Many turn to EIAs as a part of their financial plan. With the market advancing and declining so rapidly, many consumers are looking for safety and security without having to sacrifice reasonable interest returns.

Equity index annuities are excellent alternatives for investors seeking safety in a low interest rate environment or a volatile market. Here’s how they work, your return is based on the increase of a stock or equity index, such as the S&P 500. If stocks rise, you benefit from the increase. If stocks fall, you do not lose any money, most contracts guarantee a minimum return, typically 3%. This is what makes these newer products so attractive to retired persons and to those approaching retirement.

What makes EIAs different than a traditional fixed annuity is how interest is credited to the account. Typically, the insurance company will buy an option in a particular index like the DOW, S&P 500 or the NASDAQ. After a period of time, usually one year, the option contract comes due. One of two things will then occur. If the market index has advanced, the option is cashed in and interest is credited to the annuity principal. Conversely, if the market has retreated, the option expires and no interest is credited to the account for that year.

EIAs aren’t regulated by the National Association of Securities Dealers or the Securities and Exchange Commission.

From a technical standpoint, it’s time to BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY. BUY SPY, QQQQ, CNP, ATML, ETFC!!! Something is about to happen today and it should be good!

I will post charts up later. SP500 is at a 61.8% retracement point! And there is some important trendline support.

CNP bounced off of horizontal support. Let’s get our hands dirty and dive in traders, investors! Whoo whoooo!!!

For some reason, I can’t post the charts up, but they are signaling to buy the SP500 and Nasdaq. I added more to ATML.

Right now is a good time to get back into the stock market!

I use to get panicky around the holiday season because I run out of ideas on what is the next best trade or investment. If I am confident in anything it is my trades on the Index ETFs. I just love ETFs! You get you have you cake and eat it too! What I mean is that you can diversify into literally hundreds of stocks in one shot. With that said, I would like to re-interate my buy position on SPY (an S&P 500 ETF), as I did the end of last month in November.

I will also put my money on QQQQ (a NASDAQ ETF) and MDY (Mid Cap SPDR); that way we are diversified going into next year during this holiday rally; that way we are sure to make this season jolly. Just wait for one green day this week.

The other stocks I am in are reversal stocks; it may take a while for them to completely reverse; and they all still look good so far.

YHOO! has passed its lower support of 24.50 (09/04/2007) by one cent, but the divergence on the RSI and MACD and Stochastics makes it very tempting to hold it at least one more day.

to introduce myself.  My name is Dave and my peers nicknamed me theBrain. This was due to the fact that not only do I have a larger than normal sized skull…but also because I have a good sense of the stock market. Just to better familiarize everyone, I am a equities trader and its a great priveledge to be able to voice my opinions on this blog. And I owe this all to Raiiden, who is a visionary in his own abilities.

 My preference to equities spans the entire spectrum. I will trade anything from a micropenny all the way to Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares. In other words, if it makes money for me, I do not care about business models. The most important thing is to keep up with the trend and not to fight the tape.

My trading style includes a day trade, a swing trade, or a position trade.  With so many ways to make $$ on a consistent basis, it would be an injustice to concentrate on just one style.

Now that I have given you a brief backround of what I trade …. I will be posting some of the positions that I am trading right here.

Remember, the most important key to making money, is to simply lock in profits. And thats what we look forward to doing here.

 Please join me  ~ !     : ) 

More Insider Buying on TIE:
Terry Worrell buy 14,000 shares August 16, 2007: http://www.form4oracle.com/company?cik=0001011657&ticker=tie
Load up and enjoy!

Time to add the Dow index back to portfolio.

All of this Gloom and Doom is a Big Hoax and a Scape Goat for what every malipulation is going on. Some blamed China in Februrary when the market fell then; when I traded Currencies at the same time others said it was Unwinding of the Yen Carry trades. What are “they” blaming now? Housing? Housing is suppose to be bad for a while. How many times can they blame the same thing. What is really going on: People were taking profit from the Dow; others panicked. Now buyers are coming back.

Often times when people paper trade they get a false sense of reality. Losing on paper just doesn’t affect most people and cutting losses is much easier. Here is a story about a guy that lost his family’s life savings after winning on paper.

Link to the Article

I’ve been thinking about asset allocation and came across this very interesting article by Tom Olson from the The Asset Advisor. It seems that the common mistake many people are making in their diversification is buying stocks from the same industry or in similar industries and considering themselves diversified. If you buy all tech stocks, you may be setting yourself up failure. Below is the article:

Asset allocation is a critical component of investing success. Both research and academic studies show asset allocation to be single most significant factor in determining your financial goals. Allocation influences both the total long-term return and risk of your investment portfolio. Other factors such as security selection and market timing account for a very small percentage of your investment returns. Unfortunately, the most important decision to achieving financial success is also the least understood. [Read more →]

Many people don’t know what hedge funds do, because hedge funds for one can not advertise publicly. Here is the short definition of what a hedge fund is: a private fund for accredited investors. These are investors with $1 million to invest with the fund. Hedge funds are very loosely regulated and because of that have gotten a lot of heat in the last year. Regulators want to raise the minimum for accredited investors up to $2.5 million.

These funds can get very big ranging from a few million to billions. Steven Cohen, one of the more famous managers in the industry has a fund worth more than $10 billion. Funds usually charge a 2% management fee and take up to 40% of the profits made. These kinds of fees have given the fund managers wealth beyond imagination. [Read more →]

Some of the biggest losses I’ve ever taken in the market was due to the fact I was unable to let go of the stock, and that seems to be a common problem among many traders. Often times we are hyped up by a company due to their potential future. Everyone is looking for the next Google but the truth is most stocks will not quadrupole in price.

The best thing to do is never to invest all your money into any one stock. Diversification is always the safest bet. I have watched countless investors get killed cause they got married to a stock. Remember when TASR blew up. A few smaller companies came out stating they were going to enter the Taser market and hyped investors up on products that had not come to market. [Read more →]