Know When to Fold’em: When Is the Right Time to Sell a Stock?

By Larry D. Spears. Contributing Writer. Money Morning — April 6, 2010 Print | Email

There’s one word in every stock market movie ever made that’s never uttered in a normal tone of voice. Never merely said. but rather shouted.

Indeed, no other word in the financial lexicon is so often associated with market uncertainty, investor fear, or in the worst case, outright panic. Truthfully, I can’t recall a single film in which the protagonist calmly decides to sell based on reasoned analysis.

Of course, that’s the case in movies because it makes for stronger plots — ones propelled by high drama and intense emotions. But all too often, it’s much the same in real life.

And it shouldn’t be.

Playing ‘Follow the Guru’ Can Be Fun and Profitable for Investors

By Larry D. Spears. Contributing Writer. Money Morning — April 1, 2010 Print | Email

If you wanted to distill all the world’s best investment advice into a single sentence, it would probably come down to this: Follow the leader.

• Just do what Warren Buffett does.

• Or what George Soros does.
• Or what Peter Lynch does (or did).

In short: Follow the guru. That’s not just a clever phrase. In fact, if you picked any of the investment world’s living legends and copied what they did, odds are you’d be pretty successful over time, regardless of the general market environment during any given short-term period.

We’ve whittled the investing wisdom of these three stalwarts — and others — into 15 rules to live by. We offered the first five rules in Part I of this story, which appeared yesterday (Wednesday). Here in today’s second installment, we offer the final 10 rules.

Playing ‘Follow the Guru’ Can Be Fun and Profitable

By Larry D. Spears. Contributing Writer. Money Morning — March 31, 2010 Print | Email

If you wanted to distill all the world’s best investment advice down into a single sentence, the result would actually be fairly simple:

• Just do what Warren Buffett does.
• Or what George Soros does.
• Or what Peter Lynch does (or did).

In short: Follow the guru. That’s not just a clever phrase. In fact, if you picked any of the investment world’s living legends and copied what they did, odds are you’d be pretty successful over time, regardless of the general market environment during any given short-term period.