How to Maximize Your 401k Mutual Fund Returns
October 8, 2008
When it comes to 401k’s there is an overabundance of sad stories. Here is one that at least has a happy ending-and it’s getting happier all the time.
Last year (in 2002) a friend of mine-let’s call him Jack-phoned and asked if I could help him with his 401k. Jack works for a large company as Senior VP of lending and is financially pretty astute. However, when it came to his 401k mutual fund decisions, he had repeatedly made the same mistake most people were making. As a result, he saw his account drop in value substantially.
At the time we were in the midst of the 2000 bear market, which showed no sign of letting up. Jack had purchased into a Lifestyle fund because someone recommended it. By the time he finally bailed out, it cost him dearly. However, he continued to make the same mistake by reinvesting.
He checked with the 401k representative and subsequently switched to a variety of mutual funds ranging from World Stock to Domestic Hybrids, Large and Small Value as well as Growth. But nothing worked and his portfolio value headed further south.
How (NOT) to Buy Mutual Funds
October 1, 2008
When it comes to mutual funds, there is a lot more to success than just finding a good one. Sad investment stories like the following are all too common. I hope my sharing it with you will help you avoid making the same devastating financial mistake one of my former clients made.
This story begins during the height of the investment madness in 2000, just prior to the bear market. I had been managing an IRA account for “Bob” for around six years, with a better than average record of success. So I was surprised when Bob sheepishly called in July, 2000 to let me know he was transferring his IRA account, which had done particularly well during our latest Buy cycle going into the year 2000.
However, his tax preparer, a long time personal friend of Bob’s wife’s, was now also offering investment services, having recently received his Registered Representative’s license.
No Load Mutual Funds or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)?
September 22, 2008
If you are fed up with early redemption charges and ever increasing mutual fund management fees on top of bad-performing fund managers, read on. There is a quiet revolution going on in the no-load mutual fund industry and you, the individual investor, may benefit from it greatly.
I am referring to Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), which have been around for years, but have grown tremendously since their inception. There are currently over 100 choices with around $10 billion in assets.
In a nutshell, an ETF is a specific kind of no-load mutual fund that you might consider to be a basket of stocks. ETFs are diversified like mutual funds, only they trade like stocks. They are cheap to trade (as low as $8.00) and don’t hit you with any short-term redemption fees. And they offer investing opportunities across the board.
ETFs track every index under the sun including the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100, The Russell 2000 and many others. Available through any discount broker, they basically fall into one of three categories: broad-based U.S. indexes, sectors and international.
Buy and Hold: How to Perpetuate Your Investment Losses
September 14, 2008
A recent cartoon in my daily newspaper showed two guys sitting in a bar. One is saying to the other: "I did learn something from my broker…how to diversify my investment losses."
While this struck me as funny, there is certainly an element of truth to it judging by the number of tragic e-mails and phone calls I have received over the past couple of years.
This was brought home even more so by a reader who responded with strong disagreement to one of my articles. I advocate a methodical, disciplined approach to investing in no-load mutual funds. It keeps me invested during up markets and on the sidelines during down markets. It was exactly this approach that got me and my clients out of the market in October, 2000 and put us back in to take advantage of the April, 2003 upswing.
Judging from the reader’s e-mail it appears that he works for a major bank and is adamant about Buy & Hold and Dollar Cost Averaging. Maybe it’s the approach he has chosen and he doesn’t like hearing that the emperor is wearing no clothes. Nothing personal, honestly, but I find it incomprehensible that anyone, after the bear market and the financial disasters most people experienced, can even consider such theories. The results are just too black & white.
No Load Mutual Funds: Investment Hype vs. Investment Help
September 5, 2008
With the internet such a huge part of our daily lives, many investors have access to a wide range of instant investment information.
Whether you’re into stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures or options, there are tons of electronic investment newsletters offering to turn your small stake into a giant fortune. All you need to do is subscribe and watch your portfolio soar.
Yeah, right!
As a practicing investment advisor specializing in no load mutual funds, I have received my share of e-mails from disillusioned subscribers wanting to know how to better evaluate newsletter services.
While there are no absolutes, I can give you a few pointers that might help you make a better decision:
1. Stay away from the most obvious hype. Ads promising to turn your $10,000 into $1 million in 2 years by buying this incredible stock or hot commodity are not promoting investing - they are selling gambling. Follow the “If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is” rule.
Prospering with Mutual Funds: How Anyone can ?Afford? an Investment Advisor
August 27, 2008
Recently I was invited to appear on a live CNNfn television show to discuss my article "How to evaluate Load vs. No Load Mutual Funds." (You can read that article on my website http://www.successful-investment.com/articles21.htm)
As the producer and I were working out the logistics of my appearance, she mentioned in passing that "most people can’t afford an investment advisor."
While that wasn’t the time or place for me to discuss this, I realized that many people might have a similar misconception. Had conditions allowed, I would have pointed out the following to her.
There are only two ways an individual can invest in mutual funds: Selecting and investing themselves or using outside help. If they use outside help they’ll have a couple of choices again: A commissioned salesperson (broker, financial planner or Registered Representative) or a fee-based investment advisor.
Most people don’t know the difference and often start with a broker who charges about 6% commission off the top to purchase a mutual fund. The fund is usually from a limited selection of fund families the broker has a relationship with. He, of course, would never recommend a no load fund or an exchange traded fund (ETF), since it is not in his best interest — although it might be in yours.
How To Make, And Keep, Money Trading Stocks
August 20, 2008
If you are serious about making and keeping money by trading stocks, then there are three things you need to do, and do well.
- Money management
- Orders
- Trading system
Money management
Money management comes first. Without a rock-solid method of managing your trading funds, you trading results will be only be fair at best. Money management is more than just knowing how much money you have tied up in a trade. It’s a method of using the right portion of your trading account on any one trade relative to the perceived risk and reward.
There are a few things to consider to managing a trade successfully:
Account size
Your account size determines how long you stay in the trading game. If you are skillful, then you will not require a large account. On the other hand, even if you are a new trader, you can use a small account as long as you control your risk.
Precision Money Management
August 12, 2008
This article describes the model of a natural relationship between trading system performance, trade position size, stop loss settings and profit goals. The model consists of algebraic equations that specify the trade size and stop loss settings needed to meet profit goals over a specified time period for any consistently used trading system for which historical performance data is available.
Most of us think of a trailing stop loss when the term money management is mentioned. William O’Neil in his book, "How to Make Money in Stocks", used a value from 7 to 8%. Many stock advisories, including Stansberry and Associates, Outstanding Investments and the Oxford Club, typically use a 25% trailing stop loss. Option advisories use still higher values in the 35% range, as is done by Michael Lombardi, and up to as high as 50%, as used by Dr. Stephen Cooper. Trailing stops are typically used along with a maximum percentage of capital per trade to avoid large portfolio draw-downs in the event that a given trade goes badly.
Stock Market Diversification
August 3, 2008
In one of my previous articles (Investing in the stock market -9 powerful tips), tip number one was:
1. Do not spread your money too thin.
My friend has a little over $200,000 invested in the stock market through 27 different Mutual funds. In my opinion, 27 Mutual funds is 27 too many collecting load fees, management fees, commission fees, operating and advertising fees. Diversity is important, but just as important is over-diversification. Also, in my opinion, $200,000 should not be put into more than 12 stocks, let alone 27 different Mutual funds.
If I may, I would like to explain where I’m coming from by stating that tip.
On October 16, 1990 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded 3 men each a third of the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in the theory of financial economics ? Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller and William Sharpe.
Harry Markowitz’s work involved the theory of portfolio choice. (This in layman’s terms was the introduction of a diversified portfolio to help offset the uncertainty and risk of investing in the stock market. Harry Markowitz has been labeled the ‘Father of Diversification’.
Tips to Finding Other People?s Simple Trading Plans
July 26, 2008
Did you know you can make money (and a lot of it) by simply modeling someone else’s trading plan? Yes, it is true. Unbelievably, there are many of trading gurus doing it RIGHT NOW.
All you do is model your system on an already tested and proven trading plan.
If you are new to trading, or even if you have been trading a while, this is a secret very few successful traders talk about. You see, many successful traders diversify their trading float by trading other peoples tested systems - because it is so easy to do.
There are several reasons to start construction of your own trading system by stealing or borrowing another trading system’s ideas and concepts.
FIRST, as I said, it is easy. There are some pretty good trading systems out there. Some are free and some are very expensive. The costs of these systems are not an indication of the value of the system. The problem with some trading systems is that they might not work for you. Now I am not talking about out right dishonesty, which is a big problem when trading. Rather, I am talking about your ability to effectively trade with the system that you are using or buying.
