Active investing strategies means picking your own stocks and building and managing a portfolio. It's hard and few people do it well. Passive investing strategies mean investing in an index. When indexing, most people like to invest the same dollar amount of money into an index every month. By buying an index/ETF at different times, you end up getting a pretty good "average price.” This practice is called "cost averaging.”

Active vs Passive Investing

Risk no more than 1% of the trading account on each stock trade. Let’s say that I am trading a $100,000 account. I will risk only 1% of my account, or $1,000. If I enter the stock at 100 and the 50-day moving average is at 95, that means that my risk is 5 points on the stock (100-95). In that case, I should only buy 200 shares of stock. If I buy 200 shares of stock, and the stock falls 5 points, I will have lost $1,000 or just 1% of my total account size. The key to making a lot of money is not losing a lot of money in the process.

How much to invest in growth stocks

Investing is not magic. Remember that ...<ul><li>most people don't invest at all</li><li>75% of new traders quit within the first 3 months. </li><li>90% of new traders quit within the first 6 months. </li></ul>If you can stick around long enough and keep learning, you will be successful at this game. Learn the basics and practice.

Investing is for everyone

Great companies that are rapidly growing will always trade at high P/E's (Facebook, Amazon etc). Value investors will always tell you to stay away from companies with high P/E's. Ignore them. Matthew's advice: buy growth stocks that are hitting new 52-week highs, or even all-time new highs. Why?<ul><li>Every single holder of the stock has a profit. Except the short-sellers who are now forced to sell at a loss. And they push the price even higher. </li><li>A growing stock gets publicity and more people invest, pushing the price even higher. </li></ul>

Growth Stocks

An index is simply a collection (or "basket") of stocks. An ETF allows trading an index just like a stock. The best-known indexes are: <ul><li>S&P 500 (trading as SPY): the 500 U.S. stocks with the largest market caps</li><li>Dow Jones Industrial Average (trading as DIA): It always contains only 30 very large and well-known companies.</li><li>Nasdaq 100 (trading as QQQ): contains the most valuable 100 US tech companies.</li></ul>Indexing is widely considered the safest and best way for most people to invest.

Trading ETFs (exchange-traded fund")

Popularized by investors Benjamin Graham & Warren Buffett, value investing is about buying something for less than it is worth. It's based on this idea that you can find undervalued companies (companies with low P/E - price per earnings). It's hard to do it these days:<ul><li>Finding undervalued companies can be confused with finding cheap companies. Companies that are in trouble often have P/E's below 10.</li><li>The fastest-growing tech companies have huge P/E ratios. The good companies are not cheap. </li></ul>

Value Investing

I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been

Every stock has a bid price and an offer (or "ask") price. “You sell to the bid, and you buy from the ask.”When you are buying a stock, you can use 2 different kinds of orders:<ol><li>market order: this order tells the broker to get you into the stock as quickly as possible, regardless of price.</li><li>limit order: specifies a price. </li></ol>

The technicality of buying a stock

<ol><li>Don’t buy stocks that are hitting 52-week lows. You are most likely catching a falling knife. </li><li>Don’t trade penny stocks. They are mostly scams.</li><li>Don’t short stocks. You will probably get burned. </li><li>Don’t trade on margin. Don't borrow to buy stocks. You may lose your house. </li><li>Don’t trade other people’s ideas. They probably don’t know what they are doing.</li></ol>

The big 5 beginner investing mistakes

Find stocks with the following characteristics: <ul><li>price at 52wk highs or new all-time highs</li><li>stock is trading above its 50day moving average and the 50day moving average is above the 200day moving average</li><li>trends upwards after a earning report</li><li>markets are up (using the same 50 and 200-days formula as for the stock)</li><li>a market cap of $5 billion or less. (it takes a lot less money to push a $5 billion stock higher than it does a $500 billion market cap stock)</li><li>the float (the number of shares of a stock that are actually available for trading) is less than 20% of the total number of shares outstanding. </li><li>high short interest (the quantity of shares that have been sold short by those who believe that the stock will go down)</li></ul>

How to find growth stocks

Get out:<ul><li>when a stock moves up 100% in 2 weeks or less</li><li>when you are up 300% from your entry price</li><li>when all of your friends and CNBC begin to talk a lot about it</li><li>when the stock closes below its 50day or 200day moving average</li><li>when the stock has a daily close below EMA (10-day or 20-day exponential moving average )</li></ul>You can scale out of a profitable position. Sell 25% of your position every Monday for 4 weeks in a row.

When to sell a growth stock

It's where shares in companies are traded. The most important ones are:<ul><li>NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) - known for "blue chip" stocks like Coca-Cola . Companies here are identified by 2 letters tickets (KO for Coca Cola)</li><li>NASDAQ - known for tech stocks like Apple. The tickets here are usually made of 4 letters (AAPL for Apple) </li></ul>To trade on a stock exchange you need to use a "broker", a middleman: Fidelity, Robinhood etc

Stock Exchanges 

A dividend stock will usually make a cash payment into your brokerage account every 3 months. Works well as you can take the cash from a dividend payment and use it to buy more dividend stocks. A dividend yield is how much money you make yearly compared to the share price (see image): If you paid $60/share and get $1.8 in dividends/year you have a 3% yield. Usually, yields should be better than interests on savings, but as opposed to a bank account, the value of the stock could go down.

Dividend Stocks

Let's say that a company's stock trades for $100 and that the company has earnings per share (EPS) of $6.50 over the last 12 months. We can calculate a trailing ("last 12 months") P/E ratio for that stock by simply dividing the stock price ("P") by the EPS ("E"), so 100/6.50 equals about 15. We can say that this stock has a TTM P/E (trailing 12 months price to earnings ratio) of 15. Historically that is a pretty good average P/E for stock or for the stock market as a whole.

P/E Ratio (Price per Earning)

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How to Start Investing Today

Learn to make money in the stock market, even if you've never traded before.The stock market is the greatest opportunity machine ever created.Are you ready to get your piece of it?This book will teach you everything that you need to know to start making money in the stock market today.Don't gamble with your hard-earned money.If you are going to make a lot of money, you need to know how the stock market really works.You need to avoid the pitfalls and costly mistakes that beginners make.And you need time-tested trading and investing strategies that actually work.This book gives you everything that you will need.It's a simple road map that anyone can follow.In this book, you will learn: How to grow your money the smart and easy way The best place to open up a brokerage account How to buy your first stock How to generate passive income in the stock market How to spot a stock that is about to explode higher How to trade momentum stocks Insider tricks used by professional traders The one thing you should never do when buying value stocks (don't start investing until you read this) How to pick stocks like Warren Buffett How to create a secure financial future for you and your family And much, much more Even if you know nothing about the stock market, this book will get you started investing and trading the right way.Join the thousands of smart traders and investors who have profited from this ultimate guide to the stock market.Amazon best-selling author and retired hedge fund manager, Matthew Kratter will teach you the secrets that he has used to trade and invest profitably for the last 20 years.Even if you are a complete beginner, this book will have you trading stocks in no time.Are you ready to get started creating real wealth in the stock market?Then scroll up and click BUY NOW to get started today.

Learn to make money in the stock market, even if you've never traded before.The stock market is the greatest opportunity machine ever created.Are you ready to get your piece of it?This book will teach you everything that you need to know to start making money in the stock market today.Don't gamble with your hard-earned money.If you are going to make a lot of money, you need to know how the stock market really works.You need to avoid the pitfalls and costly mistakes that beginners make.And you need time-tested trading and investing strategies that actually work.This book gives you everything that you will need.It's a simple road map that anyone can follow.In this book, you will learn: <ul> <li>How to grow your money the smart and easy way</li> <li>The best place to open up a brokerage account</li> <li>How to buy your first stock</li> <li>How to generate passive income in the stock market</li> <li>How to spot a stock that is about to explode higher</li> <li>How to trade momentum stocks</li> <li>Insider tricks used by professional traders</li> <li>The one thing you should never do when buying value stocks (don't start investing until you read this)</li> <li>How to pick stocks like Warren Buffett</li> <li>How to create a secure financial future for you and your family</li> <li>And much, much more</li> </ul> Even if you know nothing about the stock market, this book will get you started investing and trading the right way.Join the thousands of smart traders and investors who have profited from this ultimate guide to the stock market.Amazon best-selling author and retired hedge fund manager, Matthew Kratter will teach you the secrets that he has used to trade and invest profitably for the last 20 years.Even if you are a complete beginner, this book will have you trading stocks in no time.Are you ready to get started creating real wealth in the stock market?Then scroll up and click BUY NOW to get started today.

Matthew R. Kratter is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Matthew R. Kratter has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Matthew R. Kratter's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

The big 5 beginner investing mistakes

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Growth Stocks