7 Stock Buying Mistakes And How To Avoid Them ....

Courtesy : Investopedia

Making mistakes is part of the learning process. However, it's all too often that plain old common sense separates a successful investor from a poor one. At the same time, nearly all investors, new or experienced, have fallen astray from common sense and made a mistake or two. Being perfect may be impossible, but knowing some of common investing errors can help deter you from going down the well-traveled, yet rocky, path of losses. Here are some of the most common stock buying mistakes.

1. Using Too Much Margin

Margin is the use of borrowed money to purchase securities. Margin can help you make more money; however, it can also exaggerate your loses - a definite downside.

The absolute worst thing you can do as a new investor is become carried away with what seems like free money - if you use margin and your investment doesn't go your way, you end up with a large debt obligation for nothing. Ask yourself if you would buy stocks with your credit card. Of course you wouldn't. Using margin excessively is essentially the same thing (albeit likely at a lower interest rate).Additionally, using margin requires you to monitor your positions much more closely because of the exaggerated gains and losses that accompany small movements in price. If you don't have the time or knowledge to keep a close eye on and make decisions about your positions and the positions drop, your brokerage firm will sell your stock to recover any losses you have accrued.

As a new investor, use margin sparingly, if at all. Use it only if you understand all its aspects and dangers. It can force you to sell all your positions at the bottom, the point at which you should be in the market for the big turnaround.

2. Buying On Unfounded Tips

We think everyone makes this mistake at one point or another in their investing career. You may hear your relatives or friends talking about a stock that they heard will get bought out, have killer earnings or soon release a groundbreaking new product. Even if these things are true, they do not necessarily mean that the stock truly is "the next big thing" and that you should run to the nearest phone to call your broker.

Other unfounded tips come from investment professionals on TV who often tout a specific stock as though it's a must-buy, but really is nothing more than the flavor of the day. These stock tips often don't pan out and go straight down after you buy them. Remember, buying on media tips is often founded on nothing more than a speculative gamble.

Now this isn't to say that you should balk at every stock tip. If one really grabs your attention, the first thing to do is consider the source. The next thing is to do your own homework. Make sure you "research, research and research" so that you know what you are buying and why. Buying a tech stock with some proprietary technology should be based on whether it's the right investment for you, not solely on what some mutual fund manager said on TV.

Next time you're tempted to buy a hot tip, don't do so until you've got all the facts and are comfortable with the company. Ideally, obtain a second opinion from other investors or unbiased financial advisor

3. Day Trading

If you insist on becoming an active trader, think twice before day trading. Day trading is a dangerous game and should be attempted only by the most seasoned investors. In addition to investment savvy, a successful day trader needs access to special equipment that is rarely available to the average trader. Did you know that the average day-trading workstation (with software) can cost in the range of $50,000? You'll also need a similar amount of trading money to maintain an efficient day trading strategy.

The need for speed is the main reason you can't start day trading with simply the extra $5,000 in your bank account: online brokers do not have systems fast enough to service the true day trader, so quite literally the difference of pennies per share can make the difference between a profitable and losing trade. In fact, day trading is deemed such a difficult endeavor that most brokerages who offer day trading accounts require investors to take formal trading courses.

Unless you have the expertise, equipment and access to speedy order execution, think twice before day trading. If you aren't particularly adept at dealing with risk and stress, there are much better options for an investor looking to build wealth.

4. Buying Stocks that Appear Cheap

This is a very common mistake, and those who commit it do so by comparing the current share price with the 52-week high of the stock. Many people using this gauge assume that a fallen share price represents a good buy. But the fact that a company's share price happened to be 30% higher last year will not help it earn more money this year. That's why it pays to analyze why a stock has fallen.

Deteriorating fundamentals, a CEO resignation and increased competition are all possible reasons for the lower stock price - but they are also provide good reasons to suspect that the stock might not increase anytime soon. A company may be worth less now for fundamental reasons. It is important always to have a critical eye since a low share price might be a false buy signal.

Avoid buying stocks that simply look like a bargain. In many instances, there is a strong fundamental reason for a price decline. Do your homework and analyze a stock's outlook before you invest in it. You want to invest in companies which will experience sustained growth in the future.

5. Underestimating Your Abilities

Some investors tend to believe they can never excel at investing because stock market success is reserved for sophisticated investors. This perception has no truth at all. While any commission-based mutual fund salesmen will probably tell you otherwise, most professional money managers don't make the grade either - the vast majority underperform the broad market. With a little time devoted to learning and research, investors can become well equipped to control their own portfolio and investing decisions - and be profitable. Remember, much of investing is sticking to common sense and rationality.

Besides having the potential to become sufficiently skillful, individual investors do not face the liquidity challenges and overhead costs large institutional investors do. Any small investor with a sound investment strategy has just as good a chance of beating the market, if not better, than the so-called investment gurus.

Never underestimate your abilities or your own potential. That is, don't assume you are unable to successfully participate in the financial markets simply because you have a day job.

6. When Buying a Stock, Overlooking the "Big Picture"

For a long-term investor one of the most important - but often overlooked - things to do is qualitative analysis, or "to look at the big picture." Fund manager and author Peter Lynch once stated that he found the best investments by looking at his children's toys and the trends they would take on. Brand name is also very valuable. Think about how almost everyone in the world knows Coke; the financial value of the name alone is therefore measured in the billions of dollars. Whether it's about iPods or Big Macs, no one can argue against real life.

So pouring over financial statements or attempting to identify buy and sell opportunities with complex technical analysis may work a great deal of the time, but if the world is changing against your company, sooner or later you will lose. After all, a typewriter company in the late 1980s could have outperformed any company in its industry, but once personal computers started to become commonplace, an investor in typewriters of that era would have done well to assess the bigger picture.

Assessing a company from a qualitative standpoint is as important as looking at the sales and earnings. Qualitative analysis is a strategy that is one of the easiest and most effective for evaluating a potential investment.

7. Compounding Your Losses by Averaging Down

Far too often investors fail to accept the simple fact that they are human and prone to making mistakes just as the greatest investors do. Whether you made a stock purchase in haste or one of your long-time big earners has suddenly taken a turn for the worse, the best thing you can do is accept it. The worst thing you can do is let your pride take priority over your pocketbook and hold on to a losing investment, or worse yet, buy more shares of the stock since it is much cheaper now.

Remember, a company's future operating performance has nothing to do with what price you happened to buy its shares at. Anytime there is a sharp decrease in your stock's price, try to determine the reasons for the change and assess whether the company is a good investment for the future. If not, do your pocketbook a favor and move your money into a company with better prospects.

Letting your pride get in the way of sound investment decisions is foolish and it can decimate your portfolio's value in a short amount of time. Remain rational and act appropriately when you are inevitably confronted with a loss on what seemed like a rosy investment.

The Bottom Line

With the stock market's penchant for producing large gains (and losses) there is no shortage of faulty advice and irrational decisions. As an individual investor, the best thing you can do to pad your portfolio for the long term, is to implement a rational investment strategy you are comfortable with and willing to stick to. If you are looking to make a big win by betting your money on your gut feelings, try the casino. Take pride in your investment decisions and in the long run, your portfolio will grow to reflect the soundness of your actions.

Dangerous Advice For Beginner Investors....

Courtesy : Investopedia

New investors are bombarded with advice from everywhere. Financial television, magazines, websites, financial professionals, friends and family members all have advice on how to structure your investment portfolio. Beginning investors are much more likely to give credence to investment tips than experienced investors. While the advice is meant to be helpful, it may actually be detrimental to the investment newbie.

Here are five examples of the types of dangerous advice given to beginning investors:

1) "Buy Companies Whose Products You Love"

How many times has someone told you that when investing, you should buy companies that make products you love? This can be a risky and expensive proposition.

For example, let's say you want to buy shares of Apple because you love your new iPhone 4G. You buy shares of Apple at its market price and wait to reap the rewards from all of the iPhone sales. The problem with this strategy is that it fails to take price into consideration. Apple may be a great stock to buy at $200, but it could be a pricey investment at $300.

New investors tend to overpay for companies that they really want to own. This buy-at-any-cost philosophy can leave you regretting your stock purchase at the end of the day.

2) "Invest In What You Know"

Investing in what you know is an old investment axiom. This works well for experienced investors who are familiar with lots of companies in different sectors of the economy. This is terrible advice for the investing novice, because it limits your investments to only businesses that you know a lot about.

What if the only companies you know about are in the restaurant industry or retail industry? You may find yourself overinvesting in one or two sectors. Not to mention the fact that you would end up missing out on some great companies in the basic materials industry or technology sector.

3) "Diversify Your Stock Portfolio"

Diversification is supposed to help protect your portfolio from market drops and control risk. It's a great concept, but proper diversification can be difficult to achieve and expensive to do. New investors have difficulty building a properly diversified portfolio because of the costs. If not using an index fund to diversify, constructing a properly balanced portfolio in stocks requires thousands of dollars and may require buying at least 20 individual stocks.

It can also be difficult for new investors to maintain a balance between being diversified and not being overly diversified. If you aren't careful, you could end up owning 50 different stocks and 50 mutual funds. An investor could easily get overwhelmed trying to keep track of such a portfolio.

4) "Trade Your Brokerage Account"

Since the market crash of 2008, more investors are abandoning a buy-and-hold strategy and turning to short-term trading. Financial television shows and market experts have even been recommending that investors trade their accounts. Short-term trading may work for sophisticated investors, but it can crush the confidence of new investors.

Short-term trading requires the ability to time buy and sell decisions just right. It takes lots of available cash to hop in and out of positions. It can also decimate your entire portfolio because of trading fees and bad decision making. Daytrading stocks is a strategy best left to the experts. 

5) "Buy Penny Stocks"

Emails, advertisements, friends and even family members often trumpet penny stock investing for new investors. The attraction of penny stock investing is that it seems like an easy way to get rich quick, since penny stocks are subject to extreme price volatility. If shares of ABC Company are selling for $1.50 per share, you could buy 1,000 shares for $1,500. The hope is that the stock goes to $3 or more so that you could double your money quickly.

It sounds great until you realize that penny stocks trade in the single digits for a reason. They are normally very flawed companies with large debt burdens and whose long-term viability is usually in doubt. Most penny stocks are much more likely to go to zero than to double your money.

The Bottom Line

As you can see, sometimes investment tips can do more harm to your portfolio than good. One size fits all may work for ponchos and raincoats, but it does not work when it comes to investment advice.

Five Steps of a Bubble

          Courtesy : Investopedia

1.    Displacement: A displacement occurs when investors get enamored by a new paradigm, such as an innovative new technology or interest rates that are historically low. A classic example of displacement is the decline in the federal funds rate from 6.5% in May, 2000, to 1% in June, 2003. Over this three-year period, the interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell by 2.5 percentage points to a historic lows of 5.21%, sowing the seeds for the housing bubble.

2.    Boom: Prices rise slowly at first, following a displacement, but then gain momentum as more and more participants enter the market, setting the stage for the boom phase. During this phase, the asset in question attracts widespread media coverage. Fear of missing out on what could be an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity spurs more speculation, drawing an increasing number of participants into the fold.

3.    Euphoria: During this phase,caution is thrown to the wind, as asset prices skyrocket. The "greater fool" theory plays out everywhere.

Valuations reach extreme levels during this phase. For example, at the peak of the Japanese real estate bubble in 1989, land in Tokyo sold for as much as $139,000 per square foot, or more than 350-times the value of Manhattan property. After the bubble burst, real estate lost approximately 80% of its inflated value, while stock prices declined by 70%. Similarly, at the height of the internet bubble in March, 2000, the combined value of all technology stocks on the Nasdaq was higher than the GDP of most nations.

During the euphoric phase, new valuation measures and metrics are touted to justify the relentless rise in asset prices.

4.    Profit Taking: By this time, the smart money – heeding the warning signs – is generally selling out positions and taking profits. But estimating the exact time when a bubble is due to collapse can be a difficult exercise and extremely hazardous to one's financial health, because, as John Maynard Keynes put it, "the markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent."

Note that it only takes a relatively minor event to prick a bubble, but once it is pricked, the bubble cannot "inflate" again. In August, 2007, for example, French bank BNP Paribas halted withdrawals from three investment funds with substantial exposure to U.S. subprime mortgages because it could not value their holdings. While this development initially rattled financial markets, it was brushed aside over the next couple months, as global equity markets reached new highs. In retrospect, this relatively minor event was indeed a warning sign of the turbulent times to come.

5.    Panic: In the panic stage, asset prices reverse course and descend as rapidly as they had ascended. Investors and speculators, faced with margin calls and plunging values of their holdings, now want to liquidate them at any price. As supply overwhelms demand, asset prices slide sharply.

One of the most vivid examples of global panic in financial markets occurred in October 2008, weeks after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG almost collapsed. The S&P 500 plunged almost 17% that month, its ninth-worst monthly performance. In that single month, global equity markets lost a staggering $9.3 trillion of 22% of their combined market capitalization.

AMULYA LEASING - UPDATE

As per today's BSE Circular , Scrip ID of Amulya leasing will be changed to APOLLOPIPES Wef:03 January 2018.

 (Link to BSE Circular HERE) .

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL ......

5 Methods To Avoid Value Traps ....

Courtesy : Investopedia

In essence, value investing is the practice of identifying financially sound companies with solid future growth prospects that are available at attractively low valuations, with the company's stock trading below its intrinsic value. Some value investors have been drawn into value traps, in which they buy into stocks that may be low priced but that are not genuinely undervalued and whose stock prices may fall substantially further due to company or industry specific conditions that are long-term problems rather than just temporary setbacks.

There are relatively low-priced stocks that are genuine value investing opportunities, and then there are stocks that are low-priced value traps. Learn to look beyond just a low price and maintain a focus on strong fundamentals for a company and the industry in which it is engaged. Here are five warning signs that a stock may be a value trap rather than a real value investing opportunity.

1) A Bad Business Model

No matter how promising a company's statements on its website may seem or how attractively low its stock price may appear, be wary of any company that doesn't have a business model that is both easily understandable and clearly aimed at being profitable. If you can't easily and clearly see how the company's business model should lead to success and profitable revenues, it's probably best to avoid the stock no matter how temptingly low the price may look. Be especially wary of companies that rely on outdated technology. In today's rapidly changing economic world, a company offering a product or service that is outdated, or soon to be outdated, is in serious trouble. This kind of trouble usually results in a stock price that just continues to drop. Technological obsolescence has led to the downfall of many a business in the past couple of decades.

2) Price Too Cheap Compared to Earnings

The price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) is a good financial metric to consider when determining whether a stock is really a bargain or a value trap. If a company's stock price has dropped to the point where it is unreasonably cheap in comparison to earnings, this is often a strong indication that the company is fundamentally unsound. Since the market generally prices stocks in relation to future expected cash flows, consider the forward P/E ratio as well as the trailing P/E.

3) Too Much Debt

Many promising businesses have been undone and sent into bankruptcy by allowing themselves to become overly leveraged. The adage is true that it's much easier to pile up debt than it is to get rid of it. If a company's revenues and stock price have declined, the interest on its outstanding debt becomes a larger percentage of revenues and income. When this happens, the debt usually becomes increasingly difficult to manage. A company carrying a dangerously high debt load has very little room for error or even for minor setbacks in the marketplace. It's probably best to shy away from stocks that have substantially higher debt to equity (D/E) ratios than the industry average.

4) Lack of Competitive Advantage in the Marketplace

Virtually every market sector is increasingly competitive. If you can't look at a company and clearly see that it has a competitive advantage, then it very well may not have one. Consider potential sources of market advantage, such as unique products or proprietary technology, brand identity, less expensive suppliers or production costs, cash reserves or location. Unless a company has at least one competitive advantage that should allow it to succeed on a higher level than its competitors, it is not likely to thrive and grow, and that applies to the value of its stock as well.

5) Lack of Insider Buying

One of the clearest warning signs to stay away from a stock is a lack of insider buying or, even worse, signs of substantial insider selling. Include hedge fund and mutual fund managers in the group of insiders, and be careful if the percentage of funds holding a stock is dropping substantially. If company insiders aren't anxious to scoop up shares of the stock at what looks like a bargain price, then the stock probably isn't such a bargain after all.

Using Enterprise Value To Compare Companies ....

Courtesy : Forbes 

The enterprise value - or EV for short - is an indicator of how the market attributes value to a firm as a whole. Enterprise value is a term coined by analysts to discuss the aggregate value of a company as an enterprise rather than just focusing on its current market capitalization. It measures how much you need to fork out to buy an entire public company. When sizing up a company, investors get a clearer picture of real value with EV than with market capitalization.

Why doesn't market capitalization properly represent a firm's value? It leaves a lot of important factors out, such as a company's debt on the one hand and its cash reserves on the other. Enterprise value is basically a modification of market cap, as it incorporates debt and cash for determining a company's valuation.

The Calculation

Simply put, EV is the sum of a company's market cap and its net debt. To compute the EV, first calculate the company's market cap, add total debt (including long- and short-term debt reported in the balance sheet) and subtract cash and investments (also reported in the balance sheet).

Market capitalization is the share price multiplied by the number of outstanding shares. So, if a company has 10 shares and each currently sells for $25, the market capitalization is $250. This number tells you what you would have to pay to buy every share of the company. Therefore, rather than telling you the company's value, market cap simply represents the company's price tag.

The Role of Debt and Cash

Why are debt and cash considered when valuing a firm? If the firm is sold to a new owner, the buyer has to pay the equity value (in acquisitions, price is typically set higher than the market price) and must also repay the firm's debts. Of course, the buyer gets to keep the cash available with the firm, which is why cash needs to be deducted from the firm's price as represented by market cap.

Think of two companies that have equal market caps. One has no debt on its balance sheet while the other one is debt heavy. The debt-laden company will be making interest payments on the debt over the years. (Preferred stock and convertibles that pay interest should also be considered debt for the purposes of calculating value.) So, even though the two companies have equal market caps, the company with debt is worth more.

By the same token, imagine two companies with equal market caps of $250 and no debt. One has negligible cash and cash equivalents on hand, and the other has $250 in cash. If you bought the first company for $250, you will have a company worth, presumably, $250. But if you bought the second company for $500, it would have cost you just $250, since you instantly get $250 in cash.

If a company with a market cap of $250 carries $150 as long-term debt, an acquirer would ultimately pay a lot more than $250 if he or she were to buy the company's entire stock. The buyer has to assume $150 in debt, which brings the total acquisition price to $400. Long-term debt serves effectively to increase the value of a company, making any assessments that take only the stock into account preliminary at best.

Cash and short-term investments, by contrast, have the opposite effect. They decrease the effective price an acquirer has to pay. Let's say a company with a market cap of $25 has $5 cash in the bank. Although an acquirer would still need to fork out $25 to get the equity, it would immediately recoup $5 from the cash reserve, making the effective price only $20.

Ratio Matters

Frankly, knowing a company's EV alone is not all that useful. You can learn more about a company by comparing EV to a measure of the company's cash flow or EBIT. Comparative ratios demonstrate nicely how EV works better than market cap for assessing companies with differing debt or cash levels or, in other words, differing capital structures.

It is important to use EBIT - earnings before interest and tax - in the comparative ratio because EV assumes that, upon the acquisition of a company, its acquirer immediately pays debt and consumes cash, not accounting for interest costs or interest income. Even better is free cash flow, which helps avoid other accounting distortions.

The Bottom Line

The value of EV lies in its ability to compare companies with different capital structures. By using enterprise value instead of market capitalization to look at the value of a company, investors get a more accurate sense of whether or not a company is truly undervalued.

Concentrated Vs. Diversified Portfolios: Comparing the Pros and Cons.....

Courtesy: Investopedia

Most basic articles on investing advise having a diversified investment portfolio. Diversifying investments is touted as reducing both risk and volatility. However, while a diversified portfolio may indeed reduce your overall level of risk, it may also correspondingly reduce your potential level of capital gains reward. The more extensively diversified an investment portfolio, the greater the likelihood it, at best, mirrors the performance of the overall market. Since many investors aim for better than market average investment returns, they may wish to revisit the issue of diversification versus concentration in their portfolio choices.

Ways to Diversify a Portfolio

There are a number of ways to attain some level of diversification. One is simply company diversification, which is owning stock in more than one company. A portfolio can also be industry diversified. Owning stock in both a banking company and an insurance company is more diversified than simply owning two bank stocks. Further diversification can be achieved by investing in more than one market sector. Another means of diversification is to own stocks of companies with different levels of market capitalization, from small- to large-cap stocks. Portfolio diversification can also be achieved by investing globally rather than just in domestic stocks. Investing in different asset classes, such as stocks, bonds and futures, also creates diversification. Finally, investing choices based on varying trading strategies, such as growth investing and value investing, also provide diversification.

The real question for investors is to what extent they should diversify their investment portfolios, and the answer is that each individual investor should largely be driven by his personal investment goals, level of risk tolerance and choice of investment strategies. Investors should consider the relative advantages and disadvantages of diversification within that personalized investment framework.

Advantages of a Diversified Portfolio

Diversification reduces an investor's overall level of volatility and potential risk. When investments in one industry, market sector or asset class perform poorly, other investments in the portfolio with a negative correlation to the poorly performing investments should perform relatively better and at least partially offset losses and reduce the portfolio's overall volatility. Diversification may also open up additional profit opportunities. For example, an investor who chooses to diversify his portfolio with investments in foreign stocks may find he has invested in the stocks of countries experiencing economic booms, and those stocks produce large gains at a time when the performance of domestic stocks is mediocre to poor.

Disadvantages of Increasing Diversification

The disadvantages of diversification are less publicized, and therefore less well known, but the fact is diversification can also have adverse effects on an investment portfolio. Overly diversifying an investment portfolio tends to reduce potential gains and produce only, at best, average results. If your investment portfolio contains five stocks that are performing wonderfully, but 45 others that are not doing well, those stocks may substantially water down the gains realized from your best stock selections.

Another problem with aiming for broad diversity is it may require extra transaction costs to re-balance your portfolio to maintain that level of diversification. A widely diversified portfolio with a lot of different holdings is generally more trouble to monitor and adjust since the investor has to stay on top of so many different investments. Diversification can even increase risk if diversifying leads an investor to invest in companies or asset classes that he knows little or nothing about but have been added to a portfolio solely for the purpose of achieving diversification.

Advantages of Concentrated Portfolios

One of the advantages of a more concentrated portfolio is that while it does increase risk, it also increases potential reward. Investment portfolios that obtain the highest returns for investors are not typically widely diversified portfolios but those with investments concentrated in a few industries, market sectors or asset classes that are substantially outperforming the overall market. A more concentrated portfolio also enables investors to focus on a manageable number of quality investments.

The Bottom Line

The best path for an investor may be to aim for only a modest amount of diversity while putting his primary focus, not on diversification, but on selecting high-quality investments chosen in accord with his preferred investment strategy of growth investing, income investing or value investing; his personal risk tolerance level; and his overall investment goals. While some level of diversification should be a consideration in constructing an investment portfolio, it should not be the driving concern. The primary focus of an investment portfolio should always be on putting together a portfolio designed to best meet the personal investment goals and financial needs of the individual investor.

RAMKY INFRASTRUCTURE - RESULT UPDATE