Updating yourself about the PSE listed companies you are interested in

Tweet

One way to keep yourself updated regarding the companies you are interested in is through off course reading the PSE website daily and watching TV programs like CNBC, Bloomberg, and CNN among others.

But if you don't have the time to catch up with these TV shows or if your only time you get to read is through your email then Google Alerts would be a great tool for you to use. All you need is a Google account which is basically free. If you don't have one create a Gmail account and you automatically have a Google account. 

Go to http://www.google.com/alerts and log in using your Gmail account info.

In the Search field type in the name of the listed company you want to be keep updated. Select the source of the information in the Type field. You can customized how often the alerts would be like daily, as it happens, or weekly. You can also specify the maximum results you wanted to appear in your email  and last but not the least the email address you want this to be sent to which off course your Gmail address.

You can create a folder in your email to segregate this updates for quick view just like what I did to my Outlook.

 

Google alerts are formatted like feeds thus you can see a short info about the news report or blog and you just chose that interest you. To have a broader perspective I have included in my alerts "Philippine Stock Exchange" to get news regarding the stock exchange itself. Also I have added alerts on the stocks that I have in my portfolio to give me a heads up about any significant information that may cause a rise or drop in their trading price.

Cost Averaging

Tweet

Ok I believe you already heard this term and you are wondering what it is really.

Well if you understand the word "average" from your investing online activities which was brought about by your interest to trading stocks online probably you know what it is. But let us assume we don't know. The term started as dollar cost averaging which originated in United States and then applied locally to the Philippines as investing advice of some stock brokers. From then on the concept was being taught to newbie investors as a investing tip

Basically cost averaging is buying stock with sound fundamentals on a period of time taking advantage of the stock markets bull - bear cycle. In the end the average cost of the stock is lower and when the time is right and the value of the stock is up one can sell all the stocks thus gaining profit. You don't worry when the stock is down all you do is buy on a regular basis, let say monthly, at a regular amount. Stocks are not always at high price there are times that they are low and sometimes very low that stock investors term it undervalued. Don't be tempted to buy a lot when its really low but buy according to plan. Always allocate your excess funds to other stocks as well so that your portfolio is diversified. A disciplined stock investor will be the perfect example of a practitioner of peso/dollar cost averaging. 

Discipline and time are the key components of a sound stock market investment strategy. Probably you have no excess money today. But if you save some little by little this little savings of yours can accumulate into the minimum amount of investment that you can place. From there don't stop saving. Every time you reach that savings amount place or add it to your investment. In the long run you would have save enough funds and built your portfolio.

Always remember that the stock market has the element of risk but with knowledge, discipline, and time such risk could be managed and sometimes can be use to your advantage