Tag Archives: Weekend
Almost the Weekend Baby – Awesome Week – Scan for Friday the 17th of Feb
GREAT ALERTS TODAY! Huge start, nailed a bunch of great plays – lots of new members, welcome! JOIN US IN THE LIVE CHAT ROOM! CDC CORP CL-A (CDCAQ.PK) thinking $ 3.50 area breakout – I…
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Weekend Edition – Fixing $5 Haircuts
I love talking about my days as a youth, hanging around in my dad’s barbershop. Those memories often have a lot of parallels in the investing world.
Every so often, a prospective customer who would open the door of my dad’s shop, poke his head in, and in a sharp yell, ask how much a haircut cost. More often than not, these type of folks would then shrink away from the door and leave — not because of the price they’d been quoted, but because they’d then head to the next barber to repeat their research. I can only assume that they’d then opt for the barber who charged the least amount of money.
I always found it odd when these situations played out. Human behavior is a funny thing sometimes, and unfortunately the same phenomenon takes place in the investing world.
You see, we now live in a world where free information is everywhere. It’s not difficult to find investing advice or stock tips online, completely free of charge. Don’t get me wrong, you can certainly find some quality content from time to time. But when you’re simply looking for the cheapest info you can find, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Without a doubt, your returns will be limited if you’re not willing to invest a bit of money for quality services.
Now here’s another great story from my youth. As a teenager, I worked at an Irish deli in Yonkers, New York. An older co-worker of mine named Scotty (he was from Scotland and the name stuck with him) asked a regular customer why he didn’t get his hair cut down the street at my dad’s barber shop. The customer replied that my dad charged too much ($ 7 at the time), and the barber he went to only charged $ 5. Without hesitation, Scotty replied that my dad was great at fixing $ 5 haircuts!
The place erupted in laughter (all in good fun of course). Wouldn’t you know it, that same customer eventually became a fixture at my dad’s shop. I guess he got tired of those sub-par $ 5 haircuts.
Scan and Da Plan! For the 17th of January – Nice Long Weekend!
Lots of set ups for Monday – I’m going to be patient and not try to nail them all … I’m just familiar with all the set ups so I can come out swinging … Here’s da…
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Weekend Edition – I Will Never Stop Learning
I will never stop learning. This is my mantra and I will continue to practice it each and every day. Why? Because you never know where your next big opportunity may lie.
Constantly learning will benefit you in many areas of your life. You’ll uncover new investment opportunities, such as dividend stocks that are attractive for new money. Or, you can acquire new skills that open the door to bigger promotions in the workplace. You could even pick up enough expertise that you can then venture out on your own as an entrepreneur. As you continue to learn, you can routinely tweak your strategies to accommodate changing market conditions.
There are doors that remain ajar on every corner. One of those doors could lead to amazing experiences and could bear the fruit of a lifetime. I’ve sometimes mentioned Ray Kroc, who took a small hamburger franchise named McDonald’s (MCD) and turned it into a global empire. Mr. Kroc began his foray with McDonald’s at the ripe old age of 59! Colonel Sanders did the same with Kentucky Fried Chicken. The Colonel was 65 when he got the ball rolling with his company. These men seized an opportunity and parlayed some initial success into massive fortunes — and didn’t let their ages get in their way one bit.
So you see, it’s never too late to get started building your own fortune. Many people will sadly pass away with fortunes only in their mind, never to be shared with the rest of us. Whether their barriers were financial, emotional, or just a form of laziness, most people will not fulfill their true potential.
Make a promise to yourself to never stop learning. Learn about what makes other people successful. The clock is ticking but it’s never too late! Remember, the older people get, the less likely they are to seize opportunities that come their way. Be proactive, not reactive. Build up your skill-set now to secure a brighter tomorrow. Ask anyone who has been laid off after spending a lifetime in one job or at one company, and they’ll tell you how devastating it is. Most of these poor folks never developed any additional skills to fall back on.
When you’re always learning, you’re never fearful of the future. Even seemingly bad things like being laid off are met with nothing but excitement for those who’ve continually improved themselves. What new opportunities lie around that corner? The possibilities are endless.
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Great Weekend, INHX Huge Buyout, Scan for the 9th
Trying to watch a bit less this week. I always have a nice $ 75-100k + for two month rip slowly grinding up and then starting to play bigger and bigger risking more until the first pull back, Friday…
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Weekend Edition – Taking the Plunge
We all know someone who seems to turn a huge positive into something far too complicated. Here’s a great example: a relative of our family just opened a barbershop after years of lobbying from my dad.
This person spent much of his career working outside and has liked to dabble as a barber from time to time, despite possessing a good skill at cutting hair and having numerous offers to work full-time at various shops. After being laid off from his outdoor maintenance gig, he finally decided to take the plunge and opened his own barber shop.
Despite having a solid first week of business after a somewhat minimal investment to get the place ready to go, he has spent many a night calling my dad with concerns about whether he should commit to the profession or not. He wonders if the customers will come back, if he will continue to grow, and many other worries. My dad keeps urging him to stick it out, knowing the shop is in a great location and shouldn’t have a problem maintaining a successful business.
Here’s the problem. My dad tells me he’s still not convinced our relative will stick it out. Despite the early positive positive signs and already-decent business he’s been doing, he still worries about failure day and night. It’s always amazing to me how a person can take something that is working well, yet still decide to tear it down.
When it comes to investing, the worst thing you can do quit before you reach the finish line. Dividend investing is a style that has paid off handsomely for the many who’ve stuck it out, riding the ups and downs, and using the down markets to assign more of their capital to only the best quality dividend payers.
Always remember, if you go into any venture with the idea of guarantees, you’re simply not being realistic. My relative is looking for guarantees his customers will keep coming back. As my dad said, give them a good haircut and you will have them for life. Stick to the routines I talk about often, which is putting your capital to work in income-producing assets each month. You will learn to embrace the pullbacks as opportunities over the long haul, unlike our trading-obsessed fellow market watchers who look at each day as a battle to see who beats who for the catch of the day.
Weekend Edition – The Right/Wrong Mentor
I like to watch shows like “Kitchen Nightmares” and “Restaurant Impossible” as both shows take a close look at what the causes were for those particular restaurants to be in danger of shutting down.
The reasons vary from overwhelming debt, owners who were careless in their spending, partners that can’t get along, expanding when the space they had was sufficient, death in the family with no succession plan, absentee owners who went from being there everyday to just showing up several hours a day, and so on.
The amazing part is what steps are taken to fix the mess and actually turn the fortunes around for those restaurant owners. You see people at rock bottom pull themselves up (with help of course from the host of the show) and somehow get back the “magic” they thought was gone completely. It doesn’t always work out, but in most cases the transformation in attitude is as impressive as the operation fix itself.
One of the most surprising things I notice is that many of the employees who have been working in these struggling establishments have been there for years. Either one sees little other options as far as job prospects go, they are comfortable in their spot even though the building around them is burning down in a sense, or even worse they see the owner as a mentor who they feel bad for and would feel guilty leaving.
As you get older, you realize that you must begin to tell the difference between opportunity and lost hope. The thought isn’t to abandon those in need, but rather identify the symptoms of a failing situation before you get sucked in too far to feel wrong about taking the right action for yourself.
For investors, the important thing to remember is learning what the good and bad habits are. For those of you who have been reading my work for years, you know I am all about smart repetition and developing methodical procedures so one can take control of their financial destiny. The worst thing you can do is choose the wrong strategy or have the wrong mentor guide you into thinking poor results are par for the course and must be accepted.
Weekend Events Should Support Euro
The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet’s guest contributor program, which is separate from the company’s news coverage.
NEW YORK (BBH FX Strategy) — There have been several important developments over the weekend likely to support the euro at the start of the week after the currency fell for the past four weeks and recorded a seven-week low before the weekend.
However, we continue to expect corrective gains in the euro to be short-lived and subject to headline risks. We still believe that the $ 1.29 year-end target for the euro is reasonable.
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Weekend Market Summary, Wall Street Limps While Chat = $$
Market Summary Wall Street ended its worst week in two months Friday, with major averages finishing mixed by the closing bell. Debt fears at home and abroad overshadowed what has been improving…
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