Thursday, 25 April 2013

Top 20 Pitfalls to be avoid in Share Investment / Trading

Following are the top 20 most common investing mistakes which you should avoid:

1 - Putting all your money in one type of investment. If you have all your money tied up in a single investment and something goes wrong, you will lose all your money.

2 - Another mistake investors make is purchasing stocks before their ex-dividend date and then selling them after the dividend is received. In reality, the company's share price would decline on the ex-dividend date by about the same amount of the dividend, and this has absolutely no value for you. But, the dividends received will create a tax liability for you.

3 - Focusing on past performance. Investors usually think that the past performance is a good indicator of future performance but ignoring the fact that best performers can also turn into the losers over a period of time. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns.

4 - Putting too much focus on Number-Based Analysis. Numbers can be used to identify strengths and weaknesses, or to compare various investment alternatives, but numbers alone are not enough in determining an appropriate investing strategy.

5 - One of the biggest investing mistakes that many people make is investing before they are financially ready. To be a successful trader, you should clear up your debts first before using those funds for investment purpose.

6 - Being greedy. This is the most common mistake associated with trading stocks. Don’t be in a hurry to make quick money.

7 - Investing without a plan. It is very important to have a solid plan so that you can be aware of the risks and returns associated with your investment.

8 - Not setting clear goals. A successful investor should set clear and achievable goals with timelines.

9 - Not following the financial plan. Some investors simply invest money on other areas without following the initial plan and this may yield higher risks of losing the money.

10 - Too much diversification. Though portfolio diversification can reduce investment risk, spreading your investment over too many companies will also lead to some problems, you will have too many to properly manage.

11 - One of the most common mistakes that beginners make is forgetting about expenses or not budgeting enough for certain costs.

12 - No patience for potential investment growth. Many investors make the big mistakes of selling a valuable stock too quickly.

13 - Another mistake is to have too much confidence in the ability of your brokers.

14 - Following rumours without doing your own research and analysis.

15 - Timing the market is also one of the common mistakes that many investors make.

16 - Invest in things that you don't understand.

17 - Letting your emotions rule your decisions.

18 - Failing to learn from mistakes.

19 - Focusing only on return.

20 - Being overconfident.
Source: finance learners

Wednesday, 24 April 2013

Quote for the day

"The beautiful thing about the markets, they don’t like you, they don’t dislike you, they just don’t care. They are there everyday. You want to play, you can play. You don’t want to play, don’t play."- Larry Hite

LSL Market Review 24th Apr 2013

Indices gained considerable ground helped by gains on Ceylon Tobacco Company and Chevron Lubricants. Retail favorite Colombo Land & Development rallied with solid activity. A major shareholder of Panasian Power reduced their stake whilst Hemas power was the buyer. The latter will be expanding its portfolio of power generating sites in effect. Investors speculated on Ceylon Tobacco Company announcing its interim dividend anytime soon. High dividend yielding counters are expected to see price appreciations in the short-term.

ASI gained 50.21 points (0.85%) to close at 5,933.73 and the S&P SL20 index 13.66 gained (0.41%) points to close at 3,358.51. Turnover was Rs. 975.3Mn.

Top contributors to turnover were Panasian Power with Rs. 304.8Mn, John Keells Holdings with Rs. 114.3Mn and Commercial bank with Rs. 71.9Mn. Most active counters for the day were Colombo Land & Development, Touchwood Investments and Agstar Fertilizer.

Notable gainers for the day were Industrial Asphalts up by 18.4% to close at Rs. 249.90, Environmental Resource Investments - warrants up by 13.6% to close at Rs. 2.50 and Amana Takaful up by 13.3% to close at Rs. 1.70. Notable losers for the day were Tangerine Hotels down by 14.9% to close at Rs. 68.10, E.B. Creasy down by 4.9% to close at Rs. 951.00 and Lankem Ceylon down by 4.9% to close at Rs. 154.00.

Cash map for today was 70.22%. Foreign participation was 27.2% of total market turnover whilst net foreign selling was Rs. 161.5Mn.

2013 Country Stock Market Performance

Below is a look at the year-to-date performance for the major stock market indices of 77 countries around the world. Through today, the average country on the list is up 4.09% in 2013, and 49 of the 77 countries (63.6%) are in the green for the year.


Japan now ranks first overall with a gain of 30.53%, but keep in mind that its currency has depreciated significantly this year. In dollar terms, Japan's stock market is up 14.04% YTD. This would still rank it 11th on the list, but it cuts the gains in half. In the G7, the US ranks second behind Japan, followed by the UK. After Japan, the US and the UK, the four other G7 countries are not doing very well. France is up just 0.30% on the year, while Italy, Germany and Canada are all down.

All four of the big BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) emerging markets are down on the year as well. China is doing the best of the BRICs with a YTD decline of 1.19%. India is down 1.32%, while Brazil and Russia are now down double digit percentages. Brazil and Russia are both having very rough 2013s through mid-April.
Source: 
http://www.bespokeinvest.com

Tuesday, 23 April 2013

Quote for the day

"Listen to suggestion from people you respect. This doesn't mean you have to accept them. Remember it’s your money and generally it is harder to keep money than to make it. Once you lose a lot of money it is hard to make it back." - Walter Schloss

LSL Market Review 23rd Apr 2013


Market ended with positive returns with small caps gaining ground today. Lion Brewery and Asiri Hospitals saw crossings of 0.5mn shares at LKR 360.00 and 3.0mn shares at LKR 14.00 respectively and closed at the respective 52 week high prices. These were the main contributors to the market turnover (a contribution of LKR 188.0mn and LKR 63.4mn respectively) followed by National Development Bank with LKR 56.6mn.

During the day ASI advanced by 11.09 index points (+0.19%) to close at 5,883.52 and S&P SL 20 Index advanced by 6.47 index points (+0.195) to close at 3,344.85. Daily market turnover was LKR 708.6mn.

Colombo Lanka & Development, Citrus Kalpitiya and HVA Foods were the heavily traded stocks. Ceylon Leather Products – warrants, Asiri Hospitals and Sigiriya Village Hotels ended as top gainers while Talawakele Plantations, Orient Garments and Amana Takaful were among the top losers for the day. Talawakele Plantations today traded excluding the dividend of LKR 2.50 per share.

Foreign participation for the day was 20.3%. Foreign investors were net buyers with a net inflow of LKR 224.1mn, out of which lion’s share of LKR 185mn was captured by Lion’s Brewery. Cash map closed at 57%.

Monday, 22 April 2013

Quote for the day


"The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious."  -  John Scully