Just opened an e-trade savings account yesterday, definitely the highest savings account interest I've seen. Right now at 5.05%, although in the future I expect it to drop due to the fed cut of .75%. Hopefully though e-trade will continue to pay the highest and stay over other online banks like ING. I will continue to feed this account with a large portion of my bi-monthly paycheck until it reaches a level I feel comfortable enough to start playing with covered calls.
On a side note, I'm not sure what the fee is involved in writing covered calls but I continually see ad banners on sites like yahoo finance for a site called TradeKing. Might have to check them out; they claim their fee per contract is 65 cents, although I'm not sure what TDAmeritrades is.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Update On Covered Calls
I just got approved to buy and sell covered calls from TDAmeritrade. Now I just need to save enough money to buy a contract, (one hundred shares) although I'm not positive on whether you can buy less then that, I guess there's only one way to find out...stay tuned.
Monday, January 14, 2008
How I Pick Stocks
I've recently began exploring how to pick stocks utilizing intelligence and intuition using both technical and fundamental analysis with an emphasis on fundamental analysis. (allow me to state, I prefer not to allow outside opinions to dictate what stocks to invest in, i.e. Jim Cramer's Mad Money. Although if it happens, it happens)
I begin by visiting yahoo.com and following the side navigation bar to finance and selecting the index that I'm most familiar with. From the following page, I select components from the left navigation bar.
On the following page are a list of all the stocks in that particular index. At this time in my investment education I have not found a better way to investigate stocks to invest in but to scroll down the list and select component names I recognize and strike me as a company I find to have quality products, effective marketing and room for growth. I look back to my experiences with those products, if I had patronized the company before, what my experience was like with that purchase and if I planned to patronize that company again.
I begin by visiting yahoo.com and following the side navigation bar to finance and selecting the index that I'm most familiar with. From the following page, I select components from the left navigation bar.
On the following page are a list of all the stocks in that particular index. At this time in my investment education I have not found a better way to investigate stocks to invest in but to scroll down the list and select component names I recognize and strike me as a company I find to have quality products, effective marketing and room for growth. I look back to my experiences with those products, if I had patronized the company before, what my experience was like with that purchase and if I planned to patronize that company again.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
The Lieing Annex
A couple months ago I attended The Learning Annex at Jacob Javits convention center in New York City. It was a complete waste of time. If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of these meetings I suggest reading this first.
When you arrive, you wait in line for about half an hour and they show you into the main auditorium. On the way in, their are girls dressed in skimpy clothing, lined up on both sides of you (kinda like cheerleaders while football players run onto the field) and their all screaming and yelling MONEY MONEY MONEY!!!
Basically this singing and screaming about money continues for about 45 minutes which is when I realized my day would have been better spent elsewhere.
Following this charade, people break up into different "classes". They immediately begin pitching you whatever product pertains to the "class" you selected to attend, this "class" is run by a salesman. The salesmen discussing these products were probably the best salesmen I have ever seen or heard, whatever they were paying these guys wasn't enough. As you sit there and listen, they slowly suck you into believing you need this product, and the only way you are going to achieve your financial goals is by BUYING their product. Buying is capitalized because the service, software or CD set their pitching you all cost around or over $1000. I would also like to point out that on The Learning Annex website they claim "learning" is what they are offering; the only thing they are offering is the opportunity to BUY.
The products discussed there could have value and I am not claiming they don't work. If you want to learn what is offered from these products, you can research them and determine if you want to make that initial investment from your home. The main reason I am writing this post is they claim they are going to teach you something, the truth is they are selling you something.
When you arrive, you wait in line for about half an hour and they show you into the main auditorium. On the way in, their are girls dressed in skimpy clothing, lined up on both sides of you (kinda like cheerleaders while football players run onto the field) and their all screaming and yelling MONEY MONEY MONEY!!!
Basically this singing and screaming about money continues for about 45 minutes which is when I realized my day would have been better spent elsewhere.
Following this charade, people break up into different "classes". They immediately begin pitching you whatever product pertains to the "class" you selected to attend, this "class" is run by a salesman. The salesmen discussing these products were probably the best salesmen I have ever seen or heard, whatever they were paying these guys wasn't enough. As you sit there and listen, they slowly suck you into believing you need this product, and the only way you are going to achieve your financial goals is by BUYING their product. Buying is capitalized because the service, software or CD set their pitching you all cost around or over $1000. I would also like to point out that on The Learning Annex website they claim "learning" is what they are offering; the only thing they are offering is the opportunity to BUY.
The products discussed there could have value and I am not claiming they don't work. If you want to learn what is offered from these products, you can research them and determine if you want to make that initial investment from your home. The main reason I am writing this post is they claim they are going to teach you something, the truth is they are selling you something.
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