Stock Market Advanced Strategies

Before moving on to the main topic, that is, stock market advanced strategies; let’s first understand the concept behind stock market. In layperson’s terms, a stock market is a market where shares of stocks are traded. These shares have been issued by several corporations (usually with the help of an investment bank’s underwriting services) and are publicly traded thereafter. Prices of shares in a stock market are prone to high fluctuation and are usually determined by:

• Demand & Supply
• EPS & EAT ratios of the issuing corporation(s)
• Dividend payout ratio(s)

Coming to the main topic, a large group of investors view stock exchange (and the shares therein) as a valuable investment. It serves both small and large investors. For instance, if you are looking for fixed-income, you could opt for a company’s preferred stock where dividends are fixed and have claim over common stockholders. On the contrary, if your objective is capital appreciation, you could invest in the stocks of blue chip companies (these companies are the leaders of their respective industries and have excellent reputation). Therefore, a stock market serves the requirements of many, but before investing please have a look at some professional and practical stock market advanced strategies.

Although there are many strategies for maximizing your benefits from shares of stock, yet we will explain the ones that are most critical and basic. These strategies are sophisticated and are practiced by advanced traders of stock to achieve their financial objectives. They include:

• Keeping updated with Initial Public Offerings
• Selling Shares Short
• Employing Margin Trading

Keeping Updated with Initial Public Offerings

Initial Public Offerings (abbreviated as IPOs) are the shares of companies who have recently turned public or whose shares are going to be traded (in the stock market) for the first time. Rational investors always keep themselves updated with the IPOs because they are quite beneficial.

01- IPOs are usually priced low because they have recently entered the market. When they are introduced, intelligent investors would buy them in the hope that their prices (or value) will increase significantly in some future period.

02- Another approach to benefit from an IPO requires investors to pursue a wait-and-watch strategy. Here, investors observe the pattern an IPO follows and when it becomes fairly priced, they would purchase it.

Selling Shares Short

Have you ever heard about the term “risk arbitrage”? In such an arbitrage, investors typically purchase shares from a source, and immediately sell them to another party because of a price increase. That’s what we mean by selling short. Smart investors would always lookout for the best stock to sell at the best price. These small investors do not really own these shares as the change in value is rapidly high. Although it gives good profits, yet selling-shares-short is a risky strategy.

Employing Margin Trading

Margin accounts let you borrow money from your broker (or brokerage firm). With the help of the borrowed amount, you could enhance your stock purchasing and benefit from a specific opportunity. As a result, you could enhance the level of your profits because of the additional borrowed money and return it after realizing the profits. Furthermore, brokers (or brokerage firms) charge low interest rates than other financial institutions to attract investors.

In conclusion, it is always good to keep yourself updated with the trends in stock market. Experience, on the other side, is the best form of learning. You can always educate yourself, but it is the experience that makes you perfect. You can also create your own stock-market-advanced-strategies as you become a big player, but always remember; the higher the level of risk, higher is the return. Sometimes, a risk taking attitude (in the right direction) could help you reap higher-than-expected profits. Good luck!

A Brief Essay - Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of being.

Goethe's statement seems quite attractive to a number of people; however, practically implementing his thoughts is quite a job for some. In my viewpoint, appreciation oftentimes leads to success. However, a number of people simply cannot appreciate others. Well this particular point will be discussed somewhere at the end of this very writing.

Most of the times, when we are talking to people - friends, acquaintances, family members - we are constantly evaluating them for something (let's assume that we are knowledgeable enough to evaluate them). Like if you are talking to a programmer, you may evaluate him/her on the basis of his/her up to date theoretical plus practical knowledge of the major programing languages. Now, while passing through this process of evaluation, it is your duty to acknowledge people's skills if you find a spark in them.

Confidence is a must. You want to become an actor, marketer or a brand manager - confidence can get you almost everything. And the best way to gain confidence is to become knowledgeable. When you have expert power, you will automatically gain confidence by analyzing and presenting things logically.

Coming back to the topic, we should give confidence to people around us. For instance, when I was in school, there was this guy who could never do well in sports. Although he was a very good player, but during important cricket matches, his performance was never up to the mark. One sports day, our team lost the match because of him. Our coach, instead of criticizing, called him and talked for a few minutes. He made him realize that you have given some beautiful shots in the past and not only him, but every single team member feels the same. He appreciated him and emphasized his strengths. The very next day, he performed so well that we won the trophy and felt so proud of him. So the conclusion is that a number of people require some sort of appreciation or a positive evaluation of their work so that they could know how well they perform. When they realize they are doing good, they perform even more better.

We have also heard this quote from bible, "Do unto others as you want others do unto you". I think the main point lies here. You should appreciate people the same way as you want them to appreciate you. And if people start to acknowledge others work, the world can become a better place with so many skilled and knowledgeable people.

Appreciation also help individuals to further specialize in their fields. For instance, if you acknowledge a designer, he will not only like "the nice words", but will also work ever harder so as to maintain the same level of knowledge and creativity.

When a person does not possess some quality, I think it's better not to appreciate him for his bad work. Instead, steps should be taken to help him identify his area of interest. Similarly, over-appreciation can also bring about negative results as people stop progressing thinking that they do not need to learn more.

In conclusion, I think we should treat people in a way that helps them improve and enhance their skills and knowledge. Jealousy and other negative feelings should be avoided. Instead, people should be encouraged to appreciate others so that the skills and knowledge are passed on to the next levels.

A brief essay - Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step: only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his road

Everyone has some goals in life. Even after achieving success, people enter into a next phase and their objectives are promoted too. As a result, their lives become more complicated. As simple as it sounds, creating your objectives and then deciphering them is quite a job. Analyzing situations/problems logically is good, but being over-logical could make you risk averse.

Similar is the case with goal setting. Let's assume there are two kinds of humans. First, who plan short term, handle tasks carefully and expect no variances. Second, who think strategically, set long-term objectives and strive to achieve success through achieving a series of short-term objectives. According to Mr. Dam Hammarskjold, the latter type is more capable of achieving higher returns and hence, they find the right road. In this matter, I would agree with the former secretary general of the United Nations.

You see, gathering relevant information and making the right move is important to every single person; however, pessimism could sometimes lead you to failure (or smaller returns). In order to find the right direction, it is quite important for you to have a farsighted vision. Think Strategically - that's what we call it. Strategic or long-term approach reduces any limitations and helps clarify your vision.

Let's take a simple example from the field of business. You must have noticed that every organization has a certain vision and then, a mission that is designed to help achieve its ultimate dream - that is its vision. Why do you think organizations create a vision? Why not a set of short-term objectives? Well, the reason is that vision provides direction. It is no less than a far horizon that you wish to achieve by finding the right road. It is like a dream that requires a series of short-term objectives.

In order to achieve your overall objective(s), it is necessary for you to find the right path. If you constantly look down to the ground or become too involved in smaller decisions, there is a chance that you will lose your vision or destination. For instance, you have decided to become a brand manager of a reputed company in your country. Now, you can achieve this objective by applying in the right business school, opt for courses that are related to marketing/branding, get in touch with the famous brands worldwide and do some lateral thinking to enhance your creativity. Conversely, if you are making decisions as you confront problems, you might end up in the middle of nowhere. So, a long-term view of the whole situation is what you need to become successful.

In conclusion, life requires you to be careful with your actions, but you have to have an ultimate goal to reach your destination. If you become too much involved in every single step of your life, you will lose your focus. You have to decide on your long-term goal and devise some shorter term objectives to achieve it in a logical manner.

It is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.

Conformity is what it takes. Although the topic is moot, yet I will take my position by agreeing with Stevenson's comment.

What we normally observe is that people like to devise new policies, principles, rules and plans. But when it comes to the actual transformation of these goals into actions, a number of people fail; some simply don't want to try. So, the actual problem arises at the execution phase.

Let's take an example of the objectives defined by our Government. In 2010, there should be no power cuts, but we are all experiencing the same problems we did for the last so many years. Similar is the case with our politicians. According to the constitution, no one can become a member of the parliament until he/she has a Bachelor's Degree. Still, there are so many members with fake degrees and/or qualifications below the defined criteria. So the problems remain unsolved.

We have originated these rules, and we still don't follow them. Sounds strange!

Educational institutes have certain criteria for admissions. For instance, an XYZ institution explicitly states that we do not accept students with a 3rd Division in Intermediate Levels. But as soon as it receives a call from a General, the same applicant gets the admission. Now, do you think we are living up to the defined rules? No.

Living up to the rules also requires some sort of commitment. For instance, the founders of Comsats Institute of Information Technology treat it as their own baby. They establish goals, devise strategies, do whatever has been written in the plan and never deviate. For instance, according to the absenteeism policy, no student can take the final exam if he/she has not attended 80% of the total classroom sessions. Now, whether you got injured in an accident or you are getting married; you can never expect any sort of concession. This is how people live up to their standards. They are committed to Comsats; they would never do anything that affects its image.

Even at the personal level, you may observe breaking your own rules. Every time, you register for a new semester, you define a new set of rules. But eventually, the same rules become less important and you start to disobey them. Therefore, you fail at the execution phase which is the most important.

In my viewpoint, procrastination is one of the major sources of failure. People don't stand by the rules because they simply like to delay. Similarly, there is no concept of positive and negative reinforcement. Those who follow the rules don't get any sort of recognition or appreciation. Hence, the percentage of followers is less. Contrary to this, people who do not follow the rules are not punished and this promotes the barbaric culture.

In conclusion, living up to the rules requires a lot of hard work and patience on part of the followers and those who created them. One has to become very honest and unbiased while making a move. Also, blaming others for not following the rules is not the solution; we should all play our part of the game and let others do what they want. If we continue to think this way, we can change this world and make it a better place.

Michael Jackson - The Legend is alive!

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009), who is also known as the "King of Pop" has recently been pronounced dead but, will always be remembered as a musical genius. Although he does not need an introduction, Michael was a great singer, dancer and a business person. Millions of fans across the world are heartbroken on his death and are paying tribute to the legendary singer in their own way.

When Michael was born, his father nicknamed him as "big nose" boy. This created in him a desire to opt for plastic surgery even at the age of 8. He had his first nose job done at the age of 21 but that was not a complete success as Michael started to face breathing problems. He opted for a revision strategy the very next year but was of no avail either. Until his nasal tissues were completely damaged, Michael had completed a total of four nose surgeries. Also, because he had a skin disorder as well, he decided to go for a complete facial strategy. Those close to the singer say that he had undergone approximately ten surgical operations.

Michael's appearance was also affected by health problems, weight loss and natural aging. He decided to lose weight and became a vegetarian so as to have a dancer's body which was his ultimate goal. He became dependent on drugs and hence, contributed to his ill health.

Michael hated his father as he was physically and emotionally abused by him as a child. He never wanted to discuss him but in an interview during which the subject was raised; he became emotional and said that he would vomit before meeting his father. Some mental health experts and psychologists expressed the opinion that Michael was a psychological patient and he suffered from body dysmorphic disorder.

Michael Jackson was a true artist. His beautiful songs depicted peace, harmony and love for life and mankind. His album "thriller" was the greatest hit and the songs "beat it", "billy jean" and "thriller" were most appreciated. Also, he embraced Islam in a ceremony at a friend's house in Los Angeles and changed his name to Mikaeel. A number of people take this as a rumor, however, the news has been authenticated by a variety of newspapers and news channels.

In all, Michael is not dead. He's a legend and will stay alive forever. He is survived by three children namely Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince "Blanket" Michael Jackson II.

May Michael's soul rest in peace.