Investing Education
Discover a wealth of investing information, articles, tips and advice for how to intelligently manage your risk and increase your returns.SmartStops Featured Articles
It Does Not Always Pay To Hold On To a Dividend Stock
I love receiving my regular dividend! That's what we hear from many investors out there. “I never want to sell my dividend stock because it is paying a dividend and I don’t want to lose out on that.” Dividend stock holders love their stocks, and rightfully so. ...
The Great Divide Between Stocks & The Economy – a Macro View
SmartStops Comments: This article from RealInvestmentadvice.com shows that with data going back to 1947, the stock market and the economy will deviate from each other, for a short period of time. The question is do stocks move back down to where the economy is or...
How to Hedge your Downside in this 2020 Stock Market with ETFs
If you went into this COVID crisis without taking the stock risk warnings SmartStops was alerting you of in late February 2020, then you may unfortunately have fallen into the Buy, Hold & Pray model. So now with a rebound in April, you begin to wonder...
How much “Conviction” do you hold in your investment view?
SmartStops thoughts: A good behavioral investment blogger wrote: "The conviction that we express in any investment view reflects our expectations around the likelihood of certain outcomes. We are constantly making judgements that are founded on our subjective...
The Truth behind Wall Street Analyst Ratings
SmartStops comments: Our highly respected cohorts at RealInvestmentAdvice recently published an article which one of the key excerpts from is below. We couldn't agree more as we've documented to on this page the biasness of analytsts. also points out their...
It Does Not Always Pay To Hold On To a Dividend Stock
I love receiving my regular dividend! That's what we hear from many investors out there. “I never want to sell my dividend stock because it is paying a dividend and I don’t want to lose out on that.” Dividend stock holders love their stocks, and rightfully so. ...
Wash Sale Rule – when does it apply?
The American tax code is one of the most complex and comprehensive set of laws there is and can be quite difficult to understand and navigate. Due to the complexities, many investors have questions regarding how the wash sale rule works and what it is. Here are two...
Beware of your own tendencies to “Confirmation Basis” in evaluating your investments
SmartStops comments: If you haven't learned yet what behavior finance has proven it's that "Confirmation bias" is that this fundamental principle applies to investors in notable ways. Because investors seek out information that confirms their existing opinions and...
The Great Divide Between Stocks & The Economy – a Macro View
SmartStops Comments: This article from RealInvestmentadvice.com shows that with data going back to 1947, the stock market and the economy will deviate from each other, for a short period of time. The question is do stocks move back down to where the economy is or...
What is the best trailing stop percentage?
First off, there are so many recommendation you can find on the web about what percentage should I use to set a stop loss order or a trailing stop. The are articles from people to say use a 8%, 10%, 15% or 20% trailing stop percentage. But unfortunately that is the...
Are we in a Bear Market Relief Rally (as of 4/25/20) with this COVID market driven crisis?
SmartStops Comments: Another great article from our friends at Realinvestmentadvice.com. We love that they will go deep with analysis when there is just way too much bite-size headlines trying to calm investors nerves and support a "bullish" theme and we'll have...
How to Hedge your Downside in this 2020 Stock Market with ETFs
If you went into this COVID crisis without taking the stock risk warnings SmartStops was alerting you of in late February 2020, then you may unfortunately have fallen into the Buy, Hold & Pray model. So now with a rebound in April, you begin to wonder...
SmartStops Protection Works – as shown by Corona Virus driven market plunge
This is EXACTLY why SmartStops was created. We've been operating since 2008 helped so many subscribers protect their investments in that time frame. And have been doing so over the past decade. It's never too late to learn and deploy smart risk management...
Corona Virus and Stock Market Plunge- where do we go from here?
SmartStops comments: Great article highlighting Bob Farrell, a legendary investor, is famous for his 10-Investment Rules to follow. Rule #8 states: Bear markets have three stages – sharp down, reflexive rebound and a drawn-out fundamental downtrend Bear markets...
Did You Corona Virus, COVID-19, Proof Your Portfolio? Did You Protect Your Investments?
When will people learn to PROTECT their investments?? If you didn't (see actual results here), you still can. Go start learning how to Hedge and see our article on that. Why don't people leverage Smart Risk Alerting approach that's proven to work? Or if...
What is a Stop Limit Order?
When you place a Stop Order, you are setting the price below the current trading price such that if that price is hit, an order to sell will occur at your broker. If just set as a stop order, then the price at which it sells after the stop is triggered, will be a...
Should you be Hedging now during China Trade War escalation?
SmartStops Comment: We couldn't agree more with this timely advice (mid-May 2019) , from realinvestmentadvice.com: "For now, the market is working a corrective process which is likely not complete as of yet. As we head into the summer months, it is likely the...
The 6 Biggest Mistakes Ordinary Investors Make
"What's the biggest threat to achieving financial independence? Your own brain!" Nobel-winning prize theory and research from psychologists (Kanheman & Tversky) led to the beginnings of what is now called behavioral finance, with Thaler bringing that into the...