Stock tips for investors and swing traders

- No matter what stock you buy, there are always risks involved. In the worst case, you may lose most or all of your investment. Here are some tips that will minimize risks in the stock market.

Long Term Investor

- 1. Don鈥檛 put all your eggs in 1 basket – This prevents you from losing all your money if you bought the wrong stock. So try to invest your money in different stocks across different industries, also known as diversifying your portfolio.

Short Term Swing Traders

1. Earnings conference call – Keep a close eye on the earnings report dates on the stocks that you are holding or planning to trade. Stocks may gap up or down, depending on how the company is doing. If a company reported bad news, the stock price could go down 20% or more in a single day. So you definitely want to monitor these dates.

2. Competitor earnings conferences 鈥?If a company is reporting earnings statement next week, and its competitors are reporting this week, you will want to use it as a reference. If the competitor鈥檚 stock price dropped a significant amount after their earnings statement, you may want to consider selling your stock before your company releases its own statement.

3. Economy report 鈥?These are reports about the general market such as the unemployment rate, consumer price index, producer price index, retail sales reports and so on. A lot of stock prices will be affected by the general market, directly or indirectly. When the Dow is falling 300 points, it is hard for your stock to go up against that general trend.