In the last couple of years, manifestations resulting from the impending debt crisis in Europe in addition to the melt down on Wall Street have arrived at fruition and are playing out on countless news outlets. Regardless of your political affiliations or ideology, we’re all very worried about the cost of gas, food and shelter not to mention the future of our kids.
Recent natural disasters like have took place in Haiti and Japan coupled with social, political and economic unrest are reeking chaos on the financial markets and the fragile globally interdependent economies around the world. It seems like an understatement to describe investing in this current environment as anything other than far more challenging than ever. So, taking steps toward an intelligently diversified portfolio to protect yourself should be an ongoing activity.
While some have selected the posture of total inaction “until things settle out”, the reality is that not doing anything certainly won’t make the grade. Although, it’s true that trading and investing in this economy may be tougher than ever before, you can’t just not do anything and expect to come through it all unscathed.
Inflation and the natural order of things will not allow a status quo and will inevitably bring about an overall decline of one’s net worth. You’ve heard it before, “There’s big profits to be earned in down markets”. You’ll want to have a sound financial plan, perform your due diligence and be aware of what you are looking at. Then intelligently diversify your portfolio, especially when times are tough.
Overall, proven money generating methods are best. Choose systems that have been around in excess of only a year or two. Keep in mind that the basic principles of investing apply much more strictly in bad times compared to good. Don’t invest money you can not afford to loose. It has to be “investment capital”.
Research investments with good return potential in relation to a minimal risk factor. When trading anything, always use proper money management and do not risk more than 3% of your account per trade, particularly when you could really use a nice big winner to turn things around. This is where your overall trading strategy comes into play along with the discipline to keep with the plan.
Find something that’s worked consistently in the past which is relatively liquid like option trading on equity stocks, penny stocks and conservative long-term currency trading. Verified forex signal services could be a good investment. You may want to even consider real estate given that the housing market has begun to bottom out.
The bottom line is to safeguard your assets through diversification. Once your select choice of investments are isolated, seed these with minimal outlays and monitor them very closely to discover what takes root. Then move larger amounts into the ones that bear fruit following a gradient basis. In other words, never put all your eggs in a single basket! Have realistic expectations and target steady overall growth. Take your small losses on the investments that did not succeed and go forward.
I can not emphasize this next point strongly enough. Allow your investments sufficient time so you can make an informed decision. Just a few loosing months during an overall up trend isn’t necessarily cause to jettison an investment. In reality, this can be a very good sign. All truly verified performance results are going to have their loosing months during current and prior years.
Watch out for performance returns where there are never any losses. Oftentimes they’re not real! Losses naturally occur in actual trading and investing as the markets fluctuate both in good times and bad. Too frequently, people are looking for the holy grail. They think they’ve done their due diligence because they found something that’s never has suffered looses. Investment vehicles that are able to absorb losses and survive have a propensity to attain stable profit over the long term. Those systems that don’t show many or any losses, in most cases do not survive for the long haul.