Thursday, June 04, 2009

View from my Broker Craig Maltz - re investing in the Market - he is awesome

With the increased optimism and market moves over the past 2 months the biggest question people are asking now is will this continue?

As I mentioned a few weeks ago I believe this market is suited to short term investments whilst the volatility is present. I still am disturbed with the greed factor that is still persistent in the market place. If 6 months ago I told someone that there stock would go up 100 – 200% plus within that time period, they would have been very surprised . YET, when certain stocks do this, all of a sudden I hear its going higher, don’t sell! The herd don’t make money in the market. It’s the minority who make the tough decisions and SELL on up days and BUY on down days who outperform.

I have been in this business for over 9 years and its human nature to try buy at the bottom and sell at the top but reality suggests this is not so simple . But I know one certain thing .Stocks do not go up in straight lines – They always have a breather…and when cash rates are 3% and you have an opportunity to either lock in great profits , or significantly reduce losses from shares held from the market boom , why would you not take it?

I cant predict what the next 12 months will bring and to be honest I find quite amusing when I see on CNBC etc these “experts” who try make predictions 12 to 24 months out . The same experts who suggested buying the top of the market changed their views at the bottom and suggested selling!

What we all can have is a view . We can trade that view . The difficult thing to do but the most important is to ensure that if the view is proved wrong , you have enough capital intact to move on.

For long term portfolio investors, continue to use a drip feed approach to building a portfolio . It is a prudent way to accumulate stocks and will smooth out entry prices over a period of time .

For the short term traders, ensure that you are disciplined in taking losses and don’t commit all your capital to one trade!

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