Sometimes investing can be incredibly simplified using common sense techniques. Applying common sense to your investing usually results with profitable returns. The reason that using common sense works is that for some unexplainable reason there is a lack of it used in the stock market. As such, you can use common sense to somewhat predict/anticipate future stock market moves.

As I write this article, the stock market has taken an ugly tumble downward in the past few days. Fortunately for me I haven’t had so much as a penny invested in any stocks right now. The reason why I have my portfolio positioned 100% in cash is because I anticipated a poor start to the new year. How was I able to do it? I used common sense. Here’s how it’s done…

It feels amazing to have outperformed the market this year. This year ended with my portfolio up 15.79%, while the three major indices (S&P500, Dow Jones, Nasdaq) finished up for the year 4.24%, 7.24%, and 10.73% respectively. However the most significant percentage is the S&P500’s 4.24%, as the S&P500 most accurately depicts the entire stock market’s performance with its broad range of companies listed within it. With that in mind, I beat the market by over 300%!

It’s funny to me when I think back to the first day I opened an account with Ameritrade and bought my first shares of stock. I knew so little about investing, the stock market, and economics at the time. But I couldn’t care less; I was so enthralled by my fascination for the stock market that I ignored all rationale and dove head first into the stock market like a naked man into a sea of hungry great white sharks. This is the pathetically humorous story of my introduction to the stock market.

E-Trade Financial (Ticker: ETFC) is showing their appreciation to their loyal customers by offering one full day of commission free trading on Wednesday Dec 19, 2007. This is coming after E-Trade’s stock price recently plummeted on lending troubles followed by rumors of takeovers or bankruptcy.

I’m happy to say that as I write this article I am up over 21% in my stock market portfolio. I’m not assuming this will be where I end the year, but I’m still really proud of how well I’ve done so far in the stock market. This is my second year in the stock market and I’ve learned more than I could’ve possibly conceived when I first began investing.

Many if not all of the blog sites in the stock market niche are more than happy to offer you with their opinions and stock picks for your portfolio. This is something The Investor’s Journal does not and will not ever offer. Some might see this as a disadvantage for the website, but to me it’s just not worth the hassle. The goal of this website is to teach you how to invest, not to tell you what you should invest in. I want you to learn how to invest so that you can free yourself from relying on others to help you grow your portfolio. Why is that? Because no one cares about your money like you do!

As I write this article, the Federal Reserve has taken a firm stance indicating that they will not bail out investors and institutions who are now in trouble due to subprime lending issues. The Fed did however, state that they will take action if the subprime lending issue begins to affect the overall economic growth. [...]

Currently, I’m up 14% for the year, significantly beating the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq indexes. The market is in turmoil over the currently subprime lending crisis. For the past two months, the market voilatility has been extremely high, 200 point ranges in the Dow Jones Industrial Average index are now nothing unusual. I’ve [...]