Stock Research Pro

A stop loss order (or “stop market order”) is designed to limit an investor’s loss on a stock or other security position by instructing the broker to sell when it reaches a certain price.

In executing a the order, investors ensure they get out of a stock at a pre-defined loss before the stock price falls any further (set the stop loss order for 10% below the price and you limit your loss on that order to 10%).
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Online stock brokers enable you to buy or sell financial securities or currencies through an Internet-based trading system. The use of online brokers has grown enormously in recent years as high-speed Internet connections have become more widely-available and affordable. With an online broker, you have the benefit of working from your home instead of visiting an office or having to track down your stock broker over the phone.
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Company earnings are the profits it generates. If you subtract the company’s costs from the revenue it generated over a specified period of time, you have its earnings. Stock evaluation should always include the examination of company earnings. Earnings are viewed as a significant component in analyzing the health of a given company and the future earnings expectations of the company play a major role in the market’s setting the price of the stock.
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High dividend stocks can be wise a investment choice, as you may enjoy price appreciation along with the income offered by the dividend or you can simply re-invest the dividend. In fact, from 1935 to 2007, over 40% of the total return from the S&P 500 came from reinvested dividends.
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The random walk theory is a financial hypothesis that says that stock market prices evolve and change by a “random walk”, making stock prices unpredictable. According to the theory, because stock prices are on this unpredictable path, any given stock’s price is as likely to go up in the future as it is to go down.
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“The largest profits regularly result from buying stocks at low P/S ratios.”
- Ken Fisher, author of “Super Stocks”

The price-to-sales ratio (P/S) is a fundamental metric that calculates the value the market puts on each dollar of a company’s sales.

As any savvy investor knows, success comes from picking the right company at the right price. The price/sales ratio is a tool that can help an investor determine the right price of a stock- answering the question of whether the stock may be currently over or under valued.
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The direction of interest rates is very important to stock market investors. In fact, the impact of interest rates is so important to investors that the market reacts to the direction it believes interest rates are going long before the Fed implements any changes. But while interest rates do affect the stock market significantly, it is not a direct affect.
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Zero coupon bonds (also called zeros or discount bonds) are bonds investors purchase at a price lower than face value. The face value is paid to the investor at maturity. Zero coupon bonds do not make interest payments (coupons). Instead, investors earn the compounded which is paid at maturity along with the difference between the discounted price and its redemption (par) value.
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The working capital ratio is a measure of a company’s efficiency and its near-term financial health. A company’s working capital can be positive or negative (depending on how much debt the company is carrying) and measures how much the company has available in liquid assets to build the business. The management of working capital includes inventories, accounts receivable and accounts payable and managing cash. It quite simply dictates a company’s capacity to do business.
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No-load funds are mutual funds in which you purchase shares without paying a commission or a sales fee. As you probably know, mutual funds are a type of investment in which your money is pooled in with the money of other investments. The fund manager is responsible for buying all stocks (or other investments) on behalf of the investors.
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