By Arthur, The Stock Investor Home

Investor are often reminded by the stockmarket that their shares value can go up (the bull) as well as down (the bear).  That is why people who tried to time the market can never beat it.  It is also the number one reason why people who tried to time the market will only end up losing money again and again.

One of the best time study was to "sell in May" and keep away from the market.  This is a method which was once used by traders and coined by the Hirch organization who publish the Stock Traders Almanac.  What they published was a fascinating stat that says that since 1950, if you invested $10,000 in the market at the beginning of November and held it to April of every year, you would have $536,000 currently. If you had done the same thing but invested from May to October, you would actually have a loss of $236.  You might want to give this time study investing method a tried but at your own risk.

Study have shown that for the average investor who have a full-time job on hand, they are better off investing for the long-term and ignore the short-term volatility of the share market.  Remember, short-term volatility is only importance to short-term investor.  As long you as you keep your long-term financial goal in mind and average the number of shares in good and bad time, the average long-term investor are going to perform much better than any short-term trader.

The secrets to consistently outperform any stock market indices no matter where you lived is very simple.  Since 1925, common stocks have generated an average annual rate of return of around 9-10 percent versus 3-5 percent for government bonds.  In addition, stocks have been one of the only investments that have consistently outpaced inflation over time.

Time is the best way to ride out any volatility.  Time have repeatedly show you that the stock market share value will recover and your share prices will once rise again.  That is why Warren Buffett favourite holding period for stock is FOREVER.  To benefits from the test of time, you must select your company stock carefully for investment.  Go for large companies such as Coca-Cola which you know that it will be around for many centuries.  Diversify your stock investment to not more than 10 companies.  Diversification works only if your don't OVER diversify.

No one in the stock investment world can consistently out-perform or beat the market.  Successful investor DO NOT tried to beat the market.  What they do is to keep their long-term financial goal in mind and invest using Fixed Cost Averaging, Time Diversification, and Investment Fund Diversification in Large Companies listed on stock exchange.

Don't bother to listen to any financial news, all they do is to constantly keep you in fear.  They are in the business of providing the financial buzz, they are not in the business to educate you to become a better stock investor.

To conclude, always keep your investing method simple.  Make used of the time tested formula and invested a fixed amount monthly.  Let the power of time and compound interest do it magic tricks for you.

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