>The capital-gains tax is a reason not to get into short-term trading
In the same way taxes are a reason to not get into money making ventures.
Short term trading encompasses a lot of ideas. Some are good some aren't. Many "short term" trading strategies have significantly higher sharpe ratio's than Fool style investing. Fool investing is great. I learned a LOT from that site. But I also want returns in shorter time spans, so I'm willing to pay that capital gains tax.
Motley fool is a GREAT source for long term investing knowledge for anyone interested in that. A lot of other great classic investment texts are getting thrown around in this comment thread (Intelligent Investor, for one).
Its sort of in the same vein, but slightly shorter term, backed up by a lot of statistics. Basic principle: Choose the best 20 companies every year. Define "best" as top PE or some other really simple metric. You can tweak it a little as well based on your personal risk profile, desired industry exposure. Consistently outperforms the market.
The motleyfool is a site that looks amazingly like spam and reminds you of all the "earn 50 bazillion percent every hour using options!" emails you get, but is actually chock full of great information.
Greenblatt's book sounds shady as hell, but its a quick, easy read and quite informative, backed by just enough logic to make you want to try it.
In the same way taxes are a reason to not get into money making ventures.
Short term trading encompasses a lot of ideas. Some are good some aren't. Many "short term" trading strategies have significantly higher sharpe ratio's than Fool style investing. Fool investing is great. I learned a LOT from that site. But I also want returns in shorter time spans, so I'm willing to pay that capital gains tax.
Motley fool is a GREAT source for long term investing knowledge for anyone interested in that. A lot of other great classic investment texts are getting thrown around in this comment thread (Intelligent Investor, for one).
Recommended book for those interested in "Motley Fool"/Benjamin Graham/Warren Buffet type investing, I'd also recommend http://www.amazon.com/Little-Beats-Market-Books-Profits/dp/0...
Its sort of in the same vein, but slightly shorter term, backed up by a lot of statistics. Basic principle: Choose the best 20 companies every year. Define "best" as top PE or some other really simple metric. You can tweak it a little as well based on your personal risk profile, desired industry exposure. Consistently outperforms the market.
The motleyfool is a site that looks amazingly like spam and reminds you of all the "earn 50 bazillion percent every hour using options!" emails you get, but is actually chock full of great information.
Greenblatt's book sounds shady as hell, but its a quick, easy read and quite informative, backed by just enough logic to make you want to try it.