Not Ranked
Bernie,
As I said, I have been using this material for many years in after dinner or after lunch speeches. In other words, they have not been developed to fit in with recent events.
Three Ds
1. Discretion - Never ever give a stockbroker discretion over the investment of your money. In Australia, almost without exception, stockbroking sales people are remunerated by straight commission. They get between 40 and 50% of the brokerage you pay as a commission. The potential conflict of interest is glaringly obvious.
2. Derivatives - usually known as options but can also include future and CFDs etc. Playing with these, in most cases, is a slippery dip all the way down. "Writing" call options against your existing shares is probably OK but generally I wouldn't touch them. I have seen 20 plus people lose multi million dollar amounts just in Adelaide while paying with options.
3. Day Trading - is for the birds. In spite of what we have all seen in the past few months (and at least four times since I began in the industry) the long term holder still ends up richer. Only 5 years ago BHP could have been bought for less than $10.00 and Sims Metal etc.
Day Trading is like driving a Cobra - we all get a *orn doing it but the Cobra won't cost you as much - I'll guarantee it.
Hope this helps Bernie
Philip
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