Financial Advisor
Investment Euphoria and Money Madness: The Inner Workings of the Psychology of Investing - for Financial Advisors and their Clients
Harry Gunn (Hardcover) Global Professional Publishing 2000-01-01
Price:
$45.00
Answers
It seems like many of the fees associated with advisors aren't worth the money.. and if they are, then shouldn't YOU be able to put it into their hands? After all, isn't that why they are hired?...so you don't need to be as involved? What's your personal experience? If I wanted to be in finance...then I'd do it for a living. What about you?
There are many knowledgeable/honest financial advisers. Just not enough.
With the correct "Asset Allocation" and a decent selection of ETF's and some Mutual Funds you can you can meet or beat the averages without the high cost of Time and a counselor.
Once you choose a good "asset allocation" that you're easy with.... you just check it twice a year for re-balancing. Low cost index funds (Mutuals and ETF's) are easy choices with little monitoring. A Managed Mutual Fund should be checked to see that they're performing at least with their peers.
None of what I've suggested takes much time except for the initial set up. It will still save you 10's of thousands over a lifetime from using a counselor.
PS: Stay away from variable annuities. 97% of the people that buy them shouldn't have them. It is one of the highest commissioned products for the Financial Counselors out there.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This work is based on SEC filings, current events, interviews, corporate press releases, and what we've learned as financial ...
I am very interested in becoming a money manager/investment banker or working in a hedge fund. I need some advice if I am heading in the right direction. I am going to be finishing my associates degree in December and have applied at fidelity to become a financial advisor. I am going to persue a bachelors degree in technical sales and then get my mba. The school I am attending is a little school. Do you think that I am heading in the right direction. Any advice will help.. Thank You.
I've got to echo Box's advice. Your train is set to derail. First, I don't even consider associates degrees when I am looking at resumes of potential hires. I want a new associate or analyst to be focused on what he/she wants to do. Top things I look for:
1. Candidate's university - you need a name to stand on
2. Candidate's major - I tend to like B.S. degrees in finance, economics, physics, or mathematics. I also tend to discount B.A. degrees.
3. Candidate's prior work experience - personal financial advisory is really a sales position. I tend to like candidates that have had more of a corporate finance role in their prior jobs or internships.
4. Other credentials - take the CFA exam! You should probably have levels 1 & 2 under your belt. People will definitely take you seriously then.
I hope this helps. It's a tough world out there, and unfortunately it's not always fair.
Price: $85.00
I have heard that you can often avoid the standard fees/loads associated with institutional mutual funds if you go through a financial advisor/planner. Is this generally true, or is it the exception? Also, are there any other ways to avoid those fees/loads? I am trying to decide if it is worth having my financial planner get 1% of my assets even though I am perfectly adept at doing the research and picking funds/stocks myself.
You are trying to have your cake and eat it. Eiether do it yourself or pay somebody to do it.
I have a project question which asked for an implementation schedule for the products i recommended outlining the actions required by the clients and adviser in order to implement the recommendations?
The recommendations by me are:
Michael and Anna have a good financial condition. They have a decent amount of net worth of $1,892,000 (Total Assets - $2,102,000 less Total Liabilities - $210,000). Michael and Anna are aged 39 and 37 respectively, this indicates that they are still young and have more time for retirement and as a result more time to work and earn before retirement. They are likely to have a Growth risk profile. They are more suitable to invest in growth assets. For example around 85% in property and shares and 15% in fixed interest and cash
It has been established that Michael and Anna were both quite inexperienced when it came to investing. A managed fund provides exposure to the market without requiring serious research. In essence, the responsibility of the investor making the profit is removed. Michael has a demanding job as well as a family. The direct market may well require more time and knowledge than he currently posses. Involvement in this type of investment will also provide access to professional fund managers.
Another luxury of managed funds compared to direct investment is diversification. Michael has expressed an element regarding investments. A managed fund can satisfy this curiosity. This may encourage the use of a regular savings plan.
With two young children, heavy involvement in an investment would be difficult and stressful. Michael and Anna have indicated that they wish to pay off their existing mortgage with the proceeds of inherited property as soon as possible. With this in mind direct property investment may not be suitable. Indirect property investments should also be considered. It may be more suitable for Michael and Anna to invest into a managed fund, such as a property securities trust. These investments include listed and unlisted property trusts, as well as property security funds. The above mentioned investments will provide a higher level of liquidity, especially the listed property trusts, and also remove the burden of managing a direct property. Michael and Anna may even like to become involved in a property syndicate.
A commitment to the children’s education has been made and a property trust may be the vehicle to drive that investment. This strategy would appear to be much more suitable and indeed manageable. A property securities fund also has beneficial tax implications as well. The transparent structure passes tax advantaged incomes back to them. This may also be of particular interest to them’ as taxation was listed as a high priority on their list of concerns. A listed property trust may also be suitable and income from such could be used for their needs like their children’s visit to Disneyland. To complete a variety of alternatives, a private syndicate should also be discussed.
Pooling funds with others dramatically reduces the financial strain of the investment. As such they can also invest in pooled development funds which offer tax advantages as well. They are like venture capitalists. The main attraction of such funds is that there is no capital gains tax or income tax on pooled development funds. Given the nature of the couple’s employment one could assume they are associated with potentially interested parties who could provide stable and substantial capital.
I don't expect an answer directly, but just guideline to start the answer, if anyone can help please???
I do not find a question in all this, sorry.
I unfortunately own some common shares of TPTX and was wondering. This is from a press release. Its not a bankruptcy so what happens to my shares? Thanks!!
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=TPTX
LA JOLLA, Calif., May 29 /PRNewswire/ -- TorreyPines Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: TPTX - News) today announced that its Board of Directors has determined, after consideration of potential strategic and financing alternatives, that it is in the best interests of the Company and its stockholders to liquidate the Company's assets and to dissolve the Company. The Company's Board of Directors has unanimously approved a Plan of Liquidation and Dissolution of the Company (the "Plan of Dissolution") subject to stockholder approval. The Company intends to hold a special meeting of the stockholders to seek approval of the Plan of Dissolution and today it filed related proxy materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC").
Although the Board of Directors has approved the Plan of Dissolution, the Company continues to seek and will consider any reasonable alternative strategic or financing proposals presented to the Company. The investment firm Merriman Curhan Ford remains engaged as the Company's financial advisor to assist in the evaluation of strategic options, including the possible sale of the Company or its AMPA/kainite receptor antagonist product candidates.
The Plan of Dissolution contemplates an orderly wind down of the Company's business and operations. If the Company's stockholders approve the Plan of Dissolution, the Company intends to file a certificate of dissolution, satisfy or resolve its remaining liabilities and obligations, including any contingent liabilities and costs associated with the liquidation and dissolution and make reasonable provisions for unknown or unresolved claims and liabilities, if any. Following stockholder approval of the Plan of Dissolution and the filing of the certificate of dissolution, the Company plans to delist its common stock from the Nasdaq Global Market.
This means the stock will become worthless. Sorry. If you have an opportunity to sell, I would be looking at that scenario.
Future: I would avoid low priced stocks. Good Luck!
TorreyPines board approves liquidation
"May 29 (Reuters) - TorreyPines Therapeutics Inc (TPTX.O) said its board approved a plan to liquidate the company's assets, after considering potential strategic alternatives."
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNe ws/idINBNG44437020090529?rpc=44
The company has THREE employees.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=TPTX
Buy Cheap
Stock Market Correction or New Bear Market? :: The Market Oracle ...
Or starting a new bear-market cycle.
These aren't just arbitrary labels. For instance, a typical "correction" lasts but a month or two, with average declines of 8.5% to 10% on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. A multi-month pause, by contrast, could last eight to 15 months, and involve an S&P 500 decline of 10% to 18%. But a new bear market is an entirely different animal. A bear-market cycle could last as long as two years and could be marked by a decline of 20% or more.
A Look at the Past I've been arguing the case for a multi-month pause that lasts until around October, and that concludes with the S&P 500 down around 950 - a 17.5% drop from its Jan. 19 peak of roughly 1,150. As Money Morning readers will recall, I arrived at this conclusion after studying many prior periods similar to the present, including 2004, 1983-1994, 1971, 1934 and 1910. Each of these periods followed huge run-ups in stock prices, and featured prolonged periods during which stocks were either locked in a protracted sideways trading pattern, or suffered a long and painful decline. Among the analysts who foresee that scenario is money-management researcher Birinyi Associates, which points out that the average postwar correction has lasted 45 days and concludes 8.5% below the peak - roughly where we are right now. Birinyi is joined by strategists at Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), who recently told Reuters that "our hunch is that markets will recover their poise, and investors will be able to sell at higher levels than now." For another defense of a bullish posture, let's turn to Florida's Lowry Research Corp., publisher of Lowry's Reports. Lowry's is one of the oldest technical-analysis shops in the country, owns one of the best databases of market price-and-volume data, and has spent decades conducting pioneering research on bull- and bear-market cycles . Paul Desmond, head honcho at Lowry's for more than a decade, told his institutional clients on Friday that every bull market has at least one pullback that fools investors into thinking a new bear market has begun. To create this deception, Desmond says these pullbacks need to be severe enough to raise expectations that a new bear trend is under way - something that we might expect to see occur with a correction of 10% or more. But to be deceptive, declines like this should be relatively rare occurrences, which runs counter to the general perception among investors that 10% corrections are normal events in bull markets. However, Desmond's study of his firm's 77-year-deep database calls this assumption into question. "Since the 1942 market bottom, there have been 16 bull markets in the Dow Jones Industrial [Average]," Desmond says. "Of these, only nine have shown corrections of 10% or more. And there was never more than one 10%-or-greater correction in any one of these nine bull markets. So rather than being commonplace, pullbacks of this magnitude are relatively infrequent. As such, it is possible to see how they could be interpreted as the initial phase of major-market declines. This would be especially true when the correction occurred at the mid-point or later in the bull market, as was the case in six of the nine sell-offs." "One similarity in each of these cases of corrections reaching 10% or deeper is that they typically occurred well into the second stage of the bull market," Desmond says. "That is, profit-taking has already been well established, as reflected in a sustained uptrend in selling, thus setting the stage for deeper than normal corrections. In the present case, however, our Selling Pressure Index was recording an 18-month low in mid-January when the market correction began. Thus, based on the long history of the Lowry Analysis, the probabilities do not favor a 10% plus correction occurring at this relatively early stage of the uptrend." "Many short-term corrections end with a small selling climax at or near the market low, as evidenced by a 90% Downside Day, as recorded on Feb 4," he said. And a recent rally "caused virtually all of the major price indexes to break above trend lines that can be drawn downward from their Jan. 19 highs. Similar breakouts above down-trend lines can be seen in all of our advance/decline lines." He goes on to point out that probabilities are not certainties, and allowance for exceptions to the probabilities is always necessary. But it is important to keep in mind that, with the S&P 500 down about 5% and the Dow down about 4% from the mid-January highs, the issue is whether the short-term correction may not be quite over, yet, or whether it is already over. In either case, based on his longer-term measurements of supply and demand, Desmond says there is little evidence that the market has rolled over into a bear market. The upshot: "Investors should still be viewing periods of short-term corrections as an opportunity to buy strong stocks in the strongest sectors and industries," Desmond says. "A strong rebound from the recent market low, characterized by rising volume, would tend to confirm that the correction has run its course and has returned to the primary uptrend. If that occurs, then a deeper 10%-plus correction, if it occurs at all, would be an issue for a later day." In closing, we are presently stuck in a no-man's land, which is a very difficult place to establish major new positions. The bulls appear to be regaining control, but now it's time for them to prove it. I will feel comfortable recommending "short" positions if bulls fail here. So stay long for now, but prepare to change uniforms to fight with the shorts if bulls lay down. ...News
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