Biggest Stock Market MYTHS

Many investors wonder whether or not investing in stocks is worth all the hassle. At the same time, however, it's important to keep a realistic view of the stock market. Regardless of the real problems, common myths about the stock market often arise. Here are five of those myths.

1. Investing in Stocks Is Just Like Gambling.
This reasoning causes many people to shy away from the stock market. To understand why investing in stocks is different from gambling, we need to review what it means to buy stocks. A share of common stock is ownership in a company. It entitles the holder to a claim on assets as well as a fraction of the profits that the company generates. Too often, investors think of shares as simply a trading vehicle, and they forget that stock represents the ownership of a company.

In the stock market, investors are constantly trying to assess the profit that will be left over for shareholders. This is why stock prices fluctuate. The outlook for business conditions is always changing, and so are the future earnings of a company.

Gambling, on the contrary, is a zero-sum game It merely takes money from a loser and gives it to a winner. No value is ever created. By investing, we increase the overall wealth of an economy. As companies compete, they increase productivity and develop products that can make our lives better. Don't confuse investing and creating wealth with gambling's zero-sum game.

2. The Stock Market Is an Exclusive Club For Brokers and Rich People.
Many market advisors claim to be able to call the markets' every turn. The fact is that almost every study done on this topic has proven that these claims are false. Most market prognosticators are notoriously inaccurate; furthermore, the advent of the internet has made the market much more open to the public than ever before. All the data and research tools previously available only to brokerages are now there for individuals to use.

3. Fallen Angels Will Go Back up, Eventually.
Whatever the reason for this myth's appeal, nothing is more destructive to amateur investors than thinking that a stock trading near a 52week low is a good buy. Think of this in terms of the old Wall Street adage, "Those who try to catch a falling knife only get hurt."
Suppose you are looking at two stocks:

• X made an all-time high last year around Rs 500 but has since fallen to Rs 100 per share.
• Y is a smaller company but has recently gone from Rs 5 to Rs 10 per share. 

Which stock would you buy? Believe it or not, all things being equal, a majority of investors choose the stock that has fallen from Rs 500 because they believe that it will eventually make it back up to those levels again. Thinking this way is a cardinal sin in investing! Price is only one part of the investing equation (which is different from trading, which uses technical analysis). The goal is to buy good companies at a reasonable price. Buying companies solely because their market price has fallen will get you nowhere. Make sure you don't confuse this practice with value investing, which is buying high-quality companies that are undervalued by the market. 

4. Stocks That Go up Must Come Down.
The laws of physics do not apply in the stock market. There's no gravitational force to pull stocks back to even. Over 10 years ago, TCS's stock price went from Rs 269 to  Rs 620 per share in a little more than five year. Had you thought that this stock was going to return to its lower initial position, you would have missed out on the subsequent rise to Rs 2550 per share over the years.

We're not trying to tell you that stocks never undergo a correction. The point is that the stock price is a reflection of the company. If you find a great firm run by excellent managers, there is no reason the stock won't keep on going up.

5. A Little Knowledge Is Better Than None
Knowing something is generally better than nothing, but it is crucial in the stock market that individual investors have a clear understanding of what they are doing with their money. Investors who really do their homework are the ones that succeed.

Don't fret, if you don't have the time to fully understand what to do with your money, consult a financial advisor.

The Bottom Line
Forgive us for ending with more investing clichés, but there's another old adage worth repeating: "What's obvious is obviously wrong." This means that knowing a little bit will only have you following the crowd like a lemming. Like anything worth anything, successful investing takes hard work and effort. Think of a partially informed investor as a partially informed surgeon; the mistakes could be severely injurious to your financial health.

Trade Like a Top Hedge Fund
What can technical traders see that you don’t? There are different websites like moneycontrol.com, nseindia.com, ndtvprofit.com, Investopedia.com.  Check Five Chart Patterns You Need to Know, your guide to technical trading like the pros.

Hope you got the myths

waiting for your feedback

Regards

Kamlesh

DON'T PREDICT THE MARKETS ,TRADE THEM!

Very often people start to predict the markets ( eg. what happens tomorrow with NIFTY or SENSEX?). No one can predict markets, No one! Actually no one can predict anything in life.Except god men, astrologers, magicians and liars ( And I haven't seen many such rich people.)

Markets, however can be anticipated by using intelligence and most importantly can be traded to make money.Trading is a process which gets over only when you successfully have the money out of the market and starts when you have the money in your account.Taking calculated decisions is what investing/trading is all about.Education and training helps the process.

Trading is very different from technical analysis (TA)- also called charting.It is a much higher concept of which technical analysis is a small part.What, when, how much and what not to do after reading the charts is called trading.Adding, managing and removing money ( positions) from the market is called trading. It is a dynamic process and changes with the market conditions.Its like playing chess with the markets and is amazingly stimulating on an intellectual level and greatly rewarding - financially and emotionally.

What differentiates charting and trading is the the emotional part. Physiology and cultivated emotional response mechanism is what either makes or looses money.Trades/Investments have to be planned;TA is mere observation of the markets and to find out what is happening in the markets now ( as opposed to predicting the markets). Once you know what is happening in the markets NOW with as much possible accuracy is that you can anticipate them.

Trading is the culmination of the following concepts. Hi risk reward ratio, demand supply, gamblers fallacy, Cognitive biasing, Inverse pyramiding, stop losses, Regression to mean, Martingale,.....

How many such do you know ......?