All of us wish to be rich. But then, how we do actually get there?  Done the right way, investing in shares can create wealth for you in a big way.

Here is how you can begin charting your way. It might seem a little pedantic but the exercise is worth the efforts.

Outline your personal financial goals.

Know your strengths.

Reduce debt.

Invest small, steady amounts regularly.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Ask questions.

Plan for the long haul.

Take care of getting proper guidance on stock market investment. Never invest in stocks on rumours. Get tips from financial advisor. Keep in touch with your investment.

Don’t stock market investment as your main income source. If you haven’t knowledge of day trading, then it is useless to jump in stock market to earn daily returns.

Slow and steady investment is the better way to get excellent return on investment.

Get proper guidance before investing your hard-earned money. Know your present financial needs. Meet those needs first. It is meaningless to invest money without fulfilling dire needs. If you have extra money after meeting your all financial but important requirements, you can invest it where you want. But don’t invest blindly. Take due advice before jumping in investment water.

Here are few suggestions which can be useful to you.

Make a plan based on your current financial position.

Consider your weak and strong points.

Review your plan frequently. Make changes in it as your needs and circumstances change.

All above three things are important. Because if you don’t know what you want to do with your money, then whatever material you read on investment will be useless, meaningless. Above things can be helpful you to sort out your money needs. Never borrow money to invest. Use your own money. Therefore you will not have to repay a loan if you don’t get expected results from your investment.

When I started equity investing, I would always come in 100 percent or all-in in one particular stock. Now, given that the particular stock grows, then my investment will surely end up with a high return. But in some instances I had to cut my losses painfully, just so to prevent further eating up my capital.

The old adage tells us not to put all your eggs in one basket. In other words, there is a need to diversify your portfolio. Several factors come in:

1. The aggressiveness of your portfolio or the absence of it must reflect your age. The younger you are, the riskier your portfolio may be.
2. Your risk tolerance will also apply. Whether you can stomach daily paper losses or you are satisfied with small returns offering low risks.

Following the most recent bull run many people wanted to invest their hard-earned money with hopes of getting big-time with the investment profits they will earn. Apparently, with the recent down turn in markets coupled with increasing inflation rates and weakening dollar, many of these recent investors got burned.

One of the dangers of investing, especially in equities, is thinking about return or past performance. Remember that in investing, past performance is not an indicator of future returns. Although history has a tendency to repeat itself, bad returns may even be worse than past bad years, while good returns may just be a small percentage of past good runs.

Annualizing monthly returns also contribute to this danger as a month’s good performance can be hard to duplicate given the delicate conditions of the market. We cannot expect that month-in and month-out, the same assumptions and behavior will prevail. Thus we have months of panic selling and months of buying euphoria.

Another danger of investing is lack of proper knowledge in financial markets and investment instruments. Investors must do their homework and immerse themselves with the proper knowledge when participating in such dynamic markets.

Timing the bottom or the peak of runs is another danger that confronts new investors. Waiting for the bottom before coming in or waiting for the peak before unloading provides opportunity costs that will be hard to recover.

Lastly, it is so easy to enter positions by buying shares. But even before an investor should buy, he should very well plan his exit strategies, whether at a loss or with a gain. Stop loss figures must be established in the same way as target prices.

Stock market investment is very lucrative. That is why most people suppose that they will get more money from stock market investment. It is very common nowadays that people jump in a stock market without any prior knowledge of a stock market working. They hear about profits gaining and assume that they will get same results. One of my friend was very eager about investing money in stocks. He had not any information about stock market and was blindly ready to invest more money than his income. He didn’t hear me and invested his bucks. Ultimately, he lost all his invested bucks.

If you want good returns from a stock market, you should understand how a market works. Please don’t go in deep you will be confused. Get knowledge until you become confident. Know the various terms which are used daily in a stock market. Read various book, magazine, newspapers, etc.

Know your budget. Never borrow money for investing in stocks. Because a stock market is fluctuate. You cannot say firmly about return on investment.
Don’t expect high. Be realistic. It will gradually help you to be more advance investor.

In brief, be familiar first with stock market. Then, invest a very little amount to gain experience. This attitude will make you a long term investor investor which is always recommended by experts.

Talk about a serious ouchie. Brian Hunter, 32 years old managed to lose $5 billion dollars in one week. Yes, I said one week. He was dealing in hedge funds and they hoped for a big hurricane season which we have seen for the last few years. A high hurricane season would usually push gas and energy prices high, unfortunately this season was relatively calm and gas prices have been going down in the last few months. Which means that Mr. Hunter and everyone associated with him is still crying. What a shame.

If you have ever seen the movie ElizabethTown, it features Orlando Bloom losing a ton of money for his company. His name and how much money he lost is let out to the media and no one will hire that guy. Sorry Brian.

$5-billion man loses portfolio

Ben S. Bernanke says he’s worried about inflation, and the stock market dropped nearly 200 points in response. Speaking at the International Monetary Conference in Washington on Monday, Bernanke said there are many signs that the economy is in transition, including:

• slowing consumer spending
• a cooling real estate market
• increased energy costs
• a slight rise in unemployment numbers

At the same time, there are positives, such as:

• increased worker productivity
• more investment in business
• a more robust economy worldwide, which should bolster the American economy

Still, Bernanke said inflation is a major problem, mostly because of high energy costs. The speech is pretty dry, but here’s one part most readers can understand:

With the economy now evidently in a period of transition, monetary policy must be conducted with great care and with close attention to the evolution of the economic outlook as implied by incoming information. Given recent developments, the medium-term outlook for inflation will receive particular scrutiny.

Many investors and analysts take that to mean interest rates will be going up again, which explains the market correction that took place after the speech.

Source: Speech transcript

Biodiesel: The Fuel for today

With the high cost of gasoline around the country, and the fact it is constantly climbing with no view of stabilizing, the world needs to start looking at alternative fuels. During this phase of the economy its a good investment. One of the alternative fuels that has started to become popular is called “Biodiesel”. A fuel that is run on vegetable oils. Biodiesel engines can be created or converted from petroleum diesel engines easily and cost-effectively. Biodiesel comes from renewable plant resources such as the oils from vegetables, soy, beans, canola, rape seeds, hemp seeds, and various grains. Through the process of transesterification, a chemical modifical of ordinary vegetable oil, creates a fuel that meets the high industry standards for usage in diesel engines that prevents it from solidifying at colder temperatures. You can get various biodiesels already at the pumps that might be labelled “biodiesel” but in reality are mixed with petroleum and its biodiesel content could be as low as only 5%. These are labelled B5, B20, B50, and B100 to show the mix composition. SVO - Straight vegetable oil is that which has not yet been optimized through transesterification for use in diesel engines - but suffers from freezing and solidifying easier in colder temperatures - needing some source to preheat it before starting the engine. You can use cooking oil straight from the bottle (expensive) or use WVO - Waste vegetable oil, usually for free, from fast food restaurants that usually dump it. However, WVO has to be filtered, and that is a messy and timely event. Vegetable oil conversion kits for diesel engines usually include a heating system and a second gas tank to circumvent the solidification issues. SVO produces very low emissions and is one of the better alternatives for the environment. Biodisel is the only alternative fuel that has completed the health effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act, creating a substantial reduction in hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and other noxious fumes caused by most fuels. SVO is better for diesel engines as the inventor of the Diesel engine (Rudolph Diesel) originally intended the diesel engine for peanut oil. Biodiesel saves money on fuel costs, reduces emissions, recycles waste oils from restaurants, is a fuel made from renewable crops which in effect keeps farmers employed, and is good for the environment. The cons to using biodiesel can void your current warranties if you install a conversion kit and use biodiesel; collecting and converting WVO is a messy job and also very time consuming; there is mixed data on how SVO affects engine life span. Conversion kits can be obtained from various merchants for as low as $500 from greasecar.com. More information can be found online at www.biodiesel.org, goodgrease.com, localb100.com, journeytoforever.org, biodieselblog.com, wvofuels.com, calcars.org, oil_press.com, or a typical google search.

Biodiesel, a wave of recycling for the future, a new fuel that’s starting to get popular, that is based on recycling or using vegetable or food oil for fuel. Many at-home-labs and conversion projects will go and pick up used vegetable oil from fast food places like Mc Donalds for free, take it home, filter it, and process it for their biodiesel engines. The result? a consumable cost of 25-50 cents/gallon, and an engine that can get upwards plus of 75 miles to the gallon. Sound fabulous? it is conceptually, but its alot of work to clean the oil at home. Biodiesel pumps however are being installed in many states and available at the pump. A bit cheaper than petrol, you still get the maximizing effect of miles to the gallon. How to convert your engine over to biodiesel? There are kits as cheap as $200. However, you have to already have a diesel engine to start the conversion. An amazing new investment strategy? Invest in biodiesel companies to maximize your profit … there’s growth there too, more miles for your dollars, in many more ways than one. Just google “biodiesel” and you’ll be amazed by this new technology. If I already had diesel engines in my car and RV, you can bet I’d already be converted. Just wish there was a way to convert my regular engine over. :: sigh :: someday.

SeekingAlpha.com is a great stock market and personal finance site.

They have an entire section devoted to charts and data by market sector.

They also have a recent Apple conference call transcript posted. An excerpt:

The quarter’s revenue of $4.36 billion was the second highest in Apple’s history, topped only by our record December quarter results, and grew 34% year over year. These results were driven by continued strong growth in our music business and solid performance in our Mac business during the transition to Intel.

Operating margin for the quarter was 12.1%, and net income was $410 million, or $0.47 per diluted share on a GAAP basis.

Excluding the impact of $42 million in non-cash, stock based compensation expense, operating margin was 13.1%, net income was $440 million, and diluted earnings per share were $0.50.

The quarter’s non-GAAP operating margin was the second-best ever for Apple and demonstrates the leverage in our business model.

This is interesting. You’d think Apple makes most of its money these days from iPod and iTunes related sales.

Nope, Mac volume is still a huge earner for them:

I’d like to first talk about our Mac business, which represented 50% of our total quarterly revenue, an increase 7% year over year. Mac units were up 4% year over year to 1.11 million, and ending channel inventory was within our target range of 4 to five weeks.

Read more here.

Technorati Tags: apple, charts, stock, investing