When do you buy, sell, hold or jump? (A better question still, what do you buy, when do you sell, how long should you hold, and why would you jump?)

This article will tackle word Jump (to find answer to those other questions, they’ve been answered in some of my other articles). Would Jump mean off a building? Or Jump to another stock market security? The word Jump reminded me of one of my other articles where I stated ‘just because thousands of people on wall street make their living doing ‘technical analysis’ doesn’t mean you have to jump off a building, too’.

Just today, reported by CNBC, a hedge fund has gone bankrupt. Seems manager of fund has skipped country, along with all of money. It’s been reported tens of millions of investor’s dollars are gone (as well as manager).

The Wall Street Journal just had a report stating that retirement plans are facing a new threat: Theft.

Excerpts from Wall Street Journal (March 2, 2005): New York

Retirement Plans are facing a growing threat: Theft

“Susana Longo, compliance officer at Applied Financial Group, an investment-advisory firm in Atlanta, was indicted in January on federal charges of stealing $5.4 million in retirement savings from 220 workers at a car dealer, two medical practices and an audio-visual specialist. She acknowledged spending money on two beach houses, a diamond ring, a 1,600-bottle wine collection and a Porsche 911, according to a lawsuit filed by advisory firm.” (The article also stated this went on for four years.)

The Art Of Asking By Jeffrey Strain

One of most potent saving tools you possess as a consumer is ability to ask. This ability can easily save you thousands of dollars a year, yet majority of people fail to use it. Most of us are used to walking into an establishment and handing over amount of money indicated for item or service we want to purchase. Some may spend hours researching best deal by going through sale advertisements, comparing prices and doing other research, but few will try to change price once they walk into establishment itself. This is not so for those who are trained in art of asking.

Have you noticed that some people always seem to be able to finagle deals better than you or anyone else you know? Even when you thoroughly research something and think you have received best deal possible, they manage to find a deal even a little better than you were able to get. Although it may seem like they have some magical power to create great deals out of thin air, more likely explanation is that they have mastered art of asking.

The art of asking is nothing more than being curious if there is a better deal out there, and then be willing to ask questions to find out. To illustrate, if you have reserved a hotel room in advance to get best rate possible and you walk up to receptionist to announce your arrival, do you automatically pay price you reserved room for? Although this would seem like obvious step to take, it fails to utilize art of asking.

What would be better is to walk to front desk, announce your arrival, then say, "I think I have best room rate possible, but I am not positive. I am a member of these organizations" and list all of them. Then simply ask, "Is there a better room rate associated with one of these organizations?"