Best Investment Center

Boeing (BA)

schmitty — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:07:59 +0000

I am adding this idea as the aerospace industry is really starting to pick up. I have been noticing a lot of new orders coming in for 747s and other airliners, and thought you may be able to gain from this. If you can get in on a pullback, in the low 60s, you will not be disappointed. I can see this stock getting closr to $75 by year end. Take advantage of this by buying longer term call options, or buy some stock straight up. You will not be disappointed.

Price Per Earnings Ratio (P/E)

schmitty — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:35:43 +0000

The price per earnings ratio (P/E) can be very helpful in judging the valuation (how cheap a stock price is).
Basically, what the P/E tells you is how many years worth of current earnings it would take for the company to earn your share price. PE ratio = Share Price/Earnings per share (EPS). If the share price is $10 for a company making 50 cents per share, its P/E ration would be 20.
What is a fair P/E ratio for a stock?
It depends upon the growth rate of a company. If their earnings are steady, 10-12 EPS is acceptable. If they are growing, 15-20 is acceptable. Any company with a large growth rate can warrant up to 40+. Google currently has a 38 P/E ratio because they are expected to grow their EPS about 25% this year.
There is no exact formula showing what a fair P/E ratio is, but this seems to work well.

Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (SWKS)

schmitty — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:09:37 +0000

My stock play for this month is a little speculative, but could pay off big.
The industry that I believe to have huge growth potential is the wireless networking. Inside mobile devices is the products of a company called Sky Works Solutions, Inc. (SWKS). As of October 5, the price has pulled below the 50 day moving average, and it has presented a buying opportunity. If you can get this stock below the 12.30 mark, it is a buy.

This company has a good cash flow working for them, and I like that they are paying off their long term debt, while they are still able to build their cash position.
I want to remind you not to invest on advice alone, but to do your own research.

Top Five Reasons to Run Your Investment Account

schmitty — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:52:10 +0000

When I first opened up my own personal investment account, I wondered if I was making the right decision. After learning the ups and downs of the stock market, I am so glad I decided to start! I started running my own IRA, and I have done so well that I decided to open a non-tax sheltered account as well for my vacation fund. Over the years, I have discovered that I actually did better in my self-run accounts than I did in the accounts I had that were run by money managers! I suggest that you start small, and run an account on your own as well.
Here are the top five reasons for you to run your own investment account instead of paying someone to do it for you:

1. Low Costs
Just as it is a lot cheaper for you to fix your own car, do your own plumbing, and paint for yourself, it is a lot cheaper for you to run your money yourself. Just think about it. If you pay a man for his advice and fees to make trades, you are paying for his fancy chair, office with a view, hot rod car, etc. If you make your investment decisions yourself, you only pay for the trades you make.

2. Information is Plentiful
In the information technology age we are in right now, you can find all the information you need online to do research for good investments. There are stock idea blogs, investment tools, stock quotes, educational sites, and advice for best investment. Everything you need to be a great investor is at your fingertips, and most of it is free!

3. Managers are no Better than You
It has been found that only 6% of money managers actually do better than the S&P 500 index fund. So by investing in SPY(S&P index fund), you are among the top 94% of investors!

4. Managers Deal With Large Sums of Money
I don’t know if you realized this, but money managers are the ones that move the stock prices! Because they have to deal with large amounts of money, when they sell, the stock goes down. When money managers buy, the stock goes up! You, as a small investor hardly affect the price at all. Take advantage of this fact! All you have to be able to do is buy the stocks that managers are buying after they sell, and sell them after they buy to make money. Use the stochastic charting tool on most charting software to help you know when stocks are overbought or oversold.

5. Nobody Cares About Your Money as Much as You Do
Really, who cares more about your money? If you lose money, it hurts you. If they lose your money, they still get paid. You are better off using that sense of responsibility to your advantage. If you care about your money, you are going to do the work necessary to help you keep and grow that money.

My advice is to keep the money that you would pay an investment professional and invest it yourself. You will be much better off.

Use Internet Tools to Time Your Investments

schmitty — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:49:09 +0000

James Cramer says, “Bulls make money, bears make money, but pigs get slaughtered.” It is so true! People many times miss out on huge gains because they see that a stock has made big gains and refuse to sell. They get greedy. When a stock is up more than 20%, it is time for you to sell.
There is a tool (usually located in the chart section of a stock quote) that can help you time your buys and sells. You don’t have to be a genius to use them either.
Fast Stochastic – This tool is designed to let you know when stocks are overbought, or oversold.
How to use the stochastic tool:
1) Do research on a stock you would like to buy. Check financials, overview, opinions about the stock’s future.
2) Pull up a chart on your favorite investment website (I use ) Marketwatch
3) Pull up the interactive chart (On Marketwatch)
4) Go to “Technical Indicators” and click on “Oscillators”
5) Fast Stochastic is one of the indicators.
6) Check this for a few days and wait until the indicator line is near the bottom. (This indicates a time to buy)
7) If the line is near the top, it is a good time to sell, not buy.
If you use this tool, it will help you buy when the stock price is low, and sell when the price is high.
NOTE: This is only a SHORT TERM indicator. The market will fluctuate every week or two.

Which debt solution hurts your credit score the most?

schmitty — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:27:57 +0000

There are many debt solutions that can give you financial freedom. But you get financial freedom at the cost of your credit rating that can be improved over time. The debt help industry has gained popularity, especially after the recession when consumers are facing the problem of managing their debts. Not all consumers fall behind on payments as a result of cash mismanagement. You may also have to face unexpected incidents that can cause your finances to go haywire.

The different debt solutions (e.g debt consolidation, debt settlement, debt management, bankruptcy, etc.) that can restore your financial peace affect your credit rating differently. One of the debt solutions that hurt your credit score the most is bankruptcy. Most of the debtors file Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. If you file bankruptcy, it gets recorded in your credit report for a period of 7 to 10 years.

How does bankruptcy hurt your credit score and your financial well being?
If you file bankruptcy, it allows you to make a fresh start as far as your finances are concerned, but it has very negative implications too. The disadvantages of filing bankruptcy outnumber the advantages.

• If you are planning to take up a job in some good company, your employer may refuse to recruit you if you have filed bankruptcy and it shows in your credit report.

• If you intend to buy an insurance plan, you may not get one as per your terms and the insurance carrier may refuse to sell one to you.

• Filing bankruptcy also affects your image negatively and if you want to rent space, the landlord may turn down your request and refuse to rent out his space to you.

• You will not be able to avail fresh credit and lenders will usually shy away from approving credit to you.

Just as bankruptcy gives you a fresh start, it also inflicts mental injury and it takes a lot of time to regain your own self confidence and also win the confidence of lenders, employers, homeowner or your insurance carrier. However, filing bankruptcy is not the end of the world. You will get ample opportunity to repair your finances. Try the other debt solutions that are regarded as bankruptcy alternatives and don’t allow your debts to reach a point when you are left with bankruptcy as the only debt solution.

Don’t Hang On to Bad Investments

schmitty — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:50:54 +0000

Too many people hang onto investments that they bought a long time ago hoping that they will come back to the level that they were. Nobody likes to admit that a mistake has been made. Three of the most difficult words to say (besides “I Love You”) are: “I was wrong”.
Usually when I buy a particular stock in a company, there is a specific reason I am willing to pay money for it. It might be that I think a product will be more popular than anticipated, the company is worth more than the share price indicates, or there is big potential for growth in a market. As long as the reason that I bought the stock is still intact, I am willing to take small losses and maybe even buy more. As soon as you are sure that you are wrong, it is time to sell!
At the Best Investment Center, we don’t care what price a stock has sold for in the past, we only care where it is going to go in the future. To be honest, there are stocks out there that will NEVER get back to their high prices. Just because Krispy Kreme Donuts (KKD) once sold for $49.37 per share, doesn’t mean it will ever trade back in that range. In fact, in September of 2009 its share price was $3.37. If you recognized that they were expanding too fast, you could have sold before it tanked. I am pretty sure that KKD will never be that high again.
If you want to avoid losing huge amounts of capital, you will have to set some sell rules for yourself. I set my sell rules at 10%. If my stock goes down more than 10%, I assume that I have made a mistake and cut loses short. You cannot afford to destroy wealth on one stock. If you are wrong, you can gain back 10%, you will have a hard time gaining back 90% losses
You also need to realize that in order to gain back a 10% loss, you have to have a 11% gain. Not too bad, right? If you let it lose 90%, you would have to gain 1000% to get that loss back.
Let’s do some math. If you invested $1000 in a bad investment and you sold after losing 10%, you would still have $900 to work with. You only have to gain $100 dollars. But if you let it lose 90%, you would have to gain $900 back with only $100 left to invest. That is a hole you do not want to have to dig out of.
If you want to have the best investment portfolio, you must be able to swallow your pride and admit you have made a mistake. Sell before you lose too much value.

Earnings Per Share (EPS)

schmitty — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:40:21 +0000

Earnings per share or EPS is the way an investor knows how much money a company is making with their money. How the EPS is determined, is by taking the number of shares outstanding, and dividing it by the amount of profit that a company makes during a specific period of time (usually a quarter or year).
EPS= Outstanding shares/profit
If a company lost money after taking expenses, they can end up with a negative EPS. Many new companies start with a negative EPS, and work their way to toward profitability.

Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)

schmitty — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:17:49 +0000

Exchange Traded Funds or ETFs are an investment option that trades like a stock, but operates like a mutual fund. A lot of them follow an index (called an index fund) like the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, or the Russell 1000. These trade almost exactly with the index (If the S&P 500 goes up 2%, so will SPY, the S&P index fund).

The benefits:

- Instant diversification. Your money is split evenly between hundreds of individual stocks.

- Low costs. When you invest in an ETF, you avoid paying a lot of fees to fund managers and trade fees.

- Do better than most mutual funds. A majority of mutual funds do not even beat the market average.

- No brainer. There is not much research to be done.

The drawbacks:

- Bad stocks. When you buy the index fund, you are forced to invest in poorly run companies (GE, GM, etc.) You have no choice but take them all.

- Over-diversification. I like to invest in less than 10 quality stocks so I can get the full benefits of gains. If I have 10 stocks, and one goes up 10%, my account is up 1% from that move. If I have 500 stocks and one goes up 50%, I am only up 0.1% for that move.

Alpine Total Dynamic Dividend Fund (NYSE: AOD)

schmitty — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:58:54 +0000

This is a conservative play. Again, these suggestions are not intended to replace work on your part. Every investment requires homework.

Alpine Total Dynamic Dividend Fund (AOD) is a great way to get value from a stock and get a HUGE dividend yield. The annual dividend yield is currently 15% and is paid out on a monthly basis ($0.12 per share every month). When I first ran across this idea, it was trading in the $6 range and has consistently over the last 3 months gone up almost every day (even when the market in general was down). I highly recommend doing some homework and jumping in on any pullback.