How to Create Investment Goals

When it comes to investing, goal-setting is a vital step toward achieving financial success. Achievable goals can help you narrow your focus, stay motivated, and create a plan. In this article, you will learn the importance of goals and the steps to take.

#1: DETERMINE YOUR GOALS

Start by determining exactly what you want to achieve. Common investing goals include saving up for child’s education, retirement, and a house. Good investment goals need to be SMART. SMART stands for the following:

Specific: Setting a specific financial goal requires laying out the purpose for why you want to save.

Measurable: Financial goals need to be easily measured to help you assess your progress.

Achievable: Setting goals that are not achievable can diminish your motivation and steer you away from your path.

Relevant: A good investment goal should align with your values and beliefs.

Time-Bound: Calculate how much you need to save monthly or weekly to achieve your investment goal by providing a sense of urgency.

#2: SELECT YOUR INVESTMENT STRATEGY

According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), there are different types of goals such as short-term, mid-term, and long-term. Short-term goals can be achieved in less than three years and may be suited to liquid investments such as cash and money market accounts. Mid-term goals that can take up to ten years can be allocated to balancing your portfolio, fixed-income investments, and stocks.

Lastly, long-term goals that can last more than ten years can take a more aggressive approach such as investing in stocks, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds.

#3: TAKE SMALL STEPS

New investors and those who are more risk-averse can start small to get a better understanding of the process. Adjustment to the investor’s approach can make goals more realistic and achievable.

#4: SEEK PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT

Countless social media pages and credible blogs provide financial advice about investing and other topics. Many investing platforms have educational resources on their website. It is up to you to do your research and seek professional support when needed.

BOTTOM LINE

Assess your investment goals as early as possible to avoid difficulties and complications. Planning and execution of your investment processes require a level of discipline and commitment. Start small if the process feels overwhelming and watch your nest grow.

Sources: 1 & 2

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Tips to educate your kids on investing

teaching kids how to invest

Time is your best friend when it comes to investing. The longer time you allow your assets to develop, the bigger your retirement fund will be. The problem is that most individuals aren’t educated about investing until they’re in their adult years. And by that time, most have already squandered over two decades.

Traditional educational systems often do not educate children about investing, such as why they should acquire stocks while they are young and how to build a diversified portfolio that will last them until retirement. As a result, it is incumbent on parents to prepare their kids for financial security. Fortunately, financial literacy can be taught from the comfort of one’s own home.

Here are tips to educate your kids on investing.

Patience is key

Investing, like most pleasures in life, takes patience. Instill in your kids the understanding that investing is not a get-rich-quick gimmick. Rather than anticipating a rapid return, the idea is to put money into the stock market and watch it increase over time. This piece of advice will set more realistic goals for your child when it comes to investing from the get-go.

Gift them investment books
How to Turn $100 into $1,000,000: Earn! Save! Invest!

Image Credits: amazon.com

There are several excellent finance-related books for kids and teenagers that may help your child learn more about investing. For example, How to Turn $100 into $1,000,000: Earn! Save! Invest! is ideal for any parent who wishes to raise a child who is financially savvy and secure. The quest begins with instructions on how to make a first hundred bucks while the rest of the book follows the path to a million dollars. What’s there not to like about it?

Introduce familiar companies

For years, the expression “buy what you know” has been tossed about in investment circles. It’s important to teach kids how to invest by putting their money in firms they recognize. Today’s children are well-versed in product branding and are adept at conducting web searches. Consider inviting your kid to spend time with you investigating the stock price of a firm they are interested in.

Look up the payout history during the search and clarify why they will get the declared dividend amount for each share of stock they hold. You could perhaps suggest reinvesting returns to continue expanding the asset, based on your child’s financial literacy level. Kids may become long-term investors by investing in what they know: if they clearly understand the firm and grasp what drives its operation, they are more inclined to stick it out during moments of instability.

The sooner you start introducing concepts of investments to your children, the more probable they will establish good financial habits and accumulate money over time. You may even be amazed at how much your children can comprehend, notably if you start teaching them diverse tactics at an early age. Don’t put off the thought of helping them start saving for retirement; they will thank you down the road.

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What to do when investing in volatile markets

volatile markets

The majority of investors are cognizant that the market goes through bulls and downturns. So, what transpires when the market is volatile?

To make it clear from the beginning, financial market volatility is the measurement of the size and speed of an asset’s price movements. Volatility exists in any asset whose market price fluctuates over time. The broader and more regular these swings are, the higher the volatility, and making a terrible move might wipe out earlier profits and much more.

When investing in turbulent markets, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Diversify

Volatile markets might expose that investments believed to be properly diversified, in fact, are not. If you haven’t recently reviewed your portfolios to ensure that you understand how each asset class is performing and that the mix fits your investing strategy, now would be an excellent time to do so.

Rebalance

Assets that have appreciated in value will make up more of your portfolio over time, while those that have decreased will make up less. Rebalancing entails selling positions that have become overweight in comparison to the rest of your portfolio and reinvesting the profits in underweight ones. It’s a sensible move to repeat this process frequently.

Go for long-term
aiming long-term

Image Credits: towardsdatascience.com

Markets fluctuate, and you’re bound to see multiple major drops throughout your investment journey. When compared to bull markets, even instances when the market plunged by more than 20% have traditionally been quite brief. Because it’s impractical to time the market’s ebbs and flows, all investors should tune out the buzz and fixate on their long-term goals.

Stay the course

If you’re retired or on the verge of retiring, your stance on investing in a volatile market can be a little different. Rather than attempting to chase high gains in the short term, your priority should be on safeguarding the assets you’ve amassed via long-term investment. To keep on track, create a retirement investing framework before you bid goodbye to your monthly paychecks, so you won’t make rash judgments about your assets during market downturns.

Keep day trading at bay

When you day trade, you purchase and sell investments quickly in the hopes of profiting from small price variations. While this may appear to be a simple, low-risk approach to making money, it is complicated and time-consuming. Day traders must build a system to track stocks, keep a constant eye on the markets, and have an uncanny ability to determine when the optimum moment to buy or sell is, which may feel like a full-time job. Day trading can potentially result in significant losses if you aren’t 100% sure what you’re doing.

When stock markets begin to plummet, daily doses of negative updates may seem inescapable. Even the savviest investors might worry, doubt, and make drastic judgments as a result of it. Panic, on the other hand, brings you nowhere. When markets get stormy, it’s critical to stay calm. Don’t be hesitant to speak with a financial professional if you’re concerned about market fluctuations. They can provide expert guidance, review your financial strategy, and assist you in determining the best actions to take.

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Apple Nears the US$3 Trillion Market Cap

Apple, the American tech giant, is inches away from reaching a market capitalization of US$3 trillion dollars just over a year after it surpassed the two-trillion mark. This incredible milestone is as big as the equity markets of the United Kingdom or Germany.

After a decades-long run as one of the world’s best performing stocks, shares of Apple were up at 1.6% at US$174. The company needs to trade at US$182.85 to hit the goal. Nonetheless, the stock risen to about 30% this year on top of an 80% jump in 2020.

Oanda’s Senior Market Analyst Craig Erlam said: “There’s so much still to come from Apple, which makes you wonder what milestone they’ll pass next and how big they can become.”

Back in 2018, Apple reached the US$1 trillion in market capitalization and it took the company two years to double that valuation. Reaching the three-trillion mark will establish a strong rally that has been fueled by investors betting on its brand. Moreover, its peers in the trillion-dollar club include Microsoft, Amazon, and Tesla.

“Apple does seem to be more immune to the ebb and flow of economic forces just because of this really strong brand. Its new product pipeline is pretty strong too,” according to Hargreaves Lansdown’s Senior Investment and Market Analyst Susannah Streeter.

QUICK TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Owing it to the steady stream of products that attracted a loyal following, Apple became the world’s most valuable business. In late 2000, the company had a market value of merely US$4.5 billion and the investors were fleeing the stock. Nowadays, investors cannot get enough of the stock. The stock has breached Wall Street’s median price target by US$4, with most experts and analysts covering the stock rating it buy or higher.

Despite the wobbling status of markets because of higher interest rates and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, investors view Apple as a relatively safe place to keep their money due to its consistent sales growth.

You see, Apple is “kind of in that sweet spot of not being too expensive, having a nice mix of products and services, and being a great innovator across its entire product line,” said Ingalls & Snyder’s Senior Portfolio Strategist Tim Ghriskey.

Sources: 1 & 2

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How Traders Can Improve Their Investment Returns On The moomoo Platform

Traders are always on the lookout for that little factor that will help improve their competitive edge. That is because they trade in high frequency, and may even take on leverage to help upsize their positions. Full-time traders who trade for a living might want to take note – moomoo trading app is the perfect online platform to take your game to the next level.

moomoo is a one-stop investment platform powered by FUTU. In Singapore, products and services on moomoo are offered by Futu Singapore Pte. Ltd. a brokerage and custodian licensed and regulated by the MAS. Here’s how traders can potentially improve their investment returns on the moomoo platform at every step in their investment journeys.

Step 1: Investment Opportunities

At the beginning of a traders’ typical journey, they could already be overwhelmed by the myriad of investment opportunities in the market. Ignoring the market noise and finding a winning investment is akin to finding a needle in the haystack. Here is how moomoo app can help in several ways:

  • Heat Map

moomoo’s Heat Map directly show the ups and downs of each sector in the market through the block size and colour depth. From one image, it gives a quick overview of the lay of the market for that trading day.

  • Star Institutions

There is a saying that “if you can’t beat them, join them”. With the Star Institutions page on the moomoo app, you will very quickly obtain high-value information such as:

  • List of stocks by star institutions such as Warren Buffet, Soros Holdings, Temasek Holdings etc
  • The historical trend of holdings, and the daily transaction information of individual stocks

With the Star Institutions, you will identify the investment targets of star institutions and be able to ride the trend powerfully.

Step 2: Analysis

A key product feature of moomoo app is the availability of Short-Sell Data. Users can view the daily short selling data and ratio of US and HK stocks, as well as the current open positions. To access Short-Sell Data, simply go to Analysis under the individual stock page.

Short-Sell Data is critical in assisting traders to identify long and short sentiments to form an outlook of a specific stock. This will ensure that traders stay with the trend, or at least understand the size of the opponent if they choose to take a contrarian position.

Step 3: Executing The Trade

The time has finally come for the trader to execute their trades. On the moomoo trading platform, users can be assured of efficient trading execution of their strategies to maximise profits.

Desktop users can fully customise their trading windows for a multi-monitor experience and leverage on more than 89 types of drawing tools and indicators. Furthermore, trades are executed as fast as 0.037 seconds and at very competitive pricing.

In addition, users can leverage on moomoo’s AI Monitor function to automatically monitor changes in each market and all stocks of their choice. This will allow them to stay updated on stock fluctuations, increase in trading volumes and seize fleeting investment opportunities.

Sign Up via moomoo App Now for your FUTU SG securities account!

Finally, who can say NO to Welcome Rewards valued at around S$2,000? Here are the steps (not cumulative) to ensure new users receive the Welcome Rewards from moomoo powered by FUTU:

  1. Register for a moomoo ID
  2. Successfully open a FUTU SG Securities
  3. Make a First Deposit of at least S$2,700 and above & immediately you will receive an Apple (AAPL) share and S$40 stock cash coupon, promotion ending on 30 November 2021, 0959 SGT.
  4. Transfer in some shares into the platform and depending on your shares values, you will be rewarded with more Apple (AAPL) shares or even the latest iPhone 13 (limited redemption)!

More terms and conditions of the Welcome Rewards can be found here. Download and sign up for moomoo app using this link today to give yourself a further cutting edge as a trader.

 

 

 

 

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