Playing in the Stock Market

A friend of mind had never been a stock market guy. EVER! He always had been very leery of the whole deal. But, this fella William O’Neil is starting to change that for him. His book is really good. Thought you may have heard of him. Playing in the Stock Market can be like gambling, however you can educate yourself and increase the odds of success. However there is still a large risk which you have to be prepared to accept.

My response to him was as follows and maybe it will help others which is why I posted here!

Playing in the Stock Market

I have been in the stock market for many years and have done very well.

Based on my experience you have to decide what kind of an investor you are. – speculative, growth, income, low risk income. They all come with different levels of risk and it depends on how risk tolerant you are.

I stay away from mutual funds, MER’s are too expensive and they get paid regardless of how they perform.

I guess I am an income guy, which means I invest in Blue chip Canadian stocks that pay a dividend each quarter. They have a long record of paying their dividends and have a history of increasing their dividends on a regular basis.

Make sure you are diversified with no more than 5% of my investment in any one company. Part of managing risk.

The blue chips also have a slow growth element in addition to paying dividends. I use yahoo to track my progress. There are lots of ups and downs. When it goes down 10 or 15% it is pretty hard to handle. But if you are well invested, hang on because they will come back and you still get your dividends.

This guy is talking more about speculation which takes lots of time to manage. It is gambling on the stock market!

I would develop your own strategy and stick to it based on your risk tolerance. Review and adjust your strategy every 6 months. Decide if you want to take the dividends in cash or re-invest in the same stock or buy something else with the cash.