Accredited Investor

(interview with Accredited Investor Talk) -

How long have you been blogging?

Since March of 2008

What got your started blogging?

Having been an investor for many years in a wide variety of investment vehicles, I wanted to share insights I've gained to help others avoid making mistakes I made while learning.

What is the focus of your blog, i.e. how does it set you apart from the other bloggers out there?

I try to pass along my knowledge as an investor to others. I also try to use a lot of examples and plain language making it easier to understand some pretty complex investment concepts.

What is it you hope a reader will come away with when they visit your blog?

Having an increased understanding of various ways to invest including understanding investments only available to accredited investors, along with various investment strategies.

Do you like to be edgy in your posts and try and stir up some controversy?

This strategy should be applied only when appropriate for the topic of discussion. I don't believe this should be used indiscriminately. Inappropriate use could actually take away from the credibility of the writer/article.

When did you start to trade?

Over 15 years ago

What is your favorite instrument to trade (stocks, options, forex, futures, bonds, etc.)

Options

What is your favorite strategy to trade?

Time buy and sell decisions with technical indicators (Stochastics, MACD, volume, etc.).

What time frame do you like to trade?

I prefer long term buy and hold, but this market makes that very difficult. Therefore, I buy and sell whenever the technicals indicate the best timing to make a move.

For someone new coming into the markets, what steps would you recommend they use to get started?

There is no single cookie-cutter answer to this. In fact, I will likely write a future blog article on this to provide more specifics. I will provide my top level thoughts here.

The investor must first figure out what the end goal is (retirement, paying off a home, being debt free, having wealth with a specific amount of money, etc.) and when that goal is to be met. He or she then needs to figure out what amount of money needs to be saved and earned yearly to meet that goal. Then they need to figure out which investment vehicles have the best chance of getting to the goal.

I encourage a slow methodical path to investing while the investor actively learns one investment tool well before moving on to learn another. As a first step, I stress the importance of building a habit of consistently saving money. With a foundation of savings, the investor can move on to other forms of investing. Savings should first start by gradually increasing funds invested in tax free accounts such as IRA, Keogh, 401k/403b, etc. Once that habit is secure with a good foundation of funds, then the investor can move on to other forms of investing by going slow while learning the particulars of those vehicles.

I highly recommend reading as many books as possible on investing, and specific to the investment tool being learned. I love and recommend ALL of the "Rich Dad" series books. They are full of great advice that provide a good foundation to learning about investing.

What is the biggest stumbling block you see for most beginner traders, i.e. where do you see them making the biggest mistakes?

I think many new investors have a unrealistic view of making money fast. They invest by putting all their eggs in one basket to make a killing, but usually end up losing much more money than a slow methodical investment plan would have allowed. Instead, they need to build a foundation of savings and then slowly start putting some of the funds at risk in other investment vehicles, but spread the risk over several investments.

In today's trading environment, where do you see the biggest opportunities for traders?

Opportunities are everywhere today with the dramatic drop in values. Astute investors can spot the money making investments that are currently very low, but highly likely to survive the current crisis toward full recovery into the future.

What do you see in store for the markets in 09?

Ongoing depressed markets. This financial crisis is just too deep and wide for a quick recovery.

If not a turnaround in 09, why not?

Again, very deep and wide issues throughout all aspects of the economy. Credit is hard to get. People are not spending and don't trust the availability of funds for spending. Banks are not likely to loan funds easily. Businesses can't get funds as easily to expand business. Without consumer and business spending, businesses continue cutting back, people are layed off, they can't make house payments, the associated lenders get in more financial problems, home builders don't hire workers, those workers can't make debt payments, etc. Everything is so linked. Rising unemployment means more and more people not able to make debt payments which continues the deepening recession.

If not a turnaround in 09, when?

I won't make any predictions since this is something way out of my area of expertise. I feel it will take more than a year though.

Do you use technical analysis?

Yes

What are your favorite technical indicators?

MACD, Stochastics, volume, Bollinger bands with the moving average, etc.