Jan 12
2
6 Tips for Choosing the Right Investment Guidance
About a week ago, Investor’s Business Daily’s Big Picture indicated that the stock market has entered an uptrend. While investment advice is on every corner, I have found only a few gurus that I like to give my attention to; the philosophy of the founder of Investor’s Business Daily, William O’Neil, is one of them.
While the Big Picture trend may change back to negative next week, for now, this reliable column is saying the stock markets are headed up. The market trend predictions it makes are usually longer term, with some bouncing around a bit when the market is more volatile.
I believe it’s a good idea to choose one or two proven systems or experts to use as a guide for investing. This helps you avoid buying at the top and selling at the bottom, which is Financial Woman’s step #5 in Growing Your Money.
Avoid paralysis by analysis. I am extremely particular about whom I choose to listen to, and I suggest you do the same. Here are 6 tips to help you find good financial guidance:
1. The probability is that the investment advice is accurate; no system is ever 
going to be 100% accurate. Acceptance of probability is crucial with investing your money.
2. The investment guidance comes from the information the market is currently giving, not just an expectation based on the economy. While the financial markets move in large trends related to the economy, timing market trends based solely on the economy can be more difficult. Why not use all the information at hand? Looking at market volume and other things that stock charts tell us improves accuracy; a picture paints a thousand words, so why not look at it?
3. The past record has to be good; the investment guidance has to have worked in past major trend changes. Did the guru give warnings ahead of the 2000 and 2007 stock market corrections? Did it give signals for the end of the correction so investors could return to and capitalize on the market recovery? By missing those big corrections, it’s much easier to grow money.
4. Is the investment advice simple enough for me to grasp and follow? Sometimes this requires working your way into new knowledge, which is a good thing, but is it doable and fairly quick?
5. Does the investment guidance fit into my life? Although I enjoy reviewing charts, if it will take hours each week for me to read and interpret charts to get the information I need, I know that right now this will not be something I will use. If I can go online and read an article for a minute or two a day, then I know this information easily fits into my life. How about you?
6. Does the time frame for the investment advice match my needs? In other words, if you are looking for longer term guidance, is that what you’ll get?
Experts help us in any area of our life where we want to excel; we simply can’t know it all, so why not let someone, whether that someone is a company or a person, provide us information to get where we want to be? Just choose your experts wisely and for good reasons, especially when it comes to your family, your health, and your financial health.
