You stand stunned in the middle of the living room, shaking with excitement, good excitement, as slips of paper fall from your hand to the floor.  Five slips of paper, to be exact.  Which reminds you that you seem to have lost control of your hand — which has gone numb — which is why the papers are falling to the floor.

They are checks from your late Uncle Harry’s estate.

Your mind reels in a series of jumbled chaotic thoughts as you try to grasp how this changes your life – totally.  How just the other night you glumly stared at Read the rest of this entry »

In our last post on buying stocks at a discount, we talked about the method of setting a trap, like a mousetrap, for when the price of a stock came down to our discounted price.  We used a buying technique called a limit order.  And the best part of this method was that it was free.

It’s hard to beat free.

But in this post we are going to do just that.

The method we are going to describe always reminds me of the scene in Tom Sawyer where his Aunt Polly tells him he has to whitewash the fence in the front of the house.  Tom was rather averse to work like this.  So he came up with a rather theatrical strategy to get out of it – and get paid.

Whenever he saw one of his friends approaching, he would put on a big show of Read the rest of this entry »

We said in the earlier post about the Cool Mindset that the most critical part of buying stocks at a discount is to have the right mindset.  And I admitted that may sound like a bunch of psycho-babble at first, but I’m sure you started to get the picture on just how important this is.

And here’s the other mindset you will want to use.  I call it the Bus Stop Mindset.

It can keep you from rushing out to buy a stock because you just heard an exciting story and you just can’t wait to buy the stock.  It will reset your mental focus.

So why do I call it the Bus Stop Mindset?

Because stock investment opportunities are like Read the rest of this entry »

We said earlier in our Buy Stocks At A Discount series that having the right mindset was critical when buying stocks.  And I admitted that may sound like a bunch of psycho-babble at first, but then we looked at two important mindsets.

They were the Cool Mindset (let cooler heads prevail) and the Bus Stop Mindset (stocks are like a bus stop – if you miss the bus, another will come around in five minutes).  Both of these mindsets help you keep a more deliberate attitude when buying stocks, as opposed to just rushing out in a frenzy and paying top dollar.

Okay, so let’s say we have our mind right.  How do we actually do this?

It’s pretty simple, really.  We do two things.  We pick the discount we want to try for, and we use a special kind of order to buy it.

I use a couple of methods to Read the rest of this entry »

The most critical part of buying stocks at a discount is to have the right mindset.  Now I know that may sound like a bunch of psycho-babble at first, but I assure you it is critical.  Let me explain.

Most investors just rush out and buy a stock because they heard a story, no doubt an exciting story, and they can’t wait to buy the stock.  They are mentally focused on how much higher they think the stock price will go because, well, it’s been going up fast so far.

So price is not much of a consideration with them.  They want to get into the game – right now.  They are excited because they just heard about this thing.

They may have heard about it on the evening news.  And guess what types of stocks the news reports on?  Well, the major media is always into drama to increase their ratings, so they always report on exciting stocks.  That is to say stocks that have risen dramatically in price, and also stocks that have Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to stock investing, when you buy and how much you pay is critical.  Indeed, the success of your trade most often hinges on these critical points.  That is to say you win or lose at this early stage in the game.

Successful investors like the legendary Warren Buffett are quite aware of this fact.  And they use methods to buy their stocks at a discount.

On the other hand, the average investor seems to pay little attention to this.  And so they always seem to overpay and buy at the wrong time.  So this is an important difference to learn from.

Buying stocks at a discount lowers your risk and greatly improves your odds for profit.  This is why the successful investors pay so much attention to it.  So since buying stocks at a discount is so critical to your success, the buying differences between the successful investor and the average investor are important to Read the rest of this entry »

Image courtesy Wikipedia.com

NAVY VOICE: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the north to avoid collision.

CIVILIAN VOICE: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid collision.

NAVY VOICE: This is the captain of a U. S. Navy ship.  I say again, divert your course.

CIVILIAN VOICE: No, I say again, divert your course.

NAVY VOICE: This is the aircraft carrier Enterprise.  We are a large warship of the U.S. navy.  Divert your course now!

CIVILIAN VOICE: This is a lighthouse.  Your call.

I ran into the above dialog in an excellent book by Felix Dennis entitled How To Get Rich: One of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Success.

He says it was rather mischievously released by the chief of British Naval Operations in 1995, from a recorded radio conversation overheard at sea near the coast of British Columbia.

Felix is a highly successful entrepreneur.  You might know of him from the magazine Maxim and The Week.  He founded both publications.

Like the lighthouse above, the stock market is not necessarily going to move your direction, no matter how sure you are of your investments.  It’s good to know all of the relevant facts, and make a course correction when necessary.

To your health and prosperity (and necessary course corrections).

It’s your call – John

Click To Watch Oil Speculator Video

Click for FREE Oil Speculators Report

Have you ever wondered how oil speculators make money?  Do you know you can be an oil speculator too?

Here’s a short three minute animation that will clue you in on one of their tricks to win.  So check it out.  I guarantee you will finish the video with an insight or too.

And everybody seems to have an opinion on oil speculators.  Even President O’Bama has had a mention about them in a speech or two.

You just might come away with a different point of view.  And want to join them.

Or maybe not.  Check it out and find out.

To your health and prosperity – John

A place of past glory, we owe a debt to Greece for the beginning of western civilization.  And debt is the key word here.  It seems like the Greek government has spent more, and promised more to its citizens than it can afford.

And this is making the markets nervous.  Which on the surface seems a bit strange.  Because the Gross Domestic Product of Greece – for the entire country – is less than Wal-Mart’s.  And yet the fate of this small country is Read the rest of this entry »

When I was in my 20’s, my friend Marty and I started playing handball after work at the local YMCA.  It was great fun and exercise, leaving us both wringing in sweat at the end of an hour.

One evening, as we were ready to play in our allotted time, two old guys asked if we would like to play against them in a game of doubles.

I say old guys with a wry smile on my face as I write this, because they were probably about my age today, and I don’t feel old at all.  But to our twenty-something year old minds, well, they were old guys (chuckle).

We looked at each other, and the silent youthful, possibly even overconfident (chuckle) thought that passed between us was, sure, we’ll kick these guys @#$’s in no time.

So we agreed to Read the rest of this entry »