Still if you have the inclination then I will say at least go to a site known as
www.moneycontrol.com . This is free site and has a huge message board . Lot's of advise for free. By the way this site is run by CNBC .
As for WHY your would want to this, contrary to the last answerer'a assertion that brokers don't find bonds sexy and hence don't bother learning about them, throughout their 135-year history, Edward Jones made their business on selling quality bonds to individual investors. I've found some of the most knowledgable people I know regarding bonds to work for Edward Jones. In addition, they do so much bond business that they get optimal pricing and that is in turn passed on to you. When calling around for price quotes, at the very make sure you include them, you won't be sorry.
I should point out that unless you need the money, now is probably not a good time to be selling your bond. Although long-term interest rates (i.e., that of most bonds, which are driven by economic factors) have little to do with short-term rates (which are directly driven by the Fed), we are nevertheless in a rising interest rate environment and your bond undoubetdly is worth less than it wa a year ago. Of course, you could be banking on that and need a tax loss for some reason, but barring that, if you're getting good interest, hold onto it until rates go down again to get a more advantageous price.
Of course, when buying bonds specifaclly for the interest income, you should learn not to even care what the price is. It's hard psychologically, and it takes some getting used to, but it's worth it. After all, if you're buying a cow for the milk, then what the hell do you care about the price of beef?
Hope this help!
–J.
For more clarification, there are about 252 trading days in a year. On average, looking at the history of the stock market, what percentage of these days are "up" days for the market.
Say you want data on the Dow. Go to http://finance.yahoo.com, click on Dow, then click on Historical Prices. Set the date range and click Get Prices.
Highlight the resulting table, Ctl-C to Copy, and then Ctl-V to paste into a spreadsheet program such as MS Excel. It may take several pages to get all of the data.
Simplest way: In the spreadsheet program, create another column, call it Change, next to the last column of numbers (Adjusted Close). Calculate this column as the value directly to the left, minus the value above and to the left. Count the minus signs (down days) and the zeros. Subtract from the number of rows and you'll get the pluses.
A more elegant way, if you are intimate with how to do formulas in your program, is to do an IF statement that does the following: IF the Adjusted Close is greater than the previous Adjusted Close, then enter 1; otherwise, enter 0. At the bottom of this column, have it calculate the sum. That will be the number of UP days.
Best of success.
Here is the link
I like using BigCharts instead … it's free and gives you minute by minute bar charts .. but no time & sales history.
Just go to: http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/
and enter the option symbol as follows: <main-symbol>=<month code><stike-price code>
example: IBM=AB would be January-$110 IBM Call options
1)successful day trading
2)mid term trading
3)long term trading.
if u have are thinking about earning some money out of your investment u need to think and act smartly..by investing for midterm and long term…all the transactions(buying and selling that u do must result in a positive long term investment…i mean your short term trading must ensure that your long term investment goals are achieved.for this remember these things carefully while trading …
when it comes to making profit..it depends on ones strategy of investing…
people can make good money if they invest properly …and if ones foolish and more greedy he might loose out every thing…things always happen in extremes in stock markets…
remember this one thing before investing….
dont hurry ur self…think about the stock fundamentals(like its financials like balance sheet or in simpler terms the profits that it made during recent times..its managing style..people in the business…competetors industry as whole etc)
when once u feel that the stock is fundamentally good..then u move on to technical aspects like how is the stock performing in recent times..take the history of atleast past 3 months…and then invest if u feel thats good..u can get the recommendations in investment channels like CNBC watch it carefully during the market hours.
when u invest u have to watch the price carefully..keep a target level..say fro example u bought it at 100..keep a target for that stock say 130…sell it at that level..i dont recommend u to sell it entirely(in bullish market when the market is goin up..sell a partial amount of your holding..and when the market is falling down..book the entire profit by selling it…)
then u can pick another stock…
even while buying the stock its necessary for u to pick up the stock when ever the market is down..it has to be systematic..by this u can average out ur buying price…by doing this u can average the price..if u see n compare the total market movement..which will be more profitable….
i hope ive given u sufficient information to start off..feel free to ask if anythin else is necessary…
Happy investing…!!!!!!
Here is the link
1) If an IPO price is raised at the last minute, or at least it prices at the top of the range, it indicates robust demand and the stock may open and trade higher.
2) Watch how the stock opens. If it opens above where it priced but not by much and starts moving higher – you may want to establish a small position.
3) If it gaps up way above where it priced – it may sell off and you are better off watching and waiting.
4) Watch it for a few days to see if it establishes an upward or downward bias. The right time to buy VMW or STV was at the close of day 2.
5) For every IPO that closes up 40% there are several that close down. It's a high stakes game because you don't know what the holders are going to do and how many buyers there are out there. You are watching the sellers and they are watching you – for the right moment to dump. Hence the discrepancy between the VMW and STV performance – even though the first 2 days were identical and gave the same buying signal.
Just about any point that jumps out at you from the chart could be a pivot point for someone, the more obvious, the more powerful the action can be around that point. So all time highs or lows definitely qualify.
Also a lot of people look at the moving averages so, for instance if price bounces off of the 20 exponential moving avearge, the high of that price bar could be a pivot.
For intraday trading, any highest high or lowest low over the past one or more days is a pivot, as well as the intraday high and low. Pivots that are also major pivot levels from the daily chart like the all time price high or low of bars around the 20, 50, and 200 day moving averages are all the more powerful intrady.
Traders either look to fade the price at a pivot (sell when the price comes to a pivot from underneath or buy when price reaches the pivot from above)and make profits when it turns back away or they bet on the breakout of a level – when price keeps going past the pivot.
Those who "fade" the pivot believe price will reverse – that a price trend is turning or that prices will be stable on the higher time frame and thus will gravitate back to more typical prices. Those who take breakouts believe the price reaching the pivot point is evidence of stronger forces at work that will push prices even further in that direction.
As an example of an intraday pivot that has the added power of being at an important daily level, consider the recent prices of GOOG. When you chart the daily chart with the 200 day exponential moving average (exponential seem to be followed by more people and in faster stocks), you see the "test" of that level 3 days ago. Note that GOOG has never traded long under this level.
For intraday traders yesterday, the high of that "test bar" on the daily chart, 346.00 was a pivot point that had explosive "breakout" potential since longer-term buyers come in at these levels and push up prices so often. Obviously, this bore out yesterday as you can see from the 5-minute chart.
PS — All kinds of levels might work AND what works can change over time. In Jesse Livermoore's book, he says that for a while it was his bread and butter to buy for a quick pop every time a price multiple of 100 was passed by a stock (a pivot not even based on the price history of the stock). Nowadays, this seems like more of a resistance level.