The Bull Hunters Guide

Hey there. Welcome once again to our series of posts covering some of the most popular and effective methods for selecting stocks. These methods have been documented and compiled over the years, and while they differ dramatically in terms of execution and philosophy, they all share the common element that, depending on who you ask, they work!

While every stock selection is something of a gamble, it’s our hope that by looking at these time-tested strategies, you’ll begin to gleam some idea from them of how winning stocks are usually chosen, and begin to develop your own strategy that will be effective for you.

Beating The Dow

Today, we’re going to look at what is probably one of the simplest methods in all of investing. This method was first presented in a book by Michael Higgins called “Beating the Dow”, and is commonly known as the “Dogs of the Dow” method. Selecting stocks by this method couldn’t be easier. You simply take a look at the top 30 companies with the highest dividend yields, according to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and then spread your portfolio among the top ten.

That’s really all there is to it. You just check back every so often, perhaps every quarter, and make changes based on what you see, so that your portfolio always accurately reflects the top ten dividend yield stocks at any given time.

Depending On The Dividends

Clearly, this strategy is depending highly on the dividends that you’ll receive from the stocks in question, but it always takes into consideration the future potential of those stocks. The idea is basically that, if a stock is in the Dow top 30, it will typically be a strong stock with enough of a foundation to weather passing storms and eventually return to a position of prominence, whereupon you can sell it for an amazing profit. In the meantime, you just enjoy those dividend yields.

Well, that’s it for now. Told you it was a simple method. Next time, we’re going to wrap this series up by taking a look at the last method on our list: technical analysis. Stay tuned!

See you next week for part 10 of Stock Picking Strategies.

Sean Rasmussen
The Bullhunters Guide
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2008

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I have spoken about many stock market strategies, touching on the DJIA or Dow Jones. We have been over the US stock market and ways to understand how to make money with the correct share strategies. Today I want to talk about one of the outcomes of a successful trade; The Profit and the underlying benefits. In other words: when do you take a profit and where do you put the profits?

Taking Profits When Trading

I haven’t got a more straight answer than this. Decide before you place the trade. How much profit would you be happy to take or make? 20%, 50%, 100%? Then if you reach the target, take it. Cash it in there and then. Don’t hesitate! I will give you a great example of a trade that I didn’t set a profit target on. I bought 90000 options on a stock for 3cents each. That cost me around $2,700. I was happy to take the risk and lose the lot. Yes, hardly a great strategy but the gambler does come out if you don’t plan your trades.

Beware the Gambler

Here’s the strategy I call “The Zero Strategy“. $2,700 of 3 cent shares. The stock went up to over $1.00 and the options became worth around 80cents each. Not bad in 15-16 months. My $2,700 was now $72,000! That’s around 2600% Return On Investment. I didn’t take it though. Why? Well, there were a few reasons. One was that I KNEW the stock would keep going up. And it did. Another 10cents or so.

Down Goes The Stock Market

Then it came down. I’ve still got the stock and it’s worth about $17,000 and still in a pretty good margin. When will I sell it? Probably never! It’s too good a story to tell. It’s priceless! So now, what on earth has this got to do with The Gamblers $18,000 Piano? I only put that in the headline so you’d read this… Just Kidding! I bought some other shares around the same time and here comes the Grand Piano…

The Stock Markets Grand Piano

I bought 2000 shares for $1.59 each. This time there was a plan in place. An ambitious one, but realistic however. A uranium explorer. My friend had 3 Million of these shares and bought them for less than 3 cents. He sold them around 45-50 cents. Work out the profit on that! Absolutely Massive! My plan was to sell these shares at $9.00. They got to $9.06 and I sold them, turning $3,180 into $18,120. Then I proceeded to chip in a bit and buy a Grand Piano for my son who now has won a few competitions and wants to become a Concert Pianist when he grows up.

Where is the price on those shares now? Who cares! The stock market sponsored my Kid and gave me memories to enjoy for years to come. (The shares went on to over $11.00 then dropped very fast to $6.00)

So when do you take your profits? When you have something fun to spend the money with. There are always profits to be made. Just know when to take them home with you.

Sometimes the Bullhunter has to be Bearish.

Sean Rasmussen
The Bullhunters Guide
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2007

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So today’s little excerpt is about the DJIA Tech Stocks.   Remember when the big thing was to buy tech stocks.  Well lets find out a little more about them here.  If you are new to the Bullhunters Guide blog, I am dissecting the eBook so that we can  understand the workings of the US stock market a little better.  The Bullhunters Guide to the US Stock Market is downloaded hundreds of times every week so get  your free copy now just to your right of this screen so that you have your own copy to read whenever you like.  Let’s continue…

Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel and Microsoft are the pure tech stocks in the Dow.  AT&T and Verizon are telecommunications companies.  While all of these companies benefit from a strong economy, corporate customers often invest in technology and telecommunications in the period directly before a recession.  This makes tech stocks somewhat counter-cyclical.

Technology stocks are also more individualistic than most stocks.  For example Hewlett Packard (HP) has a strong direct competitor in Dell.  While what’s good for GM is typically good for Ford, HP and Dell go in opposite directions.  The same can be said for Intel and its prime competitor, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

As one of the largest companies in the world, Microsoft is often the creator of cycles.  Every time ‘Mr. Softy’ (as it is known on Wall Street thanks to its MSFT ticker symbol) releases a new operating system, millions  of businesses must upgrade.  This alone causes a bullish tech cycle, with many business and individuals  purchasing new computers and other hardware.

So as we can see from this little excerpt, the tech stocks perform best when the economy is in the later stages of the business cycle which are the predictable cycles of economic activity that repeat over time. The five stages of the business cycle are growth, peak, recession, bottom (or trough), and recovery.  They would be great on your watchlist even if you don’t trade them to give you some idea of how the market is performing.

Let me know how this is helping you by leaving me a comment.  Yes you have to register and it only takes less than a minute to do.   As I mentioned in the last post, I was happy to hear form supporters of the Bullhunter blog by emailing me and leaving me messages to say that we are providing some good information here.

Sean Rasmussen has been working on the next instalment of the Bullhunters Guide and you have been waiting patiently for it.  In it he will discuss the renting shares strategy that Jamie McIntyre teaches in the 21st Century Academy homestudy and how to apply it to the US stock market.

To Your Success

Angela Recchia
Graduate Support
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2007

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Hello Fellow Bullhunters

Today I will take another excerpt from the eBook The Bullhunters Guide to the US Stock Market and discuss with you one of the averages that makes up part of the DJIA.  In general the Dow 30 stocks can be broken down into the five groups: Industrials, financials, cyclicals, consumer non-cyclicals and technology.  The Industrials is what we are looking at today.

Although the idea of Dow Jones Industrial Average industrials may seem redundant, the fact is that the term industrial average is a bit outdated.  Long ago Charles Dow created several averages to simplify market watching.  At the time, it was the Dow Jones Transportation Average that mattered most - this is the age when railroads ruled.  Over time the importance of manufacturing has lessened so instead of allowing the DJIA to become obsolete the Dow Jones company (which owns The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and SmartMoney magazine) decided to make it more inclusive.

General Motors (GM) is the industrial of all industrials.  It used to be said As GM goes, so goes the United States.  Well fortunately for the USA that is no longer the case.  Generally industrials do well when the economy is good and do poorly when the economy is bad.  This makes them cyclical stocks.  But GM’s problems are of a more secular nature meaning they are not entirely related to the business cycle.  As the largest corporation in the world for several generations, GM grew arrogant.  It made cars that nobody wanted to drive and made promises to its workers that were financially unsustainable.  Once unthinkable the very existence of GM into the future is in doubt and its credit rating has been lowered to junk status.

In reading this little piece of the eBook, we can form an opinion of the Industrials.  Being that they are clycical stocks these companies do best when the economy is in the early stages of the business cycle. Most companies are cyclical.   But GM’s problems as we see here were drawn out over a longer time-frame making it a secular trend rather than a business cycle.  The  five stages of the business cycle are growth, peak, recession, bottom (or trough), and recovery.   They are predictable cycles of economic activity that repeat over time.

I don’t know about  you but the more I read the more I learn.  Every time I go over a section of the eBook I pick up something new.  It’s like that with anything that you study.  You may hear or read the same thing over and over again until one day the penny drops and you retain some more information.  If you haven’t yet downloaded your very own copy, please do so now so that you can read it at your own leisure and revise it in here with me.

Stick with me on this as I know that if I am learning you certainly are too.  It’s all good.  By the time you are ready to trade on the US Stock Market you will have plenty of background into how it works.

Yours in prosperity

Angela Recchia
Graduate Support
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2007

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Hello Fellow Bullhunters

Let’s look at another excerpt from the Bullhunters Guide to get you a little more acquainted with the material.

If you could purchase a security such as a stock or bond, that would pay you a guaranteed $1000 a year for thirty years, how much would you pay for it.   Clearly, you would pay at least $1000, since you would make your money back after only one year.   Just as obviously, you wouldn’t pay $30,000 or more, because it wouldn’t make sense to pay $30,000 just to receive it back in $1000 increments over the next three decades.  So the vaue of our imaginary security is between $1000 and $30,000. 

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