© marcopako 

If you thought that social media was only good to socialize with friends and family, think again. Social media has allowed the next leap for stock market investors to gain valuable experience and knowledge online in a very unique way. Not only will you be able to get good information and tips, you will also be able to connect with a range of experts and stock market professionals.

The giant Wall Street brokerage house Morgan Stanley is planning to use social media outlets like Twitter and Linked-In to communicate stock market advice and drum up business from investors. The company will let its financial advisers market themselves and share ideas with clients via social media sites, beginning with a pilot program involving 600 advisers that will start in late June.

It will then expand to the rest of the firm's 17,800 brokers within about six months. This is a bold and risky investment decision for the firm, but it reflects the company's bullish stance on the social media sector. The company says it's committed to taking a leadership role in this area and staying ahead of their competition in social media innovation. The firm believes it will give them a significant competitive advantage going forward.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2012 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

© Helico

While I was having carpeting installed by Empire Carpet, I started to think about an investment strategy I read, which is to consider investing in companies whose services or products you actually use and are happy with. So I decided to look up Empire Today, as well as other companies that I may otherwise not have thought of as investment opportunities, like Chipotle Mexican Grill, where I frequently eat. Of course other considerations must be made in addition to actually being a satisfied customer of the company, such as the company's management and its staying power, etc., but it's a good start. This is part of an empowered investment approach for investors. Rather than depending strictly on what experts may recommend, one's own assessment of a company may be just as profitable. Of course, this is not to be ventured into lightly, but it can be quite an awakening for people to realize that it is possible to have the wherewithal to make good assessments based on one's own experience of a company and then reading up on it. Especially in light of the collapse of major investment houses, this notion is not as farfetched as it may have seemed years ago.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 at 6:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

© hjl

Many investors understand that the stock market tends to move in cycles. Many aspects of life and nature work in cycles too, but stock market cycles can get so much attention in the media and in investor circles. The reason that market cycles can be so important for investors is that it is during the peaks and valleys of these cycles that many investors either lose thousands of dollars or make thousands more. Stock market investing is certainly not a steady activity, and it's improtant for investors to be aware of the various types of cycles that affect the financial markets.

While there are economic cycles at work, there are also political cycles that can affect an investor's portfolio. One of the most important political cycles is the term of office for the United States President. The US president is the head of state and the head of government in the country. They wield considerable power and influence as the leader of the executive branch in the most powerful country in the world, not to mention that they are also the commander in chief of the US Armed Forces. Due to such a high status, the changes and developments of the president can and do have an impact on financial markets.

According to the upcoming presidential election infographic produced by Fisher Investments, it seems that there is actually a demonstrated cycle that occurs with each US president that comes and goes. An intriguing finding was that stock market index returns are the highest in the third and forth years of a president's term. This trend showing higher average returns in the second half of historical presidents' tenures can be a useful guide for investors. If this historical data can be applied to future political cycles, then investors can expect to achieve higher index returns in the last two years of a president's office. Of course, past performance should not be taken as a clear prediction of future results, nonetheless the trend is striking and useful as part of the overall research for investors.

It's also useful to understand why there is a relationship between the president's term and the stock market index. Some commentators suggest that presidents tend to have more political power during the first and second year of their tenure, so they tend to push for more major legislation, thereby creating more risk aversion for investors. On the other hand, the final years of a president's term are generally marked by lower relative power and lower public approval, so presidents are less likely to introduce large reforms, and investors are thus more likely to take more risks and there is more market activity.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 at 5:27 pm and is filed under IRA, IRA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.