Friday, September 26, 2008

The Great Stock Market: Being a Stock Picker and Blue Stocks

By Zindy Maseko

With the stock market, the currency traders are the vampires of the Stock Market. Their work day begins in the wee hours of the night and ends often times at the break of dawn. The commodity traders check headlines all over the world in order to determine how the volatile futures market is going to play out for the day. If there is a natural disaster that impacts a commodity the commodity trader needs to take note. The commodity trader needs to factor in significant and sometimes obscure news events that may spur on or decrease the availability of a commodity. The commodity trader is a news junkie.

Stock analysts determine stocks based on graphs, moving averages and mathematical formulas the strategy for their investors. The analyst takes into account not only market news, but the probabilities of certain events impact on a unit or the entire market. The analyst is in many ways like the fortune teller at the circus with a crystal ball armed with a Hewlett-Packard hand calculator.

Use your cupboard as a stock picker

In the brand name product area you may need to look on the packaging to determine the name of the company to find the stock. Some favorites like Clorox, Johnson & Johnson, and others are listed under the familiar company name. Due to mergers and acquisitions many name brand products have become subsidiaries or subsumed in a larger company's product line. All you need to do is check out the references on the label or customer service information that is located somewhere on the product.

The idea of you as the consumer being the best stock picker extends to larger items. You spent some time looking for an automobile, washing machine, refrigerator and like items. You chose a particular brand for a reason. The factors could be value, reliability or your past experiences. The reason could be a combination of all factors mentioned above. Value your decision process and consider investing in the company that produces the product.

On the Blue chip stocks

The fact is that we take for granted the Blue Chip stocks both in our familiarity as an end user, but often times in the stock market. The Blue Chip stocks make up the S&P500 index. These stocks as a whole can be purchased as an index fund. Some Blue Chip stocks make up the Dow 100. These stocks on the whole are a bell weather of how the overall market is doing.

Like any familiar item the Blue Chip stocks become like a comfortable old pair of sneakers. We know where they are and they are easy to slip into, but they may not be as exciting as say Google or Baidu. In recent months some of the Blue Chip stocks have been a flight to safety for some investors. Not all Blue Chip stocks are alike, but some have been grossly undervalued and therefore a good buy.

With the Blue Chip stocks, merit a good review in all times just like any type of investment, not just in times of market uncertainty.

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