Interest Ratio Monitoring

The selling short strategy is applied if the investor anticipates a fall in the price of a stock. Short interest represents the indicator that stock exchanges keep a close eye on in order to make a view on the activities of short-sellers.

Insider Trading Tracking

Many people consider insider trading as something extremely bad. However, if addressed wisely even you can extract some benefits.

Strategies to Deal with a Weak US Dollar

No expert can say for sure how long the US dollar will continue to fall. Thus, being an educated investor requires you to construct an appropriate strategy to meet the movements of the US dollar.

Stock Option Strategies

Once you have acquired an option there are several courses of actions you can take. Here we will examine in more detail the alternative strategies you can use with your options.

When to Apply Averaging Down

If the price of your stock has decreased, then a good strategy may be to apply averaging down. Still, in order to determine the suitability of this investment strategy you should be able to make a distinction between investing in a stock and investing in a company.

Down Market and Discounted Stock Opportunities

The decreasing prices of a down market drive investors into making reckless selling decisions. However, it is sometimes better to look around for some discounted stocks that may represent good investment bargains.

Management of Investment Decisions Through Stock Screens

If you decide to use a stock screen then you will be able to specify certain criteria and according to them the screen will sift the stocks that possess the determined characteristics.

Stock Portfolio Balance Maintenance Techniques

When you establish your investment portfolio you should balance it among the different asset classes. If you fail to do so you may expose yourself to higher levels of risk.

Stock Price Forecast

Generally investors try to forecast the movement of stocks in a particular direction. Study the company’s business activity in order to determine whether it is in a current state or a consistent losing position.

Strategies to Deal with a Down Market

During a down market many investors transfer their stocks into cash and wait until the market starts to move up again. Despite the fact that this strategy sounds as a good movement on the part of investors, it hides its risks.

Constructing a Successful Stock Purchase Plan

The purchase of a stock includes the clear identification of the reasons why you want to buy exactly this stock. Five main steps should be followed in order to eliminate emotions out of the purchase or sale process.

Determining the Number of Stocks to be Included in Your Portfolio

The number of stocks an investor should own is determined mainly by the situation in which the investor is in.

Dollar Cost Averaging Benefits

Deciding on the right price at which to purchase a stock represents one of the major difficulties that investors face. Dollar cost averaging represents a good tool over the long term, which enables the elimination of emotions out of stock investment decision making.

Selecting Your Investing Strategy

Stock investing is considered as very complex by most people. However, it is not that difficult and it all depends on you whether it will be complicated or not.

Has the Time for Selling Stocks Come

When your stock turns into a winning player you may become frustrated about what to do - sell the stock and enjoy its profits or keep the stock and wait to see its future development.

Value Investing Basics

Value investing refers to the purchase of stocks that have been overlooked by the market and as a result their price is below their real value.

The Warren Buffett Way - Principals for Successful Investment

In his book “The Warren Buffett Way”, Robert Hagstrom outlines 12 principles Warren Buffett follows in his investment decision making. This article illustrates these tenets implemented by Buffett when selecting stocks or companies.

Common Stock Investing Strategies

This article aims to familiarize you with several investing strategies for common stocks. You can choose for yourself the ones that best meet your needs and financial goals.

Investment Strategy Types

With time every investor develops his/her investing philosophy regarding the type of investment strategies that are to be undertaken. This article provides an explanation of different types of investment strategies and their philosophies.

Dogs of the Dow Performance

Many financial experts recommend the Dogs of the Dow investing technique. For those of you who are not familiar with it, read this article and see whether it is suitable for you.

DRP Types and Benefits

DRP stands for Dividend Reinvestment Plan. Under such a plan the dividends you are paid are directly used to purchase additional stocks.

Purchasing Your Company’s Stock

Today most of the employers provide their employees with the opportunity of purchasing stocks of the company. Nevertheless, many specialists question the reasonability of such investment activities.

Dogs of the Dow Investment Strategy

If you don't have much time for making investment decisions, then the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy is what you are searching for. This is so, since it eliminates the research and guesswork from your investment decision making.

Stock Portfolio Diversification

Diversification is one of the key components of a successful investment portfolio. Through diversifying your stocks you decrease to a great extent the risk of losing your money.

Direct Stock Purchase Options

Most investors prefer to trade investments through the opening of a brokerage account. However, in some cases using the alternative ways of buying and selling investments, which exclude the participation of a broker, is far better.

Beating the Market Strategy

The goal of many investors is to beat the market. They aim to do this by using their stock investments. However, establishing as a goal the beating of the market may not be enough to achieve financial success.

When to Sell a Stock

Many investors find it difficult to judge when the right time has come to sell a particular stock. Besides the personal reasons that may guide your decision there are times when the market requires you to sell a stock.

Personal Reasons for Selling Stocks

Deciding on the right time to buy a stock is as difficult as deciding on the right time to sell it. Many reasons can guide the investor’s decision for selling a stock, some of which are personal.

Stock Market Prices and Buying Strategies

Before you make a decision about the purchase of a stock you should do an extensive research and analysis. If the market shows that you should follow an investment strategy that doesn’t conform to your research, double-check the latter and proceed according to the results.

Long-Term Stock Investment vs Short-Term Trading

If you a long-term investor you should not pay attention to the pennies you can save from purchasing a particular stock. However, if you are trader interested in quick profit making every penny should matter.

Electronic Trading vs Stock Exchange Trading Floor

No matter which way of stock trading you choose - electronic trading or the stock exchange trading floor - it is good to know how it works in case something wrong happens. In this way you will have the knowledge on where to search for the obstacle.

Bull and Bear Market Strategies

The stock market often falls under the conditions of the so called bull and bear markets. Intelligent investors are well familiar with the conditions of both and know exactly what to do.

Before You Buy Stocks

No stock buying should be done without a thorough preliminary check on its potentials. This is required in order not to wake up in the next morning and wonder why you have put your money in this stock at all.

When to Buy and Sell Stocks

The most common rule of thumb that most financial advisors give is to buy at a low price and sell when the price is high. However, many investors miss the right time.

Stock Trader vs Company Investor

Some people get confused when they are asked whether they invest in a company or a particular stock. No matter what answer they give it will be the right one. However, the problem is when people don’t make a difference between investing in a company and investing in a stock.

Allocating for Investing Purposes

Now that you have noticed that a particular investment promises high returns you face the problem of finding the finances for pursuing it.

The Long-Term Scope of Stocks

Stocks are extremely sensitive to the different ups and downs of the market over the short-term. In order to become an educated stock investor you should always keep in mind that stocks are an investment tool that gives the best results over the long-term.

Investing According to Dow Jones Industrial Average

Many average investors are confused about the exact meaning and impact of the Dow. Investors that invest in index mutual funds or exchange traded funds, which follow the behavior of the Dow will be extremely satisfied to hear when the Dow has hit a high record.