Investment Strategy: Contrarian Investing 101

Have you ever wondered why some people are able to invest in any financial instrument or property at a low price and why you have always missed the boat? This article explains the importance of understanding why contrarian investing works and how having such a mindset can help you make more money as part of a larger investment strategy.

1.Value Investing mindset

Before one can profess to be a contrarian investor, you must have an understanding of the underlying value of the thing you are buying and decide that it is undervalued and historically and the market will rebound within a good period. A good book to start reading on value investing in the stock market is "The Intelligent Investor", by Benjamin Graham who was Warren Buffets' Professor in Columbia University and helped shape his investment strategy. So because you know the usual market value of something, you can purchase it on the cheap when prices drop , not unlike shopping for discounts at a supermarket.

2.Look out for downturns

Another key indicator is to understand your market well and then pay a careful attention to downturns in the economy or freak incidents like September 11. Some investments do down in value due to macro economic factors that may have nothing to do with your particular investment. A contrarian investor would spend time looking for ominous signs in the papers which may lead to a downturn so as to purchase stocks, shares at a discount to the average price.

Downturns that can prove profitable include:

* Natural Disasters that have nothing to do with the underlying stock. * Cross Border Disputes affecting a particular Company's price which has nothing to do with its main operations. * Wars and Hostilities that can affect the competitors of your current favourite stock.

Contrarian investing is thus a mindset where the individual looks for trading opportunities which can yield profits.

3.Look out for excessive exuberance

Contrarian Investors know that downturns can also be profitable if you use Put options which pay you when the underlying stock declines in price? The best way to predict such a downturn would be to look for in the words of the former Chief of the Federal Reserve Allen Greenspan, "excessive exuberance". This means basically that while prices are still rising furiously, the number of buyers would start decreasing and a market correction might follow.

Some indicators of such excessive exuberance include:

* When you see financial analysts being very rosy on highly speculative stocks. * When the stock market indexes start rising close to record highs. * When you notice that trading volume diverges with the price, meaning that while prices are rising, the trading volume is dropping.

A contrarian investor thus looks out for economic, political and other factors which can cause a large market movement in the particular financial instrument that he is trading in and can make a large capital gain from his investment. This form of investing can be part of a larger investment strategy and one should consider contrarian investing as part of his online investing warchest today.

Copyright © 2006 Joel Teo. All rights reserved.

Joel Teo writes on Ahwatukee Real Estate Investment. Learn more about Property Investment by signing up for his free Real Estate Investing Ezine

Investing With A Purpose 

Why are you investing? It's OK if you have many different answers for this question, but there is a big problem if you have no answer at all. Investing is like driving - it is best done with your eyes open!

Joking aside, having clear reasons or purposes for investing is critical to investing successfully. Like training in a gym, investing can become difficult, tedious and even dangerous if you are not working toward a goal and monitoring your progress. In this article we examine some common reasons for investing and suggest investments that fit those reasons.

Retirement No one knows whether the pension system will survive the coming decades. It is this uncertainty and the reality of inflation that forces us to plan for our own retirement. You need only open the newspaper to find out about a company that is freezing pensions or a new bill that will cut government payouts. In these uncertain times, investing can be a tool to help you carve out a solid path to retirement. There are three maxims that apply to investing for your post-work years:

The more years there are between today and your retirement, the more years your money has to grow. You have to keep in mind that you are fighting inflation when you are planning to retire. In other words, if you don't invest your money to outpace inflation, it won't be worth as much in the future. (See Delay In Savings Raises Payments Later On and Why is retirement easier to afford if you start early?)

The older you are when you start, the more risk averse you will have to be. This means that you will likely use guaranteed investments such as debt securities, which have lower returns. By contrast, if you start young, you can take larger risks for (hopefully) larger gains. (For further reading, see Determining Risk And The Risk Pyramid.)

The earlier you start learning about investing, the easier it will be to pick it up. Financial professionals are difficult to choose and costly to keep, so it is best to manage your own affairs whenever possible. Investing for retirement is similar to long-term investing. You want to find quality investment vehicles to buy and hold with the majority of your investment capital. Your retirement portfolio will actually be a mix of stocks, debt securities, index funds and other money market instruments. This mix will change as you do, moving increasingly toward low-risk guaranteed investments as you age. (To learn more, read Determining Your Post-Work Income and Introductory Tour Through Retirement Plans.)

Achieving Financial Goals You don't always have to think long-term. Investing is as much a tool for shaping your present financial situation as it is for forming your future one. Do you want to buy a BMW next year? Want to go on a cruise from Seattle to Morocco? Wouldn't a vacation that was paid for with dividends feel nicer?

Investing can be used as a way to enhance your employment income, helping you to buy the things you want. Because investing changes along with the investor's desired goals, this type of investing is not like retirement investing. Investing to achieve financial goals involves a blend of long-term and short-term investments. If you are investing in the hope of buying a house, you will almost certainly be looking at longer-term instruments. If you are investing to buy a new computer in the New Year, you may want short-term investments that pay dividends or some high-yield bonds.

The caveat here is that you need to pinpoint your goals first. If you want to go on a vacation in a year, you have to sit down and figure out the cost of the vacation in total and then come up with an investing strategy to meet that goal. If you don't have a set goal, the money that should be going into that investment will doubtless be used for other purposes that seem more pressing at the time (Christmas presents, a night out, and so on).

Investing to achieve financial goals can be very exciting and challenging. Combining the pressure of time constraints with the fact that you're not usually dealing with large sums of vital money (as in retirement investing), you may be less risk averse and more motivated to learn about higher yield investments (growth stocks, shorting, etc.). Best of all, there is a tangible reward at the end.

Reasons Not To Invest Just as there are two main reasons to invest, there are two big reasons not to invest: debt or a lack of knowledge.

In the first case, it is a simple matter of math. Imagine that you have a $1,000 loan at 9% interest, and you get a $1,000 dollar bonus. Should you invest it or should you pay down the debt? Short answer: pay down the debt. If you invest it, the money has to make a return of well over 9% (not counting commissions and fees) to make it worthwhile. It can be done, but it is much easier to find good returns on investment without having to fight losses on your debt. (To learn more, see Digging Out Of Personal Debt.)

Andrew Beattie

Real Estate Investing with RRSP's

Don't you just love finding money where you didn't expect it? Real estate investing with RRSP's is a whole lot better than finding a twenty dollar bill in your old jacket, and much more profitable!

We have to start thinking like the bank and realize that profit is not a dirty word. We put our funds into a safe savings account at the bank and they go about making money by investing it while giving us a ridiculously low return on those funds. Why not skip the middleman and do the investing yourself? Your first thought will be "I don't have that kind of money!" That is where your found money comes in. If you have Registered Retirement Savings Plan money you can use it, to fund a mortgage or investing loans with a far better return than the bank will give you. If your RRSP money is not in a Self Directed form you will have to make that your first step in this investing journey. Your agent will help you make this transition (although he probably won't like it very much!).

There are a few options in the way you want to go about using this investment vehicle and what you choose will determine who can help you on the road to profitable investing. Most financial institutions will have a mortgage pool that you can opt into. It is kind of a slush fund where everyone who is interested puts their money into the same pot and then the bank takes money out of that pot and invests it in various real estate properties. Those investors share in the profits or losses accordingly. Most RRSP funds are based in the mutual funds market but historically you will get a much better return on your money in this mortgage pool fund. However, there is still a more profitable option if you look a little further.

You can put up a second mortgage loan on a property and realize profit in the form of up to 15% return on the use of your money. When was the last time your bank offered you a deal like that? You can invest in properties that you yourself buy or you don't have to buy the property yourself but rather use the mortgage loan as your form of investing and let a sophisticated investor do the rest. The Alberta Real Estate Investment Network is a good place to find a reputable investor so that you can start seeing a healthy return on your funds. www.albertarein.com

Real estate investment in Alberta is a goldmine right now as the market is red-hot and provides a fantastic vehicle to help build your future. There are many options available to you as an investor and it is important to do your due diligence in investigating each one. Look at what is being offered and then spend some time finding out about it and seeing if it is right for you. It takes a shift in your investing mindset to step out of the norm and what we have come to expect as acceptable returns on our money and venture into a new and profitable way of thinking. We haven't been taught about our options but have mostly followed the banks with the rest of the sheep who took a meager return on the chin thinking we had no other choices. Your savings account at the bank is safe but a poor vehicle to realize financial freedom or the dreams that freedom can bring. You can make money like the banks do. Property investment in the form of purchasing property or a mortgage loan is a good way to make a profit far better than your savings account will give you. You owe it to yourself to look into it.

Rhonda Hoffman is a successful author and regular contributor to www.iwebinvestor.com

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