1-2% is pretty standard i think no matter where you go. sometimes its more.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...=a94WGpq4Jk7o]

dow tops 9000 for first time since january. good time to put money into the market?
as a canadian, if i wanted to invest 40-50k in the us market, what would be the best way to do it.

dont want too much risk either.

I was thinking it was a good time to take money out of the market.

Not convinced it's n the road to recovery?

Good you waited for the market to reach new highs to put money into the market. If you wanted to put money into the market why didn't you do it when the DOW was at 7k, or 8k for that matter? I know it's impossible to time the market, and I'm not saying we won't get any higher, we probably will, but saying you want to buy because we reached the highest point of the year is ******ed, imo.

Buy high, sell low ftw.

yah thats true. some positive signs right now though and i dont want it to steadily increase while im left behind. maybe waiting a bit and if it goes down buying?

I'm not saying you shouldn't buy. I just think your reasoning why you want to buy is flawed.

Why do you want to put money into the American markets rather than Canadian? One of the big factors pushing the markets up has been the American dollar losing a lot of value. If you're putting your money into stocks valued in American dollars you may well find that much of the gains in your holdings are wiped out by losses in the American dollar.

You could find youself up nicely in American money and discover you've earned practically nothing when you convert it back to Canadian dollars. This happened to me once during this rally when I made a nice trade for a quick 10% in an American stock, but when I sold I realized that I had earned almost nothing when converted back to Canadian dollars.

If you determine R, the amount of money you will risk (i.e. are willing to lose) on the trade, then who cares if you get stopped out early. I'd much rather get stopped out at a small 1R loss and move to the next opportunity than turn into an "investor" holding a losing dog, hoping it turns around.

Typically, I move stops to break even as soon as I feasibly can without threatening the trade. In this way, I have a free trade.

Finally, I try to exit in two stages. When I exit depends on the type of trade I am in. Is this a potential trend that will last awhile? Then I'll generally exit slower and keep trailing stops looser longer.

But if the trade is a short term correction or rally I am investing on, I'll look to get out half my position as soon as I hit my target, and tighten stops on the other half.

For shorter term trades, you usually want to do your actual selling when price is at the 50,4,25 Keltner Channel (i.e. way overbought or way oversold) and making divergence against you.

What's everybody's take on shortselling and is it even possible to make a decent profit using a small amount of money?

Has anybody ever tried selling short some of Cramer's big picks at the peak of the Cramer effect?

Reason I'm asking is I have around 2k that I have to play around with and I feel like speculating. I've already maxed out my IRA for this year and have the rest of my money in a growth stock fund so I'm pretty diversified already. Just don't know if it's even worth opening a margin account with that small amount of money.

Thanks for the advice. I've noticed myself thinking more and acting more along these lines, and have been recently began learning about RSI (which I assume to be similar to the Keltner Channel in regards to overbought/sold).

I think maybe it may have something to do with confidence and comfortablility with a newly learned concept/tactic. Much like learning the checkraise in poker, there's a right and wrong way to do it... seemingly much like a trailing stop or an exit strategy. Learning to use it properly is probably something that comes with time, education and experience.

It doesn't really matter how much money you have. If you can go long you can go short, basically. You just have to take the borrowing fee in account.

Also, shorting Cramer picks will probably make you a profit. The problem is you have to time it right.

I've studied the RSI quite a bit and it plays an integral role in my strategies. If you want to read more, see my blog called PositionSizing.

Also see my Public Chart List on Stockcharts for an example of Keltner Channels.

Finally, feel free to follow me on Twitter.

I'm thinking of opening and IRA (maybe both a traditional and a Roth). I currently contribute the max on my 403(b).

My question is, I see I can contribute up to $5k/year total into the IRA's to get the appropriate tax benefits. But can I also contribute another $5k/year for my wife (and get the appropriate tax benefits) even though she doesn't work.

Also, if I open a 457 plan, do the maximums for that conflict with the maximums for the IRA's?

General question, which is better 457 or IRA (traditional or Roth) assuming I can't afford to max everything out, after already maxing out the 403(b)?

I have a few newbie questions.

I just posted in the "I have $xx to invest"-thread. My plan is to invest some money now and get a portfolio going and then later maybe dabble a bit in some trading.

Should I get an account at a trading firm for making my investments or should I just use my regular bank and buy through them? I imagine I have to open an account anyway whenever I decide to try trading.

How do I choose which stocks to buy, do I just pick some I feel confident in? I've purchased some investment books and will soon read them, hopefully that'll help my newbie-ness.
I live in Denmark, would it be wise to stick to the danish market or doesn't it matter? When investing? When trading?

1. I would go with the cheapest online discount broker for now. In the US, I like Scottrade at $7 per trade for large block orders, and Interactive Brokers for smaller orders.

2. Please learn fundamental and technical analysis for longer term investing. The Buffetology books are an easy introduction to fundamental analysis.

For easy technicals, read Stan Weinstein's How to Profit in Bull & Bear Markets. Watch stocks as they move, on daily and weekly charts, from Stage 1 basing/accumulation to Stage 2 mark up/advance to Stage 3 topping/distribution to Stage 4 decline. Practice getting into stocks in early Stage 2 and out of stocks before Stage 3 ends.

tyvm for the response.

So my investments should be through an online broker too (as opposed to my bank)?

Regarding fundamental and technical analysis. I figure that the investment books I've ordered will take care of that?
One time I started reading something about technical analysis but the author really spoke badly about math/random walk guys. Studying this stuff myself I put the book away. But should I just suck it up and start reading it?

Newbie Question:
You always see those infomercials about making $12408124012804 by following a simple structured w/e. (Stuff like Better Trades)

Has anyone tried these and what are they like exactly? (And the obvious question, does it work and is it something stable enough to depend on it for financial independence)

There was a discussion about one of these scams not so long ago.

Don't do it: they will be the ones making $12408124012804, from the fools that buy their products.

Sorry for reposting my question but I figure you guys can easily answer it.

I'm going to longterm invest ~15k and add about 3k each month. Should I do this through my bank/bank advisor or is it better to do it myself through an online broker?

What are you planning to buy with that $3K? If it's mutual funds, go with an online broker that offers a host of no transaction fee, no load funds. Vanguard has some great funds, too, but watch out for their initial minimum investment amounts.

I have a high risk tolerance, so I guess individual stocks? Dunno if it's possible but maybe a hedge fund could be an alternative?

Most hedge funds need much more than 300k to invest, let alone anything in single digits.

To invest in a hedge fund you have to be an accredited investor so that would not be an option unless you are one.

The federal securities laws define the term accredited investor in Rule 501 of Regulation D as:

a bank, insurance company, registered investment company, business development company, or small business investment company;
an employee benefit plan, within the meaning of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, if a bank, insurance company, or registered investment adviser makes the investment decisions, or if the plan has total assets in excess of $5 million;
a charitable organization, corporation, or partnership with assets exceeding $5 million;
a director, executive officer, or general partner of the company selling the securities;
a business in which all the equity owners are accredited investors;
a natural person who has individual net worth, or joint net worth with the person’s spouse, that exceeds $1 million at the time of the purchase;
a natural person with income exceeding $200,000 in each of the two most recent years or joint income with a spouse exceeding $300,000 for those years and a reasonable expectation of the same income level in the current year; or
a trust with assets in excess of $5 million, not formed to acquire the securities offered, whose purchases a sophisticated person makes."

So you have to meet those requirements before you even find out what the minimum investment is for a hedge fund and usually its not 15k.

I really like a mutual fund the symbol is MDLOX. It is Blackrock Global Asset Allocation. You can look up the symbol on yahoo finance. In a good market you will make money in a bad market you will not get destroyed. It is run similar to a hedge fund because the manager does not limit himself to what he can and can not buy.

You could put the whole 15k in there and not have to worry about it.

Thanks guys. I knew you had to have a lot of money to invest in a hedge fund, just didn't know it was that much.

I'll look up the mutual fund, mrdasefx, thanks. Would this be better than individual stocks? I know my bank tracks/analyses about 20 danish stocks and could probably give pretty good advise on them. Don't know if it's best to let them take care of it or if I should try with an online broker and for example go with the mutual fund MDLOX and/or other stocks.