When the dot-come bubble destroyed “new economy” gladiators in a gory spectacle destined to repeat itself over time, what investment portfolios cheered unscathed from the coliseum bleachers?

If you reduce the amount of betting in your portfolio (and throw out politicians who don’t have a clue about the workings of free markets) you can safely navigate even the choppiest seas that the market, interest rate, and economic cycles roll your way.

Most investment mistakes are caused by basic misunderstandings of the securities markets and by invalid performance expectations. Losing money on an investment may not be the result of an investment sandbar and not all mistakes in judgment result in broken propellers.

Errors occur most frequently when judgment is rocked out of the boat by emotion, hindsight, and misconceptions about how securities react to varying economic, political, and hysterical currents. You are the commander of your investment yacht. Use these ten risk-minimizers as investment capital life preservers:

For “the rest of the story”: http://kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.net/Inv/index.cfm/6997

Steve Selengut

http://www.marketcycleinvestmentmanagement.com/

Author of: “The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read”, and “A Millionaire’s Secret Investment Strategy”

The popularity of investment products has heightened the risk for all investors and has indirectly led to many of the policy errors that threaten both capitalism and the economic fabric of America. Individual equity market prices are increasingly and inappropriately influenced by decision-making based only on the derivatives that contain them.

Few people consider the investment risk associated with public policy decisions. Product investors and derivative speculators participate in less personal markets, where it is more difficult to connect the dots between their personal financial interests and their political alignments.

So in a very real sense, investors have to deal with public policy risk every bit as much as they need to analyze the risks associated with the securities and other financial products they hold in their portfolios — complicated, but it is doable.

For “the rest of the story”: http://kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.net/Inv/index.cfm/6996

Steve Selengut

http://www.marketcycleinvestmentmanagement.com/

Author of: “The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read”, and “A Millionaire’s Secret Investment Strategy”

Of course you would prefer to skip this step and jump right into some new product athletic shoes that will hurdle you over the work and directly into the profits. How’s that been working out for you? It was once written (somewhere): no work, no reward.

Risk is compounded by ignorance, multiplied by gimmickry, and exacerbated by emotion. It is halved with education, ameliorated with cost-based asset allocation, and managed with disciplined: selection quality, diversification, and income rules— The QDI.

For the “rest of the story”:

http://kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.net/Inv/index.cfm/6995

Steve Selengut

http://www.sancoservices.com

Author of: “The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read”, and “A Millionaire’s Secret Investment Strategy”

But what is hedging all about in the first place?

Conspiracy theorists have their hands in the air. What’s that? Portfolio hedging strategies were created to expand the market for the first generation of derivative products— options and futures contracts. Hmmm, not so far fetched an idea, really. Just back up a bit and think about what they are trying to accomplish.

Hedges are designed to massage your market value numbers, a kind of security blanket that softens the highs and lows of the market cycle. But why focus on the fluff of transient market values in the first place? Cycles eventually correct themselves without the unnecessary drama, guesswork, risk, and trading fees.

It’s not the market value of the portfolio that is of primary importance. It’s the actual content of the portfolio and how you deal with the natural dynamics of the securities you own. Why can’t the media reinforce that kind of stuff instead of the emotion of the month?

If a portfolio has a semi-guaranteed “base income” of 4%, a 4% cushion (or hedge) is always in place, one that grows annually with proper asset allocation management, and adds to the market value in upward cycles— nah, too simple.

For the “rest of the story”:

http://kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.net/Inv/index.cfm/6979

Steve Selengut

http://www.kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.com/

http://www.sancoservices.com

Professional Portfolio Management since 1979

Author of: “The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read”

But it’s not nearly large enough to pay the bills, reduce the national debt, grow the economy, and come to the aid of all of the people in the world who need us. Why, because nearly half of us (some legally, some not so) pay little or no federal income taxes at all— and because our elected representatives have no financial management skills.

The only taxes that always get paid are those that reduce the amount of spending money in our pockets and which raise the cost of the goods and services we purchase — thus retarding economic growth.

First KISS: Create Jobs Right Now

Create jobs immediately by eliminating the corporate income tax (and all other fees, local taxes, assessments, ad nauseum) for any corporation that adds 10% to its permanent workforce and/or 20% to its total workforce.

Second KISS: Lower and Eliminate Taxes

Third KISS: Produce Sustainable Economic Growth

“The Rest of the Story”: http://kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.net/Inv/index.cfm/6942

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Steve Selengut

http://www.kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.com/

http://www.sancoservices.com

Professional Portfolio Management since 1979

Author of: “The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read”

Many of the advantages of Closed End Funds are discussed below. It should be abundantly clear that this form of investment has eliminated nearly all of the drawbacks of conventional mutual funds. The two have very little in common.

Trading Liquidity – Flexibility – Cost: Closed End Fund shares may be bought or sold at any time during the trading day, just like common stocks, and share prices will fluctuate. They are excellent start up investment vehicles for smaller accounts where diversification would otherwise be difficult to achieve.

There are no penalties for leaving the CEF when the stock is sold. The only direct cost involved is the commission paid when buying or selling the shares.

For “the rest of the story”: http://kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.net/Inv/index.cfm/6938

Steve Selengut

http://www.kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.com/

http://www.sancoservices.com

Professional Portfolio Management since 1979

Author of: “The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read”

Certainly, it’s a no brainer to sell a Jim Cramer, Peter Lynch, or Robert Kiyosaki effort while a “newbies” approach to solving the puzzles of Wall Street, requires some major financial risk.

Are they responsible for the problems in the financial markets? Of course not, but they do have a perverse, if indirect, impact. By constantly publishing the same Wall Street friendly message, they contribute to the brainwashing.

These reviews describe a book that Wall Street wants to keep in the closet, an educational and strategic breakthrough that would have allowed most investors to avoid the bubbles and derivatives that caused the three financial crises of our lifetimes — and if you don’t learn something (there will be a test) I’ll refund your purchase price.

For the rest of the article: http://kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.net/Inv/index.cfm/5758

Steve Selengut

Author: The Brainwashing of the American Investor

The Stock Market is a dynamic place where investors can consistently make reasonable returns on their working capital if they comply with the basic principles of the endeavor AND if they don’t measure their progress too frequently with irrelevant measuring devices.

The classic investment strategy is so simple and so trite that most investors dismiss it routinely and move on in their search for the holy investment grail(s): a stock market that only rises and a bond market capable of paying higher interest rates at stable or higher prices — just not going to happen.

This is mythology, not investing. Investors who grasp the realities of these wonderful marketplaces recognize the opportunities and embrace them with an understanding that goes beyond the media hype and side show performance enhancement barkers.

Through the application of a few easy to memorize rules, you can plot a course to an investment portfolio that regularly achieves higher market value highs and (much more importantly) higher market value lows.

Five simple concepts of Asset Allocation, Investment Strategy, and Psychology are summed up quite nicely in what I call “The Investor’s Creed”:

For the rest of this article, go to:

http://kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.net/Inv/index.cfm/5663

Steve Selengut

Author of: “The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read”

Prices go down because of speculator reactions to expectations of news, speculator reactions to actual news, and investor profit taking. The two former “becauses” are more potent than ever before because there is more self-directed money out there than ever before. And therein lies the core of correctional beauty!

Mutual Fund unit holders rarely take profits but often take losses. Additionally, the new breed of Index Fund Speculators over-react to news of any kind because that’s what speculators do. Thus, if this brief little hiccup becomes considerably more serious, new investment opportunities will be abundant!

Here’s a list of ten things to think about doing, or to avoid doing, during corrections of any magnitude:

For the rest of the article: http://kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.net/Inv/index.cfm/6923

The only reason for a person to assume the risks associated with investing is the possibility of achieving a higher rate of return than is attainable in risk free savings depositories for their capital (money). Investing is a get rich slowly process, conducted in an uncertain environment — one that must be understood and managed in a way that minimizes the risks involved.

The Working Capital Model accomplishes this by eliminating the need for impersonal comparisons with arbitrary and unrelated numbers and time periods. It works best with portfolios that are diversified among individual securities that are at the same time of high quality and income producing.

The key to successful investment management is Asset Allocation, the process of dividing the available investment dollars into two, and only two, buckets: equity investments and income producing investments.

All investment grade securities fit within one of these two classifications, based solely upon the primary purpose for their ownership. There are several key issues involved in successful Asset Allocation:

For the rest of the article, and links to Parts Two and Three:

http://kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.net/Inv/index.cfm/6886

Steve Selengut

http://www.sancoservices.com

http://www.kiawahgolfinvestmentseminars.net

Author of: “The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read”, and “A Millionaire’s Secret Investment Strategy”