If you tell people that you play the market, they’re likely to respond in one of two ways – either they want you to give them investment advice, or they think that they’re experts and they want to give you investment advice.
Today, investment advice is everywhere, but investors should beware – free investment advice is usually worth exactly what you pay for it – nothing!
Using a Stock Broker for Investment Advice
All too often, stock brokers are trained salespeople, more so than trained financial professionals. Before you act on any investment advice from a stock broker, make sure you understand how the broker is paid. Do you pay him a fee specifically to give you investment advice?
If so, does he have any other incentives to advise you to buy a certain stock or financial product? Stock brokers are legally required to disclose any conflicts of interest when giving investment advice, so make sure you ask.
Or, if you’re not paying your broker specifically for investment advice, you need to ask him if he receives a higher commission from the product he’s recommending you buy than from other, comparable products.
Using CNBC for Investment Advice
CNBC is a 24-hour business news channel, and throughout the course of day, dozens of stock market pundits appear on screen to give investment advice. To disclose all possible conflicts of interest, CNBC displays an on-screen graphic detailing if the pundit owns any of the investments he’s advising you buy, or if his family or firm do.
However, the biggest risk in using CNBC for recommendations is that much of the investment advice is distilled into minute sound bytes. This results in an incomplete picture, in which you may not fully understand the pros and cons of a given stock or other investment vehicle.
Using Magazines for Investment Advice
There are numerous magazines that dispense investment advice. The best among them are probably SmartMoney and Forbes.
SmartMoney is geared towards somewhat less sophisticated investors, however, Wall Street pros can read and enjoy the publication without it insulting their intelligence. The good news is that SmartMoney offers in-depth profiles of many stocks and other investments in each issue.
It is also faithfully honest about its best and worst picks, and it routinely reviews how its investment selections have performed over the past year.
Forbes is slightly different type of publication, with a somewhat more affluent and conservative audience. While SmartMoney is geared towards upper middle class investors with a few hundred grand in their 401k’s, Forbes is more for the executive-level investor with a few hundred grand in annual contributions to the Republican Party.
This does not mean, however, that Forbes is not a good publication. It does devote a full 1/3 of its pages to investment advice, and while its investments articles are not as in-depth as SmartMoney’s, they are well-written and concise – and sometimes that’s just as good.
Using the Internet for Investment Advice
There are numerous online sources of investment advice. Yahoo! Finance publishes articles and relays analyst opinion. TheStreet.com has many premium products that give comprehensive recommendations. But easily the most famous website for investment advice is MorningStar (morningstar.com).
MorningStar is best known for its mutual fund reviews, but it also publishes research reports on individual stocks. However, MorningStar has come under increased pressure lately as many of its picks have failed to pan out.
MorningStar assigns stocks ratings of one to five stars, and critics charge that the company will give a bad stock a good rating, and then as the share price falls, MorningStar upgrades the stock – saying it’s fallen too far and is now a great bargain.
The problem? The stock sometimes continues to fall. In the case of certain stocks like Microsoft (MSFT) and eBay (EBAY), MorningStar may soon have to create a sixth star to give them as they continue to plummet in value.
The message is – beware of all investment advice. Get your recommendations from multiple sources, always check the advisor’s track record, and be wary of any potential conflicts of interest. And the next time your brother-in-law tries to give you some investment advice, refer back to the first paragraph of this article.
How Much Do We Know in History?…… Do We Know Enough?!
How much do we know in History?…… Do we know enough?!
((History, listen closely to the word: hi-story. Do you hear the word “story”?
History is a story: it’s a story of all the people who have lived before us. It helps us remember who we are and what we’ve done. When we study history, we learn stories of great men and woman who have done extraordinary things.
History is not just the story of emperors and presidents: it’s also a story of ordinary people, of farmers, builders, artists, sailors, soldiers, teachers and children. Their stories are worth knowing .they are our stories.
history is about how we have changed and we’ve stayed the same. and so history is everyone’s story.))
This is how the word history is explained to a first grader; I read it in an American book called (what your first grader needs to know).
we wonder why do we have different information’s in other countries history, just for example, the American history weather it was about the country it self or about the there presidents and their wives , cultures, politics even about the history of their cinema. …well at that time they don’t have this kind of knowledge about our history? , I am talking here about regular people . what is the reasons behind that ? is it because they live in there own world and feel that our history is not worth knowing? “as some people think of them”, or they think that we don’t have a rich history? or their media is only concentrating on specific things ? or is it because they are not well educated or not well know ledged …….?
the thing is , we our selves don’t know much of our history!. yes we have been taught at school about the history of the great prophets , our religion , our country and wars that happened very long time ago… etc .
but there has been occurred very important events, actions and wars with huge damages , that changed the history of our country , or important events that has been occurred in other countries witch had a deep impact on us, weather they were positive or negative, at the end it made a huge difference and added something, many powerful speeches has been spoken by men and women ,so it made a history, and divided it into “before and after”! .
we have never read A lot of these stories in books or watched it in our media being really discussed , we only heard of them from our parents or from the people who were there at the time it happened .
we have been taught about great men in history with out explaining to us why exactly they were great !!! , we knew for example the date of there death without knowing the real causes of there tragic death, not that it was mysterious ,but its been chose not to be exposed , for some reasons..! there are surely a lot of ordinary men , women with different positions even children ,out there who had accomplished many important useful things, witch made them a great people who deserves to be added in the history.
These are just a few points witch are missing in our history that I feel as if I am reading a book that been ripped from the middle and pasted with an other book.
so if there are many stories has been kept with out sharing it in books or in our media or even talking about it publicly , how do we expect the other parts of the world to know about it…..?!
New Study Verifies Addiction Increases Risk of Suicide Amongst Those Addicted
Out of the 8.3 million considering suicide, 2.3 million Americans made a plan in the last year while 1.1 million adults had actually attempted suicide in the last year. Factoring into the risk levels was gender, age and history of substance abuse. Substance abuse, not surprisingly, increased the risk of seriously considering, planning or attempting suicide. It was found that people experiencing substance abuse disorders within the past year were more than three times as likely to have seriously considered committing suicide as those not battling substance abuse. Those with past year substance abuse were four times more likely to have planned a suicide than those without substance abuse disorders and nearly seven times more likely to have attempted suicide. These numbers are tragic but not altogether too surprising when taking into consideration the lifestyle of a person caught in the cycle of addiction. Most people tried a drug to avoid a problem and then continued with taking drugs instead of handling the problems in their life, finding them actually worse than at first and now finding themselves addicted to their drug of choice. Now their foremost problem is the cravings for the drug and the “how –to- get -more” of said drug. The lifestyle to keep the addiction fed brings on depression and guilt due to the activities to keep their cravings at bay. This of course increases the guilt where the only way out of this lifestyle to the addict is to commit suicide, which in the their mind will handle all their problems and do their friends and family a favor by them not having to worry over them any longer. Rebecca Pool, C.A.D.C. (Certified Drug and Alcohol Counselor) states, “We encounter many people entering our program stating upon arrival they had considered suicide because they had hit rock bottom and saw no other way to stop using drugs and in the process destroying not only themselves but their families. A person addicted to drugs can not see anyway out of this lifestyle. This is where Narconon steps in and is able to give that addict the tools and skills to overcome their addiction and to achieve their goals and dreams upon completion of the program, drug-free.”The Narconon international network of drug and alcohol rehabilitation and education programs was founded over 43 years ago. Narconon Arrowhead is the networks premier facility, located in southeast Oklahoma on 216 acres in Arrowhead State Park, is the perfect treatment environment for those addicted who are trying to regain control of their life. Since Narconon’s center opened in Oklahoma in 1990 over 3,580 people have graduated the full program. Over 70% of these graduates are enjoying sober and productive lives today. If you or someone you love needs help please call 1-800-468-6933 to speak to a counselor who can help you get started on the road to recovery or log on to www.heroinaddiction.com.