Author: enhanced

TD Ameritrade – AMTD

My online stock broker, TD Ameritrade (formerly Ameritrade – now TD Ameritrade, since the merger between Ameritrade and TD Waterhouse) has just put their newly redesigned website online last Friday. This is the first big change and big news we have seen from TD Ameritrade recently.

US Mint Gold Coins Big News from TD Ameritrade TD Ameritrade announced on Monday lower trading commissions! This is great for traders and investors alike. We can now save a little bit of money on each trade. TD Ameritrade’s new commission fee per trade is $9.99, lowered from $10.99. I am one happy trader! TD Ameritrade clients now save 9.10% on commissions fees – the difference between 9.99 and 10.99 being 9.10%. A $1 drop in commissions may not seem like much to the average trader, but for those placing a lot of trades, the $1 in savings adds up quickly.

TD Ameritrade: Strong Earnings TD Ameritrade also announced earnings on Monday. Second quarter earnings were $172.8 million, or 30 cents per share. Last year’s second quarter earnings were $77.4 million, or 19 cents per share. TD Ameritrades earnings have doubled from last year’s second quarter.

TD Ameritrade Stock Down 9% on Monday The earnings doubled, but the stock price fell over 9%. Why? With the 9% decrease in commissions fees, TD Ameritrade announced a weaker forecast for the coming year, due to less commissions income. My personal opinion is that traders and investors will be more willing to place more trades with lower commissions. We’ll have to wait and see how my opinion plays out during the rest of the year.

TD Ameritrade New Advertisement Blitz I’ve seen new ads for TD Ameritrade on CNBC and on various stock market websites, such as Yahoo! Finance. Once ad on Yahoo! I saw stated “TD Ameritrade – up to 50 free trades + $100 cash”. Earlier on Monday I also saw a similar ad, except it stated “+$500 cash”. I’m sure there are stipulations for receiving $100 or $500 cash, such as a minimum initial investment of $25,000 or perhaps a larger investment. I haven’t read their fine print on the free cash, but I know they’ve been giving free trades to all new TD Ameritrade members, which is still nice.

I’d like to hear your opinions on TD Ameritrade in general, and more specifically their new website, earnings, and advertisement campaign.

MarketClouds.com: Stock Market Trading Clouds

Indroducing Market Clouds – www.marketclouds.com – stock market activity and popularity indicator using clouds.

I have developed a new tool to assist stock market traders and investors in finding the most popular and active companies traded on all of the stock market exchanges: Market Clouds.

Market Clouds allows stock traders to quickly scan and identify the most actively traded and popular stocks, using different font sizes for levels of activity.

How Market Clouds Work Market Clouds utilizes data from across my network of websites as well as forums and IRC chatter talk to build a list of stocks people are currently and actively requesting quotes, charts, and news for.

Why are some stock tickers bigger? The most popular and actively traded stocks have the largest font sizes. Less active or popular stocks have smaller font sizes. The stocks with the least amount of activity have the smallest font sizes.

How Market Clouds Helps Traders Large font sizes allow us to scan the entire list of daily hot stocks or stocks that are very active. Traders can quickly identify the most active – they have huge font sizes and are easier to spot and read than the less active stocks. Less active and popular stocks have tiny font sizes, allowing market traders and investors to easily cut out the noise.

Put Market Clouds on Your Website or Blog! I have created a Market Clouds service I call MyCloud, allowing you to include a customizable Market Cloud on your own web page. View Market Clouds’ MyCloud in action in my sidebar on the right!

As with any research you do, you must perform Due Diligence on any potential trade. Market Clouds should be used to identify possible trades, based on their trade activity and popularity. These are the stocks people are requesting quotes, viewing charts, or reading news about. Market Clouds should be used in conjunction with other research tools and analysis. You should not buy a stock simply because it is the most active or popular stock with the biggest font size. It could be this stock is actively trading because people are selling all their shares!

Check out Market Clouds – All Stocks, the Market Clouds – Top 100, and the Market Clouds – Over the Counter Bulletin Board Stocks (OTCBB). Put Market Clouds on your website or blog with Market Clouds – MyCloudI welcome all comments and criticisms. If you have an improvement I can make, let me know. I hope you enjoy Market Clouds as much as I do!

Market Links

Are you trying to become a more successful trader or investor? I know I am.

My friend JCV has a blog called MarketLinks.org that provides great resources, information, and commentary, covering many investing and trading subjects. JCV’s goal is to facilitate trader and investor education by providing a wealth of information we can use to increase our success.

Some topics you can read about at Market Links include:

  • Investing
  • Trading Mutual Funds
  • Commodities and Futures
  • Risk Management
  • and more

I highly recommend checking out MarketLinks.org – you’re guaranteed to learn something new or find a link to a useful website. Leave JCV a comment!

Gold

As we all know, gold commodities have been extremely hot lately. On Wednesday, gold, silver, and oil prices surged, much to the delight of commodities traders and investors.

Commodity: GOLD
Price: 636.00
Today’s change: +12.70

US Mint Gold Coins GOLD Gold, a precious metal, is hot. Gold prices have been steadily increasing for months now. The reasons are many: rising oil prices, weakened US dollar in currency markets (forex trading), the strength of China’s and India’s economies, and many other reasons.

In a previous post, Buying Gold, I had said the price of gold in my opinion was inflated. Now I’m eating my words. Gold has surged 91 points since my previous post on February 17, 2006. Incredible. With the strength of gold, and current economic situations, I see positive upside for gold investments.

Since February, I have done a lot of research on gold investments, particularly on gold coins. I currently do not own any gold coins or investments, but I am hoping to start buying very soon. My favorite coins are the American Gold Eagle by the US Mint and the Canadian Gold Maple minted by the Royal Canadian Mint. Both coins come in varying weights, but I’m primarily interested in the 1 ounce coins. Both coins look fantastic, in addition to their value. The American Gold Eagle is 91.67% fine gold. The Canadian Gold Maple is the most pure coin on the market, at 99.99% fine gold. Generally speaking, the price of gold coins will be slightly higher than gold bars, due to the artistry and minting involved.

Related links:

Luck is when Preparation meets Opportunity

Here’s a favorite quote of mine regarding Luck from Seneca the Younger.. or perhaps Oprah Winfrey – take your pick.

First, the Seneca quote:

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” – Seneca

Here is the Oprah quote:

“I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity.” – Oprah Winfrey

I personally am not a strong believer in what most people consider “luck”, perhaps due to a significant background in mathematics, programming, and stock trading. I feel people use “luck” too loosely. Some people consider a person who wins the lottery “lucky”. My mathematics tells me winning the lottery is all probabilities. I don’t believe luck is involved in the lottery at all. Someone has to win. It could be John Smith or Jane White. The lottery is just numbers and probabilities – pure mathematics, in my opinion.

However, even I may consider a person who won the lottery jackpot 10 times in a row “lucky”.

To me, the heart of this quotation is preparedness meeting opportunity.

Being a successful trader or investor is not about having profitable, “lucky” stock picks. A successful trader does their homework – their Due Diligence. They prepare themselves by doing all the necessary stock market research. The hard work. Opportunity can present itself with a good price to buy the stock, or perhaps some company news or earnings were released, and the stock jumps up. They’ve prepared by doing Due Diligence and thorough research, and then they are presented with solid opportunities for making successful trades and ultimately profits.

Anyone who is “lucky” trading stocks is simply guessing. Out of 10 random stocks, at least one stock will probably – the mathematics of probabilities – go up and produce great profits for investors and traders. I am oversimplifying here, but it needs to be made clear that the successful investors and traders aren’t getting lucky. They are doing Due Diligence, and buy when the best opportunity arises. I see no “luck” involved.

Overall, I believe preparedness meeting opportunity is not “luck” – at least luck in the sense most people I have talked to believe in. Preparedness meeting opportunity means you’ve done your homework, you’ve done your research, you’ve performed Due Diligence. Luck is what you make yourself, what you build yourself. Luck comes from within, not from external forces.