Online Trading Accounts & Published Financial Newletters

If you have an account with a broker and are paying ridiculous trading and maintenance fees, now is the best time to sign up with an online investment account. They offer all the great investment products and allow you to make timely decisions on your own terms. Back in 1999 my investment account was with a local broker who charged me $50.00 to buy a particular amount of stock and then another $50.00 to sell out of the position. Talk about rape. Once I shifted everything to my current online account, I became more and more comfortable with the online approach in regards to making trades and establishing trust with their security efforts.

The current market is now being saturated with individuals like you and I with the power to move securities in a volatile way. Having access and control over your own account when the tides change for the worse is the best solution to your investment needs.

Now, you may like your advisor and that is great, but are we not in the investment arena to make money? You did not open an account to make friends. The truth is that most advisors are hired with little to no experience in the market. This industry is focused primarily on the sales side. They are people who will do anything to manage your money. All they have to do is run some software program, ask you a few questions to find your risk tolerance, and poof, they have a generated plan that you could have done yourself with an online account.

Also, there exists a conflict of interest. Since the salesperson, or financial advisor, wants to milk your account for all that it is worth, there is a good chance that you’ll be stuck in investment vehicles that come with heavy baggage. By this, I am referring to annual, maintenance, and other fees. it is very important to add up all the account fees plus the average rate of inflation, which is approximately 3% annually. This means that your advisor will need to produce about a 5% annual return on your investment portfolio just for you to break even! This is not the hole you need to find yourself in year after year. You can reduce or completely remove the fees attached to your investment account. You work so hard for your money, so why not place the same effort toward the management of it!?

The next time you see a money manager in a magazine that can not beat the rate of inflation and has a big smile on his or her face, I would encourage you to laugh and say to yourself, “What a friggin smuck.” People like that are being paid big money even when their performance is sub-par. This is probably another case of “I come from Harvard, Yale, or Wharton” or “My family has connections.” Gordon Gekko said it best in the movie Wall Street when he proclaimed, “Most of these Ivy League types don’t add up to dog shit.” I couldn’t have said it any better myself. It’s true, these Ivy Leaguers may be able to crunch the numbers, but when it comes to choosing investments, they try to out-think the market and get burned. Too much and too little data rarely yields uncommon results. Who says you have to work hard to make money. More often it is the successful investor who knows thy self, practices good money management, and keeps a working strategy simple & smart.

There are those who swear by the fundamentals and others by the technicals. However, in order to become a better investor it is wise to learn and utilize both. The price you pay for a security as well as the timing of your investment are very important. It reminds me of people who insist on defending their own political party instead of reaching across the aisle to work with their opponents on passing meaningful legislation.

In regards to financial newsletters within the publishing industry, there are some things you should know. A particular investment research firm may produce many newsletters, but it is up to you to find the ones that are worth following. In some cases, many young professionals who are fresh out of college are placed in highly visible editorial roles. In fact, some of these editors did not even major in Finance or Investment Analysis! I found this to be very shocking at first. Basically, the rule of thumb seems to be, “If you can do some research and are a great writer, welcome aboard.” Often, this is a great marketing tool, but not necessarily the best formula for investment recommendation success.

The other thing I found in my journeys in the financial publication world is that there is often a specific structure in place which is intended to pull in the average subscriber. Many of the newsletters published are no different in the level of quality. They are merely intended to make you psychologically think that you have a much greater trading advantage over other investors if you pay $5,000 more for a different newsletter with more gloss. I’ve seen a single newsletter run for as much as $7,500 that should be worth $99. Although this type of pricing is uncomforting, great newsletters and financial tips/advice are sometimes worth the purchase.

With anything you buy or sign up for, do your own due diligence. Your wallet could certainly use a break.